Dec 2016 Election Candidates

N4HCI, Bob Goodwin, Candidate for Secretary/Treasurer in Dec 2018 Election

Name: Bob Goodwin
QTH: Newport News, VA
ECARS History:
- Member Since: 2014, LIfetime member #4891
- Previous Offices / Duties: Net Manager since Jan 2016, Temp Webmaster Jul 2016-Mar 2017, Nomination/Election Committee member in 2016 & 2017, Secretary / Treasurer for 2018 Term
- Current Net Control Operator:   Yes, three times weekly plus some fill ins, also Net Manager

Other Amateur Radio History:
      Ham since 1982. Extra Class. Long time member of ARRL. WAS and DXCC (20 mtrs, Phone, and Combined). Wrote ECARS Mod Logger for use by ECARS Net Control Operators.

Community Activities:
    None

Personal Comments:
    I continue to thoroughly enjoy my experiences with ECARS, which started in 2014 as a user of the service when traveling, and then as an occasional fill in Net Control Operator. In late 2015, I took the plunge and became a regular Net Control Operator and in January 2016 became the Net Control Manager, relieving John Zabriskie, W1JPZ.

    I have enjoyed being Secretary / Treasurer. In my first year, I
1. worked with the Webmaster to convert the previous standalone Access membership database to an on-line SQL database. The new SQL database has been up and running since March 2018 and is performing very well.
2. implemented a practice of same day response to membership applications and renewals. The only exception to this has been occassional travel.
3. implemented a monthly practice of sending a courtesy email to those members whose memberships expire in the next month reminding them that their membership is expiring and pointing out the web links available to renew their membership if they so decide. Prior to this, too many members' memberships were expiring without the member's awareness.
4. developed and provide the Board a monthly membership report detailing membership gains, losses, and demographics and a financial report detailing the changes in the ECARS financial picture over the month.

    If re-elected to be Secretary/Treasurer, I propose to work with the Webmaster and the Board to accomplish the following goals:
1. Using the new SQL membership database, develop software tools that would automatically notify members by email approximately 30 days before their membership ended, to allow them to avoid inadvertant failure to renew membership by oversight or forgetting the date one's membership expires. This will automate the current manual system.
3. Develop software tools using the SQL membership database that would permit ECARS Officers/Directors to easily develop emails to the ECARS members to discuss matters of collective interest with the membership.

    I saw a T-shirt the other day that was emblazoned with the statement "I thought growing old would take longer." That seems to sum up my life. Along the way I obtained an Electrical Engineering degree, worked for TRW as a sub-contractor to NASA in Houston Tx for Apollo 11 & 12, was a Submarine officer ending my afloat assignments as Commanding Officer of the USS James Monroe (SSBN 622), retired from 25 years of naval service after instructor duty at the Naval War College, and spent 15 years at Newport News Shipbuilding as an engineering design manager. I retired in June 2013 and have been filling my days since then doing home and car maintenance, learning to program Arduinos and in HTTP and VB.net, ultimately developing some personal and ECARS software. In late 2015, I started development of an Access based Check In management program for Net Control Operators, which was operational in mid-2016. I then repeated the project, independent of Microsoft Access, as an executable program using vb.net and Visual Studio 2017. Three or four of the Net Control Operators now use this latter program. During my period as Temporary Webmaster, I developed the website based ECARS Grant Application form, the Membership data update form, and a Member Lookup by ECARS Number utility. Because I operate remotely when away from home, I built an Arduino project that emails me my external router IP address whenever it changes so that my remote operation will not be impeded by an ISP assignment of a different IP address. Hobbies include Photography, reading, and kicking back.