Tonight was the big night, the night that all three candidates running for the vacancy of ARRL South Texas Section Manager would speak in person before the San Antonio Radio Club during their regular monthly membership meeting.
Amazingly enough, all three candidates showed up on time and spoke, along with current SM Ray Taylor N5RAV who is “retiring” from that position (with no pension provided), and SEC Mike Schwartz, KG5TL.
Close to 3 dozen hams showed up for the forum, and it was standing room only for the last few who arrived. There were extra chairs, it was the extra floor space to set them out, that was lacking.
The crowd was very polite and asked good positive questions of each candidate as they got their 15 minutes of fame before the group.
After Gary S. Tangrady, K5GST, Lee Cooper, W5LHC, and Lou Everett, Sr., WA5LOU each had time to speak and answer questions, the STX SEC Mike KG5TL addressed the group on the importance of working together and cooperating during emergency operations and other events.
The normal meeting agenda was suspended to allow the speakers to go first, then SARC president JC Smith N5RXS suggested that the normal reading of the minutes and treasurers report be delayed until the next month’s meeting due to both officers being out of town, and the club being out of time. The agreement with K-Comm Ham Store is that the club will be finished and out by 9pm because an employee has to stay there overtime during the meeting.
After the meeting, about a dozen folks went up the street to a nearby IHOP restaurant to enjoy a meal and conversation. Unfortunately, Mike KG5TL had a bad experience when he discovered that some petty thief had punched the door lock on his truck and swiped his briefcase. Fortunately the crook was scared off, most likely by an IHOP employee stepping outside to take a break, and none of his ham radios or other items were stolen, and Mike said the contents were replaceable.
I took some videos of each candidate speaking, but I learned a valuable lesson after I played them back tonight and converted them to MP4 format, which YouTube.com prefers.
That lesson was…. don’t set your camera tripod up mid way back in the room and in the path of a fan that was blowing air across it. Some of the audio in these video’s worked okay, those where I had accidently moved the camera away from the fan and closer to the speakers, but most of them are too poor of quality to post online. The first few were taken from too far away, and the lighting contrast of the speakers was unacceptable as well.
Since I can’t post all 3 speakers with semi-equal coverage, I’ve chosen not to post any of the speakers. I’m sorry to have disappointed some of you who were eagerly awaiting these videos, but it won’t be happening this time. Better luck next time, and I’ll make a stronger effort to be more aware of environmental issues (like the blowing fan) that might otherwise impact the quality of the recording.
Someone said the deadline for voting for ARRL South Texas Section Manager was August 14th, i.e. ballots must be received by that date, but don’t take their word for it. Open your ballot and read the instructions inside, and then follow them to the letter. Don’t let your vote get tossed aside because you couldn’t read and follow instructions that were a lot easier than the Technican Exam.
