Meeting Minutes | DEARS Inc.

September 25, 2019 DEARS Board Meeting

PO Box 690905, Orlando, Florida 32869-0905 https://wd4wdw.org

Meeting Location: Disney’s All-Star Resort Cast Services Building, Box Office conference room

Attendees: Steve Martin, Ian Ward, Andy Milluzzi, Brenda Davis, Angel Hernandez, Sean Wall, David Glasser

Call to order at 6:08pm by Steve Martin

Secretary’s Report

Minutes from previous meeting made available on the club’s website, https://wd4wdw.org
Previous meeting minutes were accepted by the attendees

Treasurer’s Report

Transactions for the month were displayed on-screen
The club’s receipt book and labels have been purchased
The club’s current bank balance is $12,100.34
We have not yet met our five-transaction limit for the month but have various purchases we could make before the month ends such as one of the budgeted fans. The bank will charge the club five dollars if the minimum transaction count has not been met by month-end.
The attendees discussed various ways to receive shipments from Amazon – P.O. Box vs. Lockbox vs. UPS Store
Should we use a pre-paid debit card with a limit on it? While it sounds like a good idea to prevent someone from spending more than they should, most attendees did not recommend switching to pre-paid debit cards due to the difficulty it would bring to tracking expenses.
Should we make the club’s financial numbers publicly available at all times? The attendees suggested that we not post them publicly but rather share them with individuals that may request them. We share the transactions during every monthly meeting and that should be fine for most club members. The downside to this is the administrative time it takes to deal with the one-off requests whenever they are made.
Should we continue to review the financial details every two weeks or just during the regular monthly meetings? The recommendation is to keep reviewing them every two weeks until the end of the year, then move to a monthly review cycle.

Special Committee Reports

Bylaws Committee

Attempted to have two meetings since the last general meeting but were unable to
- Lack of quorum for first meeting (only two attendees)
- Delayed in traffic and lack of attendance for second meeting
Brenda is not available Tuesday/Thursday. She is only available Sundays, Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays and Saturdays. However, Fridays and Saturdays are not generally desired as meeting days – but Brenda is available if our members wish to use them.
Brenda is also reaching out to others to see if they’re interested
Brenda has done much research and organization of the material for the meetings, and plans to start each meeting with an outline
Meetings are both online and in person so remote individuals can participate
Brenda’s plan is to have meetings every two weeks to make up time and to keep things moving
A suggestion was made to announce meetings three weeks in advance so everyone can plan. Brenda stated this is not feasible or appropriate, as the member and board meetings are only announced two day in advance.
After discussing potential schedules it was decided to attempt having a meeting on October 7^th at 6pm both in-person and using Slack for those who are remote

Old Business

October meeting topic
- Potential discussion of WinLink – Ian will confirm by Friday
- Joe Eisenberg’s discussion will likely be in November
- Andy can present a Satellite demonstration and discussion if nothing else works
Maker Faire 2019
- We have submitted our application and been approved for Maker Faire 2019
- The event will take place on November 10^th and 11^that the Central Florida Fairgrounds
- We will plan to bring the van over on the 9^th (setup day), and perhaps a 10×10 canopy
- We will need people to staff our location both days (recommended two people in pairs for four-hour shifts). Andy will bring a sign-up sheet to the next meeting.
- Brenda suggested that we have more people using the radios, even if it means people volunteering to listen on the repeaters and respond when called upon, as well as having a hands-on activity
- Andy is reaching out to the Clearwater club and Nasa to see if they are interested in assisting
- Brenda suggested reaching out to OARC for participants in person or on-the-air
Ride-For-Ronald
- The Ride-For-Ronald event takes place on Sunday, October 13 from 6am to 1pm
- Do we have enough participation to attend the event? Brenda and Angel both expressed their intent to attend and assist the club. We can also ask for volunteers during our upcoming general meeting.
- We just need to provide communications and nothing else.
- They may put us in a far-away station due to our antenna height
- Andy will contact John Knott and let him know we will be participating
Shack Antenna
- Andy received an email about OARC’s proposed donation of their 6-meter to 20-meter Mosely antenna to the club. They are waiting until their next executive board meeting to confirm.
- The club is still reaching out to Disney’s Reedy Creek permitting department about the antenna installation. Ian reached out to Alex Johnson.
- We may not be able to put up a 40-meter antenna due to the wide length
- We should attempt to get an HF radio back up and running as soon as possible
- Shack Access was discussed. We currently have approximately 30 people with access to the shack.
  - Should we start revoking access or limit access to only those who are in good standing (i.e. those who have attended a meeting recently)?
  - Should we have a copy of each person’s photo id, name, and address? Or at least have them fill out a membership form before providing access?

New Business

Meeting topic for November 2019
- Joe Eisenberg will be presenting in November, either remotely or in-person
E-comm 2 van
- We plan to transfer the working E-comm 2 van’s title and license from Ken to the club
- We would like the club to assume the title and license in December. The van may not be available for use during December while this is done.
- Brenda presented regulatory rules indicating that the title and plate may be able to be transferred in person via “relinquish and reissuance”
- We will need to acquire insurance prior to the transfer
E-comm 1 van
- The club would like to sell or donate the non-working E-comm 1 van by next year
- An Ocala club has approached us about wanting the van
- We have not been able to obtain the title, although Jim Tyree may have information about it. The club will reach out to Jim.
Fall Festival
- The Fall Festival cast event will take place on October 19^th from 11am to 3pm at Little Lake Bryan. Expected activities include swimming, boating, volleyball, giving out candy to the kids, etc.
- Participating in this event could allow us to reach other cast members that may not be aware of our club and potentially increase our membership
- Cast members must escort non-cast through the entryway and a $3 fee must be paid by each person entering
- Discussion ensued of whether we would like to participate as a club
  - Brenda and Angel volunteered their time to assist
  - A majority of the attendees in the room do not believe this would be a good event to attend this year. We try to keep our club participation to one event per month to avoid burnout and this would exceed that limit.
  - Brenda disagreed with the decision and asked that it be brought up at the general meeting. The request was denied.
  - DEARS will not be participating in the Fall Festival event this year

Miscellaneous

David made a request that we remove the black color from the center of the website as it makes the text difficult to read. Ian will look into it as time allows.
We may want to consider trimming our mailing list down to those who attend meetings
- We could email those who haven’t attended a meeting recently and ask them to reply back (opt-in) if they would like to remain on the list
- We may want to do this at the beginning of the next year
David made a suggestion that we have a new committee member to handle project management activities for events (who will do what at the events), club activities (rough details for each activity), etc.
Andy would like to have an inventory day to label the club’s inventory. Andy will propose this during our next general club meeting.
David suggested that our year-end dinner should have more of a focus. We could change the format so that it has a purpose. It seems that past dinners have just resulted in everyone talking among themselves rather than having a topic or two.
Next general club meeting: October 9th^th, 2019
Next board meeting: October 23^rd, 2019
Adjourn: 8:19pm

September 11, 2019 DEARS Monthly Club Meeting

PO Box 690905, Orlando, Florida 32869-0905 https://www.wd4wdw.org

Meeting Location: Disney’s Pop Century Cast Services Building B, Magic Conference Room

Attendees:

Steve Martin, Ian Ward, Andy Milluzzi, David Glasser, Brenda Davis, Devon Thornton, Eleanor Marshall, Paul Bousquet, Sean Wall, Jim Schilling, Ricardo Galarza, Steve VanCleve, Gable Brown, Dennis Voegler, Angel Hernandez, Frank Tagliani

Call to order at 6:01 pm by Andy Milluzzi

Introductions were held

Secretary’s Report

Minutes from previous meeting made available on the club’s website, http://www.wd4wdw.org
Two revisions to previous meeting minutes were received
Previous meeting minutes were accepted by the attendees

Treasurer’s Report

The club’s current bank balance is $12,214.89
2019 Income was $15,613.89 and 2019 Expenditures were $4,412.93
A breakdown of transactions since the last meeting were displayed on screen
The Amazon Smile account has been moved from Ken to the new board
The board has not yet received a reply to the inquiry sent to Ken last month
Kurt has given Ian access to the DreamHost hosting site for the club website
The club website is now running with secure certificates under https
The board members are beginning to use role-based generic emails
The Treasurer’s report was accepted by the attendees

Fiscal Year 2020 Budget

The Fiscal Year 2020 Budget was presented to the club membership and approved. It consists of:

Description	Category	FY2019 Actual	FY2020 Budget
ARRL Insurance	Insurance	$300.00	$300.00
Mobile Beacon	Internet	$120.00	$120.00
Van Insurance	Insurance	$720.30	$1,500.00
Annual Report	Corp	$61.25	$70.00
Registered Agent Update (2x)	Corp		$70.00
PO Box	Annual	$134.00	$140.00
Sept Antenna Build	Meetings		$100.00
Field Day	Field Day		$1,000.00
Gas	Van	$208.51	$250.00
Promo Materials		$2,158.86	$500.00
Receipt Book	Office Supplies		$10.00
Asset Tags			$50.00
Equipment Insurance			$50.00
Antenna Installation			$2,150.00
Relay for Life			$110.00
JA Bowl-A-Thon			$170.00
Domain Registration		$0.00	$18.00

The Antenna Installation amount consists of:

Description	Value
Reedy Creek Permit	$200.00
Lift (two days)	$1,000.00
Coax	$200.00
Meal	$100.00
Fall Protection Gear	$150.00
Safety Insurance	$500.00

The Field Day amount consists of:

Description	Value
Meals	$250.00
Canopy	$250.00
Fuel	$25.00
High Velocity fan (4x)	$200.00
Misc	$275.00

Bylaws Committee Report

The Chairperson, Brenda Davis, reported that there have been no new updates
- Member feedback was not received in time (two weeks)
- Hurricane Dorian took one week out of the schedule
A request was issued to the members present inquiring if anyone else would like to join the committee. Nobody openly expressed an interest. An email to those not present may elicit a better response.

Guest Speaker – Jim Schilling, KG4JSZ

Jim is a candidate running for the position of ARRL Southeastern Division Director
An explanation and expectations of the role were provided
Jim spoke to the group about his qualifications and thoughts on various topics of interest
A Q&A session was held afterward

Club Activity – Building a two-meter discone antenna

Each meeting attendee was given the opportunity to build themselves a two-meter discone antenna during the club meeting
The antennas were comprised of:
- Five pieces of 21-inch wire sections
- One SO-239 connector with four holes on the mount
- Four nuts, bolts, and washers
The antenna assembly consisted of:
- Measuring and cutting the five sections of wire from a wire spool
- Stripping the wire sheaths at one end of each wire
- Soldering one wire to the center pole of the SO-239 connector
- Connecting the other four wires to the four holes on the SO-239 mount using nuts, bolts, and washers
- Rounding (bending) the ends of the radials (wires)
- Connecting to an antenna tuner and adjusting the wire lengths until properly tuned
The antennas only need coax in order to be functional

New Business

The Ride for Ronald charity event (https://www.rmhccf.org/events) will be held on Sunday, October 13^th. We plan to participate if enough club members express an interest in attending.
Ricardo will be handling Net Control for the upcoming Wednesday, September 25^th D.E.A.R.S. Net at 7pm. Also known as the “Fun Net” on 147.300 offset +600 PL/CTCSS 103.5 and EchoLink node #632802.
The Disney Fall Festival will be held on Saturday, October 19^th from 11am to 3pm
Frank Tagliani, KD4EZW, requested volunteers to sign-up for the 2020 Orlando Hamcation.
- Frank would really like to have several volunteers in the Security division
- Sign-ups are all electronic this year… no more paper. Just visit the Orlando Hamcation website (https://www.hamcation.com) to volunteer.
- This will be the 74^th Hamcation and improvements are being made to the Central Florida Fairgrounds to accommodate the large number of expected people (just under 24,000 attended last year)
- The club may receive funds for hours volunteered at the event. In addition, volunteers who work 4 hours or more will receive a free ticket for admittance and those working 8 hours or more will receive dinner.
We received notice that Marion County is potentially interested in our ECom-1 van

Next executive board meeting: September 25^th, 2019 at 6pm

Next general club meeting: October 9^th, 2019 at 6pm (VE testing available at 5pm)

Adjourn: 8:08pm

August 28, 2019 DEARS Board Meeting

PO Box 690905, Orlando, Florida 32869-0905 https://wd4wdw.org

Meeting Location: Disney’s All-Star Resort Cast Services Building, Box Office conference room

Attendees: Steve Martin, Ian Ward, Andy Milluzzi, Brenda Davis, Angel Hernandez

Call to order at 6:15 pm by Andy Milluzzi

Agenda was discussed and agreed upon

Introductions were held

Secretary’s Report

Minutes from previous meeting made available on the club’s website, https://wd4wdw.org
Previous meeting minutes were accepted by the attendees

Treasurer’s Report

The club’s current bank balance is $12,214.89
The club spent $11.49 and received $15.00 since the last general club meeting
Discussed proposals for purchasing merchandise for club general meetings
We have met our five-transaction minimum for the month
Recommended that ARRL memberships go through the club, since the ARRL will donate to the club for each membership and renewal

Old Business

Follow-up on previous expense questions from FY18 and FY19
- A certified letter was sent to Ken Kerns requesting clarifications on questionable financial items. The letter should have been received last Saturday. We have not received confirmation of receipt yet.
Budget for the rest of FY19 and for FY20

Recurring expenditures:

*Item*	*Last Year*	*Proposed Budget*
ARRL Insurance	$300	$300
Mobile Beacon	$120	$120
Van Insurance	$1440.60	$1500
Corporate Filings	$131.25	$140
PO Box	$134	$140
Gas for Van	$208.51	$250
Promotional Materials	$2158.86	$500
September Antenna Build	$0	$100
Receipt Book	$0	$10
Asset Tags	$0	$50
Equipment Insurance	$0	$50
Donation – Relay for Life	$105	$110
Donation – Bowl-A-Thon	$157.50	$170

Antenna Installation:

*Item*	*Proposed Budget*
Reedy Creek Permit	$200
Lift (2 days) – Sunbelt	$1000
Coax Cable	$200
Meal	$100
Fall Protection Gear	$150
Safety/Liability Insurance	$500

Field Day:

*Item*	*Proposed Budget*
Meals	$250
Canopy/Netted Tent	$250
Misc. Equipment	$275
Fuel	$25
High-Velocity Fans	$200

New Business

Potential meeting topics for the October, 2019 meeting:
- Nasa club – discuss Nasa data uplink (Andy reached out, is still awaiting a response)
- Joe Eisenberg – discussion on radio kits (Brenda has extended an invitation)
- Club activity
- “Fun Day” to assist members with setting up their radios, DMR, etc.
- Demonstrate message-passing over a repeater
- Winlink discussion by Orlando ARES (Ian may have a contact)
- Andy – Satellite discussions
- HOA rules and antennas, stealth antenna ideas (may reach out to David Glasser)
- APRS (Automatic Packet Reporting System)
Ride-For-Ronald Participation on Sunday, October 13^th
- Propose it to the club membership in the next general meeting and see if there’s enough interest for participation
Disney’s Festival at Little Lake Bryan (similar to Spring Fling) on Saturday, October 19^th
- $3 admission per person
- A cast member must escort non-cast members through the gate
- Might be able to do a foxhunt (although the area is likely too small)
- May demonstrate satellite listening
Maker Faire Orlando 2019
- November 9^th and 10^th at the Central Florida Fairgrounds
- Should we team up with the NASA and/or Clearwater clubs? We teamed up with the Clearwater club last year.
- We may want to set up a tent near the van this year
- Andy suggested doing a hands-on activity that doesn’t need a long explanation (such as a crystal radio)
- Might want to invite Joe Eisenberg to discuss radio kits
Next general club meeting: September 11^th, 2019
Next administrative club meeting: September 25^th, 2019
Adjourn: 8:40pm

August 14, 2019 DEARS Monthly Club Meeting

PO Box 690905, Orlando, Florida 32869-0905 https://www.wd4wdw.org

Meeting Location: Disney’s Pop Century Cast Services Building B, Memories Conference Room

Attendees: (counted 18 in the room but only 12 signed the roster)

Steve Martin, Ian Ward, Andy Milluzzi, Eric Israel, Brenda Davis, Devon Thornton, Eleanor Marshall, Paul Bousquet, Sean Wall, Ken Kerns, Ricardo Galarza, Steve VanCleve

Call to order at 6:01 pm by Andy Milluzzi

Presentation of Colors and Salute

Agenda was discussed and agreed upon

Introductions were held

Secretary’s Report

Minutes from previous meeting made available on the club’s website, https://www.wd4wdw.org
Previous meeting minutes were accepted by the attendees

Treasurer’s Report

The club’s current bank balance is $12,211.38
2019 Income was $15,598.89 and 2019 Expenditures were $4,401.44
A breakdown of transactions since the last meeting were displayed on screen
Encouraged club attendees to continue to use Amazon Smile and mention the club when renewing or signing up for ARRL subscriptions

Formulation of a budget is a topic for the next administrative meeting
Treasurer’s report was accepted by the attendees

Guest Speaker – Aaron Magness, Walt Disney World Emergency Management

Aaron is an Emergency Preparedness Coordinator for WDW Emergency Management
Their group is part of the larger Global Security team
Covers both domestic and foreign theme parks, resorts, vacation club, and Adventure by Disney
- WDW alone consists of approximately 38 square miles covering two counties with over 250,000 daily park and resort guests, over 74,000 cast members, and several thousand contractors
- Twenty-seven owned and operated hotels, over 29,000 rooms and growing, 8 Disney Vacation Club resorts, and over 700,000 square feet of convention space
- Disney Springs, EPSN Wide World of Sports complex
- Coverage of Invictus Games, runDisney events, and Dignitary visits
Blues Cast, Motor/Bike, and Tower
- Cover screening locations, parks, resorts, parking lots, roadways, etc.
- Security K-9 unit consists of 48 dogs and handlers (soon to be 79)
- The towers in parking lots are a good deterrent. Can’t tell if they are manned or not.
Prepare, Communicate, Collaborate, Respond
WDW Annual Exercise Program
- Managed by WDW Emergency Management team
- Based on FEMA – Homeland Security Exercise and Evaluation Program
- Purpose is to test operational guidelines, identify resource needs, improve coordination and communication, improve performance, and build relationships and trust
- Functional, Table-top, and Full-scale exercises are conducted property-wide
- Aaron spoke about some exercises they performed, including:
  - Simulated Active Shooter at Disney’s Hollywood Studios and Disney Springs
  - Transportation Watercraft, Monorail, and Buses
  - Sassagoula River Cruise
  - Skyliner Evacuation Drill including lifts that go up to 173 feet in the air
  - Soarin’, the Barnstormer and Kali River Rapids
- They are also involved during weather situations and wildfires
- Their group has key relationships with several other law enforcement and emergency management organizations around the area

Old Business

Bylaws Discussion – Sections 1 to 5
- Review of member-submitted comments and feedback
- Section 1 – Discussion of “non-profit” vs. “not-for-profit”. The IRS authorization letter states that DEARS is a non-profit, and thus our state Articles of Incorporation may need to be updated
- Section 2 – Suggestion to change bylaws to reference the Articles of Incorporation for the club’s Address and P.O. Box rather than having to update and vote on new bylaws every time they change – Agreed upon by the attendees
- Section 2 – Change of Address – suggest removing “of elected officers” entirely – Agreed upon by the attendees
- Section 2 – discussion of “club officers” vs. “board of directors”
- Section 3 – Other Offices – suggest correcting grammatical error by rewording to “within” (the state) – Agreed upon by the attendees
- Section 5 – Name – Suggest removing “D.E.A.R.S.” and leaving DEARS (without the periods) – Agreed upon by the attendees
- Discussion of moving section 5 to section 1
- Acceptance of the revisions to sections 1 to 5 in their entirety was tabled.
Monthly Administrative Meetings/Executive Board Meetings
- We now instituted monthly meetings to discuss club administrative matters
- Forum for proposing club projects for funding, planning for events, and general operations
- Discussions are open to general membership and comments are welcome
- Minutes publicly posted on website for review
- Next scheduled administrative meeting will be August 28^th at 6pm

New Business

Discussed next Bylaws sections to review, with a feedback deadline of 7 days prior to the next general club meeting
Proposed setting up a committee to review the bylaws due to the slow pace taken during the monthly meeting, with an appointed chairperson that is not an officer – Agreed upon by the attendees. The following attendees expressed an interest in being on the bylaws committee:
- Devon Thornton
- Brenda Davis
- Ken Kerns
- Sean Wall
- Ian Ward
For our September meeting we plan to build 2-meter antennas. Materials will be provided. This will be a hands-on activity that everyone can participate in if they choose to do so.
Ricardo will be handling Net Control for the upcoming Wednesday, August 28^th D.E.A.R.S. Net at 7pm. Also known as the “Fun Net” on 147.300 offset +600 PL/CTCSS 103.5 and EchoLink node #632802.

Our antenna tower may be unsafe and in need of replacement. The DC-6 tower is also in need of replacement within the next year. The club will make decisions as we receive information.
Brenda provided some information on potential antenna replacements for the club.
Emails will only be used for reminders for the club. Slack is used for real-time discussions.
The tower trailer previously used by DEARS is not actually owned by DEARS. It is registered to WDW Telecomm and they have plans to use it. We will be appointed a contact person and we must agree not to take it off property whenever we borrow it.
A raffle was held and several of our attendees received prizes (2 Star Wars mugs and 1 Disney Twenty-Three magazine issue)

Next administrative club meeting: August 28^th, 2019

Next general club meeting: September 11^th, 2019

Adjourn: 7:51pm

July 31, 2019 DEARS Administrative Meeting

Disney Emergency Amateur Radio Services

PO Box 690905, Orlando, Florida 32869-0905 https://www.wd4wdw.org

Type meeting: Administrative Meeting July 31, 2019

Meeting Location: Disney’s All-Star Resort Cast Services Building, Box Office conference room

Attendees:

Steve Martin, Ian Ward, Andy Milluzzi, David Glasser, Angel Hernandez, Brenda Davis, Sean Wall, Paul Bousquet

Call to order at 6:00 pm by Andy Milluzzi

Agenda was discussed and agreed upon

Introductions were held

Secretary’s Report

Minutes from previous meeting made available on the club’s website, https://www.wd4wdw.org
Previous meeting minutes were accepted by the attendees

Treasure’s Report

The club’s current bank balance is $12,885.69
The club received $12,500 from Disney’s Volunteer grant
Last year the club received $16,350 due to more cast submitting volunteer hours

Old Business

The board unanimously accepted the resignation letter of club president Rebekah Bachstein
- A replacement will be tabled until after the club bylaws are reviewed and approved
- Andy Milluzzi will assume the role of club president in the interim
- Robert’s Rules of Order should guide the club on the replacement procedures
- We expect to hold an election in the future to fill the vice present position as well as an additional board member if approved by the bylaws
Discussed plan for reviewing the bylaws at upcoming meetings
- Will discuss sections one through five at the upcoming August meeting
- Would like to review four pages per meeting
- Members will be notified in advance and provided specific deadlines to provide their feedback in advance of the meeting
- Comments are due one week prior to the next upcoming meeting. That will be August 7^th for the August meeting.
- An electronic copy of the bylaws will be made available

New Business

Suggest building an antenna as a club activity during the September, 2019 meeting
- Quarter wave or Discone antenna
- The club will borrow most materials from MakerFX but may make small purchases
- No monetary contributions from the membership are to be expected for this activity
- Planning for approximately twenty people
- Activity to take place during middle of meeting. Those not interested may treat it as additional social time.
Review of FY18 and FY19 club income and expenditures to date
- A spreadsheet summarizing the club’s financial register from July, 2018 to date was presented on-screen
- A main reason for the review is to determine a reasonable budget for the upcoming year
- The following anomalies were pointed out:
  - We still do not have any information from the Partners bank account, even after requesting the information from Ken Kerns, the previous club treasurer, both verbally and in writing. Requested that the account be closed out.
  - Edgehill – Advance on Equipment Purchased for $2000
  - Three separate payments for Van Insurance even though we only insure one van
  - ECRA – Ken Loan for $2000 (notes state this was for Cameras and Generator payback)
  - Go-box Equipment
  - Shirts ordered and payed for out of club funds, but no funds deposited to account (at least since July 2018). Shirt costs varied from $27-$35 each.
  - Several line items state Shipping Payed but not what it was payed for
  - $147.50 was spent on food from Publix on 10-24-18
  - Several restaurant purchases were listed, many in Davenport
  - ATM withdrawal of $60 plus fees
- The club will send a certified letter within thirty days to Ken Kerns asking for an explanation of the anomalies and their recovery if deemed appropriate
- Going forward the club may require two signatures on checks to prevent similar situations from occurring again
- The club incurred overdraft fees due to the balance dropping below a set amount
- Some of the fees were refunded back by the bank at Rebekah’s request
- There was some discussion about the Junior Achievement Bowl-a-Thon and whether the club could use their funds to assist with another volunteer organization’s fund-raising activities. Suggested that we be cognizant of Disney’s rules.
- We will investigate using another bank to reduce our fees going forward
FY20 Club Budget
- The treasurer suggested that we move the club’s fiscal year to July 1 through June 30
  - This places the start of the year closer to when the club receives a majority of its funds
  - The board would like to file all paperwork (IRS, State of Florida Corporate Filing) at the same interval. Need to be cognizant of required reporting periods.
- Ian was able to reduce our $200/month internet expense to $120/year using a mobile internet hotspot
- Need to identify key expenses to plan into the future club budget – perhaps at the next administrative meeting
- We need to amend our Florida filing to reflect the new club president
- We should have a financial calendar (may be able to use the website’s calendar)
- We may want to accrue money monthly that we know we will need for our annual expenditures

General Questions and Answers

Can non-cast members submit volunteer hours in the Hub? – No
Can non-cast members submit volunteer hours for HamCation service? – Yes
Do we have a specified length of time that meetings should last? – No
- David suggested that we have a better administrative beginning, middle, and conclusion, and should give meeting durations some thought
What is the purpose of the “Chat & Chew” just prior to the club’s monthly meetings?
- The “Chat & Chew”, usually held at the McDonalds near Animal Kingdom prior to club meetings, is simply a designated place for attendees to informally gather and socialize
- There are typically four to five attendees
- We may need to find a new “Chat & Chew” location while our meetings are temporarily held elsewhere
Should we move the officer elections to a different time of the year, instead of between when the volunteer hours are submitted and received? – No need to move them at this time

Suggestions and Observations:

Request advance feedback for items to be discussed during upcoming meetings
Add a field to the club roster to indicate whether attendees are cast members or not
Have a computer available at the meetings for cast members to log their volunteer hours
The club should communicate basic day-to-day information with the membership regularly, such as towers that need to come down due to stress fractures, antenna work, etc.
Please be patient – it may take up to a year to get the club back on track where it should be
Slack will be the communication method for real-time feedback. General notifications will still take place using email, Facebook, and the club website.
The club should offer opportunities for club members to sign up for, such as having a supply list and allotted individuals that can acquire and deliver them when we’re covering an event
We need to be sure we have funds to cover the slower months when income is not coming in
We may want to have a board member for programs/projects/activities. This will need to be discussed during the review of the bylaws.
We should not be producing club shirts at cost. We should charge enough to cover the entire cost, including shipping, as well as a small administrative fee.
We should consider instituting a membership fee. Perhaps charge new members $10 and provide them with a coffee mug, or $25 per person per year.
- We need to determine our minimum budget necessary to operate first
- We may want to spread the membership fees across the year so we have a rolling income rather than collecting them all in a single month each year
Next general club meeting: August 14^th, 2019
Next administrative club meeting: August 28^th, 2019
Adjourn: 7:58pm

———————————————-

July 10, 2019 DEARS Meeting

Disney Emergency Amateur Radio Services

MEETING MINUTES

PO Box 690905, Orlando, Florida, 32869-0905

Meeting Location: Disney’s All-Star Resort Cast Services Building

Call to order at: 6:04 pm

By: Rebekah Bachstein

Quorum: Called and Counted = 18 members, 2 non-members

Presentation of Colors and Salute

Reports:

President:

Rebekah Bachstein, the current club president, stated her desire to step down from the position effective immediately
- Rebekah handed in a signed resignation letter dated July 5^th, 2019
- Reasons stated include bitter email exchanges with certain individuals, potential mismanagement of club funds in the past, accusations of missing equipment, lack of appreciation for the tremendous work her parents have provided to the club, and wanting to reduce stress and start a family

Vice President:

Field Day
- The club had a great Field Day on June 22^nd-23^rd
- Thirty-three people signed the attendance roster at the event, and we believe there may have been additional attendees over and above that
- The club ran two stations off of generator power throughout the event (class 2A). Those not using the two stations were asked to broadcast under their own call signs to keep the club within the 2A classification.
- We made 214 total contacts and received 388 total QSO points
- Operating period: 2019/06/22 18:39 – 2019/06/23 16:35 UTC
- Average QSOs per hour (with breaks over 30 minutes deducted) were 11.6
- Total sections worked was 50, total states worked was 38
- We had 40 phone and 174 digital QSOs, mostly on 20, 40, and 80-meter bands
- A great family dinner cookout was provided by Rebekah and Logan, and other members brought deserts and assisted
- We had several boy scouts attend. Ian held a training class and provided them the opportunity to broadcast and earn their merit badges.
- Requested attendees to post their likes and dislikes to the Field Day Slack channel so we can improve going forward
NA1WJ International Boy Scout Jamboree fliers and magnets were available for anyone to take. Their website is https://www.na1wj.net and their Facebook account is “K2BSA.Scouting”.
Suggested that we begin following Robert’s Rules of Order for future meetings

General Membership:

Some members do not feel comfortable using Slack and requested that all important club communications continue to happen through email
Club offers could start using generic emails using the website’s reflector rather than using their personal emails when communicating. We may need to contact Kurt Livingston for setup/configuration instructions.
The club offered to provide a method to receive anonymous feedback from members. Some in attendance felt strongly that this would be a bad idea and that all feedback should be open and known, not anonymous.
A suggestion was made to do introductions at future meetings. Almost everyone agreed.
The club members should respect one another and the club should be highly respected
Any potential mismanagement of club funds in the past should be investigated. Any funds found missing or incorrectly used should be reacquired and placed back into the club treasury.
Meeting minutes should be placed on the club’s website
On the first Saturday in December there will be a SkyWarn training session and tour of the National Weather Service offices available to anyone interested (this event is not sponsored by D.E.A.R.S.)

Club Bylaws:

The club intended to vote on a revised set of club bylaws at this meeting
Physical copies of the revised bylaws were provided during the last monthly meeting and again provided at this month’s meeting
A few vocal members in the audience did not agree with the current 2015 bylaws that the club is currently running under
There was a mention of three other documents from 2011 that also helped guide the club
The bylaws should cover that we are a Disney Cast Club and must follow their rules, and any rules related to our 501(c)(3) status and the state department that governs corporations
It was decided that we should review the revised club bylaws a little at a time during each upcoming monthly meeting.
Members can email their suggested changes to wd4wdw@outlook.com prior to the meetings as long as the next meeting is at least seven days away.
We will attempt to cover the first five sections of the revised bylaws during the next monthly club meeting.
Due to the inability to certify the club bylaws, we were also unable to add a fifth tie-breaking board member as planned

Treasurer/Trustee:

We have approximately $385 remaining in our bank account
Recent expenditures include
- insurance for our equipment covered through the ARRL
- vehicle insurance on the club van
- filing of state paperwork
- post office box fees
May move funds from SunTrust to another institution to reduce our fees, minimum balance, and monthly usage requirements
We have not yet received any funds from the Disney “EARS to You” grants this year

Secretary:

Suggested that everyone in attendance sign the roster

President:

Next month’s guest speaker will be Jennifer Mason, security manager for WDW Emergency Management
Ricardo will be handling Net Control for the upcoming Wednesday, July 24^th D.E.A.R.S. Net at 7pm. Also known as the “Fun Net” on 147.300 offset +600 PL/CTCSS 103.5 and EchoLink node #632802.
A raffle was held and several of our attendees received prizes (a snow globe, a Mickey stuffed toy, and three pairs of Beast socks from Beauty and the Beast)
A Mickey goodbye song was played and sung by the membership

The next club meeting will be held at Disney’s All-Star Resort Cast Services Building at 6pm, 8/14/19 with VE testing sessions available at 5pm

Adjourn: 7:31 pm