The Southeastern VHF Society was first advertised by name in the May 1982 issue of the East Coast 70cm NET Newsletter with further ideas discussed between Dick Hanson, N4HSM (then N5BAR) and Charles Osborne, K4CSO (then WD4MBK) on the ride to and from the 1982 Central States VHF Society Conference in Baton Rouge, Louisiana.
They felt activity in the southeast would benefit from its own organization. Membership in the newsletter peaked at 300 members around 1984. With the help of the Fourlanders VHF Contest Group members, ideas continued to evolve until the Society’s first conference was held in Atlanta in 1996. Steve Adams, K4RF (sk) (then WS4F) guided the group through the legal incorporation processes with the States of Georgia and Alabama.
The Southeastern VHF Society (SVHFS) is a not-for-profit organization incorporated to promote amateur radio operation on the bands above 50 MHz in the southeastern United States. The SVHFS holds a Technical Conference once a year. The goal of the conference is to raise the technical level of amateurs by providing a forum for presenting technical papers relating to VHF, UHF, and Microwave, to provide a focal point for discussions on operating practices and procedures, on exploration of modes such as EME, MS, FAI, E-skip and other topics that promote operation on Amateur bands above 50MHz.
Annual membership in the society is extended as a benefit of attending the conference. If you did not attend the recent conference you can join us on the SVHFS Yahoo Group.
In addition to the annual conference, the SVHFS supports the amateur community with donations to the ARRL Frequency Defense Fund, AMSAT, maintaining beacons in the Southeastern United States and by sponsoring the Fall VHF/UHF Sprints.
Six members are elected to the board each year at the business meeting held at the Annual Conference. Each board member serves a two year term. Any member of the society may nominate any other member to serve on the board. The twelve member board meets after the annual business meeting each year and elects officers for the following year. The newly elected President runs the society throughout the next year and calls for volunteers to chair the conference committees.
Conference committees include: Technical Program, Publicity, Registration, Facilities, Noise Figure, Antenna Gain, Family Program, Banquet Prizes etc.
Volunteerism Philosophy
SVHFS is a non-profit, 100% volunteer organization. No officers, BOD members, committee chairmen, committee members, presenters, article authors or regular members are paid or “comped” for any services performed for the Society. Each pays his own conference registration and banquet fees. This has been our policy from inception.
The founding members initially assessed themselves enough dues to cover the expenses and hotel deposits for the first conference. Since that time, the treasury funds have been used for expenses (mail and phone), hotel costs and other costs associated with each conference. In addition funds are used yearly for beacons and donations made to organizations such as ARRL and AMSAT in support and furtherance of Amateur Radio.
We stand by these founding principles and hope all our members concur and understand that our mission is not one of personal gain or glory, but one of fervent support and passion for our mutual hobby: VHF, UHF and Microwave Amateur Radio
SVHFS has paid the conference registration fee and banquet each year for our banquet speaker and wife or guest. That has been our policy to date and will continue. Our by-laws do not preclude extending expenses to a banquet speaker, but fortunately all, to date, have covered their own and we again thank them for their generosity and support of SVHFS. It is also Society policy to send a copy of the proceedings to any author who submits a paper that is published in the proceedings and does not attend the conference.
Many volunteers give not only of their time for all the conference planning and executing, but many also donate phone time and mailing expenses. The society greatly appreciates those members generous dedication, but understands that not all folks are in situations that allow such generosity.
We can afford to support the volunteers with mailing costs (stamps, envelopes, stationary) and telephone expenses (e.g. phone cards for door prize volunteer calling or others with many required calls ) and expect to continue to do so for our volunteers submitting receipts for sanctioned activities.
SVHFS always needs many volunteers each year to carry out all the activities planned for the conference. Many will work months before the conference to make sure everything comes together as planned. These include the Conference Chairman in charge of keeping it all on track, the Program Chairman who solicits for papers and presentations and puts the proceedings together, the Facilities Committee members who take care of finding a conference hotel and suitable terms including the banquet fare, the ever important Publicity Committee charged with getting the word out so folks can make plans to attend and the Door Prize committee Chairman and members who we have to thank for the abundant and excellent selection of door prizes that has accompanied the banquet at every years conference.
They also have quite a bit of time at the conference unpacking, sorting, and marking the door prizes and then setting them out before the banquet. We can’t forget those who help plan and execute a family program, those who fly the banner, pass out flyers and sell proceedings at hamfests and those who take care of awards and the Fall Sprints and their associated plaques and certificates.
At the conference of course, we have the NF and Antenna Range measurement equipment and operating volunteers. The Registration committee is busy both before the conference taking advance registrations and at the conference checking all the attendees in and getting the proceedings and conference materials to them.
We also have folks that help with the vendor area and flea market set-ups at the conference. The officers are involved with the planning and execution of the conference and we generally have a planning meeting or two in the months before the conference.
Officers and BOD members have the general and BOD meetings to attend at the conference which by the way are both open to all members. Of course, we can’t forget the all important presenters of papers at the conference, our reason for going to all this work and attending the conference. They are important volunteers and should be so recognized.
Remember that the SVHFS is a volunteer organization and it is your Organization. Make your day and that of one of the committee chairmen by volunteering your time for some function either before or during the conference. You can help to make each year “The best conference ever!”