New Vice President As covered in last months Kilowatter, our Vice president Jim Butt VE3JAZ is relocating to Vancouver and thus tendered his resignation at the January Executive meeting. While the club Bylaws do permit us to operate without a Vice President it was felt that to provide the best succession planing, we should fill the position. At last months Executive meeting the vacancy left by Jim was filled by Dave Schwartz VA3DGS. Dave has been a very active club member managing the KWARC internet based virtual Swap-Shop, membership database and financial bookkeeping system. Dave has attended all Executive meetings over the past year and is very well positioned to take over the position of Vice President. On behalf of the club, I wish to extend thanks to Jim who served the club as Secretary prior to being elected as our Vice President. Jim was instrumental in organizing the communications team for the very successful CYCLONE '97 bike tour. Following last years Cyclone event, a written survey of participants voted Jim's Comm team THE MOST PROFESSIONAL AND VITAL SUPPORT GROUP for the participants. Thanks very much Jim and good luck in your new ventures in VE7 land. Emergency Coordinator On February the 18th the Executive received the resignation of Bill Fretz VE3WLL as Emergency Coordinator. Bill has been very dedicated to his position and we all offer our sincere thank you to him for his efforts over the past number of years. KWARC will announce a replacement for Bill within the next few weeks. I propose that the new candidate will manage three group leaders within the Emergency Group. These positions will be responsible for CANWARN, ARES and FIELD DAY. With the major weather shift being caused by El Nino, CANWARN wil be a very important part of club activities. As for Field Day, I am pleased to announce that Dave Schwartz VA3DGS has already volunteered to accept the position of Field Day coordinator and John Schreiter VE3DOS the position of ARES (Amateur Radio Emergency Service) Coordinator. If these acting group leaders are acceptable to the new Emergency Coordinator, this new committee slate will be presented to the membership for confirmation at the April meeting. One of my plans as your President is to rejuvenate Field Day to the spirit of years gone by. The '98 Field Day is rapidly approaching and acting Field Day Coordinator Dave VA3DGS has already started planing for a record breaking year so stay tuned for more details. Beginners Class If Amateur Radio is to survive, we need to encourage our new hams to advance their skills and attain a phone licence. Yes, this still means a CW requirement of 5 wpm but how many of us felt CW was a major roadblock to getting our phone licence. A record number of new hams are now more than half way through the beginners class. As discussed in my January column, I desire to assign an HF licenced ELMER to each of the new hams on graduation. These Elmers will be expected to work with our new graduates helping them achieve their personal goals of entering the hobby as well as introduce them to HF operation and hopefully tutor them on CW. It's the least we can do to assure the survival of our great hobby. I will also be looking for an Elmer Coordinator who would work with our Education director and the volunteer Elmers. COARF Fleamarket The fleamarket activity and spirit is steadily growing as we start counting down to the beginning of a new Chapter in the history of the Central Ontario Fleamarket. As you know the fleamarket is moving to Fergus where we will have a large facility and the ability to provide tailgating and Hamvention style forums. Fleamarket Chairman, Bill Smith VE3WHS from the Guelph Club will be calling a group leaders meeting shortly to go over the changes that will be required for this years big event. If you are once again willing to help, speak to your group leader from last year or contact KWARC coordinator Greg Hollinger VE3NXB. I look forward to seeing everyone at the meeting Monday night. Paul Cassel VE3SY KWARC President BACK TO MAIN MENU For more information email info@kwarc.org [ TOP ] © 1998 Kitchener-Waterloo Amateur Radio Club Inc. Comments and bugs reports to webmaster@kwarc.org