[SECC] Club

[Greg Richard]

One of the "challenges" of being a reflector based contest club is the lack of face to face interaction on a regular basis.  Yes, this is an annual subject. The result of the discussion gets everyone fired up about the comming contest season.  I can say without a doubt, if the SECC had a regular weekday night meeting in the Atlanta area, that I would not attend. I am not going to drive over to Atlanta from Huntsville to attend.  I suspect that this is the case for anyone living over 80 miles outside of Atlanta.
I like the "reflector based" concept simply because there is not enough competetive contestors in Alabama who will enter contest and submit scores.  If I am going to submit a score, I would like it to be with a group big enough to be in the top 10 or 15 clubs in their category. The SECC fell into that category when K4AB told me about it years ago and that is why I joined. I also don't care much for formal meetings because I don't want to read Roberts Rules of Order again.

What does the president of the SECC do? When I was president, I didn't do much simply because there wasn't much to do. I also remember not having any opposition when it came election time.  We did try to contact any station worked in AL, SC, GA and TN that fell within the circle and tell them about the SECC and let them know we were interested in their membership.

The SECC is not like the local clubs that I have attended in the past where we all get together at a local resturant, hoping the ARRL has created another country, hope Martti goes there so we can add another one to the list and then wait til it happens again. I like that.

I am concerned about some of the newer members who have joined the club and are reading the reflector for the first month or so wondering what they have gotten hooked up with.  It is not always like this but some of the exchanges are necessary because good things will come out of this.  For example, the website has been updated in the past couple of days  (Thanks Kent, Ben, Archie and others who stepped up and got this rolling). As long as we don't run anyone off, we will be a better group. We need all the contestors in the circle to contribute to the club score no matter how large or small the number.

What does the club need right now?  We need more communication on the reflector.  We are not a traditional club so we need some non traditional methods of learning about the membership.  I think we all need to take a few minutes to fill out the following questionaire so we will learn a bit about each person in the club. Post your answers to the reflector.


1.  What got you interested in ham Radio?


2.  What is your favorite mode and why?


3. What got you interested in contesting?


4. What is your favorite contest and why?



5.  What is your current station line up? Rigs, antennas, etc.



6. Besides radio, what do you do for fun?


7.  What do you do for a living?


8.  What improvements do you plan to make to your station before the CQ WW SSB contest in Oct 2004?


9.  How long have you been licensed?


10.  What part of the hobby do you like the least?



Thanks

Greg K4NO