In this issue: New hams news, website changes and new online calendar, volunteer updates, and notice about the Annual General Meeting on June 11th.
New hams news
New hams welcome package
Our Spring 2025 Basic Amateur Radio Course will be finishing up soon and many will be writing their ISED exam. If you pass the ISED exam within two months of finishing our course and have ordered your one-year OARC membership for just $1, then you are eligible for the OARC New Hams Radio Bundle Deal for $75 (valued at about $300). Details will be provided to the Winter 2025 graduates. The Fall 2024 course produced 20 new hams and most of them took advantage of our radio deal.
“Come meet the new hams” BBQ and group photo June 28th
EVERYONE is invited to come out and meet our new hams and be part of the group photo. Click this link to learn more and to get your $5 BBQ ticket . Proceeds from the BBQ will go to the Scouts Canada National Museum.
When? Saturday, June 28, 2025 at 4:30pm (group photo at 4:45pm)
Where? Scouts Headquarters, 1345 Baseline Road
The OARC considers a “new ham” to be anyone who took our course and passed the exam in the past 2 years.
The BBQ coincides with OARC Field Day 2025 at the same location. Right beside our BBQ, experienced hams will be hard at work contacting as many stations as possible. Field Day has been an annual event since 1933 and is the most popular event in ham radio, attracting more than 31,000 hams throughout North America.
New hams can catch the excitement of Field Day and prepare themselves to possibly participate next year. We will have a Get On The Air (GOTA) station for new hams, where an experienced ham will guide you through the process. And the OARC gets Field Day points for any new hams who make contacts on that station. Learn more about OARC Field Day 2025.
Communications update
New online OARC calendar
The OARC website now features an interactive online calendar with all our Club activities, community events, courses and workshops. The moment we have a date for something, it will appear in the calendar. You can click the event to learn more and find the link inside to register. If it is not in the calendar, we do not have a date for it yet.
We hope the calendar will make it easier for you to see what is going on and get involved. Watch for possible workshops on soldering, kit building, fox hunting, and maybe even pico ballooning! I am looking for workshop leaders with a keen interest in seeing these succeed to help me get them off the ground.
Website refresh
We have regrouped information on the OARC website under the four goals in our 2025-28 Strategic Plan (Education, Equipment, Activities, and Partnerships). You will see these displayed on four tiles on the OARC home page. Click the tiles to see a page with general information on that area, specifically:
- Education has general information on all our courses and workshops
- Equipment has information about the OARC repeaters and the beacon
- Activities has general information on Club activities and community events, and
- Partnerships has more on the Club’s community partners and the things we are doing together.
Anything with a specific date will now appear in the new online calendar. Watch the calendar for specific courses, workshops, OARC activities and community events. Each will have a link to register.
We have also cleaned up these pages:
About Us: OARC description, management team, Bylaws, Strategic Plan 2025-28, and Operational Plan 2025-26.
Membership: Join the OARC or renew your membership
OARC Newsletter: subscribe or update your subscription profile, or review the archive
Volunteer: All our urgent, short-term, and longer-term volunteer opportunities in one place **NEW**
FAQs: Frequently asked questions and their answers
Contact Us: An easy online form for you to get in touch with your Club
Let us know what you think – use the new “Contact Us”!
Volunteer updates
Website Administrator – Thank you Neil and Welcome Eve!
Neil Herber VE3PUE, has recently stepped down as our Website Administrator, a job that he did tirelessly for many years. Neil designed and maintained our site, writing and editing content, driving the twice-monthly newsletter, wrangling columnists, providing IT support, and performing many other vital, often invisible tasks. I have been personally very grateful for his support, especially through the Pandemic, and through a period where the Club has been going through so much change. Neil will continue in the IT support role, trouble-shooting problems with the website, maintaining our club email server, and more.
Please join me in offering a warm welcome to our new Website Administrator, Eve Panagapko. Eve is an Amateur Radio enthusiast who took our course with Harrie and is currently studying to write her exam (Go, Eve, go!) Eve has experience with web and graphic design, writing and editing, and has a great sense of user experience. She contributed to a major project to migrate all the reports and data for the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) to a new website, which included designing, updating and modernizing technical graphics such as diagrams and charts depicting various climate data. You will already see evidence of Eve’s expertise in some of the changes on the OARC website.
Eve: Thank you for being our new Website Administrator.
New volunteer web page
As I mentioned above, there is now a Volunteer webpage on the OARC website. There, you will find all our urgent, short-term, and longer-term volunteer opportunities in one place.
Our URGENT NEED section currently has three roles for OARC Carp Hamfest on September 6, 2025. The three roles are:
- Vendor and exhibitor relations
- Venue logistics
- Volunteer coordination
All three roles start immediately and will benefit from expert coaching from Ed Sich, who has been delivering Hamfest since 2007.
Please check the Volunteer page regularly to see all the ways you can help your club continue to deliver all the courses, workshops and activities you have come to enjoy. I will highlight the urgent ones in this section of The Prez Sez, when needed.
Club business
Annual General Meeting on June 11th
The OARC Annual General Meeting (AGM) will be held on Wednesday, June 11th, in place of our regular Monthly Meeting – same time, same place (Scouts Headquarters, 1345 Baseline Road). There will be a Zoom feed.
Everyone is welcome to attend the AGM but only members in good standing are eligible to vote—that is, they must have renewed their membership through the Zeffy Platform between June 1, 2024, and May 31, 2025. The Board will recognize all such members as eligible voters. Voters must attend in person. Voting by Zoom will not be possible.
At the AGM, you will review the Annual Report and Financial Statements for last year. This has been a busy year of renewal and growth!
You will also elect the Directors for next year. I am pleased to report that all current Board members have agreed to stand for re-election. The slate is as follows:
President – Roger Egan – VA3EGY
Vice President – Harrie Jones – VE3HYS
Secretary – Ryan Klomp – VA3WSO
Treasurer – Daniel Boulet – VA3GLB
Director at large – Ed Sich – VE3WGO
We will also look ahead at the 2025-26 Operational Plan and Budget. We have great plans for next year.
I am looking forward to seeing you all in person at the AGM on June 11th. All the meeting materials will be available shortly in the AGM item in the online calendar. Watch for the AGM in the online calendar and please register using the link so we will know you are coming. This helps us arrange the correct number of chairs and bring sufficient snacks.
All my best and 73,
Roger Egan VA3EGY
The Prez
Last Updated on 2025-06-03 by Joannadanna