January DEARS Monthly Meeting

Mickey Mouse as Steamboat Willie

The January D.E.A.R.S. Club Meeting and V.E. Test Session will take place on Wednesday January 8th, 2020.

V.E. Test Session begins at 5:00 pm

D.E.A.R.S. Club Meeting begins at 6:00 pm

V.E. Test Session will be held at 5 pm at Disney’s Pop Century Cast Services building in the Route 66 conference room and is open to anyone who would like to obtain or upgrade their ham license. This includes all levels of licensing. You do not have to be a D.E.A.R.S Club member to attend the V.E. Test Session or the Club meeting. We invite everyone to attend.

One suggestion from the July general club meeting was to start a tradition of introductions at the start of the meeting. To have some fun with introductions, we will have a slightly different topic for each month. This month will be sharing what you would like to do with DEARS in 2020.

Due to a couple important meeting items, the special presentation will be at the end of the club meeting. For this meeting we will be hearing from Andy Milluzzi, KK4LWR, on mobile satellite operation. There will be a live demo and club members are encouraged to bring an HT and a VHF/UHF Yagi if they have one. We will try and work some passes from the parking lot.

As discussed at the previous executive board meeting, we will be voting on previously proposed bylaws at this meeting. Please see the meeting minutes from the November/December Executive Board Meeting as posted on the club website.

A quick summary of why this is happening now: they Bylaws committee is not yet complete in their proposed changes; however, the club needs some agreed-upon and recorded guiding principles. The goal for this meeting is to pass the previous copy of the bylaws with one amendment: an expiration date of March 31, 2020. This will give the committee time to complete their review and give the club a clear set of rules going into the election. It was also discussed that the committee would begin to publicly share their draft document for general club membership and review. It is expected this will be available by the January club meeting.

We would love to see everyone at meetings or events. We also would like to invite every member to our monthly board meetings, suggest ideas for upcoming meetings, sharing your feedback, and volunteer for club committees. If you are interested in getting more involved in club activities or have any questions, do not hesitate to reach out to any officer!

*** IMPORTANT – NEW MEETING LOCATION ***

This month’s meeting will be held at Disney’s Pop Century Cast Services Building. Directions to the location are as follows:

Disney’s Pop Century Cast Services Building
Building B
Magic conference room

Coming from I-4:
– Take Osceola Parkway exit, follow signs for “Other Guest Areas”
– Follow signs for Pop Century Resort and take Right turn on Victory Way
– Turn right at sign for Pop Century Resort onto Century Dr
– Before security guard post, take left onto Cayman Way
– Speak to guard at gate, and park in lot

We will be monitoring the 147.300 PL tone 103.5 repeater and the 442.000 D-Star repeater. If you and are having trouble finding us, just give a call on 146.52 simplex.

The “Chat and Chew” will NOT be at the McDonalds near the All-Star Resort as it is currently under construction. Another venue can be coordinated via slack.

73s de Andy, Ian, and Steve