NARC 2018 Annual Meeting Report

Steve Raymer led his final NARC Annual Meeting as president of the club this year, on September 9, 2018. While watching him run the meeting in his normal entertaining way, I was realizing that things are changing and we're all going to miss him up there at our future meetings. He was NARC's president for the past 11 years and has also retired from his position at the Pavek Museum. Thank You Steve.

Things were different at the Pavek Museum too, with the storage room being renovated to expand the amount of museum area that will be open to the public, and eliminating the For Sale items we have always enjoyed buying prior to every meeting at the museum. Alex Bakken told the group about the changes at the museum and said a large portion of their funding from Medtronic may be ending soon and so they are looking for new funding sources. Medtronic apparently is now more interested in donating globally, to increase their global recognition, than to donate locally. Alex also wants to figure out who to direct small equipment donors to so that their items can go to someone who wants them rather than into the garbage. The idea of NARC handling this was discussed at this meeting, and also at a previous NARC Board planning meeting, but NARC does not have any storage space and also a large percentage of donations, from the museum's experience, is actually junk that they have to pay to dispose of. Please contact a NARC officer if you have ideas about this.

Greg Farmer announced the election results for 2018-19 club officers and also gave a brief financial summary, first explaining that membership last year remained at 178 members, the same as the year before. Financially, NARC is doing well, with almost exactly the same amount in the bank as this time last year, after taking into account some expenses that had been paid last year that hadn't been paid yet this year at the time of the meeting. Income is largely from membership dues, with the Radio Daze and the Fall swap meet each adding a few hundred dollars. Expenses include printing, postage, hospitality food, post office box, insurance, bank fees, office supplies, and a donation to the Pavek Museum.

Jim Thompson recapped the Radio Daze 2018 meet and thanked Steve Raymer for getting John Hines to be the featured speaker and for putting together the video presentation that John used. Jim also thanked Mary for her suggestion and the extra effort on her part to sell auction bid numbers as a part of pre-registration. Overall, it was a very good Radio Daze meet. Jim has reserved the hotel for May 17-18, 2019 for Radio Daze 2019.

Steve Raymer asked everyone who brought an item they had found recently to tell us about it. Items brought included a Clapp-Eastham HR battery radio found at the Cambridge Minnesota Antique Fair, a GE transistor radio and also a transistor radio that looked like a 1930s Lincoln automobile, a GE World Monitor radio, a circa 1923 carbon microphone, a Philco Pagoda model PT-61, and a little Mickey Mouse transistor radio made by Gabriel Toy Company. It's always interesting to see what others have found. The Clapp Eastham HR was voted the most popular item so its owner won a door prize. A big thanks to all of you for sharing!

Kip Wallace is commended for again bringing pop and snacks for everyone and we want to thank him for continuing to do this every year, especially since he's just doing it until we find a someone to officially be responsible for hospitality at our events. (Please volunteer to help!) The meeting closed with a round of applause for Steve Raymer's service to the club these past eleven years.