[Fourlanders] What to Do?

[Bob Lear]

What to Do?  What to Do?

Your VP(?) ponders the situation.

Well, there was no Fourlanders meeting contrary to what the waitress
overheard and there were no Margaritas either.  Just Bob and Jim at the
restaurant wondering why they hadn't also made plans for "something
better to do", since that was true in their cases for sure.  

The Fourlanders are an incorporated club and the by-laws require a
yearly meeting for election of officers.  This has now not happened.  Do
we have officers now?  Are we still in existence?  The two of us could
not answer these questions.  We may need some answers from Steve on
these points.  

We only have two meetings a year, one for the election and June contest
planning and another usually for September contest planning.  This
certainly doesn't seem to be asking too much of the members, unless
there really is no further interest in the club activities.  We
certainly can and do conduct much of the contest planning activities via
e-mail, but not everything can be done that way.  Every now and then we
should meet face to face.  

In private conversations, I have heard from folks who are looking
forward to contesting in June at least and some who already know they
are unavailable.  But how are we going to get together and make plans?

I don't want to get mad and I don't want to get upset.  I want to go
contesting!  I've spent a lot of time and money on building up a
microwave station and I'm not getting to use it.  Now if the group ends
up being too small to continue doing full multi-op with microwave, I'll
still be willing to be a member of the group doing limited if that's how
we end up.  I won't be as happy, but I'll keep doing it for now.

The club has significantly downsized over the past several years since
I've been a member.  I know it was a much larger organization in the
past and had as many as 30 members or more.  It seems that we are only
around 10 now and foundering.   We have tried to recruit new members,
most notably at the Stone Mtn hamfest.  We did get some names and have
been keeping those folks informed.  Maybe some will turn out to be major
players in the group, but of course haven't yet had any opportunity.  I
will say that I wouldn't have expected any of them to be a major force
at the "meeting".  It usually takes some time to get started with a
group and I hope they won't be discouraged by what is happening.

Speaking of recruiting, I've probably made a mistake on behalf of the
group.  I thought (on my own) that it would be a good idea for the
Fourlanders to help host the hospitality suites at the SVHFS conference
and committed to do so.  Since we don't seem to have an organization to
call on to help out, I'll cover it myself as necessary.

Now that I have vented sufficiently, I'm still asking the question,
"What to Do?"

I will further suggest that the Fourlanders reflector be the forum for
ideas and opinions even though there have been some private
communications already passed around.  Put them out for the group.  I'll
try to keep track of all that's happening and collate and summarize for
the group.

Thanks and 73, 

Bob K4SZ