The 2011 MARCO Annual Membership Meeting took place in El Paso, Texas from March 31 to April 2.
Danny W4DAN and Caroline, Arnold WB6OJB and Joan, and Jeff K6JW and Rowie arrived by automobile. Mary AE4BX came in her RV after wandering the country for about two months. The rest of us (Warren KD4GUA, Lou WA1HGE, Ellen KC9ARN and Paul N6DMV and Elsa) flew to El Paso. Linda KE5BQK and Bernie KD5QHV served as our capable and gracious hosts.
Unfortunately, KD4GUA and WA1HGE were delayed by bad weather. The rest of us gathered at the El Paso Marriott on Thursday evening, March 31 for a drink, and then adjourned across the street to the Cattle Baron for dinner.
On Friday morning, April 1, we traveled in a motorcade out to the airfield at Santa Teresa, New Mexico, where the plane KD5QHV flies usually resides. We had hoped to see “Big Bird” but it was away for maintenance. The Business Meeting was conducted at the hangar and was accompanied by a delicious breakfast featuring breakfast burritos and assorted other goodies.
Following the conclusion of the Business Meeting we all headed back to town, taking the alternate route across Franklin Mountain. This afforded us great views of the desert, the western portion of El Paso and Fort Bliss.
Later in the day we took a tour of the Kay Bailey Hutchinson desalination plant, the largest such inland facility in the world. Xavier Orozco, our guide, clearly and succinctly explained the workings of the plant and fielded questions from the group.
In the evening we descended en masse on Julio's for a tasty Tex-Mex dinner.
Saturday was hot and dry but luckily not windy. The group members spent their free time in various ways. Some visited the El Paso Art Museum while others toured the U.S. Border Patrol Museum. A small group returned to Santa Teresa to take a look at “Big Bird,” which had returned to its perch.
The annual MARCO Banquet took place at the Cattleman's Ranch in Fabens, Texas. All agreed with KD5QHV's assessment that “The worst food I ever ate here was delicious.” Happy hour saw the world premiere performance of the MARCO Blues Band, with Linda “Evita” Krasowski on blues harp and Jeff “Howlin'” Wolf and “Buffalo Bruce” Small on guitar. El Paso's own Pat “Guitar Slim” Chase was featured guest artist and graciously lowered his standards to allow the rest of us to participate. Thanks, Slim!!
We also had a visit from Andrew Jackson of the Border Patrol. He was kind enough to answer questions from the audience. Bernie Krasowski raffled a bottle of Shiraz uniquely labeled in CW, raising $140 for MediShare.
All too soon the weekend came to a close, and good friends were forced to part company.
We gather again in 2012 in Dayton, Ohio, and in 2013 in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina.
See you there!
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Minutes of the Medical Amateur Radio Council Annual Membership Meeting
April 1, 2011
Santa Teresa, New Mexico
Members in attendance were President Linda Krasowski KE5BQK, President-Elect Mary Favaro AE4BX, Secretary Danny Centers W4DAN, Treasurer Lou Wiederhold WA1HGE, Newsletter Editor Warren Brown KD4GUA, MediShare Chairperson Arnold Kalan WB6OJB, Bernie Krasowski KD5QHV, Paul Lukas N6DMV, Ellen Przekop KC9ARN, Jeff Wolf K6JW, Teresa Small and Bruce Small KM2L. Harry Przekop WB9EDP participated by telephone.
The Secretary reported that MARCO has 235 members, including 40 who are not current with their dues payments. Total membership is up by about 20, largely due to the Secretary's practice of sending a copy of the newsletter to new check-ins to the net. Some are also recruited at the Dayton Hamvention.
N3IM, N5RTF and W4DAN will be present at Dayton this year. The Ramada now demands a deposit for meeting rooms, the banquet, and also individual rooms set aside as a block for MARCO. The latter is problematic. W4DAN will speak with the hotel about this matter when he is in Dayton.
We now have a MARCO credit card. Treasurer WA1HGE must approve any expenditures using this card.
The Treasurer reported that while MARCO's annual inflows are steady, our expenses vary, primarily due to the cost of the annual meeting. Expenditure for the newsletter averages $2100 annually. At the close of 2010 total deposits were $10781.14 in the bank account and $6345.03 in a CD.
KM2L reported that despite improved security practices, the MARCO Website was hacked again. After some research, we believe that the attacked exploited a flaw in Filezilla, the ftp client that the Internet Committee was using to upload content. KM2L no longer uses this program for uploads, and we have been problem-free for the past few months.
MARCO Sunday morning Grand Rounds as heard at KM2L's station are now available via Skype. W1BEW and N4TSC are regular listeners. W0RPH and N5RTF often stop by.
KD4GUA delivered the Newsletter Editor's report. He welcomes contributions from members, especially technical articles. It was the consensus of those in attendance that the quality of the Aether is consistently outstanding, and that Warren is to be commended. WB6OJB commented that his wife had copied the recent article on medication expiration dates and distributed it to several of her friends.
WB6OJB and WA1HGE presented the MediShare report. The current MediShare balance is $6024, up from $3109 last year. We do not currently have a project, but this level of funding would allow us to proceed with one. There was considerable discussion about how to find a suitable project. Among the suggestions were contacting Mike Marks of Bush Hospital Foundation, the Medical Amateur Radio Society of Japan, MARCO members in Japan, and Direct Relief International. Additionally, WB6OJB has a contact in Zambia, and he will see if there might be a project available there. WA1HGE recalled that we had a communications project with an African hospital and its affiliated clinics a few years ago, and suggested that we contact them to see if they require any additional help. KD4GUA will contact Smitty, W6CS and KM2L will check back issues of the newsletter for contact information.
New Business:
Duane Wyatt once again requested that MARCO consider funding his Kids' Club project. The consensus of the meeting was that we have previously dealt with this issue. Regardless of the project's worthiness, it is not consistent with MARCO's mission, and we consider the question closed.
WA1HGE commented on last year's appointment of KM2L as Assistant Treasurer. He indicated that the Secretary, W4DAN is the Assistant Treasurer, and that this action was redundant. W4DAN clarified the thinking behind this action. When Robin Staebler served as Secretary/and de facto Treasurer, no one else was familiar with his procedures, and no one else had access to the membership database. When he became ill, it was a difficult chore to recover the data. MARCO should take steps to avoid a similar scenario in the future, should an officer become incapacitated. W4DAN further recommended that the current membership database be converted from Filemaker to Microsoft Access or an equivalent and possibly be made available to additional officers. KM2L will explore online possibilities (“the cloud”). K6JW suggested the creation of a procedure manual by each officer, to be entrusted to the President for safekeeping.
Open Forum:
KD4GUA suggested that we start Grand Rounds one hour later, as propagation is better at that time. This will necessitate a change in frequency, as 14.307 MHz is occupied by the Air Force Flyers net after the end of our net. It was decided that near the end of Grand Rounds, KD5QHV/KE5BQK, N6DMV, WB6OJB and KC9ARN/WB9EDP will search for an unoccupied frequency, and interested participants will QSY to that frequency to continue discussion. Once we find a reliable frequency, we will move the net there permanently.
View video highlights of the meeting:
