It is a pleasure to be working with the Alabama Frequency Coordination & Repeater Advancement Society (AFCRAS), which is a group of Amateur Radio repeater owners, trustees, and enthusiasts formed as a domestic, non-profit 501(c)3 corporation in Alabama for the purpose of providing volunteer frequency and repeater coordination services to fellow hams in the state of Alabama. They say “There’s nothing as powerful as an idea whose time has come.” Indeed, Amateur Radio repeater enthusiasts had been asking for improvements in the frequency coordination process in Alabama for many years, offering to volunteer time, skills, money, and other resources, but to no avail. In fact, some were members of an organization which had been in existence for 33 years for the purpose of providing frequency coordination services. However, the organization had not “kept up with times” and the leadership of the organization not only resisted but openly went to battle with those who proposed efforts to make changes which would bring more timely and modernized methods of coordination and services to Alabama hams.
In early 2018, a group of them said “enough is enough” and founded AFCRAS, pooling their own money, time, energy, skills, and resources and got off to a running start. I am delighted and pleased to be assisting and a part of the AFCRAS group. Decades of experience in communications, broadcasting, and electronics is only a part of what I freely offer the group. The opportunity to also utilize my organizational and leadership consulting, media production, graphic design, and website development experience for the benefit of a progressive, determined group of Alabama ham radio folks (of which I am also one) on a mission to provide the level of services repeater owners and trustees deserve and have wanted for a long time, and it’s a sure recipe for exciting things to happen.
Obviously it’s not about money, because nobody in the organization gets paid a penny. It’s solely volunteer. The rewards are simply hearing the feedback from fellow Alabama hams when they say things like “It’s about time” or “AFCRAS is a huge leap forward for us in Alabama” or “It’s wonderful to actually be able to do things online now like other states have been able to do for years and years.”
Yes, helping a group like the Alabama Frequency Coordination & Repeater Advancement Society is a blast.
