[MLB-WIRELESS] Committee Report for Tonight's Meeting

[Dan Flett]

Hi Guys,

Here's the Committee Report which will be given at tonight's General Meeting

Membership Cards
The Committee has decided to start sending out membership cards to current
financial members.  This is to make financial members get a true feeling of
belonging to the association, and to make the member discount program work.
It was decided not to automatically mail out cards to new members as the
postage cost is a significant percentage of the membership fee.  New members
will have the option of having the card mailed to them for $1 postage and
handling, otherwise they can pick their card up at a meeting or opt to
receive no card.

Donations
The Committee discussed the suggested donations because on a number of
occasions last year the donations were not covering the cost of hiring the
hall.  Also, some attendees were not paying for their BBQ food or drinks.
The Committee Decided to make the suggested donation $2 upon entry, and to
try to enforce the $1 snag, $1 drink price at the BBQ.

Workshops
Previous attempts at workshops failed because of attempting to dual-use the
hall for social activities and workshops at the same time - i.e. the noise
from each drowned the other out.  The Committee asks that for the Summer
months at least, attendees involved in social conversations and activities
please remain outside near the BBQ whilst the workshops are running.
Pending the success of this arrangement, the Committee will revisit this
plan for the Winter months.

Member Discounters
We are currently seeking to expand the Melbourne Wireless Member Discount
Programme.  Could any member who knows of a business that might be
interested in becoming a Melbourne Wireless Member Discounter please contact
committee at melbournewireless.org.au

Long Shot Attempt
It was great to see the surge of interest in the WiFi World Record Longshot
attempt about 18 months ago, but disappointing that noting came of it.  The
Committee want to revive interest in this project - maybe not as a World
Record, but possibly as an Australian record.  We want to find out about the
longest WiFi longshots in Australia, and the circumstances.  When we have
some reliable stats, we will list the most impressive of them on the
Melbourne Wireless homepage.  At the moment, the longest we know of is 100km
- the link between Melbourne Wireless nodes JEE in Geelong and ILE in
Kallista.  Well done Melb_AP!

Hope to see you all tonight at the meeting - 7pm at the Hawthorn Scout Hall.

The April Meeting will take place on Friday 13th April, same time, same
place.

Cheers,

Dan Flett
President
Melbourne Wireless