The February 15, 2003 meeting was held at Red Coach Restaurant in Newton. The meeting was called to order at 9:18am by President Kent Harder. Members present were Ko Bartel, Lon Buller, Gary Dix, David Duerksen, David Godshall, Bob Harder, Kent Harder, Dan Inskeep, Robin McDaniel, Bob Ogden, John Ryding, Kent Stutzman, and Roger Wilson.

January Minutes were read without corrections.

Treasurer's Report: With $135 in dues and a $15 payment, total checking balance of $727.23, $120 in petty cash, $847.23 total.

Weather: Lon Buller reminded us of the National Weather Service safety presentation on February 26 at the Chisolm Middle School.

NWS/ARRL: There were some questions about how the recent NWS/ARRL Skywarn Appreciation Day went.

Field Day: A deposit has been made for Field Day. Roger will take care of getting permission from the City Council to be allowed to remain overnight.

Repeater Trustee: Bob Harder is filling out the paperwork to transfer the repeater trusteeship from Bob Harder to Michael Harvey. He will give the forms to Kent Harder to give to Michael.

RACES: Robin McDaniel had some RACES application forms and window placards available if anyone needed. Normally have RACES nets monday nights at 8:30pm on the 146.61 repeater, will probably start those up again soon. The backup RACES Hesston 146.21 repeater is s0-so, the 442.4 N0LRA repeater doesn't have an IDer but it operating well and could be used as a backup repeater if needed.

MCC Relief Sale: Coming up in a couple months, can always use lots of HAM Radio help for emergency and practice communications.

ARES: Kent Stutzman reported that the Sedwick/Harvey County ARES is going to try re-activating the weekly Monday night 9pm ARES net on the 146.82 repeater. Going to have an emphasis on traffic handling practice.

Emergency Communications: Some discussion about the roles of RACES and ARES, who can activate RACES in the event Lon Buller is unavailable to activate the Sheriff).

Upgrading Licenses: Kent Stutzman received two free training CD-ROM programs that are available to anyone who would like to borrow them.

Advocacy: There was discussion about how to make HAM Radio more visible and exciting to non-HAMs. Bob Harder used to have HAM Radio classes at Hesston College for students and community members, and he is hoping after his sabbatical next year to start the class again.

Bob Harder and Nelson Kilmer are working on a 2-person Worked All States, maybe even all the Canadian Provinces. Over the holidays Bob and Lorna Harder flew to Las Vegas and drove to California to make contact #40, then over Hoover Dam for contact #41 in Arizona. The last contact will probably be Hawaii. Bob thinks this will be the first ever Worked All States between the same two people.

Meeting adjourned 10:14am.