Greetings!
As the white rabbit would say “I’m late…I’m late,
for a very important date.” At least for this month, with good
reason, I decided to wait until we got together in Forsyth for the
Annual ARES Meeting.
I hope you got a chance to make the trip, and
while I got to meet a lot of folks and put a number of faces with an
email, there were simply too many in attendance at both sessions to
meet everyone there.
We went over some important topics in the morning
session and then had three great presentations from our guest
speakers. Those special guests were Yusuf Rahman, from the Georgia
Hospital Association, Lans Rothfusz, from the National Weather
Service, and Charley English, who is the Director of GEMA.
All three are excellent speakers, and passed on a
lot of information in a short time. Thank you gentlemen for taking
the time from your busy schedules to visit with us!
A number of attendees passed on their thoughts
about the meeting while there, but I also suggest if you have
thoughts or comments that you use the “comments” section of your
monthly reports. If you’re an ARES member, simply pass on your
thoughts to your EC or send them on to me via email.
How many were in attendance? We’re not sure.
Because of the amount of stuff we had to cover in the morning
session, it didn’t occur until later that we had failed to pass
around a sign-up sheet. Gene indicates there were around 350 raffle
tickets passed out, but the folks who attended in the morning, got
to get a second ticket if they stayed for the afternoon session.
Suffice it to say, both sessions probably had around 200 people or
so in attendance, and in particular for the morning, that was a lot
more people than usual.
Congratulations are in order for the two people
receiving “Ham of the Year” awards. First, Charles
Pennington, K4GK, was recognized as the “HOTY” for the
Georgia Single Sideband Association. Then, Barry Kanne,
W4TGA, received the “HOTY” from GAARES. Both these
gentlemen go way beyond the call of duty for all of us, and it was a
pleasure to see them remembered in this way.
I’d also like to say a special thanks to a
younger member of our group who was very evident at the meeting and
that’s Lisa Bianco, AJ4RT. If you were in
attendance, Lisa met you at the door and made sure you had a raffle
ticket, and also served as “banker” until we got the “Donation
Buckets” set up. She’s also one the youngest Extra Class VEs in the
country.
Since I’ve mentioned the
buckets, for those not there, a lot of what GAARES does during the
year, like the website, has been dependent on one individual
providing it with out of pocket expenses. We decided, in fairness,
to “pass the hat” and let the financial burdens be shouldered by
more than just one person, in the same fashion most clubs use. At
the close of the meeting, there was $193.73 in the bucket. Barry,
W4TGA, still beaming from accepting his HOTY award, reached into his
pocket and added another $6.27 to round us up to $200. Many thanks
to those of you who contributed to help offset the cost of what we
do.
Two more to thank, and
I’m through. For a number of years, two guys have born the brunt of
running the Annual Meetings and they once again did a yeoman’s job
keeping things moving. So thanks to Lynn, KN4YZ,
and David, AG4ZR, for performing the Emcee duties
again this year.
David also had a few paragraphs over updating AEC
information on the website and in the database that he wanted to
present here, but since that information deserves a “stand alone”
position, look for it on the websites. With a number of new ECs in
place who may be unsure of the process of getting those changes
made, it’s very timely information. Doing it as an article unto
itself will prevent it getting lost in the Midmonth archives, and
thanks to David for doing this.
That’s it for this month. Again a big THANK YOU
to those of you who attended the Forsyth Meeting this past weekend.
Next month, we’ll get back to regular topics…keep those emails
coming!!
73 de Mike KE4FGF
