From the Chairman's Keyboard
Well gang, if you didn't attend the WAPR meeting on January 10th at the West Allis Radio Club's swapfest you missed alot. I'm sure most of you have heard what happened during the July meeting at the South Milwaukee swapfest.... utter chaos broke loose and things seemed to unravel at the seams. Well, in the interim it seems that nothing was accomplished. The Chairman resigned, others were too busy or no longer interested in running the organization or just didn't care anymore. It took a little prodding, namely by the group's treasurer, Gary Gilbertson - WB9SDA, but I took the hint from him and tried to see if something could be done to salvage a good idea.
On January 3, 1987, a group of interested packeteers got together at JJ's Resturant in Menomonee Falls and talked things out. In attendence were WD9DHI, AG9V, WB9TYT, WA9KEC, WA9VNJ, WD9GWZ and WA9POV. Not present at the meeting, but, comments were solicited via phone calls from WB9WRW, WB9YLR, WA4C0Y, WB9SDA, and KB9HK. Other board members were not available. The consensus of the meeting - WAPR definitely does have a place in packet radio in Wisconsin, but what it lacks is leadership, direction and a plan. The group developed groundwork for all of the above, agreeing to dedicate energies, time and resources to rebuilding WAPR and making it work. A plan was laid out, proposed Bylaws written and information readied for a general meeting at the Waukesha swapfest on January 10.
That brings us to the swapfest and what happened there.
I opened the meeting and gave everyone present a little background on the organization and some possible reasons why it has accomplished nothing in the last 6 months. I then presented the plan we had developed on January 3. The total emphasis is contained in the By-Laws that were adopted at the meeting. These are available on all the known PBBS in the state or from the organization a( our new Cedarburg mailing address.
The main purpose of WAPR is to serve in an advisory and educational capacity. It will own no equipment, no node controllers, no digipeaters...nothing, save for educational and operational materials. WAPR will devote it's time and energies to developing plans, whether they be frequency plans, network plans or whatever is dictated by the state-of-the-art. Also, the group will be developing an educational plan on packet radio. There are many subjects involved and it will take a lot of work, but we feel that the education level of packeteers is not what it should be (too many appliance operators).
Dues have been reduced...dues used to be $10.00 per year, they are now $7.00 per year and if you join now you will be paid thru the fiscal year of 1987-1988, that means you'll be a member and receive Badger State Smoke Signals thru June 30, 1988..a pretty good deal if you ask me.
Then: was also an election of officers and director: willing to be aggressive about their duties.
Your new board consists of:
Chairman..........Gregg Lengling, WD9DHI
Vice Chairman.....Jon Nondahl, WD9GWZ
Secretary.........Dave Knaus, WA9POV
Treasurer.........Roy Hawkins, WA9KEC
Board Directors-At-Large:
John Ackermann, AG9V
Dan Bolander, WB9TYT
Steve Reyer, WA9VNJ
Now, all of these fellows have expressed a desire to work for you, so lend them some help when they ask for it and a lot will be accomplished. As we went into the meeting on Saturday, WAPR consisted of 18 members, when we emerged from the meeting there were 54 members and I've watched another 5 or so sign up in the following 2 days. I guess that means we're growing and everyone is willing to invest themselves and their time into this organization.
Next Month: The first steps to making the dream come true.
73's...Gregg Lengling, WD9DHI, WAPR Chairman
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