IT’S HERE! IT’S HERE! IT’S HERE!
Can you tell I am excited? 😀 So much so I took over Justin’s spot!
I want to say thank you to all who have and who will be assisting with making our first year in our new home a success.
The September Club meeting will be at Three Sisters, in the area we will be camping, (behind the pavilion to the left of the flea market). We will be grilling, so bring what you want to grill. In addition to some food and fun conversations with fellow hams, we will also be going through the plans for the weekend and how different areas will operate.
If you haven’t signed up to help yet, please visit the Volunteer sign-up page, even if you plan on helping all weekend, please sign-up for specific jobs, so I know all jobs are covered. Assistance is especially needed on Thursday, marking the flea market and on Friday setting up the tables and helping the indoor vendors load-in.
In appreciation of your assistance, all volunteers will receive one 2-stub ticket for 2 or more hours worked.
If you sign-up for one of the first time slots of the day for that tasks (gate sales, parking help, those type of jobs) please be at the park at least 1/2 hour before the start of your time slot.
Please remember to make sure you get a receipt when you turn in your ticket money. If you pay by check, I will take a picture of your check and your check will be your receipt. If you pay by cash, make sure you get a paper receipt from me.
Any questions about Superfest, send me an email at: WD9EB@arrl.net
Again, and yes I am repeating myself 😎 I am deeply grateful to everyone who has helped or will be helping.
Thanks & 73,
Deb
WD9EB
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President’s Report
The big news this month is SUPERFEST! We hope to see everyone there, and of course make sure you join us for our monthly club meeting at Three Sisters Park so you can see why we’re so excited about our new Superfest home.
I want to remind everyone that we will be voting on an amendment to our Constitution, AND electing officers at the October Club meeting. This will allow us to apply for the IRS nonprofit status that will make us eligible for grants, and will make contributions to the club tax deductible. We will also make a slight modification to the language regarding election of officers.
These changes can be found on our web site by clicking here or visiting the link labeled “Constitutional Amendments.”
See you at Three Sisters September 16-17!
Justin, N9WX
PAARC President
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Meeting Minutes:
Board of Dirctors Meeting
The meeting was called to order at 7:03mpm. Attending the 8/3/23 PAARC Board of Directors meeting:
Justin N9WX, Tom W8NWG, Adam KD9NYE, Darren KD9HZZ, Tanya KD9YPM, Rob KD9DBQ, Scott K9XJT, Doug, Matt KD9ERS, Deb WD9EB
Bandbits: No meeting last month, so no minutes to approve.
Treasurer’s report from Tanya:
- PayPal: $880.74
- Checking: $523.50
- Savings: $245.87
- Money market: $9,765.04
- Nothing pending
- Still need to pay for port-a-potties (2x), hand washing station (1x) and tables for Superfest ($7.50ish per table), along with the other half of the Superfest site fee. We’ll also have to pay for ticket printing and postage, but neither should be much.
Rob makes a motion to approve, Deb seconds… all are in favor.
Repeater committee from Matt and Tom:
- We did get remote access working again for the repeater site
- Still have internet work to do for D-star and .085 repeater
- There’s a computer already out there at the bunker, but we need to configure the router
- Also have plans in the future to link together the 085 to 610 in Bloomington to make a central Illinois net
- Matt is hoping to get out to the site next week
Superfest update from Deb:
- Everybody should be getting their tickets at the next club meeting!
- Need to call A-Z to see if Rich can pick up the tables on Thursday night to keep them in his enclosed trailer and bring them out first thing Friday morning to the site
- Next year… someone needs to step up and pick up the tables and take care of the garbage next year. Rich won’t be at Superfest because of his 40th anniversary! Not complicated – just need to move bagged trash from barrels to the dumpster. Scott volunteers for 2024!
- We’ve got quite a few orders coming in for tickets…
- 40 prizes so far, about 30 less than 2022. Scott may look for some additional things to add to the prize pool. Craig says that he has prizes for Superfest from the ARRL. This appears to be separate from the usual gift certificates we get from them as a sanctioned hamfest. Our main prize so far may be a handheld this year… DMR6X2Pro. Will keep looking for more prize options, including possibly buying something as a club. Gigaparts has offered us Hamvention pricing for door prizes. Tom suggests a ceiling of $400 to see what we can get from a few vendors. Scott generously offers to pay for half the cost of something under $500. He also brings up the idea of getting a netbook as a prize (like a POTA kit.) We need to also ask the POTA org if they might have something to donate to Superfest.
- Tickets are available at Midwest Two-Way and Don’s CBD shop in East Peoria in addition to any club member or through w9uvi.net
Old business:
- Tom has updated the website/Facebook with our upcoming membership meeting where we’ll talk about a new transceiver demo and possible new club bylaws.
- There was a bunch of stuff donated from someone in Pekin, and Mark is going to try to sell some of it at the Peotone hamfest this weekend for club proceeds.
The meeting adjourned at 7:45 p.m.
Membership Meeting
7:01 p.m., our meeting is called to order
Tonight’s agenda: Amendments to our constitution
Time to approve the minutes in Band Bits:
– Mark Suhs (W9WGN) makes a motion, Jim Polson (W9JDP) seconds.. all are in favor. Passes.
Treasurer’s report from Tanya (:
– $245.87 in savings
– $523.50 in checking
– $9,765.04 in money market
– $158.28 in PayPal (all from Superfest tix)
– $412.16 spent on Superfest grand prize (G90 kit) (still need antenna, for $60-ish possibly.) Scott is generously donating half the cost of the prize, with rest from our money market account. Also ordered 6 HTs for prizes as well. And two RTL-SDR dongles as well! (the surprises keep coming from the generous Scott!)
Tom (W8NWG) makes a motion to accept, Scott (K9XJT) seconds… all are in favor and it passes.
Repeater committee report from Tom (W8NWG):
– Things are working and sounding good. We still haven’t gotten the D-Star repeater internet set up, though. Ben has volunteered to help.
– We need to get the antenna back up at the Red Cross as well… Darren will handle.
– In the future, we hope to link some of our repeaters across the state in a network.
Old business? None.
Superfest committee report from Deb (WD9EB):
– If you’re a club member, you should have an envelope of 10 tickets for you. These are to sell, buy or give back. Return unused ones at the next club meeting (two nights before Superfest!)
– If you’re paid with a check, bring it… if cash, get a written receipt!
– The Superfest meeting in two weeks will be at the Red Cross, going over logistics for that weekend.
-Anybody who is available that Thursday to be out at Three Sisters Park at 10 a.m., help is appreciated to mark out the Flea Market area. (Deb will check on paint needs to mark those spaces.)
– Deb will check on what time to have campers set up….hopefully also on Thursday.
– We have a renewable contract with Three Sisters… what we pay this year is what we pay for the next four years. There’s room for growth there!
– We’ll have golf cart shuttles available since the site is so large. Some carts will be for PAARC official business, others will be for guests (6-passenger ones with shuttle drivers.)
– We’ll have garbage pickup that will need to be handled, emptying bags out of the barrels and taking them to the dumpster.
– We’ve rented two port-a-potties and one handwashing station ($400 total for the whole weekend.)
– There’s no charge for 20 amp electricity! There’s a campground adjacent with higher level service also available.
– Testing will be Saturday at noon… and is in a separate area from the forums, which means they aren’t waiting on each other.
– Lots of extra room to expand!
– If you help out this year in needed positions, you get two free tickets to Superfest. Sign up for positions by letting Deb know, or by going to w9uvi.org. Flea market setup on Thursday morning, table setup on Friday morning, trash duties, etc. Get involved!
New business:
501(c)3 and sexual harassment policy:
– We need to have a policy for our constitution. It’ll be posted on the website and in the next issue of Band Bits, with the club going back over it in September and then voting on it in October.Constitution amendment:
– Article 4, Section 2… terms of office. Right now, it says “The president shall be elected for one calendar year and shall be limited to a maximum of two consecutive elected terms.” That also applies for a few other board positions, but not all.
– Justin and Scott don’t mind staying in their positions of president and VP, but they can’t unless we change the constitution.
– Justin proposes that we change the language to “In the event that no one is wanting to accept a new position, the current person in the position will continue for another term. This may continue for unlimited consecutive terms.”
– If someone in a position doesn’t want to serve and no one else does, the next senior position on the board is appointed.
– Article 4, section 3: “All officers shall be voting members in good standing and shall have been members of PAARC for 6 months prior to the year for which they’ll hold office.”
– Justin proposes: “All officers shall be voting members in good standing.”
– Reason for these changes are that we need to have everything in order to be a 501(c)3 for grant applications, etc. There was a dying club featured in ARRL Magazine, but they were able to save the club by officially becoming a non-profit.
– This will cost $1500 as a club for an attorney’s help.
– No objections from the club membership for the proposed plan to post in Band Bits, review in September, and vote on in October.
– The end of our October meeting is also time to vote for officers… so put your hat in the ring if you’d like to run.
Mark (W9WGN) makes a motion to adjourn, seconded by Darren (KD9HZZ)… 7:53 p.m. official meeting business is over, with Scott beginning a presentation on the Xiegu G90 radio.
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Peoria County ARES
Amateur radio operators use their training, skills, and equipment to provide communications during emergencies, When All Else Fails®.
September 6, ARES Net @ 7:00 PM CDT on the W9UVI (147.075) repeater
September 13, ARES Net @ 7:00 PM CDT on the W9UVI (147.075) repeater
There will be no Monthly ARES Meeting for September 2023.
Please submit your Training Documentation form.
ARES website: http://www.peoriacountyares.org/
Rich Holtman, KD9ANU, Emergency Coordinator for Peoria County ARES
email: kd9anu@arrl.net
Winlink: kd9anu@winlink.org
Cell: 309-256-4272
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August Net Logs
8/6
W8NWG KD9ANU WD9EB K9XJT W9WGN KD9MPI KC9IH KD9TEG KD9YCJ KD9HZZ KD9JXR N9NDF NM0O KD9PXZ KD9WRX KD9AER N9WFT W9WTF W9DAY KD9SPI K9RCS KD9YPM KB9ATO WW9DLM KD9RYH NP2WJ KD9WHE KD9STL K9TNT KD9QQU KD9NYE Submitted by KD9DBQ 73
8/13
N9WX WD9EB KD9ANU W9WTF KD9QQU K9XJT W9WGN W8NWG KD9WRX KD9IBC KC9IH KD9AER K9HJZ KD9YCJ K9RCS KD9PXZ N9NDF KD9JXR N9WFT K9TNT KB9ATO W9JDP WF9E KD9WHE KD9RYH K9UQF KD9YPM KD9STL NM0O KD9TEG Submitted by KD9DBQ 73
8/20
N9WX WD9EB W9WGN KD9ANU KD9QQU W9JDP K9XJT W8NWG KD9MPI KD9WRX KD9AER KD9YTM KD9PXZ KD9IVV N9NDF NM0O KD9JXR K9WFT K9RCS NP2WJ N9WFT KD9VIN KD9NYE KD9TEG K9UQF KD9NYI WW9DLM KD9STL KB9ATO N9SJZ KD9IBC W9DAY KD9RYH KD9WHE KC9YTT KC9IH Submitted by KD9DBQ 73
8/27
KD9ANU, WD9EB, W9WGN, KD9IVC, KC9IH, K9HJZ, KD9DBQ, KD9YCJ, NP2WJ, W9JDP, KD9PXZ, KD9IVV, W9WTF, NM0O, K9TNT, KD9JXR, KD9AER, KD9YPM, W8NWG, N9JXR, K9XJT, KD9RSC, N9NDF, N9CS (formerly, KD9WHE), WF9E, KD9RYH, KD9STL, K9CEW, KB9ATO, N9NDF, N9CS, KB9OGS, KD9WRX, KC9YTT, KD9NYE Submitted by KD9QQU 73
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September Club Events
Sept. 6 – 7:00 p.m. – ARES Net: W9UVI Repeater 147.075
Sept. 7 – 7:00 p.m. – Board Meeting via Zoom
Sept. 13 – 7:00 p.m. – ARES Net: W9UVI Repeater 147.075
Sept. 14 – 7:00 p.m. – Club Meeting: Three Sisters Park, 17189 IL 29, Chillicothe
September 16-17, 2023 MIDWEST SUPERFEST 2023 Three Sisters Park
17189 IL-29, Chillicothe, IL. Flea Market, Vendors, Forums, License Testing and more!
September 28 – 7:00 p.m. – Superfest Meeting