Club Update From the President

May 13, 2026

Greetings Fellow HAM’s!
My name is Edwin Bumpass, WS5EAB, president of the Key City
Amateur Radio Club in Abilene, Texas. I wanted to give an update on
our club status and the projects we’re working on. Most importantly,
we’re in the process of updating a very outdated club constitution. It
was written Way before electronic communications and most of our
current tax codes. One of the goals is to obtain our 501 (c)(3) status to
open us up for more grant opportunities and tax breaks as well as
provide us more protection. This process has been quite daunting, but
there’s definitely a light at the end of the tunnel now!

Secondly, we’re working on is restructuring our club meetings. I
kind of know how preachers feel now, looking over a nodding off
congregation as you bore them to death! Well, we’re going to start
having our Business portion of the meeting beginning thirty minutes
prior to the normal club meeting. Those who want to attend the
business part are Most certainly welcome and then we’ll move into the
normal HAM meeting where we talk about all things HAM instead of
account status and the such. We’ll be working through some logistical
issues such as having a voting quorum and bringing related business
items that need voting on into the beginning of the HAM meeting.
We’ve had a resounding nod from members so far, so we’ll try it out for
a while and see how it holds up.

Next, we’re looking for a venue change. We have been meeting in
the Mall branch of the Abilene Public Library, but after a city wide hack
last year that left most of the city’s technology crippled and
competition over booking rooms, we’re looking for a new meeting
place with the hopes of actually finding our own clubhouse in the next
year or so!!

For those that may be unaware, KCARC has been offering two
tech classes a year now for three years along with starting concentrated
“upgrade” classes for those that want to move up in license category.
We’re partnering with Cisco College in offering electronics builder labs
as well as partnering with United Rescue Alliance for cross training their
team members in HAM radio and our club members with CERT ratings!

So, to make a long story short, we’re working Very diligently to
raise up HAM operators, grow our club through partnerships and better
educate our members for better community service. Please stay up to
date on our projects and progress through our club website as well as
Ham Club Online and social media.

Thank you for your time!

Edwin Bumpass WS5EAB
KCARC President

“73”