YRARC General Meeting - Minutes 2018-04-03

Meeting held in the Sharon Temperance Hall. Called to Order at 19:35 by Chris VE3NRT. Total members and guests attending: 32.

1. Welcome & Introductions: Chris VE3NRT
   
2. Adoption if minutes from 2018/03/06. Moved Bill VA3QB, seconded Brian VE3IBW. Carried.
   
3. Treasurer's Report: Charles VA3TTB
   
   • Opening Balance 2018-03-01 [available to members upon request to secretary]
     
   • Income: None
     
   • Expenditures: None
     
4. Antenna analyzer update VA3TTB. The circuit board that Charles was planning to use has some flaws, and he is searching for an improved board.
   
5. Repeaters: Steve VE3UT. Due to the recent interference (noise) on the repeaters, causing them to transmit continually, Eric VE3EB shut down VE3YRC-V and VE3YRA. Steve VE3UT will investigate. VE3YRK-V update: a replacement antenna will be on site in approximately 2 weeks, and will be installed when a rigger can climb the tower.
   
6. Summer Field Day: Steve VE3UT. It may be difficult to operate the kitchen as done previously. Assistance will be needed in the kitchen on Field Day weekend, as well as assistance with shopping. Options to be discussed are – reducing the number of meals, a lighter lunch, or possibly preparing only dinner. It was suggested that we invite a Scouting Venturer group to assist.
   

Break 20:00 – 20:20

Guest Speaker: Bob VE3WY. Bob spoke about his trip last summer to Zone 2 in northern Quebec, north of the 50th parallel, to grid square FO10le. Bob and fellow VHF fans from Canada and the US set up a special event station VC2EME in a normally quiet park, to work as many stations as possible Earth-Moon-Earth. June 21 was the chosen date since the moon was closest to the earth without Jupiter or the sun behind the moon. Unfortunately the date coincided with other visitors celebrating St. Jean Batiste Day, and they found a choice camping spot beside the toilets. In spite of vehicle difficulties experienced by the US amateurs, and the limited space available, the trip was a success.

Minutes - YRARC Board of Directors Meeting - 2018-02-20

Meeting held in the Magna Centre, Multipurpose Room 4. Called to Order at 19:15 by Chris VE3NRT. Board members attending: Chris VE3NRT (P), Steve VE3UT (VP), Charles VA3TTB (T), Barry VA3LLT, John VE3IPS, Mike VA3MCT, David VA3DCY (S). Absent: Geoff VA3GS, Rick VA3VO, Eric VE3EB. Others attending: None

1. Approval of Agenda & declaration of conflicts of interest. Amendments: None. Conflicts of interest declared: None. MOTION: To adopt the agenda, Moved Barry VA3LLT, seconded Steve VE3UT. Carried.
   
2. Minutes: MOTION: To adopt minutes of Board Meeting date 2018/01/15. Moved Steve VE3UT, seconded Barry VA3LLT. Carried.
   
3. Actions arising from minutes: None
   
4. Committee Reports:
   
   1. Treasurer’s Report: Charles VA3TTB
      
      Income Expenditures Balance
      • Opening Balance 2017/12/01 [is available to members from Secretary on request]
        
      • Memberships $25.00
        
      • Total income $25.00
        
      • Cheque $20.00
        
      • Total expenditures $20.00
        
      • Interim balance 2017/12/19[is available to members from Secretary on request]
        
      • MOTION: To adopt the treasurers report. Moved Charles VA3TTB, seconded Barry VA3LLT. Carried.
        
5. Insurance: Charles VA3TTB. The Directors and Officers insurance is due on March 15. This policy does not automatically renew, and must be applied for each year. Again the need for this insurance was debated, since according to RAC and their insurance provider, D&O insurance is not necessary for amateur radio clubs, since we have no shareholders, no employees and not other other parties who would rely on the club for income or other funding. The topic of renewing the insurance was debated. MOTION: To renew the D&O insurance. Moved Barry VA3LLT, seconded Mike VA3MCT. Carried.
   
6. Repeaters: Steve VE3UT. The power supply for VE3YRA is on hand, and ready to be installed. VE3YRK VHF is still off air due to the 4:1 SWR. A new antenna should be available in the spring. Chris VE3NRT noted that the D-Star operating system is no longer maintained.
   
7. Winter Field Day: Steve VE3UT. Steve presented his WFD cost summary:
   

   Item	Advance	Expenditures	Refund
   Advance	$275.00
   Gas bought Steve VE3UT		$90.00
   Gas bought David VA3DCY		$23.40
   Propane	$15.00
   Name plate for Melted Coffee Pot award		$8.00
   Kitchen expenses (drinks/snacks) Peter VE3PBT		$54.20
   Total expenses		$190.60
   Excess gas purchased Steve VE3UT	$21.00
   Total money received		$296.00
   Cash returned to treasurer		$296.00 - $190.60	$105.40

   • Winter Field Day cost: $190.60 - $21.00 = $169.60
8. Web Site: Mike VA3MCT. The new web site is ready to go and we have access to thee products and services offered by Tech Soup, such as 'Google for non-profits'.
   
9. ARES: Mike VA3MCT. There has been no recent activity, but we have been invited to the Barrie ARES Central Ontario meeting on April 7 and have been asked to bring our trailer. MOTION: To allow the trailer to leave York Region to go to Barrie for April 7. Moved Mike VA3MCT, seconded John VE3IPS. Carried. John VE3IPS will attend a GTA ARES meeting in February.
   
10. Auditor: Charles VA3TTB. Charles VA3TTB met with John VA3JI and Doug VE3XV to discuss the auditor's requirements and to establish procedures and guidelines. Charles distributed a draft of the proposed procedures.
    

Minutes - YRARC Board of Directors Meeting 2018-01-16

Meeting held in the Magna Centre, Multi Purpose Room 4.. Called to Order at 19:10 by Chris VE3NRT Board members attending: Chris VE3NRT (P), Steve VE3UT (VP), Charles VA3TTB (T), Geoff VA3GS, Barry VA3LLT, Eric VE3EB, David VA3DCY (S), Mike VA3MCT. Absent: Rick VA3VO, John VE3IPS. Others attending: None

1. Approval of Agenda & declaration of conflicts of interest. Amendments: None. Conflicts of interest declared: None. MOTION: To adopt the agenda, Moved Barry VA3LLT, seconded Steve VE3UT. Carried.
   
2. Minutes: MOTION: To adopt minutes of Board Meeting date 2017/12/19. Moved Mike VA3MCT, seconded Steve VE3UT. Carried.
   
3. Actions arising from minutes
   
   1. Rick to attempt to sell hardline on Kitchener swap net – no update.
      
   2. Alex to be reimbursed $20 for stolen item at Hamfest. Cheque will be written.
      
   3. Set up recording of the repeater with time stamping – no progress to date. There seems to be no jamming at the moment.
      
   4. Establishment of a dollar value threshold to record assets. The value would be the current value. MOTION: That $100 be established as the threshold in determining when to record an item as an asset. Moved Geoff VA3GS, seconded Steve VE3UT. Carried.
      
   5. Geoff VA3GS will get a quote for QSL cards.
      
4. Treasurer’s Report: Charles VA3TTB. MOTION: To adopt the treasurers report. Moved Charles VA3TTB, seconded Geoff VA3GS. Carried.
   
   • Opening balance - members may request balance from Club Secretary
     
   • Memberships $305.00
     
   • Markham Fair rebate $460.45
     
   • Hamfest 2016 $100.00
     
   • Hamfest 2017 $270.00
     
   • Other $80.00
     
   • Go-kit item replacements -$51.83
     
   • Hamfest expenses -$842.82
     
   • Trailer repair parts -$51.56
     
   • Winter Field day 2018 -$275.00
     
   • Food for December gathering -$196.09
     
5. Insurance: Charles VA3TTB
   
   • RAC insurance is provided by AON. $5 million liability insurance for a club costs $160/year plus $1 for each RAC member and $10 for each non RAC member. The coverage includes members and visitors.
     To include a name insured, there is a $75 one time charge for each named insured.
     
   • RAC property insurance rates are 1% of the insured value per year.
     
   • Vehicle insurance is not available from RAC.
     
   • Director's insurance according to AON is likely not required for our club.
     
6. Banking: Charles VA3TTB We need a signing director (in addition to Charles) to sign a bank form to allow Charles (the treasurer) to have read-only access to our bank balances. Steve VE3UT will provide the second signature.
   
7. Auditor: Charles VA3TTB. Charles VA3TTB and John VA3JI will meet with Doug Smith to discuss the auditor's requirements and to establish procedures and guidelines.
   
8. Trailer: Barry VA3LLT. The trailer is currently at Al's Tack Shop. It was moved there after the Scout winter camp at nearby Shadow Lake, to be on site for Winter Field Day.
   We may need to repair a speaker connector.
   Repeaters: Steve VE3UT. There have been no changes to the repeaters. Gf VA3GS has submitted the repeater information to WYNSORC for this year.
   Web Site: Mike VA3MCT. Mike asked the board to look at the new website and send him comments. He will resend the site URL.It may be possible to send e-mail to members via 'Google for business' or Mail Chimp.
   Hamfest: Geoff VA3GS. No report, the hamfest is finished for the year.
   
9. Property: Rick VA3VO. No report.
   
10. Public Service: Eric VE3EB. At the recent Scout winter camp, Brian VE3IBW and Eric were in the trailer demonstrating APRS to the older youth, and Geoff and David were in the main building teaching phonetics and code to the younger youth.
    
11. ARES: Mike VA3MCT. No report.
    Winter Field day: Steve VE3UT: Steve noted there are 2 weeks left before Winter Field Day. Setup will be on Friday January 26 and the trailer is already on site. $55 has been given to Peter VE3PBT to purchase refreshments, and $220 is on hand to pay for fuel. The 40m dipole needs to be repaired – wires re-soldered to the balun. Steve noted that we should do an equipment check following each event to check for damaged or missing equipment.
    
12. Basic qualification course: Geoff VA3GS. There will be a new course next fall.
    
13. Membership: Barry VA3LLT We have approximately 70 members.
    
14. New Business:
    
    • Meeting Attendance. A review of board members attendance was discussed.
      
    • A Stouffville Scout group would like us to do a presentation at one of their Thursday meetings. The presentation would be approximately 1 to 1.5 hours long. Code/voice/APRS to be determined. The date to be determined.
      
    • Gas used at the previous Scout winter camp. MOTION: To reimburse David VA3DCY for gas purchased upon presentation of a receipt, value not to exceed $30. Moved Steve VE3UT, seconded Eric VE3EB. Carried.
      
    • USB – RS232 adaptor for D-Star trailer radio. MOTION: To reimburse Steve VE3UT for the purchase of the USB adaptor $30 max. The motion needs to be presented at the next General meeting.
      
    • Club event vests: Eric VE3EB - Eric proposed purchasing identical vests with the club ID/logo, to be worn by club members at club public events. He suggested purchasing 16 to 20 vests that would be owned by the club, and members could also purchase their own vests. He also proposed purchasing an open tracker in the future.
      

Minutes - YRARC General Meeting - March 6, 2018

Meeting held in the Sharon Temperance Hall. Called to Order at 19:35 by Chris VE3NRT. Total members and guests attending: 28.

1. Welcome & Introductions: Chris VE3NRT
   
2. Adoption of minutes from 2018/02/06. Moved Brian VE3IBW, seconded Rick VA3VO. Carried.
   
3. Treasurer's Report; Charles VA3TTB. Members may obtain the opening and closing balances from the club secretary. Receipts: Excess money from Winter Field Day $105.00; Expenditures: Serial port adapter $28.24, Scout Winter Camp Gas: $23.39.
   
4. Insurance: Charles VA3TTB. Our membership at RAC has expired, and membership in RAC could have benefits with the future purchase of insurance. MOTION: That YRARC join Radio Amateurs of Canada as an affiliate club for an annual cost of $27.95 plus GST. Moved Rick VA3VO, seconded John VA3JI. Carried.
   
5. Repeaters: Steve VE3UT: VE3YRA will be off the air on Wednesday March 7, at 09:00 for approximately one hour, to replace the power supply that had recently failed. The repeater has been on air using a temporary supply. Doug VE3ATP is waiting for better weather to replace the VE3YRK antenna. Don VE3IXJ mentioned there is a new DMR repeater north of Bradford.
   

Guest Speaker: Due to last minute circumstances, the scheduled guest was unavailable. Charles VA3TTB filled in with some of his thoughts on weather radar. Being an enthusiastic bird watcher, weather radar is of interest to him. Weather radar has an approximately 1 degree beam, which is elevated just above the horizon. At a given distance away from the radar station, the beam will be at a certain height above ground. The pulses can be reflected by small objects such as rain, snow, small insects such as bees and also birds. One of his pictures showed a ring of objects. They were birds, flying at their normal height above the ground. Another picture showed a concentration of migrating birds along the Niagara Peninsula. In conclusion, he wanted us to know that a doctor gave us a talk on the birds and the bees.