The next meeting will be on Saturday, January 5, 2002 at
9:00 AM
at the Oakland OES 1st Floor Media Room; Fire Station 1
17th St & Martin Luther King
Way.
2001! What a year! And, on many accounts, I feel exhausted, but confident about preparing for a new year! I was particularly pleased with the flurry of year end activities, with concurrent Board meetings of ORCA and VHF Repeaters on 11/28, a special Friday evening 12/7 meeting of ORCA (with a movie and popcorn) followed the next Wednesday night, 12/12, with the annual holiday dinner sponsored by VHF Repeaters. In all, 32 persons participated in both events! It's always refreshing to discover the social and hobby aspects of Amateur Radio, and take a step back from the emergency and disaster emphasis. I'll look forward in 2002 to making more room for hobby opportunities.
Well, here we are; at the beginning of a new year and technically speaking, the second of the new millennium. Just hanging new year size wall calendars at home and at work brings attention and focus to setting personal and organizational goals. So, why not spend some substantial meeting time on January 5 on doing just that for ORCA!
From the perspective of being President of both ORCA and VHF Repeaters organizations during 2001 and going forward in 2002, the action of both Boards in their concurrent meeting of 11/28 to appoint a joint organizations merger issues committee will emerge as a "water shed" focus for both groups, and will cement a stronger foundation for pursuit and support of the widest possible scope of Amateur Radio activities. I expect that this committee, David, WB6NER, Jim, K6JAT, Art, W6THD and Bill KF6VOG will work with great earnest in next several months to bring proposals to the memberships for their action. Membership input for the committee consideration will be solicited on Jan 5!
Here's a quick sidebar on what's the economics of membership in ORCA, ORCA/VHF and VHF. There's actually a forth grouping composed of visitors which come to an occasional meeting, but are not officially affiliated with either group. In 2001, each group consisted of 25 persons. The "dues" and income are presented in the following table.
|
ORCA |
|
VHF |
OTH |
TOT |
|
|
15 |
15 |
24 |
24 |
0 |
- |
|
M25 |
M25 |
M25 |
M25 |
V25 |
M+V100 |
|
375 |
375 |
600 |
600 |
0 |
- |
|
ORCA = |
750 |
VHF= |
1200 |
0 |
1950 |