I made the short trek over to Martha’s Mexican Restaurant this evening to attend the monthly AARO ham club meeting. I got there a bit early to eat, so that I could pay better attention to what was happening during the meeting. About 3 dozen hams and family members were there tonight, including two brand new hams, one who had his ticket about a month, the other for only 2 weeks.
During the meeting, it was announced that the annual awards / Christmas banquet would be on Friday, December 4th, at Grady’s BBQ on Bandera Rd. Attendance will be prepaid RSVP only, last minute guests will be referred to the normal customer menu rather than the provided buffet. This change was due to a problem last year where some folks RSVP’d but didn’t show, causing the club to have to pay for the difference.
A nomination committee was formed to find sufficient volunteers to run for AARO board office in November. Pat AD5BR, Scott WB5ZJI and Teri KC5BJI were volunteered to serve on this committee, but no chairperson was announced at this time. Nominations will be presented and finalized at the November AARO meeting, ballots mailed to all paid up members and most likely (if they follow previous years’ practice) require the ballots be returned by the date of the annual awards banquet. Refer to the actual ballot when it arrives, to confirm all of these details at that time.
Milton N5HMJ made a plea for volunteers for the upcoming BikeMS Valero Alamo Ride to the River on October 3rd and 4th. This year the National MS Society is requiring criminal and driver license background checks on all volunteers. Those who worked the April 2009 Houston – Austin ride have already had such check and do not need to submit to a second check for this event since such checks are good for 12 months. Contact Milton to volunteer or find out more details.
Walt W5FYW talked about the new Texas Emergency Communications Plan that would involve response teams to be standing by 96 and 72 hours before landfall of a hurricane, ready to respond to the appropriate area once the winds drop below 39 mph. It is expected that 3 teams would be ready for deployed with at multiple ARES / RACES / MARS hams per team to allow 24/7 coverage. (See photos below)
