[SECC] Club Competition
John Laney
k4bai at att.net
Wed Nov 11 10:08:39 EST 2020
We do need some new blood for officers. I have no desire to be
president for life. So, we need some volunteers. Officers are
President, Vice President, Secretary, Treasurer. We collect no dues,
but have the treasurer so we have more officers to obtain signatures
from on a few things such as changes to the W4AN club call license.
Frankly, I think we should take pride in spinning off the ACG and the
SFCG into viabie contest clubs. No doubt activity in AL and SC has
picked way up due to having their own local contest clubs.
The GCG is the splintering that I opposed and still regret although I
have been a member of GCG since the start. It was started by a group
who were not happy with the SECC and its leadership, meaning me. They
wanted to have more in person meetings (which I do not and did not
oppose). Also, they wanted to include W4DXX in Bainbridge, who was
outside the SECC ARRL circle, but within the other contest circles.
W4DXX is not very active in contesting these days. When WW4LL, W4BW and
others were starting up GCG, I offered to let them be the officers of
SECC and make it anything they wanted. WW4LL had been an officer of SECC
just prior to that time. But, they said they were too far down the road
to turn back. Both SECC and GCG have requirements that a minimum
number of scores be submitted for credit to the clubs each year, but
SECC has never enforced it and I think we should delete that from the by
laws. We have had folks go inactive or go off to school or otherwise
move elsewhere and come back and pick up right where they left off. GCG
has enforced that requirement, more in past years than in recent years I
think and the only appeal I know of to remain a member without having
met the two contest submission requirement was granted. The main
difference between the two clubs that cover much of the same area is
that SECC has attempted to be more inclusive.
I wish there were some way to combine SECC and GCG again, particularly
for score submission. With the larger CQ contest circle, it should be
easier that it was at the time of the split.
Again, I don't want to be president of SECC for life and invite others
to speak up. If there is enough interest, I'll appoint an officer
nominating committee. 73, John, K4BAI.
I am sending a copy of this to Fred, WW4LL. I am not sure who is
president of GCG right now, but Fred is the glue that holds it together
and the host for the only multi ops being held in GA these days (other
than family stations). I don't want it to be said that we are having
this conversation behind the backs of the GCG members.
73, John, K4BAI.
On 11/11/2020 12:05 AM, Jeff Clarke wrote:
> Bill,
>
> Although W4AN was a good guy and encouraged activity I think since he
> passed away K4BAI has taken over that role and has done a pretty good
> job. I try to do that as well but unfortunately despite John and my
> cheer-leading it seems to have fallen on deaf ears. The only
> discussion on the reflector other than score reporting seems to be
> only when I occasionally bring up a subject. If you look at the
> reflector archives the majority of the posts are from K4BAI. Not
> really sure why no one else wants to discuss contesting. I remember
> back when I first joined SECC I made the suggestion about maybe have
> occasionally having in person meetings. That idea was shot down by
> many. If you're an internet based club like we are and have very
> little activity on the reflector and if your not willing to have an
> occasional in person meeting that's not good.
>
> I think the real downfall of SECC started when there was a splintering
> of of SECC with other regional clubs forming around us. In our part of
> the county we don't seem to have enough serious contesters like the
> PVRC, FRC or FCG to have a big regional club. I'm afraid if someone
> else other than K4BAI doesn't step forward and volunteer to be club
> president that when he isn't around anymore as a cheerleader that the
> SECC will become irrelevant.
>
> Jeff
>
>
> On 11/10/2020 07:51 PM, Bill Coleman wrote:
>> I don’t mean to be critical of either Kevan or Jeff here, but I just
>> want to point something out.
>>
>> Part of the problem with having activity in the SECC is that people
>> are posting their activity to other groups.
>>
>> You’d have more activity in the SECC if these other groups weren’t
>> such a distraction.
>>
>> I’ve been a member of the SECC since it’s inception. I think the club
>> lost some of its momentum when Bill Fisher W4AN passed.
>>
>> One thing Bill did was encourage people to operate. Didn’t have to be
>> big scores, just makes some Qs. I think that’s what we need. A tail
>> twister.
>>
>> Another thing which might be helpful is to have more useful
>> discussion on the reflector — which is, honestly, our clubhouse.
>>
>> Any one doing anything interesting? Any station improvements?
>> Contemplating any persona goals for upcoming contests?
>>
>> Perhaps have some discussion about operating techniques, challenges,
>> etc.
>>
>> If we are having discussions, perhaps we’d be more accountable to
>> each other.
>>
>>> On Nov 10, 2020, at 3:01 PM, Kevan Nason <knason00 at gmail.com> wrote:
>>>
>>> Jeff,
>>>
>>> Ed, K3DNE, is President of the SFCG and has been very interested in
>>> boosting activity of that group. Know it wasn't my place to do it,
>>> and hope you don't mind, but I took the liberty of forwarding this
>>> to him for his consideration even before the SECC group spoke up.
>>> Give him some time to think up some options too. We've talked about
>>> activity and I know he is open to and actively seeking ideas. I
>>> copied him in on this email too so you two have each other's email
>>> address.
>>>
>>> As to SECC activity, that's why I now belong to both the SECC and
>>> SFCG -- and the unmentioned DDCC. If the SECC had been an active
>>> organization I wouldn't now be posting scores for the SFCG. John,
>>> K4BAI, and I talked about this years ago. I was very active in the
>>> club and post all the time. Not because I'm a know-it-all as some
>>> seem to think, but because I'm enthusiastic about contesting and
>>> love to share what I've learned and discovered about it with others.
>>> Usually it is stuff others taught me and experienced ops already
>>> know. But I digress... In my opinion, the SECC has been fading away
>>> for a long time. Hardly anyone seemed interested and anything other
>>> than a post of your score was a rarity. You couldn't drum up a
>>> conversation no matter how hard you tried. I asked myself what the
>>> point of a contest club is if there isn't any sharing of ideas. The
>>> spinoff and other regional groups you describe tell me I wasn't the
>>> only one that felt that way. Haven't told you, but I've been very
>>> happy you have started to rekindle things a bit Jeff. However, from
>>> my perspective it will be hard to put the "Jumping Ship" Genie back
>>> in the bottle and bring back those of us who have strayed. The new
>>> blood coming in might be the best focus for rejuvenation efforts.
>>> Just my opinion though and I've certainly been wrong many times in
>>> my life.
>>>
>>> The DDCC is drawing talent from this region too. Their location
>>> diversity makes it harder for them to compete in an ARRL circle
>>> event though.
>>>
>>> So, I guess to sum up I'd say targeted regional competitions are a
>>> great idea. Ed, K3DNE, has kicked around that thought too. Change
>>> needs cooperation and membership effort. Hope people step up. I did
>>> tell Ed that I thought maybe the SECC was a bit of a giant compared
>>> to the SECC. Not sure how competitive the SFCG would be. But we're
>>> getting (and growing) some good contesters and folks are beginning
>>> to improve their stations, so maybe something can be worked out.
>>> Regardless of how things go with the SFCG it is good to hear the
>>> SECC looking to shake things up for themselves. It's needed.
>>>
>>> Kevan N4XL
>>>
>>> On Tue, Nov 10, 2020 at 1:54 PM Jeff Clarke <ku8e at ku8e.com> wrote:
>>>
>>> Back when I lived in Ohio I was a long time member (and president a
>>> couple times in the 1990's) of the Mad River Radio Club. Sometime in
>>> the
>>> 1980's the activity in the club was lacking and some disgruntled
>>> members
>>> formed the North Coast Contesters. Does this sound familiar? The same
>>> thing happened here when the Alabama Contest Group, Georgia Contest
>>> Group and Swamp Fox Contest Group were formed. The South East Contest
>>> Club is actually just a former shell of itself. For those that are new
>>> the South East Contest Club won the Sweepstakes medium category club
>>> competition a couple times in the early 2000's.
>>>
>>> See below the entries for each club submitted (posted on 3830) for 2020
>>> CW Sweepstakes : SECC -
>>> https://www.3830scores.com/currecscores.php?arg=JUccv3zbmyvqp
>>>
>>> GCG - https://www.3830scores.com/currecscores.php?arg=JUccv3zbmyvqp
>>>
>>> ACG - https://www.3830scores.com/currecscores.php?arg=JUccv3zbmyvqp
>>>
>>> Swamp Fox -
>>> https://www.3830scores.com/currecscores.php?arg=JUccv3zbmyvqp
>>>
>>> All though there were some big scores posted (especially in SECC and
>>> GCG) the activity by all these clubs was pretty underwhelming. I
>>> calculated if the SECC and GCG had submitted one club entry (as either
>>> GCG or SECC) we would've had 1,612,542 points for just CW weekend. If
>>> you add in what might happen in SSB weekend this could turn out to be a
>>> pretty good club score. If you look at
>>> https://contest-clubs.arrl.org/viewlists.php which lists all the
>>> eligible members for each club you will also find that there are many
>>> that still belong to the SECC and these other clubs with the exception
>>> of ACG. K4BAI is the only SECC member that still belongs to ACG and no
>>> one in Alabama is in SECC anymore.
>>>
>>> Back to the Mad River Radio Club story... After awhile the two clubs
>>> figured out they had different interests. The members of North Coast
>>> Contesters found they were more interested in DX contests while the
>>> MRRC
>>> was more into domestic contests. So they made a deal that members of
>>> both clubs would submit their DX contest results for NCC and domestic
>>> contest scores for MRRC. They continue to do this today. I'm wondering
>>> if there might be an interest in doing something similar here? Form the
>>> ARRL club list I found out I'm both of member of GCG in addition the
>>> SECC. So what if we made a deal that dual members would say submit
>>> their scores for GCG and domestic contests for SECC? This doesn't have
>>> to be set in stone and can agreed on every year. I don't think
>>> there is
>>> any animosity between members of these different clubs. Plus there are
>>> no rules that say you can't belong to more than one club.
>>>
>>> I'm interesting in hearing some feedback.
>>>
>>> Jeff KU8E
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
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>> Bill Coleman, AA4LR, PP-ASEL Mail: aa4lr at arrl.net
>> Web: http://boringhamradiopart.blogspot.com
>> Quote: "Not within a thousand years will man ever fly!"
>> -- Wilbur Wright, 1901
>>
>
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