The November 17, 2009 meeting was held in the Newton Public Library.  The meeting was called to order at 7:05pm by Secretary/Treasurer David Godshall.  Present were Lon Buller, David Duerksen, David Godshall, Jeanne and Russell Groves, Mike Harvey, Dan Inskeep, Charles Meisinger, and Kent Stutzman.

Minutes: The October minutes were accepted.

Repeater: Dan called the person who is tuning the Micor crystal repeater, he's expecting to be done by the end of the week.  Kent said the new controller doesn't seem to be controlling the new repeater, so the backup repeater is currently still in operation pending figuring out the problem.  Mike Harvey arrived mid-report and added that he also checked with the person repairing the repeater, not knowing Dan had checked.  So with two people inquiring about it, hopefully the repairs will be completed shortly.  Mike indicated there is really no road leading to the tower site, which makes it hard to get to during rainy days.

First Annual Newton Mid-Day Lions Club Parade of Lights: Now run by the Lion's Club, the renamed old Newton Festival of Lights will take place Thursday, December 3, 6:15pm, following a soup feed at 5pm.  Parade participants are supposed be there by 6pm.  Kent Stutzman is coordinating the Newton Club's assistance in getting the parade organized, and would appreciate club members to volunteer to help.  He and Dan are for sure participating.

H1N1: Kent and Lon discussed the H1N1 virus and it's impact in Harvey County.  This virus appears to hit children, pregnant woman, and people with medical conditions harder than the standard flu.  Lon indicated that while there isn't a specific plan, if the flu were to see a really major outbreak he would activate the amateurs to help man stations.

Comm Center: The remodeling of the Harvey County Emergency Center is done, so at some point we'll need to move the amateur radio station equipment to the new location.  Dan will work with Lon to find a time to look at this.  There was discussion about having a PC available to run logging programs, with Internet access.  Lon thought there would probably be a computer available and having it on the Internet would be no problem.

Sideband Sweepstakes: Mike said the Sideband Sweepstakes contest is this weekend.  The CW Sweepstakes was two weeks ago.  There was discussion of various contesting techniques some contesters use, including running two radios with each radio feeding into each of the two headset ears, and a switch to allow easy switching of the Mic/PTT between the two radios; and contesting workshops they often hold at conventions.

Election: David nominated Mike Harvey to remain President, and Lon seconded the nomination.  Russell nominated Joe Palmer to continue in the position of Vice President.  Russell and Jeanne were invited to consider volunteering to be nominated for a position, especially the Secretary/Treasurer position which needs a new person.  They indicated they did not believe would not be good at the job.  Dan nominated Russell for Vice President and Jeanne for Secretary/Treasurer.  There was some concern about two people from the household holding two of the board positions.  Jeanne and David nominated Kent Stutzman for the Secretary/Treasurer position.

Skywarn Recognition Day: December 5th.  Contact Chance at the Wichita National Weather Service if you would like to operate.

Introductions: Because of a number of new, reasonably new, and recently returning individuals, we went around the room introducing ourselves.  Welcome visitor Charles Meisinger, K0HNC.

Frequency Determining Contest: Dan indicated a fun activity we might like to do as a club is a frequency calculation/guessing contest.

Meeting adjourned at 8:49pm.

-- David Godshall, Secretary/Treasurer