SouthEastern Repeater Association, Inc.
Winter 2010 Board Meeting  


Roger Gregory, SERA President, called the meeting to order on January 23, 2010, at 13:00.
 

Those staff members present were: Roger Gregory, W4RWG, President, South Carolina Director, & Repeater Journal Correspondent; Frank Lynch, W4FAL, Vice President & North Carolina Vice Director;  Alex Hedrick, N8FWL, Secretary & West Virginia Director; Johnny Wofford, WA4ETE, Treasurer; Ron Johnson, WB4GWA, Assistant to the Georgia Director; Mike McCown, K4ITF, Kentucky Director; Steve Grantham, AA5SG, Mississippi Director; Harold Bullard, K5WHB, Assistant to the Mississippi Director; Danny Hampton, K4ITL, North Carolina Director; John Crockett, KC4YI, Assistant to the South Carolina Director; Randy Bennett, W4RFB, Tennessee Vice Director; Mike Bishop, WM4RB, Assistant to the Tennessee Director; Don Williams, W4VT, Virginia Vice Director; Tucker Sizemore, WG8E, IT Assistant to the Secretary; and Bob Gault, KD4NEC, Tennessee Repeater Journal Correspondent. 
 

Roger Gregory thanked everyone for their attendance, since some had to travel further to Chattanooga and the meeting had to be delayed from the original dates of January 09th & 10th due to the harsh winter weather that some were experiencing.
 

Roger recognized Dr. Ron Johnson, WB4GWA, and Professor of Theology at Mercer University .  He is the new Georgia Assistant Director.  The staff conducted a round table type of introduction for Ron’s benefit.
 

The May 2009 meeting minutes had previously been circulated to all staff members by e-Mail as well as being posted on the FTP site.  A motion to “accept and approve the minutes” was made by Johnny Wofford.  Seconded by Frank Lynch, the motion passed unanimously.
 

Roger proceeded to make his presidential staff appointments for the 2010-2011 service year – David Ward as Full & Associate Membership Chairman, Frank Lynch as FCC Liaison Chairman and Frequency Coordination Chairman, Danny Hampton as Technical Advisor Chairman, Gary Pearce as Acting Publications Chairman, and Alex Hedrick as Internet Services Manager.  A motion to “accept and approve the Presidential Staff Appointments” was made by Steve Grantham.  Seconded by Johnny Wofford, the motion passed unanimously.

Johnny Wofford was recognized and nominated Danny Hampton to continue serving as Executive Committee Member-at-Large.  Seconded by Don Williams the motion passed unanimously.
 

Roger announced further that Alan McClain had resigned as the Tennessee Director and Roger recommended that Randy Bennett be appointed as Tennessee Director to fill Alan’s unexpired term.  A motion to “nominate Randy Bennett as Tennessee Director” was made by Alex Hedrick.  Seconded by Frank Lynch, the motion passed unanimously.  At this point Randy Bennett made a motion to “nominate Mike Bishop as Tennessee Vice Director”.   Seconded by Roger Gregory, the motion passed unanimously. 
 

Alex Hedrick made a motion to “nominate Tucker Sizemore as IT Assistant to the Secretary”.   Seconded by Roger Gregory, the motion passed unanimously.
 

Roger announced further that both Pete Seabolt and Phil Heaton had resigned their Georgia posts and Ron Johnson is the only staff member left and serving only as an Assistant Director.  Roger also added that Ron had attended the SERA Executive Committee meeting this morning and had agreed to continue serving the State of Georgia .  Alex Hedrick made a motion to “nominate Ron Johnson as Georgia Director” to fill Pete’s unexpired term.   Seconded by Frank Lynch, the motion passed unanimously.
 

Steve Grantham announced that Aubrey Bilbo had resigned as Mississippi Vice Director and made a motion to “nominate Harold Bullard as Mississippi Vice Director”.   Seconded by Alex Hedrick, the motion passed unanimously.
 

Mike McCown announced that he needed additional help, eyes, & ears in western Kentucky and made a motion to “nominate Jerry Shouse as Assistant to the Kentucky Director”.   Seconded by Danny Hampton, the motion passed unanimously.
 

Roger added, for those who did not know, Tom Gallagher resigned as Publications Chairman as of December 30th, 2009.  This issue surrounds a Repeater Journal advertising matter with the Charlotte Hamfest.  Roger added that Tom’s resignation had conditions attached for which the organization could not accept, was timed very badly, and placed the SERA in a difficult position.  Conferring with Roger, Danny Hampton approached our former publications chairman - Gary Pearce.  Gary has agreed to help us produce regular editions of the SERA Repeater Journal for up to two issues.  In the mean time all of us need to solicit applicants for this important position.  We intend to run a feature article stating that we need a qualified & dedicated publications chairman and we will decide later when & how to conduct interviews with all interested parties.
 

Johnny Wofford added here that there haven’t been any advertising deposits made since November.  Danny said he will contact Gary to see what may have happened.
 

EXECUTIVE STAFF REPORTS
 

VICE PRESIDENT:  Frank Lynch has no report.  

SECRETARY:  Alex Hedrick reviewed an e-Mail vote from June 14th, 2009,   concerning Pete Seabolt’s nomination of Bill Hampton as Assistant to the Georgia Director.  For lack of a majority vote, Mr. Hampton’s nomination failed to be approved.  Alex added that it would have also failed due to eight procedural and administrative reasons (see exhibit 0110-01).  On September 12th, Don Williams, Chairman of the SERA Executive Staff Nominating Committee submitted their report to Alex, stating that all serving executive staff members (Roger, Frank, Alex, & Johnny) had been re-nominated for the 2010-2011 term (see exhibit 0110-02).   Alex Hedrick reviewed another e-Mail vote from October 19th, concerning Pete Seabolt’s nomination of Dr. Ron Johnson as Assistant to the Georgia Director.  This nomination passed 17 votes in favor, 00 opposed, and 02 staff members failing to cast their vote (see exhibit 0110-03).  On January 10th, 2010, Alex filed an official response by and for the SERA to Joe McElhaney of the Western Pennsylvania Repeater Council.  Basically WPRC wanted to make any SERA - Notice of Proposed Coordination that was received by WPRC to be a matter of public record.  Further, WPRC stated in their request that there would be no “reverse” reciprocal agreement for WPRC requests for coordination filed with SERA.  Alex stated in the strongest manner possible that “Specific repeater data contained within the SERA database or any NoPC submitted from the SERA to a neighboring frequency coordinators has long been held, and will continue to be held, as confidential.   Please note the objection of the SERA to the WPRC proposal with receipt of this message”. (see exhibit 0110-04).    

TREASURER: Johnny Wofford gave his presentation of SERA’s financial condition (see exhibit 0110-05).  First, he pointed out that one of our CD’s had matured which resulted in a drop of interest rate from 5% to 1.5%.  Our annuity also suffered a drop from 5% to 3.5%.  Our 2009 total income was $48,854.62 and our 2009 total expenses were $41,637.96.  At present we have $12,795.02 in the Wachovia checking account, $23,319.16 in our first CD at the Bank of Bartlett, $20,490.48 in our second CD at the Bank of Bartlett, and $12,300.88 in our Anico annuity account for a balance total of $68,905.54.  Johnny also worked with Jay Campbell, who maintains our secure, on-line, web based membership site, in order to eliminate a flaw that was discovered where some membership payments were being pro-rated.  That problem has been fixed and everything is working normally.  

FCC LIAISON REPORT:  Frank Lynch was pleased to advise the staff that Riley Hollingsworth had made it a point to brief his replacement on the validity and stability of the SERA organization and a history of our existence.  Frank also reports that he assisted a few North Carolina repeater owners in getting club call signs.  He also answered various e-Mails regarding Echo Link and interpretation of “Beacon Rules”.  He also researched legal issues with Mototurbo™ digital format.  

PUBLICATIONS:  There will be no publications report due to the resignation of Tom Gallagher.  

MEMBERSHIP AND DATABASE ADMINISTRATOR:  Alex reported for David Ward who had forwarded two e-Mail reports.  Alex advised that David had placed 11 files on our FTP site in the directory "rpt_data", each starting with the characters "2010".  These files contain scans of datasheets that he doesn’t have addresses for, the post office has returned for invalid address reasons, or datasheets which need the attention of coordinators.  When David was preparing to scan the files, Sharon found some datasheets from last January that were never responded to, from a previous "need coordinator's help" submission.  They are included in this year's file because they are still considered "outstanding".  David also reported on the May 2009, “state of the SERA computer equipment” report whereby  he described the deplorable condition and age of what remaining computer assets the SERA owns and are still in use (see exhibit 0509-05).  David was happy to report that the purchase of a HP G60 notebook, Microsoft Office Professional upgrade (the notebook came with Word), and the HP 8500 Pro Wireless multifunction printer totaled out at $1,283.63.  He feels that he stayed well within the approved budgeted amount of $2,000.00.  He cannot think of any other equipment or software that we need to replace or acquire. 
  

DISTRICT DIRECTOR REPORTS
 

WV-S by ALEX HEDRICK:  Two applications were received from Mark Stull, AB8WV, of Parkersburg , on September 14, 2009.  One was for 145.170 and the other for 441.875 MHz.  The application for the 441.875 repeater contained three issues that needed corrected.  The application for 145.170 contained six issues that needed corrected.  Upon completion of his research the applications were returned to Mr. Stull on October 11th with instructions on what needed corrected and/or obtained & submitted, for further consideration.  To date, he has yet to hear back from Mr. Stull.  Last week, during work travel, Alex discovered a repeater operating on a frequency which had been inactive for a lengthy time period.  The repeater doesn’t appear to be in the location for where it was coordinated.  That assumption was made based on the signal strength and the fact that Alex was sitting right beside the coordinated tower location.  He will be conducting further investigation into the matter.

WV-N by RICHARD DILLON:  Richard reported by e-Mail to Alex that he has taken care of one request for frequency re-coordination for a new trustee of the Doddridge County repeater.  

VA-W by DON WILLIAMS:  Don reports no problems with datasheet reporting in western Virginia .  He has heard of some complaints about “bear hunters” illegally using amateur radio frequencies.  In a recent hamfest at Roanoke , Don, his son Mark, and Mike Knight were successful in obtaining 28 member years worth of renewals.  In central and eastern Virginia there has been coordination activity on six 144-148 MHz repeaters, one 222 MHz repeater, and four 440 MHz repeaters.  A retraction was also issued for the frequency of 146.940 because it was proven that it had not been on the air in ten years.  In western Virginia there has been coordination activity on two 144-148 MHz repeaters and one 440 MHz repeater.  There is also an active itinerant 440 MHz repeater operating in Patrick County .    

TN by RANDY BENNETT:  Randy reports that he has handled four frequency coordination matters, Alan McClain had also handled four frequency coordination matters before his resignation.  

TN by MIKE BISHOP:  Mike reports he has handled nine new coordinations with seven being on 440 MHz and two on 222 MHz.  Mike also assisted with fifteen re-coordinations, 90% of those due to a loss of tower space.  Of those fifteen, twelve were on 440 MHz and three were on 144-148 MHz.  Mike has also contacted sixty trustee/owners of known “paper repeaters” to learn the status or intent of active operation.  Of those sixty contacted Mike had received responses from fifty-seven trustee/owners.  

SC by ROGER GREGORY:  Roger reports he has been busy with a total of eight requests for frequency coordination.  The activity was one on 440 MHz, one on six meters, three new repeaters on two meters, and three re-coordinations on two meters.  

SC by JOHN CROCKETT:  John reported that he will have some D-Star coordinations coming up for early 2010 but nothing definite to report for this last quarter.  He is waiting on paper work to come in from the different groups.   He added further that a UHF repeater is moving from Gilbert up to Little Mountain and adding a two meter D-Star at that location.  There is a temporary repeater up at Whitehall on the ETV tower which is covering the “low country”.  There is some activity in Dillon with that trustee looking for a site.  The Greenwood ARES has money for a D-Star system for the Greenwood ETV tower. They want to get it done by the end of March, 2010.  The D-Star system in Charleston may move from its present location to a better & higher location.  Between grants and private systems John thinks there will be D-Star coverage across the state.  John added that he has also heard about “bear hunters” illegally using amateur radio frequencies in SC.  

NC by DANNY HAMPTON:  Danny reports that Frank is doing his usual good job helping out with diplomacy and the Repeater Journal situation.   

NC by FRANK LYNCH:  Frank discussed statistical information about North Carolina , noting that in 2009 there have been 79 repeaters coordinated.  There are 554 total repeaters, of which 8 are uncoordinated and 35 are proposed and 391 of those 554 are full members which represents 70.6% of the total NC repeaters.  Of those 554 repeaters: 7 are on ten meters, 34 are on six meters, 196 are on two meters, 51 are on 125 centimeters, 259 are on 70 centimeters, 5 are on 33 centimeters, and 2 are on 23 centimeters.  

MS by STEVE GRANTHAM:  Steve reports since the summer meeting he has not conducted any frequency coordination assignments, no frequency retractions, but has recorded one call sign change.  Communications with other coordinators in Alabama , Arkansas , and Louisiana has taken place regarding NoPC submission, software usage, repeater distance policies and an interference inquiry based on a repeater that went off the air during Hurricane Katrina and returned to the air four years later.  

MS by HAROLD BULLARD:  Harold reports he has been involved with amateur radio educational awareness events in MS.  

KY- E by MIKE McCOWN:  Mike reports he has completed two coordinations for two meter repeaters, one on 222 MHz, and two repeaters on 440 MHz.  Mike currently has applications pending for an additional two - two meter repeaters and two on 440 MHz.  In addition, he has three D-Star system applications pending.  

KY-W by TIM OSBORNE:  Tim had planned on attending the meeting but reported by e-Mail to Mike & Alex that he would not be able to attend the meeting this weekend because his oldest stepson just “blew up his car” at college in Williamsburg.  Since the summer meeting Tim has coordinated 6 two meter repeaters and two 70cm repeaters.  Tim has also denied one application and has two 440MHz and two - two meter applications pending.  Tim also added that he received so many NoPC’s from neighboring districts he had lost count of them.  

GA by PETE SEABOLT:  Pete has resigned and was not in attendance but sent his final report to Alex by e-Mail.  Alex reported Pete had received 52 requests for coordination in 2009.  Of those submitted he was able to coordinate 1 – six meter repeater, 19 repeaters on two meters, two repeaters on 222 MHz, and fourteen repeaters on 440 MHz.

 

v     Meeting break from 14:00 to 14:10
 

UNFINISHED BUSINESS
 

RETRIEVAL OF COMSTUDY PROGRAM FROM FORMER STAFF MEMBERS:  Having brought this subject up at the May 2009 meeting, Frank Lynch again reviewed our ComStudy program and the associated licensed CD’s.  Frank has yet to see the program CD’s accounted for or returned to him by former staff members.  There are two CD’s per program license.  At this point these former staff members have both CD’s still in their possession: Aubrey Bilbo, Tim Berry, Andy Masters, Jimmy Shelton, Jerome Buie, & Terry Jones.  One of two CD’s is still in the possession of David Forbis.  All of these former staff members need to return the CD’s to Frank immediately.  These CD’s were paid for by the SERA and the missing CD’s represent a considerable amount of money.  

Roger Gregory advised that the respective state staff members are to contact these people before demand letters are sent out by Alex.


ELECTRONIC DATABASE COMMITTEE REPORT:  John Crockett reports that all but two staff members in attendance here today have registered to use and experiment with the prototype system.  John has received extensive help from Shaun Bennett, AJ4DI.  The existing prototype system will allow each user to see only their repeater system information.  The edit function has yet to be turned on.  Once it is activated each user will be able to edit their own repeater records.  The edit would then be submitted to the next level which will be designated state SERA staff members.  Once the edit has been approved by the state director or vice director, then the approved edited information would be sent on to David Ward acting as the sole database administrator.  

With comments by Roger, Danny, Frank & Johnny, John gave further information on how the system works and the proposed future additions to the program.
 

NEW BUSINESS
 

ARRL DATA SUBMISSION IS COMPLETE:  Frank advised that the yearly transfer of data from our SERA files to the ARRL has been completed.  SERA will be receiving a payment of $2,990.00 for our data submission.  Johnny reminded us that this income will normally offset one complete meeting expense.

SUMMER 2010 MEETING LOCATION AND POSSIBLE DATES:  A general discussion was conducted about the forthcoming Summer 2010 meeting.  Some of us drove more miles, some less, to attend this meeting in Chattanooga .  Do we return to Chattanooga this summer or meet in the Pigeon Forge area?  Do we want to rotate locations?  There was a strong desire voiced in preference of Pigeon Forge, so that the wives or significant others, along with the children can shop and visit the various amusement locations while we meet.  Before anything is firmly decided Johnny will be investigating room rates in both locations.   

 

v     The meeting recessed at 15:10 and is to reconvene at 09:00 on Sunday.  

 

Roger Gregory, SERA President, called the Sunday session to order at 09:00 on January 24, 2010.  Except for Johnny Wofford, Don Williams, Mike Bishop, and Bob Gault, all of the attendees previously listed for this meeting are present.  

Frank remarked that this has been a good and productive meeting.  

Roger thanked all for attending and participating in our bi-annual meetings.  It is nice to experience a peaceful exchange of information, ideas, and possible solutions to our “jobs” and the hobby.  He also appreciates the “commitment to excellence” we all practice.  

Alex remarked that he was very impressed with the Electronic Database presentation and was amazed at the progress that has been made in such a short amount of time.
 

Noting all apparent business had been conducted, Frank Lynch offered a motion to “adjourn the meeting”.  With no second required, the motion passed unanimously.  The President declared the meeting adjourned at 09:05 on January 24, 2010.
 

v     There are 05 exhibits attached and made a part of this document.
 

Given under my hand this 14th day of May, 2010.  

H. Alex Hedrick, Jr., N8FWL
Secretary, SouthEastern Repeater Association





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