We had two great events in August. The Antique Car Run went very well. We even got a message from the organizers- they had heard from a lot of drivers that appreciated the presence of ham radio. They felt great that someone was there watching over them. A lot of us also helped at the Ojibwe Forest Rally. I wish I could have been to these events. I hope to hear some good activity reports at the next meeting.
Next weekend, Sept 11th, is one of our favorite events, the Osseo Lions Roar Parade. The Lions’ club has made all the arrangements, but they want to be in the parade. They delegate running the parade to us because we have radios. We also have the Twin Cities Marathon coming up, we need a lot of radio volunteers. More details for both events will be at the next meeting and are elsewhere in this issue.
Make sure you show up to this month’s meeting! It’s still on Zoom, but we’ll be setting up our board elections. The elections will be using ElectionRunner.com after the meeting, starting Weds Sept 8th at 8am to Fri Sept 10th at 7pm. We’re allowing a lot more time this year so we can fix bad email addresses. If you don’t get a ballot invite by the end of Weds morning, contact Jerry Dorf. Note that ballots will be going to your email address on the club roster, not to the address on the club mailing list.
Many people have asked me when we are going to start meeting in person again. A few months ago, case rates were way down, and it seemed like the pandemic was just about over. A lot of places went back to normal, and we considered it too. But then, the Delta variant started taking over, the pandemic came roaring back, and now case rates are higher than ever. And it seems like a lot of people haven’t noticed. I get it, we all want this to be over, but it’s not. This is why we’re not going to be meeting in person for a while yet.
I’m going to address the elephant in the room. Vaccines are the most effective tool against this pandemic. They are a miracle of modern medicine. I am astonished that there are people who stubbornly refuse to get vaccinated. If you’ve gotten vaccinated, thank you. If you haven’t, you owe it to yourself, to your community, to the world, to take advantage of the protection that this offers. The hospitals are full of people who regret not getting vaccinated, don’t think it can’t happen to you.
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Benton Jackson, K0BHJ
