A meeting to discuss the formation of an amateur radio club in the Macedon Ranges area was held in Woodend on 21 November 2009 at which a Steering Committee was formed with all present to be committee members.
Two further Steering Committee meetings were held in February and March 2010 at which Peter VK3TQ was asked to be Acting President, Graeme VK3NE to be Acting Secretary and Peter VK3RV to be Acting Treasurer until the Inaugural public meeting was held.
During this time the Steering Committee had located a suitable venue at the Scout Hall in Woodend, prepared a preliminary budget and established a fee structure for recommendation to the Inaugural Meeting. Other matters investigated included suitable Club Insurance, affiliation with the WIA, possibility of obtaining VK3RA for the club, prepared a constitution based on the government’s “Model Rules” for consideration at the Inaugural Meeting, secured Domain Name mrarc.org.au for possible use by the club and registered the use of VK100WIA (100th Anniversary of WIA special callsign) by the club.
Kyneton HamFest
In an attempt to gain publicity for the proposed MRARC, the Steering Committee established a stand at the 2010 Amateur Radio Victoria, Kyneton HamFest held in February that year. Good interest was shown in the formation of a club in the area, and a number of expressions of interest were registered at Kyneton.
The club continued to participate in the Kyneton HamFest and signed up further members.
A lot of work had been handled by the committee, which enabled the new amateur radio club to become an entity and fill an obvious need for such an organisation within the district quickly.
(These photographs taken at the 2013 HamFest).
The first organised club event was setting up a station at the scout Hall for VK100WIA, a special call sign and event celebrating 100 years of organised amateur radio in Australia in 2010.
Don’t forget to check out the page about VK100WIA activities.