[Rfu-station] Station Update: tower news, training and more

[Andrew Ó Baoill]

MEETING(S)
Our next general meeting is this Saturday at 1pm. Lavana Hawkins will  
be facilitating.
We will have some working group meetings before and after the meeting.  
Finance will meet at 12, Outreach and Automation at 2. Membership and  
Tech have not yet announced upcoming meetings.
Remember that all members are expected to be active in at least one  
working group - attending a meeting is the first step; we'll also be  
signing people up to the relevant mailing lists.

TRAINING
We'll be announcing upcoming sessions shortly. We expect to provide  
training late Friday afternoon, as well as Saturday afternoon  
(probably from 3pm, maybe earlier), as well as some sessions next  
week. Remember that all members must undergo retraining in order to  
remain on air. If you are an existing member having difficulties  
attending any of the scheduled retraining sessions please let me know.

VOLUNTEERS NEEDED
We need volunteers for the following. Let me know if you can help:
* Farmers' Market Saturday 20th. 8-10am and 10am-12 midday.
* T-shirt production
* Facilitating initial meetings of our finance and outreach working  
groups
* More trainers would be useful, and help us finish our re-training  
process more quickly.
* Coordinating training sessions. I'd welcome anyone willing to take  
over the scheduling of training sessions and sign-up of attendees for  
those sessions.

TAKING CARE OF EQUIPMENT
* Do not draw on our equipment or surfaces. It permanently damages our  
facilities, and can project a poor image to the public, as well as new  
and existing members, perhaps contributing to our next issue:

At some point in the past 2-3 weeks the dial on our Gemini Pro-CD  
(which controls the fast-forward and scratch capabilities) was damaged  
- it appears to have been pulled away from the front of the casing.  
This raises two issues:
* All damage to equipment must be notified to the Tech list.
* We do not have a budget for regular repair and replacement of  
equipment like CD players. Please take care when using equipment. We  
are jointly responsible for stewardship of these limited resources.

TOWER FUND UPDATE
We've received a new formal quote for a 100 foot tower - $13,500. In  
addition, we'll need to build a concrete base, which will cost at  
least several thousand dollars, perhaps as much as $10,000 when labor  
and equipment are included. Thus, the total cost of the project will  
be between $17,000 and $23,000.

We have already raised over $7,000 towards our tower, and have  
recently submitted a grant application that could provide us with up  
to $12,000. On Saturday, at our Finance meeting, we will discuss ways  
to raise the remainder of the costs, including launching an  
underwriting program. Please attend, or sign up to the RFU-finance  
list in order to be part of this discussion.

We have also recently submitted a grant application that may fund a  
replacement mixer for our studio - allowing our existing mixer to be  
moved to the production room and made available for pre-recording  
shows, among other uses.