S.A.R.A. Board of Directors Meeting Minutes - February 26, 2003
Saratoga City Hall
Minutes respectfully submitted by Greg Reynolds (KG6HDI), Secretary

The meeting was called to order at 7:30 pm. The following were in attendance:

• Don Farwell W6GYD
• Lou DeGive WA6RAG
• John Glass NU6P
• Greg Reynolds KG6HDI
• Rob Vance N6ROB
• Jay Geddes WA6CAI
• Don Anastasia AA6W
• Yin Shih N9YS(arrived at 7:50 pm)

Rob handed out the agenda.

• Item 9 - Firestation: Demo of the existing firestation in June/July 2003. There will be a communications room in the new building pending approval of the final drawings. We will have a place for our radios and coax. Lou to coordinate the removal of existing equipment at the old firestation. He will call others who volunteered to help. Don Farwell offered to store equipment temporarily at his place. We need to assess/inventory the equipment. Drawings of the new stations should be available by the end of March. Note: the reason we have a station at the Firestation is for backup in case city hall station is inaccessable.
• Item 1 - Emergency Preparedness Manual: AKA Ares/Races handbook. We need to distribute and get feedback. Comments due at the April meeting. Rob will post the revised handbook on the WEB by 3/15.
• Item 2 - Bylaws: Proposed changes to be approved by membership. Rob will post revised bylaws with changes highlighted by 3/15 and will send email to membership regarding this.
• Item 3 - Club roster: The board approved the distribution of the roster. Rob will print out and distribute the roster at the April meeting. The roster will only include current members.
• Item 4 - Membership renewal: The board reviewed the members who have renewed to date. Some members present at the meeting offered to call previous members who had not yet renewed. Yin will email reminder to last year members who need to renew. Rob will contact John McCaullem regarding equipment he offered the club.
• Item 5 - Incorporation filing w/ State Attorney General. Rob will work with Yin and close by 3/15.
• Item 6 - ARRL affiliation: Rob prepared a handout distributed with the agenda. There was some discussion on how the ARRL affiliation may benefit the library. Rob will submit the application by the end of April.
• Item 7 - City Hall Station: Rob prepared a handout distributed with the agenda. Packet is currently set up for 2 meters but not for 220 MHz. Outdated equipment needs to be evaluated and dispositioned for sale or scrap. John Glass suggested we get headsets for operators to minimize distractions. Rob can get coax for new Firestation. Don Anastasia has a wireless PDA which he suggested could be used for an Internet connection. Need tools in a toolkit. Need flashlights and a multimeter. Need UHF to BNC adapter. Need BNC to SMA adapter. Don Anastasia will provide an AM radio. We need to make provisions for 12V contingency in case of a battery failure. It was suggested that we perform a risk analysis to avoid single points of failure and provide a back up plan to the operating plan which covers this. We need a "smart" battery charger. Plan includes a 12V bus using Anderson Power Pole connectors. Rob will generate a budget and a schedule for upgrades/improvements by the end of April.
• Item 8 - Community Service: The following events were mentioned. Rotary Art Show (May), Saratoga Parade (Sept), Celebrate Saratoga (July), Halloween Caper (Oct), Strawberry Festival (May/June), Misc. Footraces. The contact person at City Hall for events is Laurie Tinfoe or Dave Anderson. Jay Geddes will contact someone re: outreach program. This item will be reviewed again at the next monthly meeting.
• Other: Greg Reynolds offered to donate a sealed Lead Acid battery to provide backup power to the club repeater. We plan to update our city photo ID badges at the April meeting.

The meeting was concluded.