WIA Conference Weekend - Annual General Meeting

On Saturday 25 May 2019 the WIA held its Annual General Meeting at the Park Royal Motel in Darling Harbour, Sydney.

The meeting opened at 9:15am with a welcome to all those attending and following the attendees and apologies the meeting held a minute's silence for those members who became Silent Key over the last year (May 18-May 19). Of note there were the Life Members of the WIA who became Silent Key: Jim Linton VK3PC, John Adcock VK3ACA and Joe Gelston VK7JG.

The minutes of the last AGM were displayed and accepted and then came the President's Address. This address covered the last year of the WIA and included are the following comments from the address:

The new Board took on the task of rebuilding and stabilising the WIA and this has been successful from a finance and administration perspective. We have been able to deliver a small surplus in 2018 and the 2019 budget indicates a small deficit in the 2019 year, in spite of a forecast spending of over $50,000 sending delegates to the World Radio Conference. The WIA will continues to vigorously advocate and educate the regulator to ensure that they are fully aware of their obligations in the amateur service space.

Membership, however, is still a work in progress, as the WIA only attracted 191 new members in 2018 and we sadly lost over 50 members who became silent keys. Using the 151 affiliated clubs and the insurance coverage that the WIA facilitates demonstrates that the WIA only represents one third of the amateur radio population in VK. To enable the WIA as the National Amateur Representative body to approach and work with the government and the regulator to the benefit of the hobby, we need strong representative membership. This will be a continuing challenge for the new Board.

Towards the end of 2018 the ACMA tendered for assessment and call sign services and the WIA Education Group submitted a comprehensive and future focussed response that demonstrated how these services could be delivered in a more effective and efficient way to serve the amateur radio community. Unfortunately, the WIA was not successful and the Board considers this to be a lost opportunity with no net community benefit. The Board supports the diversification of assessment services as this enables the ACMA to more comprehensively meet their charter to supply amateur assessment services within Australia.

The Directors' report including the Financial and Audit report was presented to the meeting. In summary in 2018 there were:

25 Nominated Assessors, 221 Assessors and 51 Learning Facilitators

930 assessments undertaken

215 upgrades undertaken

608 Certificates of Proficiency issued; and,

1100 call sign recommendations made

The WIA returned a surplus of $23,134 following a deficit of $75,962 last year.

The Directors and Financial report was received by the members with unanimous affirmation. The election of the new and returning Directors was announced with new Director Mike Alsop VK8MA and returning directors Greg Kelly VK2GPK & Peter Clee VK8ZZ. Mr John Marshall was appointed as the Returning Officer.

Then Merit Awards were presented.

The GA Taylor medal was presented to Phil Wait VK2ASD, for services as President and Director of the national WIA for 14 years.

The Michael Owen Distinction Medal for 2016 was presented to Peter Wolfenden VK3RV, for services to amateur radio in relation to the preservation of amateur radio history in Australia.

The Ron Wilkinson Achievement Award was presented to Jim Tregellas VK5JST for the design of an affordable antenna analyser kit that has been build all over the world.

The following amateurs received Technical Excellence awards:

David Minchin VK5KK, Tim Dixon VK5ZT, and Iain Crawford VK5ZD for work in GHZ experimentation and record setting

Rex Moncur VK7MO for Digital weak signal Earth-Moon-Earth experimentation and record setting in the GHz bands

The following amateurs received President’s Commendation awards:

Michael Welsh VK2CCW for dedicated and disciplined support of the hobby, in particular the promotion and teaching of CW over many years.

Will McGhie VK6UU for services to the History and Archives Committee in scanning in copies of AR Magazine from 1933 to 2012.

Bob Robinson VK3SX for service to the WIA and the amateur radio community as Awards Manager for many years.

Graeme Scott VK2KE for developing amateur radio study guides and contribution to the VK3 Education Committee.

Dr Sasi Nayar VK5SN - long term trainer and WIA assessor for Amateur radio community in VK5.

Paul Hoffman VK5PH - long term involvement with the Scout Electronics Team and contributions to the Amateur radio community in VK5.

Barry Williams VK5BW - long term involvement in the promotion of amateur radio through the Adelaide Hills Amateur Radio Society and contribution to the Amateur radio community in VK5.

Publications Committee Awards

The Al Shawsmith Award went to Joseph Stephen VK5JKS for the best non-technical article published in 2018: Joseph Stephen VK5JKS for his article "The challenges of hamming blind" published in the March - April 2018 issue of Amateur Radio

The Amateur Radio Technical Award went to Dale Anderson VK4NBX for the best technical article published in 2018: Dale Anderson VK4NBX for his article "An alternative and affordable antenna elevator type mast" published in the January - February 2018 issue of Amateur Radio

The Higginbotham Award went to Joe Gonzales VK3YSP and Julie Gonzales VK3FOWL for the strong promotion of amateur radio to younger people through the School Amateur Radio Clubs program together with their many activities in the broader amateur community encouraging amateurs to engage with youngsters.

There were 29 Long Service Awards presented to Nominated Assessors, Assessor and Learning Facilitators and it was great to be able to present in person a Learning Facilitator award to Brian Farrar LF-002 at the AGM.

There was a vote of thanks given to all Committee Members, Nominated Assessors, Assessor, Learning Facilitators and volunteers of the WIA.

An announcement and slide show for the WIA Conference Weekend for 2020 was given and it will be held in Hobart, Tasmania and the theme will be the Antarctic Gateway. It will be held on 8-10 May 2020 and will be centred on the Best Western Motel - 156 Bathurst St Hobart.

The AGM was then closed and attendees enjoyed a morning tea.

The AGM and Open Forum was videoed and these videos will be available in the near future.

The picture included with this story is the presentation of the Michael Owen Distinction Medal to Peter Wolfenden VK3RV.

Page Last Updated: Monday 3 June 2019 at 15:5 hours by Justin Giles-clark

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