Welcome to the Superstition Amateur Radio Club - View From The Top Of The Tower Report
The monthly report from our President Andy Keels, KD4ABB.
The monthly report from our President Andy Keels, KD4ABB.
This will be a new experience for me, having to write an article for the newsletter every month. Public speaking has always come easy for me, but writing articles never has. Sometime around New Year’s Eve Steve Estes KB7KWK the club’s President for the last 11 years will be climbing down off the club tower and I’ll be going up the tower to check out the view. For the next 12 months the club president’s column will be my View from the Top of the Tower.
The Superstition Amateur Radio Club has experienced tremendous growth over the last ten years which has brought with it additional responsibilities for all those in club leadership roles.
Some of the challenges I see for the club in the coming year will be retaining all the new members we’ve added recently, continuing to capture the knowledge from our past officers in the new operating practices document, and attracting and training new leaders within the club.
Some of the things you might notice that are changing is the formation of an actual “Internal Communications Committee”. This committee will be comprised of the club’s webmaster, newsletter editor, ADAW editor, general information & donations point of contact, and social media coordinator. This group can be contacted for submitting articles or ads via: communications@superstitionarc.org Please be aware that anything that gets published with the club’s name on it should first cleared by the club’s executive officers as they now bear a legal responsibility for what the club does. The general public will be directed to: info@superstitionarc.org for club information and questions about donations.
The following club members have accepted the following committee appointment for 2020.
Communications Committee Chair: |
Dale Schmidt N7QJK |
|---|---|
Webmaster: |
Dale Schmidt N7QJK |
Communicator Editor: |
Dave Muller K7AV |
ADAW Article Editor: |
Larry Kuck WB7C |
Social Media Coordinator: |
Position Open |
Club Information Director: |
John Groseclose WX4LTG |
Technical Repeater Committee Chair: |
Steve Estes KB7KWK |
|---|---|
Call Sign Trustee: |
Brian Betz W7JET |
Tower Manager: |
Dan Karnes W7TWR |
Technical Committee Member: |
Douglas Mitchell W7ADD |
Mailbox Tech: |
Steve Estes KB7KWK |
SuperFest Committee Chairman: |
John Wolven KG7NSP (Interim) |
|---|---|
SuperFest Chairman In-Training: |
Open |
SuperFest Website: |
Dale Schmidt N7QJK |
Activities Committee Chair: |
Ed Taggard K7EDT |
|---|---|
Field Day Director: |
Jeff Harris K2DFE |
Mesh Activity Director: |
Rod Fritz WB9KMO |
Membership Committee Chairman: |
Dan Devlieger KC7MSU (Interim) |
A couple key initiatives I intend to work with this year’s board of officers and directors to enact are the following: I want to ensure the club remains inclusive of all our members no matter what their interests, capabilities, or equipment allow. This includes making sure our club’s single most valuable asset, our repeater system remains open, analog, and accessible to everyone. Our ‘flagship repeaters 147.120+ and 449.600- attract many hams visiting and new to the valley due to the busy and friendly activity they find there.
I want to work to encourage new and younger hams to join the club and become active participants. I want to develop greater participation and evolvement from our existing members. A club or organization that doesn't develop new leaders will become stagnant and fall into decline. This is true with all non-profits: religious, charitable, or service based. The success of our club lies in the next generation and we need to provide guidance and support for them to develop. Part of this effort will be to expand upon the effort begun by last year’s board with the creation of a set of published Operating Guidelines that captures all of the best practices and lessons learned from our past and present leaders. The club’s adoption of HamClubOnline has been a huge help with this effort and I hope to further develop our use of this tool.
The ‘view from the top of the tower” can be both scary if you look down, and inspiring if you look out toward the horizon. I look forward to sharing with all of you more of what I see and hear from the top of the tower this year.
Best Wishes 73
Andy Keels, KD4ABB
President Superstition Amateur Radio Club
