The CRES Amateur Radio Club held its fifth general membership meeting of the year on Thursday, 22 October 2009, at the New Albany library. The following members and guests were in attendance: Bill Erwin / N9CX (President) Bob Kenyon / K8LJ (Vice President) Rob Stampfli / KD8WK (Secretary) Bob Cartwright / W3CRZ (Treasurer) Dave Brown / K8AX Fred Saas / WA8PGE Mike Stansbery / WD8EBS George Kinder / KC8DJR Ed Weston / W8REW Dan Merrick / K8TX Al Mecozzi / WA8LBZ George Foy / N8DLR Tom Foy / N4HAI Doug Gibbs / W8NFT Duane Vanone / KD8LUW Andy Elliott / K8LE Mike Rauh / W8GT John Wilkerson / KD8DVR (guest) Rick Swain / KK8O (guest, speaker) Bob Purdue (guest) The meeting was called to order by President Bill Erwin at 7:00 PM. Visitors Bob Purdue and John Wilkerson/KD8DVR introduced themselves. The minutes of the August meeting were approved. Bob Cartwright gave the Treasurer's report: We currently have $9,038.80 in funds and 48 paid up members. The repeater appears to be working well. George Foy commented about noise on the frequency. 146.67 has the most active repeaters of any frequency in Ohio. Thus, it was suggested that members use tone squelch to avoid being disturbed by weak signals bleeding in and opening their squelch. There was nothing new to report from the VE team. Our next exam session will be in early December. New business: K8TX thanked Bill for his help with diagnosing his new antenna. A poll on whether to have our annual picnic in conjunction with the OSPOTA event was 8 votes for and 5 against. There was some concern that spouses were not well represented at the picnic this year. Rob pointed out that all the early votes were "for" while most of the later votes were "against", whatever that means. Bill stated that this was the last year he would serve as President. He encouraged those present to consider running for an Officer position. The Officers are President, Vice President, Secretary, and Treasurer. If you have an interest, contact Bill. Bill will appoint a nominations committee in the near term, but would delight in seeing multiple people interested in the elected positions. The Officers will be elected at our December club meeting. The meeting was adjourned (WA8LBZ moved, K8AX seconded) at 7:17 PM. After the meeting, Rick Swain/KK8O gave an interesting talk on Ham Radio interference, with emphasis on identifying the culprits that cause interference on our bands. He also encouraged those interested to consider applying with the Official Observer program. Respectfully submitted, Rob Stampfli / KD8WK CRES-ARC Secretary