Field Day Bulletin #3
June 2, 2010
All,
Field Day is now less than one month away! We, your Field Day team, are hard at work making sure we continue to have better and better events. This year, it seems operators are at a premium. We still have plenty of operating slots available on all stations. Please volunteer to operate a station for an hour or two or ten! I will have a composite operating schedule posted to the NFARL web site in the next couple of days showing open slots. And please keep in mind something I've said repeatedly over the last three years: just because someone else signed up for the time slot and station you want to operate doesn't mean you can't, too. Also, you can operate at as many or as few stations that you qualify for as you want to. If you qualify for GOTA, you could work the GOTA station, plus the other three phone stations if you like. Or, you can choose to operate just one station. The choice is totally yours. Please contact the station captains for the station(s) you want to operate and let them know when you'll be there. They will get you on the schedule. Captains are listed on the Field Day portion of the club web site.
Another key area where we also need volunteers is with shift captains, runners, talk-in volunteers, and greeters. These are all key support personnel who help keep our operation running. Shift captains are responsible for helping out on-site with things like keeping generators fueled, doing safety checks, getting coffee for operators, etc., when the Field Day chair or other officials are off-site or otherwise occupied (which is basically the entire event). Runners are the folks who will take care of any off-site errands - fuel refills, ice, coffee, sodas, etc. Greeters make sure everyone who comes to the site gets a friendly NFARL "Hello" and gets signed in. Talk-in ops make sure our lost guests get directions to the park. Clyde McClain, KJ4MIJ, is organizing these positions. Please contact him at kj4mij at arrl dot net to volunteer for one of these critical opportunities.
As has become NFARL tradition, we'll have a great picnic for Saturday night dinner. The club will provide the Spiced Right barbecue, hamburgers, hot dogs, and condiments, as well as family-friendly beverages. We ask club members to please provide sides and desserts. Lynn Kahn, KJ4DYH, is in charge of the food festivities this year. Please RSVP to her at kj4dyh at nfarl dot org and let her know if you're coming, how many in your party, and what you'll bring to share with the rest of the club. And please remember, we are guests in a City of Roswell Park and having a family-friendly event. Please no alcohol!
Once again the club will sponsor a Field Day attendance raffle and a photo contest. The attendance raffle prize this year is a Stoney River Steak House gift certificate. The appropriate committees are still determining the prize for the photo contest, but it will be something worthwhile. Photos from past contests grace our web site, the Yahoo! group home page, and even played a part in NFARL winning Club of the Year. So please keep those Field Day photos coming, as you have in years past.
Finally, I want to thank Jim Paine, N4SEC, for all the hard work he does on publicity and getting us recognized by our local municipalities. He is hard at work getting Field Day information on local community calendars, into newspapers, and on the broadcast media. Rumor also has it that the City of Roswell is issuing a Field Day proclamation this year. Stay tuned here for more information on that.
This bulletin has gotten long, so I'll wrap it up now. Please remember, there are many ways for you to volunteer and be a part of one of the best Field Day events in the country. Let's keep NFARL near the top!
73,
Ian, AK4IK
