The CRES Amateur Radio Club held its second general membership meeting of the year on Thursday, 29 April 2010, at the New Albany library. The following members and guests were in attendance: K8RSP Dave Woolf - President K8LJ Bob Kenyon - Vice President KD8WK Rob Stampfli - Secretary W3CRZ Bob Cartwright - Treasurer KD8ZG Art Grandle - VE Liaison WD8EBS Mike Stansbery - Repeater Manager N9CX Bill Erwin - Past President N4DB Dave Blake WA8LBZ Al Mecozzi K8PEZ Steven Pezzi W3CRZ Bob Cartwright K8NQ Weldon Mathews KD8LUW Duane Vanone KD8DZ Mike Mickelson KC8DJR George Kinder W8NFT Doug Gibbs W8AGS John Lawson W8REW Ed Weston WB8ABE Phil Wilcox K8AX Dave Brown N8WL Steven Katz KD8MNS David Beckman K8NIO Wm Trigg Tabor - guest W8KHW Kevin Walsh - guest W9MDC Matt Corlett - guest K5ETH Seth Corlett - guest KD8DVR John Wilkerson - guest W8RLL Dick Leffler - guest K8RSP called the meeting to order at 7:00 PM. K8NIO, W8KHW, KD8MNS, W9MDC, K5ETH, KD8DVR, and W8RLL introduced themselves as guests. KD8WK gave the Secretary's report from the previous (March 22) meeting. The report was approved. W3CRZ gave the Treasurer's report. The Club has $9,371.62 in its various accounts at Telhio. We currently have 38 members. The report was approved. WD8EBS was introduced as our new Repeater Manager for 2010. KD8ZG reported that our April VE test session went well. We had 18 applicants and everyone left with a license or upgrade. Art then discussed a proposal for the Club's VE-Team to align with the Laurel VEC. Laurel is a sister organization to the ARRL-VEC, the VEC we currently operate under. Laurel does not impose any fee -- indeed does not permit its teams to charge any -- for administering a VE exam, whereas the ARRL-VEC currently charges $15. Instead, Laurel asks each VE team to absorb the ancillary costs associated with the exams. Art, KD8WK, and K8RSP attended and assisted with an exam session of another Laurel VE team earlier this month and found the their procedures similiar to ours. Art estimated the annual costs needed for us to give exams at $62. With some expected help with reproduction costs from the employer of one of our VEs, the actual costs might be as low as $8 per session. Art indicated our next VE session will most likely be at the Aladdin Hamfest in early August and he'd like to conduct it under the auspices of the Laurel VEC. WD8EBS motions and K8PEZ seconds that the club support the affiliation of our VE Team with the Laurel VEC. The motion carries. No action has been taken with respect to the Club's role as Host Location for last year's CQ-WE contest. The sense of the Club was that we should make a concerted effort to move forward with the production of the certificates, with the intent on reaching closure by the end of the summer. This will fulfill our responsibilities as Host Location. K8LJ reported that he had reserved the Infirmary Mound park once again for our Field Day site. The cost had risen significantly, and the park wanted an additional fee for the rental of the barn, but Bob was able to talk them down to $200 for both. K8RSP suggested he'd like to see us set up a Friday evening work party so that our Saturday morning activities are less hectic. The next meeting will be Tuesday, June 15th, at the Reynoldsburg branch of the Columbus Public Library, corner of Brice and Main. The topic of the presentation has not yet been determined. The meeting was adjourned at 7:30 PM, after which K8LJ turned the floor over the N8WL, who with K8NIO and W8KHW gave an excellent presentation on the D-STAR digital radio system. Respectfully submitted, Rob Stampfli / KD8WK CRES-ARC Secretary