Over the last week, we lost Jeff Blythe, KA4WYC and Bill Turner, W4WNT.  Please keep their families in your prayers through these difficult times.

I’m acting as club president for now, but after reading the by-laws, I believe that we need to have a Special Election at the next club meeting, which is this coming Saturday January 8th, at the Salvation Army, 501 Archdale Drive, in Charlotte.  Jeff had scheduled the meeting for 9:30 AM, but since we are no longer conducting the test session, we will not be under any pressure to finish early.

I am willing to take Jeff’s place as president, but it appears that I have to be elected to take his place, and in turn, a special election will need to also be held for vice-president.

Our agenda, therefore, will have to potentially deal with several items:

• Special elections for club officer vacancies
• Discussion of the W4CQ VE team – a new VE team leader will be needed
• Proposed meeting schedule for 2022
  • Meet via Zoom for regular meetings, perhaps on Saturday morning
  • Meet for a social lunch two weeks later at John’s Family Restaurant
  • The social lunch would not be an official club meeting
• Discuss club activities for 2022 (Winter Field Day, Field Day, NC/SC QSO Party)
• If the pandemic ends, we can move away from Zoom back to the Salvation Army

Also, representatives from the Charlotte Hamfest will be on hand to sell tickets.

See you there!

Shawn Goodin, K4RSG

Did you know that you can generate donations to the Club while shopping at Amazon, at no extra cost? Simply start your shopping at smile.amazon.com/ch/58-1695681 to confirm “Charlotte Amateur Radio Corporation” as your charity of choice, and Amazon Smile will donate a portion of your eligible purchase price to our organization.

W4CQ has now been established as a charity within the Amazon Smile program. If you shop on Amazon, you can choose W4CQ (Charlotte Amateur Radio Corporation) as your designated charity. It does not change the amount you pay to Amazon. Amazon then makes a donation to your chosen charity, which is our Club.

Note that if you use Amazon from your phone or mobile device, Amazon Smile must be set up separately for that device. Enabling Smile on the web browser does not enable it from the mobile device.

To set it up, point your browser to smile.amazon.com and look in the upper left for “Amazon Smile”. Click that, and when the next page appears, you can choose (or change) the charity to be “Charlotte Amateur Radio Corporation”. If you have any difficulties or questions, please contact Ed Prentice K4EGP.ham@GMail.com.

The Charlotte Amateur Radio Club is a qualified 501(c)(3) non-profit organization. This means that donations to the Club are tax-deductible.

To attain this status, we have to meet certain requirements. The types of organizations that can meet these these requirements include the following:

• Religious
• Charitable
• Scientific
• Testing for Public Safety
• Literary
• Educational
• Fostering of national or international amateur sports
• Prevention of cruelty to animals and children

We meet several of the criteria, but our primary focus is educational, with additional focus on testing for Public Safety (Field Day and other operational events) and scientific experimentation.

We certainly enjoy visiting with each other at meetings, but our primary focus must be with those activities that validates our status as a non-profit organization.

if you have ideas for a Club meeting topic, or if there is something you want to learn more about, please get your ideas to Mike Miranda or any other Club officer.

This Club is here for YOU, and we need YOU to help us all succeed.

Dues for 2022 need to be paid by January 31 2022. If you’ve already paid your dues, THANKS! You can now pay your dues electronically by going to HamClubOnline.com and entering the CARC section.  Among the options is the capability to extend your membership.  You can then use PayPal to send in your renewal.

You can also renew your membership here with PayPal at our renewal page.

If you have a question or issue, send an email to officers@w4cq.org and we’ll help you out.

If for some reason you prefer not to pay online, please fill out the printable application for membership and send it in right away to get your membership status up to date.

Dues are only $30 per year for an individual, or $35 for an entire family!

Remember, YOU are an integral part of the club and your dues permit us to finance our activities. We have several recurring bills (website, liability insurance, phone, etc.) that are paid for entirely by the club dues. Don’t keep putting it off!

If you decide to renew or apply by mail, please make your check payable to “Charlotte Amateur Radio Club” and mail it to Ed Prentice K4EGP, PO Box 78194, Charlotte, NC 28271-7027 (Do not mail anything to 501 Archdale Dr., The Salvation Army HQ!)

If you have not signed into HamClubOnline to look at the Charlotte Amateur Radio Club (CARC) there, I urge you to do so.