The End of an Era

3/25/07
In a few days, Kentucky's ARRL Section Manager, John Meyers, NB4K and ARES Section Emergency Coordinator Ron Dodson, KA4MAP will be retiring. After six and eight years service respectively in the positions, they offerred thoughts on their experience. For this report, let's let them speak for themselves without editing.

Meyer's shared his thoughts:
Well it has been a thrilling awe-inspiring six years for me and I hope for you. I have given 100% to every part of being a Section Manager and can give surety to you that I have had your interest at heart both as the Section Manager and the member of Great Lakes Division committee. I know that there were disagreeable decisions and am sure not everyone was totally happy with some of the outcomes to those decisions but they were made with the utmost respect to the members of the Commonwealth and for the betterment for amateur radio.

I can only hope that you will sustain the same support to the next Section Manager Jim Brooks, KY4Z with the esteem and admiration that you have shown me. I look forward to seeing all of you in the future at hamfest with this twist. I will then only be a dues paying member such as you. I truly appreciate each and every member of the Kentucky Section Staff of which I wouldn’t have been able to do the job without. Kentucky doesn’t have to take a back seat to any other section as it has eminence graceful leaders and people who have a deep concern, respect and gratification for the hobby. It also has people who know the meaning of integrity and gracefulness.

To the many clubs who looked to me for some type of guidance or wisdom I appreciate your support and meaningful anticipation for the future of the hobby and your club or society. It has been an uplifting experience to have visited each club in the Commonwealth. Knowing that there is a cultural difference between the east and west and the north and south and maintaining those difference for the common good of the hobby. What a blessed experience to have been invited to each organization, one I will always treasurer and respect, all the while learning how to respect the differences we each have in the hobby.

To sum it all up, all I can do is thank each and every one of you for the best six years of my amateur life. I will treasurer it remember it and assuredly never forget it. May God Bless each and every one of you through the coming years. May my predecessor have as much approval and satisfying term(s) as he chooses? I only ask that you treat him as well as I was treated and received.

Thank You All For The Memories

Dodson shared his thoughts.
"It has been an interesting eight years for me. As Section Emergency Coordinator of your Kentucky Amateur Radio Emergency Service it was both a happy and a sad position for me to assist outgoing SM John Meyers,
NB4K and incoming SM Jim Brooks, KY4Z in presiding just once more for the Ky Section ARES Meeting during the Cave City Hamfest on March 3, 2007. I was so pleased to see the turn out that filled every chair in the room and made us go in search of more as the chairs curled around the side and toward the front of the room.

I told the assembly that eight years ago in 1999 at this very same hamfest I was told by one ham that. "no one cared" and that to try further to revitalize the program was pointless. He said he gave me six months. Well friends, we beat that just a tad; by 7.5 years! Now, in 2007, the interest and enthusiasm is still out there and is still growing! Starting with 711 members in the last month of 1998, we ended Feb. 2007 with a membership roll of 1,111; an increase of 400 state-wide!

With the help of many of those people in the room as well as others like Pat Spencer, KD4PWL, Scott Thile, K4SET and Fred Jones, WA4SWF who could not attend; WE ALL, together turned it around. Former SEC, Craig Still, N4CQR left me a solid foundation when I took over as SEC. Together, we built our current program upon it. I thanked them all and as well as all those unable to be there for their help. As Pat Spencer, KD4PWL pointed out Friday night March 2nd over the phone, "we could not have done it without any one of us." It was a group effort and I was merely fortunate enough to simply be the pilot for the voyage.

It was always an emotional thing to stand up front and honor all those as we have each year. Giving the awards annually has always been a special time for me. When I started out, I felt that some recognition was needed for those volunteers who had dedicated so much of their time (187,312.86 man hours in 8 years) toward ARES. Thus began as you know the Operator of the Year Awards (OOTY's) and later the Lifetime Achievement Awards (LAA's) as we decided a few years back to further recognize those long term commitments many had repeatedly reaffirmed though the years. Let me now also thank all those who served through the years on the 8 selection committees to go through all the nominations, weigh each contribution and name winners and Certificate of Merit recipients. Knowing that this hamfest was the last chance I would have to do this made it an almost overwhelming event.

I know that a few will say that I always gave awards to my friends. In many ways I plead guilty to that. In working as hard as all eight years of our recipients did to earn their recognition, all too often I did come to know and even become friends with those who received awards either before or after. (Just as I became friends with a certain computer whiz (our KyHam webmaster Pat) who wrote me a letter about the time I was first appointed wanting to know if he could help!) When you work that closely on such important projects it is hard not too. You all know what I mean.

Fred Jones was the only one not able to receive his award in person this year and so John, NB4K came up with the idea to call Fred so he could be a part of the presentation via speakerphone to hear what was said and the applause he received! I hope that our OOTY and LAA winners from all years will fondly remember the day they received their awards and why they were chosen. I know that I sure will.

Kentucky is blessed with so much talent and ability. By finding these people and letting them do what they do best, we built this program to the point it is many times a benefit to other states as well as other nations. Some good examples are both the KyARES Condensed EMCOMM Study Course http://www.kyham.net/emcomm/training/kytest.html and the KEN Training Archive. Amateurs all across the country take the Ky training course. The labor of Ron Goodpaster, AG4TY working with Pat Lambert, W0IPL to bring it to Kentucky and shape it into the program it is, made it free and simple for anyone interested to increase their EMCOMM knowledge base. While it is not as involved as the courses offered by ARRL, it provides a stepping stone to allow amateurs to gain a basic foothold upon which they can build.

The training articles in the KEN Archive http://www.kyham.net/library.html#emcomm is used in many states far removed from Kentucky on local and regional nets as well as in other countries around the world! Amateurs from New Zealand, Australia, Japan; countries in Europe and in Asia have all contacted me over the years wanting permission to pass this info around to their local hams. As always this information is free to anyone/anywhere in the hope it might be helpful. I also thank the other states who shared some of their good material with us through the years.

All these thoughts flooded into me as I tried to illustrate to those assembled on March 3, 2007 the impact we in Kentucky have made in just eight years. I told them to think about this the next time some international disaster occurs that OUR work may well have been used by some of the amateurs providing the only point of contact in the far flung, affected areas as a part of their preparation for the task they now performed! What an awesome legacy!

Best of all, there is no reason why it should stop here. KyARES will still be here! I am merely stepping aside March 31, 2007 for new blood and someone with more time to lead the program. I will still be here as will everyone else to contribute where I can. As time and inspiration allows I will continue to create the occasional new training article for KEN or some new PowerPoint Show for ham clubs and ARES groups to use in their gatherings and training sessions. The new Emergency Communications and Messaging Workshop is a good example. My paying jobs (I now hold down 2) are continually placing new demands on my time and it is best that someone not so constrained assume the lead. I will work with whoever replaces me in the lead to assure a smooth transition. In fact a separate e-mail will contain some observations and thoughts on the program now and looking toward the future.

It has been a fun, frustrating, rewarding and at times a scary responsibility to be the SEC of Kentucky from 1999-2007. To that I will add, I would not have missed it for the world! As NB4K has also said, it will stay with me the rest of my life. Every victory and every hardship. So many friends in and outside Kentucky that I have made along the way will remain with me in the days to come. Friends I would never had made without being first a part of the amateur radio service and serving you as your SEC! Old friends and team members that we have lost along the way will continue to live on in our memories. Think of all that WE as a team have done! Working together, we made it through Y2K, 9/11, countless tornadoes and storms, snows, floods, hazardous materials incidents and waterway spills, E-911 breakdowns, plane crashes/searches and even became better prepared for earthquakes and terrorism along the way. Hardly a month goes by that some part of the state does not receive assistance from a KyARES group in communications or technical support
for a public service event or an exercise or two!

Kentucky is not a boring place. Kentucky is both a diverse land and a caring land. A place where your neighbor is not only the family who lives next door. While serving as your SEC, all of Kentucky has been my neighbor these last eight years. I thank you all for giving me the chance to serve you! It has been a once in a lifetime privilege."

Editors Note:
Gentlemen, thank you for your years of effort for amateur radio in Kentucky. Over the years we have tackled many projects and problems together. Believe me when I say, the pleasure was all mine. Being a small part of such a great team was very rewarding.