The following is not an official report of the meeting but taken from my notes:
After some cleaning up and a nice barbeque by grill master John, WD4V the meeting finally got started around 7:45pm.
The first thing we discussed was Sal's, N4YQU proposal to setup "The W4BUG Endowment for Amateur Radio":
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The W4BUG Endowment for Amateur Radio
In an effort to keep the memory of Charles (Chuck) Ritchie alive, the K4FAU Amateur Radio Club, and the Boca Raton Amateur Radio Club have decided to create this endowment, witch we hope will bring new amateurs into our great hobby, and secure a legacy of mentoring new ham's in Chuck's Name.

• There is no age limit for a candidate
• The combined effort's of both club's will provide all book's, courses, and test fee's
• The candidate will be given three opportunities to pass the written test.
• Upon successful completion of test, and issuance of an Amateur Radio License, the candidate will be supplied with an H.T. which will be theirs to keep providing they remain active in either club for a period of 1 (one) year.

In order for a candidate to be considered, they must be willing to join either, or both clubs, and must remain an active member for at least 1 year. (An active member is one who makes it to at least half the scheduled meetings)
A selection committee will be formed from delegates from both clubs, and final selection will be by a vote of both clubs.
The selection committee will screen applicants, and make the determination of which shall be brought up for a vote.
Funding for the endowment will be by funds from both clubs, however, if an individual would like to make a donation of either cash or used equipment to defray the cost to the clubs, it would be greatly appreciated.
The endowment will try to sponsor at least two new hams a year, this number may increase if we get enough response, (And donations) to do so
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Endowment suggestions:

• One suggestion from one of our members was to separate the equipment gift / grant from the monetary grant. (The monetary grant is for a study book and exam fees) The K4FAU Club members agreed with this. This way more money could be available to get more people licensed. Once people get their license they might go out and buy the equipment them selves.
  An equipment grand might be awarded to people with financial need or equipment might be awarded trough a competition among the newly licensed.

• Change the requirement for membership to: The candidate must be willing to join ARES AND must be willing to join either, or both clubs (BRARA and or K4FAU)

The K4FAU membership agreed to allocate $150 for a W4BUG memorial fund / endowment. Any further discussion about this endowment should take place via email so we don't waste too much time between club meetings!
Next on the agenda was a "short" evaluation of the Triathlon and the March of Dimes:
Triathlon:

• See if it is possible that next year the sprinklers are turned off at Spanish River Park. Although no accident happened at the left turn at check point 4 the road there was wet and slippery for the bicyclists.
• GW suggested that some flares might be useful for the runners turn around point.
• According to the hams present at the meeting that saw the incident with the first bicyclist and the motorcycle (the bicyclist was accused of drafting) the bicyclist had no fault in this. John, WD4V will contact Rosemary to notify her about this.

March of Dimes:

• The fact that two youngsters went missing (once we were notified they were found shortly after) was mainly the fault of the parents, but better directions for the short route might have helped. The suggestion is to either give the directions for the short route different colors or use letters for the short route and numbers for the long route.
• There was some misunderstanding about the breakdown of the check points.
  This was apparent when CP 3A was closed down and everybody (FAU volunteers and the radio operator) left while the equipment (ice boxes, tables etc.) was still there. Next year the radio operator should stay until the CP is completely cleaned up.

John, WD4V informed us that the order of the new antenna was in the hands of FAU and he hopes that they will finalize it within the next 2 weeks. Hopefully by early June the antenna will be in.
Our web site www.qsl.net/k4fau is hosted for more than 2 years on a web server run by K3TKJ and he does not charge for this service. Running a web server costs money and it was decided that we as K4FAU will donate $50 to QSL.NET. This donation will also put us in a drawing for equipment.
The discussion about the donation for QSL.NET prompted me (W4RIS) to promote getting our own server space.
The downside to this is that this will cost money while QSL.NET is free.
The plusses are:

• Having www.k4fau.org is cool! ;)
• We can have: your name or call @k4fau.org
• We can create our own email lists (like Yahoo groups but with out ads in the emails) for events.
• The QSL.NET servers are sometimes very slow. Our own server should be faster.
• We can have more features on our web site like a discussion board.

My suggestion was to go with a $75.45 package. There are cheaper hosting packages and services but in my opinion this will give us the best price & features combination.
There were no objections to my suggestion so I will be spending the money!
The last subject at the meeting (for me at least) was Field Day.
I had to leave before the meeting officially ended but one thing that was suggested and that I am in favor of is to focus on 10 and or 15 meter in the beginning of Field Day as the bands are still open and move to 20 during the night. This way we make full use of the band openings and once we get on to 20 we are "fresh meat" what should make it easier for the night crew to make contacts!

Our next meeting will be Tuesday May 18.

Report by W4RIS