Click here for 2025 Meeting Minutes
Here you will find the minutes of past meetings.
NOTE: Any meeting minutes marked as “DRAFT” are subject to corrections!
DRAFT NoBARC April 2026 Minutes
Location: Google Meet
Date: 04/22/2026
Time: 1800 PM
Attendees: Cory N1XWS, Matt K1VN, Tim WB2VVQ, Steven K1SPS, Chuck WS1L, Lynn KM1MI,
Dave W1TTT, Eric KA1SUN, Bill WA1BR, Ed KC1VRZ, Matt KC1JPU, Dave
Agenda items
- Meeting started at 1807
- January minutes read by Steven as amended.
- Treasures Report read by Tim and passed.
- 501c3 – W9s can be signed by any Officer – President, Vice President, Secretary, and Treasurer.
- Repeaters – Can finally get to them!
- Jim and Pete are planning a trip possible tomorrow to work on 425 and weather.
- Possibly of getting a Tate 220 repeater to replace the master.
- Near900 has a 900 Quantar for sale ~$535, Ebay has a 2M Quantar for sale ~$599. These
can be limited to narrow band FM unless you pay for the endorsement. Chuck may have
the correct CPS endorsement to program. We think they are 100W/40W. Discussion of long
term repeater strategies. Grants to do longer term replacements, where this could be a
short term backup plan. Jim K2LM is in favor of replacing the Master2’s which are near 50
years old. New Motorola Turbos are in the 2-3k range. - Insurance – Tim needs more information on Batter and FL Repeater to update repeater. Eric to
get info when he goes up next. Eric will take pictures including serial numbers. Provide
replacement value. Chuck to provide actual invoice. - Financial Audit – Tim will call Ed N1FGY to conduct the audit. Committee formally established
with Ed. - Bylaw Committee – Cory believes he has enough people to form the committee. Will kick it off.
- Batteries – Eric still needs to install Low Battery Cutoff.
- Eric moved to allocate no more than $750 to purchase the Motorola Quantar repeaters P25
capable for 900. Seconded by Chuck. Cory to purchase the Near900. Vote was unanimous. - Chuck moves to authorize Eric KA1SUN to use club funds no more than $750 to purchase a 2M
repeater as he sees fit while at upcoming HAM events. Seconded by Lynn. Eric abstained, all
others in favor. No Opposed. - July we have another Cummington bicycle race that we would like to volunteer our club services.
Club will support again this year a call for volunteers will occur. - POTA Picnic – Looking at beginning of Aug. Rent the Ski Lodge at the Pittsfield State Forrest.
Holds up to 100 people. In public but out of the way. Rental cost is $50 for a day. Want to ensure
DCR is aware of us operating Ham radio to ensure we do not get talked to again. Cory to
investigate dates. Approved to spend <$100 for rental and food. - Ham Fest – Town of Adams – Cory brought info, got told it was lost. He was told he didn’t have to
come, but the parks commission wants to talk to us, have to show up in May to answer questions. - Field Day – Cory needs to get a check for field day. Town is happy we are using it again, going to
advertise for us. We are booked for the event. - Membership Coordinator – Cory would like to establish role. This person would come up with a
membership card available to self print, publish names and callsigns on website, send immediate
thank you letters. Tim would still check the PO box and pass the info onto this coordinator. Reach
back to expired members. If interested reach out to Cory. - Classes – are we going to hold an upcoming course this summer? Talk at next meeting when Bill is
available. - Skywarn trainings are coming up. 5/1 in Bennington in person at the fire department.
- Club Sponsored Dx Award – Chuck has a formal presentation. Will show at the next meeting.
- Internet – Do we want to pay for starlink or something on Greylock. Cory very interested in
donating ARDEN gear for the hill. Chuck has some meetings with several state entities talking
about the upgrade path in Greylock. Specifically talking about network connectivity. MEMA is very
interested, meeting with the State Interoperability rep next week. Physical changes have to be
approved by DCR. - 2027 Balloon launch. Plan to start to talk through it, 5-600$ type event. Pair with a course or
class. Potential fox hunting thing too. - Meshcore – trying to get people to switch from meshtastic. Dave has 3 nodes he plans to place
around the county. - 4/26 will be the next club gathering at County Ambulance at 14:00. Next board meeting will be
5/20 at 1800 virtually. - Meeting Adjourned at 19:41.
NoBARC March 2026 Minutes
Location: Google Meet
Date: 03/18/2026
Time: 1800 PM
Attendees: Matt K1VN, Tim WB2VVQ, Steven K1SPS, Chuck WS1L, Lynn KM1MI, Rich WB9CKG, Dave W1TTT, Dave KC1GGD
Agenda items
- Meeting started at 1805
- January minutes read by Steven and passed as amended.
- Treasures Report read by Tim and passed.
- Tim to provide National Grid the POC who can help the read the meter. Chuck suggested
doing so by Registered Mail. - Books audit committee needs to be established. Cory to put in the next squelch tales,
Chuck to put request on website. - National Grid – We are not the only meters on Greylock, how do the DCR meters get read. It is
very common for the customer to not control access. We will send a registered letter to tell
National Grid to reach out to Deanna Todd at DCR 413-329-8920. - Insurance – comes from an ARRL recommended company for liability insurance and equipment
coverage. About ~$200/year. Tim is the POC for keeping equipment lists correct. Did we add the
echolink radio onto the policy. Tim to send out a list of what is outlined on the policy so we feel
good we are covering the correct things. Were the batteries added? - 3/22 Social Meeting – Chuck is going to do a presentation on the DXpodition. Showing videos and
logs, etc. Matt to text cory to ensure we have access to County Ambulance. - Future in person gathering idea from Matt. Party to build the Allstar node. Recommend doing this
in April. - Budget – we only have 8 members not enough to vote. Still would like donations separate from
Dues. Hope to vote Sunday if we have a quorum. Chuck to add to website this is our intent. - Chuck to post to website again for bylaw committee, Cory to add to squelch tails again. We
would really love to get this started. - 3/22 will be the next club gathering at County Ambulance at 14:00. Next board meeting will be
4/22 at 1800 virtually. - Meeting Adjourned at 18:40.
NoBARC March 2026 Addendum Minutes
Location: County Ambulance
- Date: 03/22/2026
- Time: 1400 PM
- Attendees: Chuck WS1L, Steven K1SPS, Robert KO4ZSD, Joseph WI1U, Christopher KC1SKG,
- Matthew KC1JPU, Dave W1TTT, Lynn KM1MI, Donald W1DMW, Gerald WB9CKG, Kieran K1RSF
Agenda items
- Meeting started at 1405
- A brief discussion of the 2026 budget was discussed. KO4ZSD moved to accept the 2026
budget. WS1L seconded. The vote was unanimous - Meeting adjourned at 1408
NoBARC March 2026 BOD Special
Meeting Minutes
Location: Conducted via email
Date: 03/29/2026
Time: 1400 PM
Attendees: Cory N1XWS, Chuck WS1L, Steven K1SPS, Tim WB2VVQ, Bill WA1BR, Matt K1VN, John WA1ZHM, Lynn KM1MI, Ed KC1VRZ
- Meeting conducted via email in lieu of a google meets meeting.
- Steven provided an email description of the special meeting:
The purpose of this meeting is to vote on allocation of funds to pay for the reinstated articles of
organization, which was required as part of the 501c3 paperwork.
History:
In April 2024 we approved $1000 on 501c3 paperwork. Here is the meeting minutes from that
discussion:
501c3 Discussion. Researched what would be required to become one. Legal Zoom
would do paperwork for $399 + State Fees. A Ham based advertisement was over $1500. This
would allow for donations to come from businesses. We would also be eligible to get grants. This
issues has been discussed before. There is additional burden of a yearly tax filing. May need to
ensure bylaws discuss assets of club. We think we already meet most of the requirements.
Chuck proposed a motion created to spend no more than $1000 on Legal Zoom to do
paperwork and expenses to become a 501c3. Cory appointed to manage the process.
Discussion: Is there a reoccurring cost to file paperwork. Will B. thought it was
$1800/year to do annual filings. We may need a certified accountant to check paperwork. Cory found
several sources for our level of assets/revenue that filing fees are limited.
Motion seconded by Cory. 10 Votes in favor, 0 opposed, 0 abstained. All officers were
present.
Then in March 2025 we increase that budget to a total of $2600. Here is the relavant minutes:
501c3:
Original filing: $650
Refund check from IRS: -$275
Non-profit center of the Berkshires membership fee: $150
So $525 spent so far.
Going forward:
Ethan Klepetar lawyer fee: $1250
New filing fee: $600
So new fee is $1850
Motion to approve “Budget up to and no more than $1600 in additional funds to apply
for a 501c3 application and lawyer fees” Moved by Eric, Second by Chuck. Approved unanimously
by those present as well as Sigard KJ1K and Tim WB2VVQ.
New total budget is not to exceed $2600.
Today, we got a bill (attached) from our lawyers for $1500 legal fees, $600 1023 filing fees,
and $41 restated articles of organization fees. To date Tims’s record show a total of $480 has
been spent on 501c3.
The board has the authority to spend <$500 without a vote of the entire membership. My
motion is: “I move to authorize $300 to spend on reinstated articles of organization,
which would cover the additional legal fees of $250 and the $41 filing fee.” This motion
will allow for the remainder of the 501c3 paperwork bill to fall on the increased amount of
$2600.
Speaking with Cory we have agreed to cancel the meeting if we get a successful vote via email
prior to 2:00. Please respond to this email with your formal vote, 6 yes votes will carry the
motion.
- Email votes in favor has been returned by Cory N1XWS, Chuck WS1L, Steven K1SPS, Tim WB2VVQ,
Bill WA1BR, Matt K1VN, John WA1ZHM, Lynn KM1MI, Ed KC1VRZ. The motion passed via a majority.
Formal discussion canceled. No vote received from Dave W1TTT.
NoBARC February 2026 Minutes
Location: Google Meet
Date: 02/18/2026
Time: 1800 PM
Attendees: Cory N1XWS, Tim WB2VVQ, Steven K1SPS, Bill WA1BR, Chuck WS1L, Lynn KM1MI, Eric KA1SUN, Dave W1TTT
Agenda items
- Meeting started at 1813
- January minutes read by Steven and passed.
- Treasures Report read by Tim and passed.
- Discussion on issues with National Grid. Tim should not arrange himself to read the meter every month.
- 2026 Budget: Ham class income should be separated. Donations and dues should be separated. Reduce gate income budget. Add 440 budget for repairs. Tim to look at yearly filing fees of non-profits.
- HAM Class – Went over test results, two new passes. We will conduct another test on Sunday for the third student. Kudos to Matt for putting together the phone based scoring. Already interest in an upcoming general class.
- Repeaters – 440 – Have been playing around with squelch. 900 – Some issues with digirig, going to order a different sound card. DMR/Florida – Waiting for better weather and Cory Thorsten to get a climber to go up there.
- T Shirt Shop – Only like 3 orders. Have the ability to make the options smaller. T Shirt,
Sweatshirt, and Hat. - Accounting Software – Bill generated his AI summary of multiple software options. The AI recommended QuickBooks for nonprofits. Discussion of how to maintain club data. Should we have a club laptop which owns much of the material. Summary was no to buying a laptop but look into backup of data in the future.
- 2026 ARRL Field Day is June 27 – 28. Cory still needs to stop by town hall for field rental.
- Ham Fest – August TBD, leaning towards 8/23, pending field rental.
- Website – Steven migrated the domains to PorkBun new annual cost is 59.30 vs ~135.
- 2/22 will be the next club gathering at County Ambulance at 14:00. Next board meeting will be 3/18 at 1800 virtually.
- Meeting Adjourned at 19:10.
NoBARC January 2026 Minutes
Location: Google Meet
Date: 01/21/2026
Time: 1800 PM
Attendees: Cory N1XWS, Tim WB2VVQ, Steven K1SPS, Matt K1VN, Ed KC1VRZ, Lynn KM1MI, Dave W1TTT, Bill WA1BR, Eric KA1SUN, Kieran K1RSF
Agenda items
- Meeting started at 1800
- December minutes read by Matt and passed.
- Treasures Report read by Tim and passed.
- Repeaters – 440, 220 having issues. We think the noise floor on 440 is too high for the squelch.
- Bookkeeping Software – Bill started to look into it. There may be a different version for commercial that we can get for inexpensive. Bill will circle back.
- Merch Store – Storefront was up for people. There are several different options, they allow you to add your name/call as well. We do not get a cut of sales. We can look into a more long term option if this works.
- Sky Warn – still waiting for NWS.
- Tech Class – only ordered enough books for this class since the questions will change soon. Ham Study has a new offering that can lower the cost of the class. We like the new material which allows for better discussions.
- Winter Field Day – Cory will be there by 8am Saturday to set up. Its going to be cold, dress for it. We have several dipoles and a G5RV Jr, 10/15/20 Fan Dipole, several radios. Bring your own food and drinks. Official start is 11AM Saturday to 5 PM Sunday. Matt is going to print a quick How To for newer operators. Bring your own sleeping material.
- Website – Our domains are through go daddy for like $45 each. Steven to transfer to Pork Bun.
- Winter Field Day on 1/24-25 at Camp Holy Cross in Goshen will be the next club gathering. Next board meeting will be 2/18 at 1800 virtually.
- Meeting Adjourned at 1835.