Amateur Radio Club meetings over radio ?

[ai4ep]

What would be the legality in the FCC rules & regulations of ---

An amateur radio club ( local, which most are ) having their monthly / weekly meetings on-the-air on the locally sponsored 2 meter repeater ?

Each officer could transmit at the appropiate time with the info he / she has to offer, concerning reading the minutes of the last meeting, the OLD news from last week or month ...the NEW news that no one knows of yet .

No one would be transmitting long enough to time the repeater out, folks could listen in as they go to and from work, shopping, reclining in the chair watching tv, and keep up with all the happenings of the local club...possiblt encouraging others to join...and possibly encouraging others who are listening on police - type scanners to become amateurs theirselves.

No one uses up their high- priced gasoline to go to & from the meeting, or uses up their valuable time going to & from a meeting many miles away ...every one is in a relaxed environment ( mostly in their own home ).

Every one I D when necessary, the club situations get accomplished, folks listening in can acquire information about the club, the club dues , upcoming events { I.E. Field Day next June }.

So why not do it...save YOUR gas & time when you could sit at home and keep up with club events while watching tv or here on the computer reading qrz.

[K9STH]

Nothing in the regulations against this sort of thing. However, the visual aids of the featured speaker are going to be pretty hard to see!

Glen, K9STH

[WA9SVD]

Same sort of thing happens ALL the time. Only it's usually called a "NET." Pretty much the same purpose and function.
As long as everyone ID's properly, and the repeater belongs to the club, or the club has the repeater owner's permission, there's not even an issue. It would be wise to leave pauses every few minutes during the "meeting," however, to allow for possible emergency messages to get through.

Repeaters around here with nets sometimes turn off the "alligator" that shuts up people after 2 minutes of continuous transmission, in case bulletins or other business take longer than that,and at least one repeater in the area uses one type of "beep" for standard operation, another during "net" operations, and yet another during emergency activation.

The only thing that might not be wise would be to discuss dues or any other fees required by the club itself. THAT would be best handled by either snail mail or e-mail. And no advertising would be allowed, either. That would be appropriate for the newsletter, not over the air.

[wa4ilh]

All of the above answers are good. However, there is value in having a club meeting at an actual location. How about the newbe who doesn't have a radio yet? How about all the other members who want to meet the new guy, or the old guy, for that matter. Also, if your club has emergency duties, such as supporting the Red Cross (or whoever) you can meet there, for free hopefully, and everyone will know where it is and become familiar with their station.
Tom WA4ILH

[KF0RT]

A local UHF/VHF repeater group that I've been a member of for 30 years does this. They have a Wednesday "bulletin net" every week where the officers give reports; they have a weekly "swap net," play the audio NewsLine and take checkins. The net usually runs about a half hour and uses a linked 2 meter / 440 repeater pair.

I'm not sure when they quit having real face-to-face monthly meetings, but way back when, it was more typical, and they had an actual meeting every month. This group "officially" has six repeaters in the area and a little over 150 members. The only real get togethers are a Christmas dinner held at a restaurant and a yearly swapfest. I don't know what the turnout is like at the dinner, but the swapfest draws hundreds every year.

The only reason the FCC would care one bit about this is if a club license had been issued. Otherwise, none of their business outside of Part 97. In the case of club licenses, it looks like it just takes a "good faith effort" to have a club. In the enforcement letters, you typically see this come up when a trustee holds a "larger than normal" number of club callsigns. Since they did away with repeater licenses, most of the repeaters around here are operated under the trustee's personal callsign. One has to wonder when one guy is holding a dozen club callsigns.

The bigger issue might be what the "state" requires in the way of articles of incorporation, non-profit status, tax reporting, directors, etc. Once it involves a dollar.... As far as I know, the group I belong to still does an annual audit of the "books" and still files an IRS return as a not-for-profit organization. What a headache.

73, Rob

[AG3Y]

Here in the Hagerstown area, we do all of the above. Besides that, there are postings of bulletins on the internet by several club officers, and free exchange of information either via local radio contacts or EMails.

Welcome to the 21st Century !

[n0iu]

This is also how a number of HF clubs hold their general meetings and board meetings. For them, it is the only practical way to conduct their business with members spread out all over the country. Of course, they are at the mercy of propagation and weather.

As others have said, many clubs hold weekly nets to augment their "eyeball" meetings, not replace them. To me, meeting people face to face is one of the main benefits of joining a club.

Welcome to the 19th Century!

[ai4ep]

I was mostly wondering about the " legality issue " of it all, ...some folks would think it is conducting business ( which except for the treasurer report ) it aint.

And yet it IS like a net.

But say you have folks who have to work at the meeting time, yet are able to carry around a handheld and recieve the repeater, and therefore be able to keep up with the monthly meeting with a headset over their ears.

The Bankhead Amateur Radio Club ( which I am secretary of for the fourth out of the last 5 years...2005 I resigned, then applied for and got the position back when the new person did his best, but couldnt make all the meetings, etc and when I asked him IN PERSON if he would mind me taking over for him the rest of last year, almost said YES before I got the full question out. He was and still aint all that computer literate ( but then I dont know much more than he does ) but I told him time & time again.." you aint gonna learn if you dont try " ...but any way he is a fairly decent amateur for a N C T. .

== oh no AI4EP gave a NCT a compliment ? some one take ep to the hospital, something is WRONG with that dude !! ==

But any way, the Bankhead Club DID have a " on the air " meeting a few years ago, icy / slick roads on meeting night and we just got on the local repeater 146.960 and had it ( lasted about a good hour ) and threatened to do it again, but we aint ( yet )...but with gasoline costing what it does, and folks work schedules keepina a lot of potential attendee s from being there...this IS an idea.

SO I wanted your input. and I got it.

and I thank all of you, but we dont have to stop here, tell all of us more about YOUR experiences with your club / group and having your meetings over-the-air.

Does it appear to encourage NEW potential amateurs who hear you on their police scanner on your 2 meter / 440 repeaters ?

Do folks jump in & ask technical questions about radio ?

Do folks ask about where to go to pay dues,appear at club functions, etc ?

Does your local media ( newspaper/. am radio station ) let the club announce upcoming club events ( I E -- field day, where at/ time / etc )

AI4EP (Robert) http://www.qrz.com/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/smile.gif

[n0nwo]

I always thought every QSO was a ham club meeting of sorts http://www.qrz.com/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/biggrin.gif

Minton

[ai4ep]

n0nwo ---you are absolutely correct.

[K0RGR]

Another variation of this would be to tape the club meetings and replay them on 2 meters on another night of the week. Lots of people can't make the meetings on XXXX night, but could listen to the tape on YYYY night.

Most of our speakers use Powerpoint (or the freebie OpenOffice suite which will create and read Powerpoint presentations). Our club bought a nice projector and I make a laptop available for the purpose. It would be easy to post the files on our website.

Hmmmm..this would be a good job for my kid KC0LLG, who wants to get into audio recording professionally...

[ai4ep]

http://www.qrz.com/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/sad.gif I do not like the idea of taping and replaying the meeting minutes later for several reasons --

1) time out the repeater every 3 minutes

2 ) real - time emergency traffic may not be heard

3) some folks may say the minutes were " altered " to change the outcome should there be a controversial topic.

4) some folks may not like their voices on tape for various reasons ( all good ) .

5) folks coming to that repeater during the middle of the " playing of a cd / tape " may think some one is using the repeater illegally " and not feel welcome and leave with bad thoughts of whom ever group has that 2 meter repeater frequency locally.

BUT...on the other side, your idea might be a great one...but I aint a gonna do it.

But thanks for your idea any way...some one else out there reading may make good use of it.

AI4EP (Robert) http://www.qrz.com/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/smile.gif

[ai4ep]

...now another question ---but on a totally different level

ATV ( amateur television ) ...have officers with atv systems in their shack do the same as mentioned at the top of page 1 , but with the extra part of live video.

That would require a lot of coordination between stations, but no more than a normal ATV net . http://www.qrz.com/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/cool.gif

[WS2L]

The club I belong to has their monthly meeting on the repeater every other month and it works out pretty well. As far as the legality I don't think there is anything in the rules that prevent it.

[KC9ECI]

Quote[/b] (K9STH @ May 12 2006,12:50)]Nothing in the regulations against this sort of thing. #However, the visual aids of the featured speaker are going to be pretty hard to see!

Glen, K9STH
Not at all Glen...SSTV to the rescue!

[ai4ep]

Well, I did not get a chance to speak to our president of our club today about it...but it IS an idea. We had a tailgate party which lasted from 7 am till nearly 11 am, sold and swapped a lot of stuff. I sold a Icom 2100 2 meter mobile and my PRESIDENT 2510 got traded off, so that mess is over with ( yes it went to a general class amateur and not a CB operator ). Best of all, no boxing up items and UPS / FED EX shipping prices, or hassles of getting the money or unhappy customers...all done the old fashioned way ---IN PERSON . Great turnout for less than 2 hours of actual work ( announcements over local repeaters ) and ordinary conversations on HF and 2 meter repeaters...for the investment, it worked out great.

Ai4EP (Robert)

[W0BLH]

Quote[/b] (ai4ep @ May 13 2006,17:32)]# I sold a Icom 2100 2 meter mobile and my PRESIDENT 2510 #got traded off, so that mess is over with ( yes it went to a general class amateur and not a CB operator ).
Ai4EP (Robert)

How many of those President 2510's did you have? You have bragged about selling three of them recently and now the fourth. You must have had the market cornered on them. You get over $400 for this one too?

BLH
Andy

[ai4ep]

all gone now, though.

best news of all. http://www.qrz.com/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/smile.gif