Inland Empire VHF Club

Regular Meeting Minutes-October 2008

The meeting convened at 6:39 PM at Spokane Community College, Spokane, Washington, Mike Grounds, KE7PG presiding.

Copies of the minutes of September’s meeting were circulated for all to review.

Introductions followed, with each person present announcing his/her name and call sign. A new member and technician class licensee, Bill Banner, was welcomed into the membership.

VE report: Mary, AA7RT, provided the VE test session results. The test session was held in room 252 at 5:00 PM, as usual. Seven candidates took exams. Of those seven, five were successful in passing the technician class exam, one was successful in passing the general class exam, and one failed in his attempt to pass an exam.

Christmas Banquet: Mike, KE7PG, announced that the club Christmas banquet will be held at the Timber Creek Grille at Argonne and Montgomery (9211 East Montgomery) in the Spokane Valley, on December 11. Dinner begins at 6:00 PM. The banquet room has been reserved for the club; therefore, individual reservations are not required.

Hamfest: Mike announced that the IEVHF Club board has agreed to be the sponsoring club for next year’s hamfest (2009). Dave Baird, K7DWB, club treasurer, has accepted the treasurer’s duties for hamfest 2009.

Clint, N7RWN, suggested changes be made to improve the method of announcing door prize ticket winners. Clint noted that winning ticket announcements were not adequately posted or announced. John, W7JRB, noted that contributing to this problem was the hamfest auction occurring simultaneously with raffle ticket number announcements. Don, WA7BAA, suggested using an overhead projector to display the winning numbers continuously throughout the day.

Mike, KD7GHZ, expressed his disappointment with the apparent lack of interest among hamfest attendees in the keynote speaker’s address. The conclusion of this discussion revealed several problems involved in scheduling the seminars, ticket drawings, and swap floor opening scheduling. Poor seminar attendance was addressed, suggesting that those who presented seminars be asked how well attended were their seminars. Dave, K7DWB, suggested the next hamfest committee completely restructure the time frame of activities, including the final raffle ticket drawing. Taping seminars for subsequent presentation, holding seminars before the swap floor opens, hold more than one presentation of certain seminars offer hamfest attendees a "complaint sheet" so that constructive criticism could be received.

VE team needs to be involved in scheduling.

John, W7JRB, noted a great improvement of hamfest security at this hamfest.

John suggested a possible new venue for hamfest 2009: Spokane Community College. He will research this possibility.

Mary, AA7RT, suggested having a musical group such as the Ham Band, perform at hamfest 2009.

A hamfest volunteer signup sheet was circulated for those members wishing to be involved in developing hamfest 2009.

Mike suggested people such as keynote speakers and other VIPs have an opportunity to meet all club officials at sometime during the hamfest.

Hamfest chairperson: In showing the IEVHF Club’s appreciation to Betsy, N7RWQ, for her deep involvement in helping make hamfest 2008 such a great success, a gift certificate will be presented to Betsy at the hamfest committee wrap-up dinner on October 14.

D-STAR: John, W7JRB, presented information regarding an opportunity to

Investigate a D-Star system as a viable project for IEVHF Club. Discussion followed. Comments from members were taken, with majority opinion being in the negative, as shown by a show of hands of those present.

Mike announced that Gordon, WA7LNC, Section Emergency Coordinator, will give a presentation at the club’s November meeting.

Club Name Change: Mike announced that there will be no club name change due to a great amount of feed back from members, addressing their displeasure at the name change, and incorrect procedure used in attempting to change the club name. Mike opened the meeting to comments to which there were no objections. Therefore, the name will stand as "Inland Empire VHF Radio Amateurs".

50/50 drawing: won by Don, WA7BAA $5.00

Meeting adjourned at 7:47 PM