Minutes: 2016-12-06 General Meeting

Meeting held in the Sharon Temperance Hall. Called to Order at 19:30 by Chris VE3NRT. Total members and guests attending: 39 including, 1 new member, 1 amateur guest and 2 family guests.

1. Welcome & Introductions – Chris VE3NRT. Adoption of the Minutes from the 2016/11/01 general meeting was postponed until next January.
   
2. Announcements: CLARA will be celebrating its 50 anniversary in 2017. To celebrate, a year long contest will be held. For information, see the CLARA web site: clarayl.ca
   
3. Fox Hunt – John VE3IPS: The fox hunt was held on November 19, with Ian VE3YRP the winner. More fox hunts will be held in 2017 (and they may get harder).
   
4. Hammond Museum – John VE3IPS. A trip to the Hammond Museum could be in the works. Details to follow.
   
5. Trillium Grant – Eric VE3EB. Eric is looking for interested members to be part of a committee which will investigate applying for a Trillium Grant.
   
6. Repeater Report – Steve VE3UT. Several visits have been made to the VE3YRC-V site as well as a visit to the VE3YRC-U site to make some fine adjustments. All 3 linked repeaters (including the VE3RYA repeater) are working well and sounding good. The D-Star repeaters have had network connectivity problems, but are now working properly.
   
7. Winter Field Day – Steve VE3UT. Winter Field Day will be held on January 28 and 29. The first location choice, the David Dunlap Observatory, is not available. The regular Summer Field Day site is the second choice and Steve will be soon be in contact with the owners. There are rule changes this year regarding setup, however it was suggested that we set up just before the contest begins, to simulate setup in a real emergency. We plan to use simple antennae to keep the setup simple and have a maximum of 4 stations. A quick show of hands showed 8 members were interested at the moment.
   
8. Treasurer’s Report – John VA3JI
   
   • Opening Balance 2016/11/01 [Available to members on request to secretary]
     
   • Income: Hamfest vendor fees: $1455.00; Hamfest admissions: $4614.90; Donations COARC+ Anonymous+REACT: $680.00; Membership dues: $365.00; Auction plus club table $248.25; Hamfest grand prize tickets: $670.00; Total $8,033.15.
     
   • Expenditures: Hamfest - prizes $196.00; WYNSORC fees: $10.00; Bank charges for PayPal: $1.03; Total expenditures: $207.03
     
   • Closing Balance 2016/12/06: [Available to members on request to secretary]
     
   • Additional expenses: December Christmas party - food $158.20
     
   • Moved the treasurer's report be adopted, by John VA3JI, seconded Rick VA3VO. Carried
     
9. EmComm Report – Robert VA3BXG
   
   • EmComm participated in the recent Municipal Exercises and the York Region Conferences.
     
   • The next meeting will be on the Thursday December 8, at the Newmarket Community Centre. Planning for next year including more fox hunts will be discussed.
     
10. Other Business – Geoff VA3GS. Geoff thanked everyone involved with the hamfest for their help, and noted that at the January meeting we will have short, 5 minute talks, and show and tell sessions.