January 18, 2023

  • Meeting Location: 605 Metropolis Street, Metropolis, IL
  • Meeting Conducted By: James “Jay” Smock – President
  • Meeting Called to Order at approximately 1747 hrs.
  • The Pledge of Allegiance was led by Jay Smock
  • Members Present:
    • Jay Smock — President  
    • Lori Nichols – Treasurer
    • Lloyd Baker –VEC  
    • Geoff Williams – Secretary  
    • Ronnie Stone – Vice President: Called into the meeting by phone.
  • Guests Present:
    • Brian Horn – Massac County (IL) Director of Emergency Management
    • Garry Wheatley (270-556-6797)  – President of the McCracken County (KY) A.R.E.S. club  KD4GCY
    • Pam Wheatley – Wife of Garry Wheatley
  • Minutes of the last meeting (December 21, 2022) were read. A motion was made to accept the minutes as read, seconded, and passed unanimously.
  • Jay Smock discussed the need for liability insurance for the club. He advised that a policy through ARRL would be $200 per year.
    • Garry Wheatley stated that the Paducah Area Radio Association (PARA) has their insurance through ARRL and is very happy with it. He went on to say that they had checked into prices with other vendors and found that the ARRL was considerably less expensive and an all-around good policy.
    • At this time we have no revenue flow, therefore the liability insurance will have to wait until we have funds in our bank account.
  • Jay Smock stated that we need to open a bank account. He would like to use the SIU Credit Union for this purpose.
    • A short discussion ensued regarding this proposal.
    • A motion was made to open a checking account at SIU Credit Union.
    • The motion was seconded
    • The vote was unanimous to do so.
    • Jay will look into opening the account.
  • The need for a WEB address was brought up again by Jay.
    • It was suggested that we use our club’s FCC call sign, WS1ERA, along with the .org domain suffix: WS1ERA.org.  It was further suggested that should that address be unavailable we could utilize the following: SIERARC22.org.
  • Brian Horn – Dir. Of Emergency Management for Massac County, has drawn up a Letter-of-Understanding between his office and SIERA that outlines the club’s authorization to use the DEMs radio equipment trailer, radios, antennas, etc. upon request by the county director of Emergency Management.
    • Jay Smock read the letter out loud to those present.
    • Jay stated that he will send a copy of the letter to all members to read.
    • There will be a discussion of the contents of the letter at the February meeting, and barring no changes need to be made, a vote to either accept or decline the letter will be carried out.
  • Lori Nichols informed the group that she has a couple of file cabinets and a desk available at the church for the clubs use in our office.
    • Lori also stated that we need to retrieve the two folding tables that belong to the club from Rachael Deaton’s shop, Wild Grace.  
      • Geoff Williams volunteered to take care to do so.
  • Ronnie Stone suggested we look into an open house or perhaps an inaugural event to showcase the club.
  • Lloyd Baker reported that the ARRL is now set up for on-line license testing.
  • Ronnie Stone suggested a contest for club logo design.  
    • The contest would be open to local high school students.
    • We would need to come up with the parameters as to what the logo would depict.
    • Jay said he would sent out a text to members to think about what they would like to see on a club logo. Ideas would be discussed at the next meeting.
  • Aiden Carnes had discussed with Ronnie Stone that the club should have a 2 meter radio installed in our office for use during emergencies and general use.
    • Jay Smock said that he has a 2m radio he could let the club use.
    • Ronnie Stone said that he has a couple of 2m antennas he is willing to let the club utilize.
  • Garry Wheatley made a donation of $20 to the club.
  • The names of those who have filled out an application for membership in the SIERA club were read and voted on for membership.
    • Those persons are as follows:
      • Aidan P. Carnes  (W9ADN)
      • Ronnie G. Stone  (K4INS)
      • Geoffrey R. Williams  (KD9VCY)
      • James Smock  (N9VN)
      • Lori Nichols  (N6BWZ)
      • Deanna R. Baker  (WO0FDR)
      • Lloyd N. Baker  (KC9DRB)

Minutes submitted by Geoff Williams — Secretary