The State of the Hamfest The Greater Houston Hamfest marches on! The clock is ticking and as many of you directly involved already know things are underway.
The hamfest general meeting was and will be tentatively following the board of directors meetings. I would encourage all of those interested in a general briefing about hamfest matters or would like to voice their opinions please come and be heard. For each of you that have taken on the major roles of hamfest, I have spoken to most of you one on one and will continue to do so. If you have not heard from me yet please stand by. As we are moving forward we are getting more information and I will be in contact soon. So ladies and gentlemen, here is where we stand! ARRL STATUS: We have filed for and approved by the ARRL to be the South Texas convention this year. Before you all ask, yes the Texas State Convention status has moved to Austin. We have been assured that this is a normal rotation for the Texas Convention and it will return to BVARC in a year or two. GHH WEBSITE: If you have not recently visited the website please stop by and check out new and improved version Eddie Runner has been working on! This page is the public face of the GHH and is perhaps the single most important ingredient to enhance attendance. The new site is in a format that is adaptable to our needs in the future and allow for other BVARC webmasters to follow in Eddies footsteps someday. There are still a few bugs to work out and modifications to be made. Please send any feedback to Eddie and/or me. Additional benefits of the new website include the pre-event vendor sales and the other direct marketing strategies. Thanks to Eddie for all your hard work. The site is looking great! NEW HAMFEST EXHIBITORS: The GHH has welcomed Joe Taylor and now Riley Hollingsworth as keynote speakers, this has attracted some much needed attention from some people we have been after for many years. As it stands today we have a verbal commitment form ICOM for the 2016 GHH. This has come after much negotiation and coordination. We are looking forward to welcoming ICOM and I'm sure we all would like to see some of their newer products. Our discussions with ICOM have also produced an un-expected contact, The Radio Club of America describes its self as the oldest, most prestigious assembly of radio communications professionals in the world. Its members are dedicated to the wireless art and science for the betterment of public safety, broadcasting, cellular and the uniting of people through innovation and technical advancement. RCA is based out of Kinnelon, NJ and been around since at least 1907. The current vice president of the RCA Board of directors, Carroll Hollingsworth while not related to Riley Hollingsworth is a close friend and RCA has also tentatively agreed to join us in Rosenberg. I will look forward to a great partnership! Michael Wrenn has been busy lining up the commercial vendors with the new building and giving them the personal touch with regards to the location each vendor occupies and any special arraignments they require. Before anyone asks as of this writing Ham Radio Outlet is still "thinking about it" but I hope they will accept our offer to join us for 2016. TABLE SALES: The general table sales will be available soon. The format for this year has changed some. General table sales will be reserved on payment and assigned their space upon arrival. This is in response to the many vendors that were not able to attend last year's GHH leaving many holes in the otherwise sold out floor plan. This assignment strategy is successfully used at many other tradeshows and conventions locally and nationally and I am sure the hamfest goers will adjust. Additional policy's regarding admission with a table have been made. All prices for a vendor table will include a special breakdown of table costs, power, and admissions, each block of tables will require the buyer to include admission costs to avoid the person who purchased a table or two to arrive at our door and be faced with the unexpected cost to "get in". We hope this arraignment will prevent future misunderstandings. DOOR AND RAFFLE PRIZES: The differences between 2015 GHH Door prize vs table sales will be made clearer in 2016. Here it is in plain English, the DOOR PRIZES are awarded on Saturday only, on a schedule, and available to any person who passes thru the gate at GHH. You must be in attendance at each drawing to claim your prize. Only a single ticket is given to each visitor. This gives an equal chance to all attendees at the GHH to win a prize. You cannot purchases additional door prize tickers. The RAFFLE PRIZES are sold 1 ticket for 1 dollar and you can by as many as you like. As the Texas law has been explained to me, the following rules must be enforced: The ticket must contain some printed information about the raffle and the price of each ticket. The tickets cannot be sold statewide, meaning the raffle tickets cannot be sold through the web site and therefore must be sold at the GHH. The price of a ticket is 1 dollar and cannot be given away or sold for less than the advertised price. All the winners of the Raffle must be published (website) and need not be present to win. (Language we have all heard before) More information about this will be made available through the new and improved website as soon as it is approved. SPEAKERS: The Greater Houston Hamfest as nearly always has more qualified speakers than places for them to speak. I will be reaching out to Allen, N5XZ to help sort out the speakers soon. If you know of anyone who is interested in presenting a new or exciting topic please contact Allen or myself. We are hoping to capitalize on our growing success by deepening our pool of speakers to help the GHH stand out amongst the other hamfests and become a true convention known as a place to hear about what our great hobby offers. VOLUNTEERS: The GHH has always been a volunteer run organization. BVARC depends on the success of the GHH for its financial well-being. As such it is clear the need for able body volunteers is key to the job that is GHH. It has been made clear to me that there is a need for a person to help coordinate volunteers. Therefore, I am searching for someone who is willing to take on recruiting and placing the volunteer staff. To encourage participation and enhance the GHH experience we are working on a plan to have shirts for volunteers and offer free admission to the volunteer staff. This process will be aided by the website and changes in the free admission policy. The GHH as always is a huge undertaking and with your help will again be a huge success! There is a ton of thigs to cover and you can all expect to hear more from me soon. Thanks to all and to all a good night. Nathan, N5NYV
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