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I believe the results speak for themselves and I will let each of you draw your own conclusions from the responses. There is a lot to be learned if you study the responses.
Many replies had comments written on them in addition to the answers to the specific questions. I thought that I should share some of more significant and relevant of those comments with you .
Many members commented that SARA's activities should be self funded. Most of them are now with the exception of the Christmas dinner, the family picnic, and field day. The Christmas dinner itself is self funded by the attendees with the club paying for a few decorations. The family picnic is now free but could be changed to include a charge per family or become a complete pot luck type gathering. The money spent for field day is for the rental of a portable "potty" for the weekend for those members helping with field day. This seems an appropriate use of club funds and I for one would not want ask our overworked volunteers to pay this expense themselves.
Many members felt that the newsletter could be published bi-monthly and possibly distributed by e-mail over the Internet for those that agreed to that type of delivery. Both of these suggestions are worthy of consideration.
A good many of you provided a lot ideas relative to fund raising. All of those ideas are appreciated and will be considered for possible future fund raisers. However keep two concepts in mind when discussing fund raisers. First it would not be responsible of the club officers to plan a budget and operate SARA on money that we "might" make but have no guarantee for. I am sure none of you would buy a house planning on making your monthly house payment with overtime income you only "might" get. A second thought is the potential source of the "fund raiser" income. Although there were a few good ideas presented in your comments the majority of the fund raising ideas would produce income only from club members. Those were ideas such as 50/50 raffles at club meetings, bake sales at meetings and related club gatherings, games of chance such as guessing repeater usage over a week, junk auctions, and "Ham of the Month" contests. While all of these are workable ideas the money they produce would come primarily if not exclusively from SARA members. If we are all willing to give money for such activities maybe we should realize that we should just pay a little more in dues and not have to make the efforts to organize such events to in order collect our own money.
Several members commented that with the advent of cellular phones perhaps the autopatch could be eliminated. Considering the low percentage of members checking the box for the autopatch this too could be given consideration.
Many of you expressed your feelings towards our UHF repeaters and the fact that you don't have a UHF radio and don't therefore use them. SARA has reached such a size in membership and repeater usage that the expanded facilities that the UHF repeaters represent are a much needed addition. There are no 2M repeater frequency pairs left in Ohio with which we could have added another 2M machine. As it is now there are also no 70cm frequency pairs left either. The quick actions taken 18 months ago by our operations manager and the technical committee secured the two frequencies we now use. The use of the UHF repeaters will grow with time and the two frequency assignments by the Ohio Repeater Coordination Council represent valuable assets for SARA.
Two comments of my own on the survey results: First I was very happy to see that our two newest activity additions, the Christmas Toy Collection and the "Feed a Family" programs were so well supported both in the survey responses and the participation of our members in December. Some of our members were lucky enough to see first hand what an impact those two activities can have on a family and the children. I am sure they will not forget that experience.
My second comment unfortunately is not on such a positive note. Quite a few members indicated that they didn't feel SARA should provide the support we lend to the local parades and other local activities where our communications ability proves so useful. These members feel that way because "SARA doesn't get anything in return for these activities. Obviously many of us have forgotten not only our individual sense of civic duty but also that one of the specific reasons the FCC grants each of us a license is so we may provide a service to the public community. These activities do not cost SARA any money and require only the time of those members who volunteer their services. I hope those members reconsider the concept that if we don't get something in return we should not lend our support. That attitude is not consistent with the history of amateur radio and does not provide a good example for the new hams just entering amateur radio.
Well that's my nickel, thank you for reading this and thanks to all of you for your feedback. It is sincerely appreciated. Barry KB8YSE
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