A long post about the SECC...was: Re: [SECC]

[Lee Hiers]

On 2 Sep 2004 at 16:54, Jay Pryor wrote:

> I agree wholeheartedly that the club would benefit from face-to-face 
> meetings and exchanges of ideas. However, it was because of the every day 
> demands on many of us, including KU8E and others, that the club was 
> established by W4AN (who disliked meetings) to interact with one another 
> via the internet.  Read "About Us" on the SECC web site, crafted by K2UFT.

That comes as close to anything to describing the character of the 
club as I've seen written down for posterity.

I remember discussing it with W4AN and W4WA before we ever started 
the club.  None of us were interested in any of the political BS that 
comes with most clubs.  None of us wanted regular meetings at all.  
The whole thing was designed to take place right here on the 
reflector.  The reflector was considered to be a continuous virtual 
meeting.  

You've got a question or need some help, ask here on the reflector.  
Contest coming up and we need some ra-ra...do it here on the 
reflector.  You're gonna be in Huntsville for a couple days and want 
to get together and go out for a beer with some other SECCers - talk 
it up on the reflector.

The sole reason for starting a club was to have a regional 
organization for which we could report scores in club competition.  
Why?  Because the only other alternative would be something like the 
Valdosta RC, where there might be one or two or zero people 
interested in contests.  

This area of the country has never had anything like PVRC, FRC, MRRC, 
etc. - and never will - because there just aren't that many serious 
contesters located in a dense area that would support that.

Years ago, when NQ4I moved down here, he found out there wasn't a 
contest club.  The closest thing was the SEDXC, and there weren't a 
lot of folks interested in contesting there really.  I remember going 
to an SEDXC meeting and when asked what I wanted to get out of the 
club replying that I was a contestor and mostly interested in that 
aspect of radio, and was looking for a place to report my 
scores...well, I was cold-shouldered the rest of the night, and for 
most of the several years I was a member of that club.  I enjoyed 
going to the club meetings when I was able and had some good friends 
that were members of that club...most of whom were contesters to one 
degree or another:  N4RJ, N4NX, etc.

Anyway, when Rick moved to GA, he realized that the SEDXC wasn't 
going to cut it as a contest club (I think his experience may have 
been a bit more intense than mine) so, he started the Dixie DXers - a 
contest club.  I have never seen anyone put as much energy in trying 
to get a contest club going as Rick did.  He came from the FRC, and 
was super gung-ho about it.  It lasted for a few years, but 
ultimately failed, I believe partially because Rick was really the 
only one pushing that club, but mostly because there just isn't a 
high enough density of contesters in the area to support a 
"traditional" club.

But the ONLY activity that the SECC was designed for was score 
reporting - no GQP, no sponsoring of plaques, no treasury, no social 
activities - nothing.  Like John said  - it is an OPERATING club.  
The only reason there were any in-person meetings at all was to 
satisfy the ARRL requirement at the time of two meetings per year.  
And to reduce that burden even further, we decided that at each 
gathering of members to hold two meetings.  One meeting would be 
called to order and with very little discussion the meeting would be 
adjourned and a second meeting called to order, and it too would be 
quickly adjourned with little discussion.  Under the ideal 
circumstances, both meetings would be over and done in about two 
minutes.  And the ARRL requirements for everyone in attendance were 
satisfied.  

If you couldn't make the Atlanta Hamfest, but were going to be at the 
Huntsville Hamfest, any two members could call a meeting, and with 
the two meetings in one procedure, whoever was in attendance had 
their ARRL requirements for attendance satisfied.  
Whambamthankyoumaam.

Of course usually folks would hang out and talk about contesting and 
life and generally socialize before and after the official meetings, 
but they weren't officially part of the club activities, and the 
meetings weren't regularly scheduled.

Now that the ARRL no longer has a 2-meetings per year requirement, 
there is no need for the SECC to have ANY in-person official meetings 
AT ALL.

The only requirement for membership should be the submission of a 
minimum of two scores per year in a contest with a club competition - 
and I'm not sure we should really have that, although theoretically 
it should increase the aggregate scores somewhat, so we decided to 
implement that at the beginning.  There should be no geographic 
requirements for membership, although the club is designed to 
primarily include folks from TN, NC, AL, GA, and SC.  Geographically, 
the only restrictions should be those imposed for specific contests 
by their sponsors.  And to accommodate those contests, we selected a 
geographical center of the club.

K4SB is a stickler on the by-laws (and this isn't an attack Ed!), but 
the honest truth of the matter is that the ONLY reason there are any 
written by-laws at all is because the ARRL required us to submit them 
when we applied for affiliated club status.

I'm going to comment some on these quotes below:

> > > From: "Tommy" <aldermant at alltel.net>
> > >
> > > After coming back to south Georgia last year from the Washington, DC area
> > > and the PVRC, the Valdosta ARC is a true joke. The SECC, as Jeff mentions,
> > > has a very small core of active  members and there seems to not be much
> > > effort in stimulating more activity. SECC officers seem to only speak up
> > > when someone tend's to 'rock the boat'! Is there any leadership?

> > > If it were not for John, Jeff, and just a few others, the SECC would rank
> > > right up there with  the VARC! I listened to  the 75m SSB two times, and
> > > that was all I could take of what ever that is called...anyway it's pretty
> > > pathetic. So the question is, is the SECC a southeast contest club or is it
> > > just a social club for old foggies?
> > > I will still contest, simply because I enjoy it, but why post scores 
> > for the
> > > SECC when there certainly is little interest, except maybe north of Macon?

> > > From: <ku8e at bellsouth.net>
> > >
> > > >  I have to admit I am very disappointed with my experience with SECC so
> > > far, since I have moved here from Ohio. I have made a few new contesting
> > > friends but that's about it. I miss the social events (meetings) that were
> > > part of belonging to the Mad River Radio club.

I respectfully submit that neither of you guys "get it".  I don't 
mean that in a negative way.  It's just that the SECC is not a 
traditional club and it seems as if your expectations are attuned to 
what happens in a traditional club.  

It seems that messages like this - that explain the club's philosophy 
and history - get posted once a year or so, as needed...because, as 
simple as the concept is, many new folks *don't* get it.  I think 
such posts are more necessary than they used to be primarily because 
fewer and fewer of the original guys are around any more.  

More from Jeff:

> > > >  I have actually become kind of apathic toward expending my energy
> > > torwards doing things such as updating the web page 

The only reason we have a web page is to point people to the club.  
The only thing that should really require much in the way of updating 
is the membership list.

> > > or even doing a FT
> > > effort in a contest and submitting my score for SECC. I have a limited
> > > amount of time , for radio, because I have a young family I am raising. Why
> > > waste my time if no one even cares. 

Well, all of us have limited amounts of time for contesting.  Those 
limitations, in connection with the appeal a particular contest has 
for each individual is what should drive whether or not you operate a 
contest FT, PT, or at all.  IF you operate, and if you're a member of 
the SECC, then report your score for the club.  To do otherwise is 
putting the cart before the horse.

> > > I am at the point now that I would
> > > probably just give up running the GQP if someone else in the club wanted to
> > > run it, but I don't think there is anyone else in the club that wants to do
> > > it.

See, that is one of the dangers of introducing activities such as the 
GQP to the club.  Now some folks (such as Jeff) feel a responsibility 
to do things that they're not inclined to do as time passes.  I've 
always thought that sponsoring the GQP was a bad idea...and why I've 
never gotten involved.  But it seems like a good thing to do to a lot 
of folks because we're a contest group and it's the state contest.  
So, it got started.  Now, it's a burden.

> > > > We need to have some club activities to rally around and until that
> > > happens I see nothing changing

Nothing really should change - the only thing that the club should 
rally around is submitting scores in club competitions.

> > > >  I think the roster needs to be cleaned up as well. 

Well, that's a different story altogether.

> > >  We have a core of maybe
> > > >  30 stations out of over 100 on the club roster that are active in the
> > > club.
> > > >  That means 70% of the club is not active in any way.
> > > >
> > > >  In the two years I have lived in GA I have not seen these people at a
> > > club meeting, on the reflector, or even submit a score for SECC. 

The final item you mentioned: score submission is the only thing that 
should really be addressed.  If one hasn't submitted two scores per 
year in contests with club competition, they should be removed from 
the roster...but I'd personally like to see that changed.  If I only 
operated one contest a year or every other year, I'd still like to 
have a place to submit my score.  But as it stands, two entries per 
year are required.

> > > Maybe
> > > someone who has time can do some analysis on the ARRL contest website 
> > to see
> > > who has been submitting scores.

The ARRL website has absolutely nothing to do with it.  Some members 
may not wish to enter any ARRL contest, and they don't have to.  
There are enough other contests out there that are not ARRL-
affiliated that have club competitions so that a member could be 
fully compliant without operating any ARRL event.

Anyway...

I mean no offense to any of the "newbies", but just offer this for 
perspective.  I know a lot of the members of the SECC and of those 
guys, I like all of you...and I'm sure I'd like the guys that I 
haven't met.  It's not that I or the club are anti-social...we just 
aren't social.

If you want a social, active club, this isn't it because it wasn't 
designed to be.  I suppose you could try to change it into one, but 
suspect you'd have the same trouble NQ4I had with the Dixie DXers.  
I, for one, would hate to see that happen, but things change.

But the SECC isn't broke and doesn't need fixing.

BTW, I want to mention that the stuff that K4BAI posts on here every 
week about the upcoming contests and member activities in those 
contests is great, and exactly what we had in mind when we started 
this thing.  I know John is doing it to help spur operating, and it 
is a "good thing"  John has always been one of the most active and 
best contesters in the state...and those traits are not unrelated.  
I'm sure it's a lot of work for him and wanted to acknowledge it.

73 de Lee

-- 
Lee Hiers, AA4GA
Cornelia, Georgia