The leaves are falling, temperatures are falling and the days continue to shorten. Winter is coming. The allusion in the "Game of Thrones" books and TV series references the need to prepare for what is coming. A bit lame, I admit. I needed a segue and there it is.

With the election of a completely new CARA Board the need for preparation for the future of the club was clear from the start. Since the end of June we have had several face-to-face meetings, Go To Meeting sessions, and exchanged dozens and dozens of emails to get to know each other's interests, skills and form as group. Keeping HMCS CARA on its established course at the same time provided opportunity to understand how the current ship functions.

So, what has been accomplished so far? 

I think the most significant outcome is agreement at the Board that CARA needs to be less about things and stuff and more about being relevant to current members and attractive to future members of the club. 

With that focus we have set four directional goals:

•    Have fun while learning about and participating in the vast array of endeavours in the world of Amateur Radio.

•    Attract and retain members, young and old, just learning or experienced, in school, working or enjoying retirement.

•    Manage the club's tangible and human assets to sustain the Club's future, sustain the hobby and support public events in need of the radio-based communications that our skills and facilities can provide.

•    Seek opportunities to collaborate and participate in the efforts of other amateur radio club's in the region as they pursue similar goals.

September's General Meeting format, where we mixed the Fun and Business parts of the meeting, will be followed again in October. The Fun Part is a primer on the CARA Net initiative started a couple of years ago. Robin Greig, VE6RBN and our current Vice President will take us through the what, why, current status and next steps in this strategy to link club repeaters. He promises the presentation to be more about the utility, flexibility and benefits of this approach rather than the magic that goes on in the boxes. A progress update will be provided as well.

For the business part we will report on our first steps to improve communications with the membership. At our last GM this was the most discussed topic at the round table sessions. Last week's Board meeting re-examined the Communications Proposal commissioned by the previous Board and passed a motion to further implement more of its recommendations.  We will again set up the round tables to examine our current communications vehicles and opportunities for further improvements.

So please attend the meeting ‪Tuesday October 25. Club station, ‪7: 00 PM and add your voice to the conversations that shape CARA's future.