Florida Repeater Council, Inc. Minutes of Annual Business Meeting February 1, 2003 Miami, Florida ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- The open forum was started at 3:08 PM on February 1, 2003 by President Ray Kassis, N4LEM. The following staff were in attendance: Directors in attendance were: District 1: Nilo A. Hernandez, W4HN District 2: Mark Filla, KS4VT District 3: Eric Power, KD4DJW District 4: Mike Fletcher, NI4M District 5: District 6: Dave Armbrust, AE4MR District 7: District 8: Frank Butler, W4RH Staff Members in attendance were: President: Ray Kassis, N4LEM Vice President: Secretary/Treasurer: Dana G. Rodakis, K4LK Database Manager: Dana G. Rodakis, K4LK President Kassis welcomed all present and explained that the first part of the meeting would be an open format, where anyone could express any thoughts. This portion of meeting would lead into the formal portion of the meeting where no participation by the members would be allowed. A moment of silence was observed for past District 4 Director Paul Knupke Jr, N4PK and the crew of the Space Shuttle Columbia. President Ray introduced new District 4 Director Mike Fletcher, NI4M. President Ray explained that dual February Board of Directors meetings would be held this year to determine the best facilities. Last year we had to meet in a corner of one of the swap table rooms causing the meeting to be very noisy and chaotic. Larry Mann mentioned he submitted an application for 440 repeater in Miami 3-1/2 years ago. He wondered why it took so long. Coordinator Dana explained that he had forwarded it to the Directors of Districts 1 and 2 for research below 442 MHz. Director Nilo mentioned he would have a pair in about a week. KD4CPG indicated that he his 443.800 repeater was moved to North Miami but it is still being listed in Pompano Beach. Updates were submitted via email and approved by Director Mark. A written update was submitted at the meeting. The database has been properly updated. Bill Johnson, W4MOO indicated that he submitted a trustee updated for 146.610 which is currently coordinated to Robert Perrin, W8PCZ. Coordinator Dana will check if it can be relocated. Coordination has been transferred. Bill was advised to keep the repeater active. An amateur inquired about the purchased software that performs frequency searches. Nothing has been authorized for purchase. Another amateur mentioned that he has heard strong conversations on his repeater output in Miami. Director Nilo will check. President Ray took an informal poll to determine the preferred meeting place for the Board. Ray thanked Kevin Scanlon who is one of the Hamboree committee for the terrific meeting room. Miami is able to accomodate us in the future. Considerable discussion followed. President Ray hoped that the Directors were attending local clubs and hamfests to represent the Council. The Directors are able to appoint Vice Directors who are able to vote in their absence. A repeater owner inquired of the proper procedure for filing status reports. It was clarified by Database Manager Dana. Director Dave queried the group to determine if we should continue to mail a newsletter to everyone. Someone mentioned that a mass email could be sent indicating the newsletter is available for download. This is not practical since we don't have everyone's addresses. Considerable discussion followed. Director Frank thinks it should continue to mail a newsletter to everone. Perhaps a checkbox field could be added to the database that indicates a trustee's desire to receive a printed newsletter. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- The business meeting was called to order at 3:58 PM on February 1, 2003 by President Ray Kassis, N4LEM, who welcomed all in attendance and thanked those who work for the Council. The Secretary determined that a quorum of qualified Directors were in attendance: Directors in attendance were: District 1: Nilo A. Hernandez, W4HN District 2: Mark Filla, KS4VT District 3: Eric Power, KD4DJW District 4: Mike Fletcher, NI4M District 5: District 6: Dave Armbrust, AE4MR District 7: District 8: Frank Butler, W4RH Staff Members in attendance were: President: Ray Kassis, N4LEM Vice President: Secretary/Treasurer: Dana G. Rodakis, K4LK Database Manager: Dana G. Rodakis, K4LK PRESIDENT'S REPORT: President Ray indicated that after adding CTCSS to his own repeater, he is a firm believer in the benefits that it provides. We should encourage all other repeater owners to do the same. SECRETARY'S REPORT: Secretary Rodakis began reading the minutes of the last meeting that have been posted on the FRC web site. Director Nilo made a motion which was seconded by Director Mark to approve the minutes of the September 2002 meeting as posted. Motion passed unanimously. TREASURER'S REPORT: The FRC Secretary/Treasurer reported the following accounting: Opening balance, 8/6/02 $8,795.99 Income: $1,100.00 Expenses: $2,323.00 Balance: 2/1/03: $7,572.99 Expenses included printing, collating and mailing two newsletters. The Council receives $1 per repeater submitted for the repeater directory. An itemized list of transactions was available for inspection. A motion was made, seconded, and approved to accept the treasurer's report. WEBMASTER'S REPORT: The Council web site receives 30 hits per day. Spam continues to be a problem. The clickable email links have not been changed to graphics files because it will be inconvenient for users to communicate with the Council. The Council web site is listed in the Google search engine. Web site was updated with repeater listings in late December. A Filemaker Pro database server is running on a computer in Dana's home. DATABASE MANAGER/COORDINATOR'S REPORT: Data is due to the ARRL for the next repeater directory by February 7, 2003. Seventy-nine coordinations or transfers were completed last year. Also, two frequency changes were approved. Thirty-five repeaters were decoordinated, four approved relocations. There are 1,111 repeaters in database. There is a backlog of 85 applications to be processed this week. Director Mike asked if there was a way for the short-form updates to happen automatically. There is no way unless all amateurs are allowed modify access to the Filemaker Pro server. Director Mike indicated that his club is considering the use of PayPal to accept member dues. Perhaps the Council could do the same. He will report back at the Orlando meeting. REPORTS OF DIRECTORS: District 1: Working to get repeaters updated or decoordinated. District 2: Have had requests for new pairs based upon new coordination distances. District 3: The 146.94 repeater has been moved to Cocoa. District 4: Mike expressed appreciation for the appointment as Director. The 145.130 repeater in Tampa was transferred and moved without approval. It should never have been coordinated due to co-channel conflicts. The FCC has been notified. Both trustees have been notified that the coordination has been revoked. District 5: No report District 6: An uncoordinated repeater has been placed in-service on 147.105 in Port Charlotte with IRLP running and no CTCSS. It is causing a problem with the co-channel in Tampa. District 7: No report District 8: Director Frank indicated that he submitted updates for several repeaters and was concerned that they be included in the next Repeater Directory. He also requested that trustees indicate what city a repeater is close to. Database Manager Dana explained how repeaters were assigned their regions. Director Frank requested that the website's district map be updated to include the sub-regions. He also mentioned that AA4PZ passed away. OLD BUSINESS: Funds of $1,800 were previously allocated to purchase Filemaker Pro for all Directors. To date only two copies have been obtained. They are both in Dana's possession. Instead of issuing copies of expensive software and then retrieving it when a Director leaves the Council, the Database Manager has setup a server at home for the Directors to search and print database records from any web browser. A couple of the Director's have tried it with success. The webmaster will re-send access instructions to the Council staff. A decision will be made at the Orlando meeting. A motion was made and seconded to direct the Coordinator to allocate a pair in the sub-442 pair for state-wide emergency use. Not completed. A request for four frequencies has been submitted to FADCA. Considerable discussion followed. The CTCSS requirement for new coordinations on 144 and 440 MHz is now in effect. All documentation has been updated. No complaints or problems to date. New co-channel repeater distances take effect when the Coordinator has adequate search capability. It's a possibility by 3/1/03. Considerable discussion followed concerning grandfathering existing repeaters. Should the height of these existing repeaters be considered when searching for available pairs. This issue is tabled until the Orlando meeting. NEW BUSINESS: All new business was tabled until the Orlando meeting. The meeting was adjourned at 5:24 PM by President Ray Kassis. Respectfully submitted Dana G. Rodakis, K4LK Secretary/Treasurer