MEETING TO ORDER:

President Jeff Darby, KS0JD, called to order the December, 2020, Zoom business meeting of the SFTARC at 8:09 AM. The Constitution calls for the officers elected at the November business meeting to begin their terms. The three officers who served in 2019 were re-elected and will continue serving in 2020. A total of 16 members introduced themselves with their call signs. (Quorum is 13.) There were no guests.

SECRETARY-TREASURER REPORT: 

Marty Peters, KE0PEZ, gave the report of the Secretary-Treasurer. He reported the club's bank account balance. Deposits since the November business meeting totaled $770, including the check from the City of Olathe, one individual membership, and one family membership. There were two disbursements totaling $70, one to the Mo-Kan Council for 2019 and 2020 dues and the other the annual fee for the safety deposit box. The repeater fund balance remains the same as last month. In the next month or two the club will have expenditures for the PO Box rental and the registration for the trailer. Dues payments will be coming in during December and January. The club now has an operational Paypal account that will principally be used to receive dues payments and ham-class tuition. The club now has 75 members in good standing. The financial condition of the club continues to be good. 

Repeater Relocation [Jim Andera – K0NK]

Jim had no new developments to report.

Saturday Zoom Ragchew Update [Jeff - KS0JD]

In order to accommodate the ham-class Zoom sessions, club meetings will be from 7 AM to 8:15 AM starting December 19. Jeff will send out a new reoccurring link that will be good for the forseeable future. If you lose the link, just contact Jeff and he will send a replacement.  

PayPal [Jeff - KS0JD]

Marty set up an SFTARC PayPal account and made a test payment. The payment was transferred to the club bank account without difficulty and without a fee. Jeff asked club members for opinions and pros and cons about whether Paypal should be used as a means of accepting payments (in addition to in-person payments and checks mailed to the club PO Box). An issue to consider is the Paypal service fee (2.9% + $0.30) that is charged if the payment is to a "merchant." SFTARC is not a merchant, and payments to SFTARC can always be indicated as being to a friend (no fee is charged for such a transaction). Theoretically, therefore, we would not have to ask club members and other payers to add an amount to cover the service fee. However, the Paypal payee is by default a "merchant," and experience has shown that payments can be made without the payer remembering (or knowing) that they must click on "friend" before sending, thereby incurring the service fee. Because of that, it was suggested that payers using Paypal should add an appropriate amount, something like 5%, to their payment. For example, the club would charge a $1.00 fee on a $20 payment by Paypal; $1.50 on a $30 payment. We will continue to study the matter and take it up again at the January business meeting. In the meantime, the club can accept Paypal payments of dues ($21 for individual membership; $31.50 for family membership).

Web Hosting [Greg Wolfe – KI0KK]

Everything is operating normally. The web form for the ham-class registration is working well, and this year we are not experiencing bogus registrations.

SFTARC Ham Class 2021 [Jeff - KS0JD]

Preliminary planning is going well; everything looks good. Registered student total is 7 at this time. We expect there to be several more before the enrollment deadline. Dan at Associated, Brian Short, Bill Gery, and Herb Fiddick have been contacted to help publicize the class. 

Ensor volunteering [Howard - N0AZ]

Howard will set up a sign-up sheet for 2021. Jeff will begin working on organizing the plan for managing Ensor to present to the City of Olathe; he will set up a meeting in January to discuss and develop the plan. Del K0DDS suggested setting up a special event at Ensor. We are working with the JCRAC to create such a special event.

Kansas Day special event [Jeff - KS0JD]

Jeff suggests having operators operate from home QTH . Del plans to operate at the Antenna Farm. Jeff will publicize the event with ARRL, and he will make a sign-up sheet for band and mode.

OTHER BUSINESS:

George WB0CNK commented that the SFTARC 2020 Field Day results were published in ARRL. Results are listed alphabetically this year, making it much easier to find results by club name.

ADJOURN:

Following a motion and a voice vote, the meeting was adjourned about 8:42 AM.