YRARC General Meeting - Minutes 2015-10-06

Meeting held in the Sharon Temple (Temperance Hall). Called to Order at 19:30 by Chris VE3NRT. Total members and guests attending: 35

1. Welcome & Introductions – Chris VE3NRT
   
2. Adoption of Minutes from the general meeting, 2015/09/01 deferred until November.
   
3. By-laws – Chris VE3NRT. The current by-laws (#6) are being revised to update the wording, and the updated version will be circulated to the club membership. Then proposed revisions will be made to the by-laws. The target date for revisions is January 2016. Proxy voting to the changes will be allowed.
   
4. Treasurer’s Report – John VA3JI
   
   • September: Opening balance [available to members on request]. Expenditures: $15 plaques, $14 parking (for repeater maintenance), $240.69 post office box, $1.32 bank fees (PayPal). Income: $345 hanfest, $740 dues, $700 honouraria (for summer public service duties at Mt. Albert and the Aurora Street Festival.
     
   • October: Opening balance [available to members on request]. Expenditures: $280 hamfest grand prizes. Income: $429, $25 dues. Closing balance as at Oct 6 [available to members on request]
     
   • Moved to adopt the treasurer's report Barry VE3LLT, seconded Bill VE3QB. Carried.
     
5. Membership Report – Alf VA3BLE. To date 49 members have paid.
   
6. Public Service Report – Eric VE3EB. There were 2 recent events, Sharon Temple Illumination on September 11 and CIBC Run for a Cure on October 4.
   
7. EmComm Report – Don VE3IXJ. The EmComm group meets on the second Thursday of the month, and the next meeting will be on October 8 at the Newmarket Community Centre. The cross-band repeater worked well at the recent Mono Cliffs race in Dufferin County.
   
8. Repeater Committee Report – Steve VE3UT. The repeaters are in good shape and all are linked. The IRLP/Echo Link is down and Chris VE3NRT is in the process of replacing the the old computer with a Raspberry Pi.
   
9. Hamfest Report – Geoff VA3GS. The date of the Hamfest is Saturday October 31, with setup on Friday. Members are asked to sign up for this event.
   
10. Awards
    
    • Eric VE3EB and Steve VE3UT were jointly awarded the Harvey Bell award.
      
    • Bruce EVV was presented with a certificate of appreciation for 10 years work at the prize table.
      
    • Nick VE3NJV was presented with a certificate of appreciation for 10 years work at providing refreshments.
      
11. Other business
    Winter field day planning is beginning. See Steve VE3UT or Rick VA3VO for details.
    

Guest Speaker: Paul Delaney from York University spoke about Pluto the planet, now reclassified as a dwarf planet. His talk included many images of Pluto, ranging from older fuzzy images taken from earth, to highly detailed images taken close up from NASA's New Horizons spacecraft.