(Please disregard the last message. I put the wrong file in my editor
to be mailed.)
I'll try to keep these updates down to once a month, or in response to
very important recent events, to avoid overloading this mailing list and
its recipients.
Here is an updated chronology of events:
February 1997
- P.O. Box for club obtained (to give SACMARC a permanent address).
Our mailing address is now:
SACMARC/K0AIR
P.O. Box 1292
Bellevue, NE 68005-1292
I have a key and will be checking it periodically. John Sheffield,
N4OWG, has a backup copy, just in case.
- John finishes reviewing talking paper, articles, and bylaws and
returns them to me with further suggested changes. I agree that they
are all important, and hope to be finished reviewing the documents
"shortly" so that the changes can be incorporated and final versions can
be printed.
- John suggests that we put the names of our charter members on the
K0AIR Home Page (http://www.novia.net/~pschleck/k0air/). I agree this
is a good idea, and hope to finish it shortly (if for any reason, you
don't want to be recognized in this way, please let me know).
- In the absence of a volunteer Extra-class trustee, John (Advanced
class) graciously volunteered to be the trustee for K0GRL, the former
Nebraska amateur radio callsign of General Curtis E. LeMay (Having an
Advanced class trustee means that we have to wait for Gate 3, and any
Extra class operator who wanted to use K0GRL to the limit of his
privileges will have to append his callsign to the club call. We
ultimately decided these drawbacks were minor). I gave John a 610-B and
610-V to fill out (the 610-B will be signed by both of us and submitted
ASAP, the 610-V will wait for application Gate 3, which has not yet been
opened or announced). John felt that Mrs. Lodge's gracious consent to
use K0GRL should be honored by actually going through with applying for
it.
- FCC Form 610-B, to modify our address to the new P.O. Box, was filled
out, signed by John and me, and submitted to the FCC.
March 1997
- I requested from the American Radio Relay League (via E-mail sent to
hq@arrl.org), a Club Affiliation Kit, which arrived at our P.O. Box
shortly afterwards. The ARRL is a non-profit organization that, by its
size and influence, is the default national amateur radio society of the
United States. Affiliating our club with the ARRL has a number of
important benefits (access to club liability insurance at discounted
rates may be the most important one).
- Carl Quijas, WB0TUE, offered to pass along an announcement about the
new SACMARC, and solicitation for members, to computer bulletin boards
on the amateur packet radio network (there is a special message
distribution for USAF veterans). I thought that was a good idea and
encouraged him to do it right away. I've already announced the
existence of the club on the Internet, including several military and
amateur-radio-oriented newsgroups.
- Virginia Stuart from the SAC Museum (Acting Director, I think), called
me. She had read my original "Dear Director" letter sent in November,
and wanted to follow up. She had thought that the Museum Registrar,
Fred Royner, had already contacted us, but it turned out that he had
not. This explains the long delay for a response from the SAC Museum
administrators, though we did have more immediate informal response from
SAC Museum board member General William Doyle (Retired).
- Ms. Stuart and I discussed a number of issues. I updated her with
regard to our progress, including our successful application for a
station license and retrieval of the the historic K0AIR callsign, as
well as efforts to formally organize (she thought that all of this was
very good news). She said that there were good opportunities to get
involved as volunteers at the museum. One of the best ways was as
volunteers in the artifact restoration program. They are currently
principally concerned with restoring the aircraft, but other artifacts
such as radio equipment might need the same treatment eventually (she
wasn't sure what the museum had in terms of permanent holdings, but she
referred me to the Registrar for more discussion about that). The
program does not require volunteers to have extensive restoration
experience, or even aircraft certification (some degree of on-the-job
training by more expert volunteers is implied). I told her I would
pitch the general idea to the membership.
- Mr. Royner (the SAC Museum Registrar) talked to me for a while, also.
He did confirm that some communications equipment was part of the
permanent collection, though he did acknowledge that this collection was
incomplete, and specifically asked me about donations. I told him that
I had contacts with people who indicated that they might have some items
of historical value, and that donations could possibly be arranged. He
gave me a few more details about the restoration program, and referred
me to Chief Denny Hahn (Retired), who is also with the SAC museum and
directs the program. I asked Mr. Royner about the possibility of
exhibit space. He said that there was an entire section of the new
museum devoted to such rotating exhibits, and it was very likely we
could get at least some temporary exhibit space sometime next year. He
expressed strong interest in meeting with us in the near future to
hammer out the details (as the space was likely to go quickly).
Which brings us to where we are now.
The very recent (i.e., today's) followup by the SAC Museum
administrators (who called me, and even offered us a number of good
opportunities without even being asked) was fortuitous. We now have a
number of good ideas for projects to pursue in the very near future,
including a temporary exhibit/demonstration station at the SAC Museum,
coordination of donations of historic communications equipment and
related artifacts, and even helping out with the restoration program
(Obviously our specific efforts can be fine-tuned, so that we can
concentrate more on radios and antennas that, say, sheet-metal repair,
though obviously we shouldn't shrink from any reasonable way to help the
Museum, assuming our membership is willing and able. Also, if we don't
have the in-house expertise with doing extensive restoration of complex
radio equipment, our knowledge and contacts in the amateur radio
community means that we might also have a role coordinating donated
or discounted outside expertise).
John and I had a chance to discuss some club matters at last night's
Volunteer Examination session. He thought it would be a good idea to
actually have a formal, in-person meeting of the SACMARC sometime soon,
and I tend to agree. The purposes of this first meeting would include:
- collection of dues from initial members (though we'll probably arrange
some way of applying for membership by mail shortly afterwards)
- ratification of the Articles and By-Laws (they are substantially
copied over from the ones for the Bellevue ARC, but have a few
variations to incorporate our SAC/USAF history focus that others may
want to review)
- election of a slate of officers (John is the acting president, but
he's indicated he would prefer to hand that over to someone else and
concentrate on being the Bellevue ARC president for this year; I would
be happy to serve in any position, at least for the first year)
and possibly a few chairs of ad-hoc committees (donations committee?
restoration committee? )
- discussion of (and solicitation of volunteers for) the above-mentioned
proposed projects (possibly as chairs of ad-hoc committees)
Our proposed By-Laws provide for quarterly meetings on the third Friday
of December, March, June, and September. However, since they aren't
ratified, they aren't necessarily binding yet. We would like to give
sufficient advanced notice, about 6-8 weeks at least, so that we can
reserve a meeting place and get the announcement in all the local radio
club newsletters. This suggests either April or May for the first
meeting.
One likely location would be the new Papillion library (they have large
meeting rooms that are available if we at least start our meeting
before closing time). I'd be open to any alternate ideas.
Also, though we have our minds made up about the general focus and
strategy of this new club (SAC/USAF communications history), I would
like to emphasize that there are still a number of details to be worked
out, and the opportunity for significant input that is likely to be
adopted by the club is still there. Please let us know if you have any
ideas or suggestions. If you don't want to share them with the entire
list, you may feel free to send them to me or John Sheffield
(sheffieldj@aol.com).
Paul W. Schleck
pschleck@novia.net
K0AIR Trustee
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