N5FDL Amateur Radio

People sometimes wonder how they can judge the impact their group is making in their community. Here’s an anecdotal measurement tool: How easily can you get rooms to hold your trainings and meetings in?

When I was first starting a club in my community, getting a room was a big deal. The city wanted insurance and rent—and didn’t seem to understand that groups don’t wake up on their first morning incorporated, insured, and tax exempt. We ended up meeting at Starbucks. (We also do on-demand VE sessions there).

Today—a few years later—I can get all the rooms I need for free, without insurance, and we’re still not incorporated. What happened? Served agencies got interested in us, we helped served agencies, and the rest is the magic of relationships.

Here are some thoughts about rooms:

I love hospitals and hate schools. Hospitals have lots of meeting rooms. Schools also have lots of meeting rooms. Hospitals are open 24/7 so access is not a problem and they have large cleaning crews. Schools are open during school hours and occasional evenings and they have cleaning crews that charge extra to lock up after the meeting ends. Many public buildings are only slightly more available than schools. (I bet if we had schools as served agencies, I’d like them more—and have better access).

How did we get connected with hospitals? We trained their folks as hams and coordinate their emergency communications. We are part of the family.

Plan early. Clean-up after yourselves. Try not to bug people—which we did the first time we setup a station outside the hospital during a HamCram. Security didn’t like us propping a door open so we could get back in. That has since been worked out, but it’s something to be aware of. Early planning may be necessary to get onto the the schedule.

Did I mention hospitals are open on Saturdays? I am writing this from a HamCram at Sutter Tracy Community Hospital, our host for several of these events. (We have two hospital folks in the HamCram today—family, remember?)

In your community, it may be a library or senior center or even a council chamber that is most easily available—we’ve done things in all three. As well as a new county-owned conference center.

Also, there seem to be “education service centers” all over the place. This is where teachers go to get trained. The one here is a big building filled with meeting rooms of different sizes. I have attended someone else’s training there, but we haven’t used the facility ourselves.