The Club's Authorizing Resolution for the Cumberland Valley Amateur Radio Club Award for Radio Excellence

At the January 2007 CVARC meeting, the following resolution was approved. [A few minor corrections made to typographical errors have been made and are marked by striking out error in the resolution's original text and by displaying additions in italics.]

The Cumberland Valley Amateur Radio Club (CVARC) will sponsor, for the Franklin County Science Fair, the Cumberland Valley Amateur Radio Club Award for Radio Excellence. Up to four such prizes will be awarded to the of junior or senior level entry entries, and up to two such prizes will be awarded to the intermediate level entry entries, that best explores some aspect of the physics of radio communication. Each of the prizes awarded will consist of a signed certificate and a $50 cash prize based on donations received.

The club intends that this prize sponsorship will be an ongoing project of the club. A prize fund will be maintained by the club's treasurer. CVARC will annually request donations to this fund. The number of prizes will depend on the amount of donations, and will be fixed by the donations available on the 15th of February of each year. Excess donations, or unawarded prizes, will be retained in the fund for future year's prizes. If the total donations for a year do not reach the designated level, the cash prize for that year will be the funds available, rounded down to the nearest multiple of $10.00. In the event CVARC decides to no longer sponsor this Science Fair prize, any undisbursed monies in the prize fund will be transferred to the club's repeater fund.

The club president will annually appoint a club member to be liaison to the Franklin County Science Fair planning committee. This liaison will be responsible for seeing to the judging of the qualifying entry or entries. The liaison may request additional hams to participate in the mentoring or judging process, and to represent the club when the prize is awarded at the Science Fair award ceremony. The liaison will be responsible for selecting the plaque certificate, and for requesting the club treasurer for a check in the amount of the awarded prize.

The Science Fair planning committee requests that the club's judge(s) identify the qualifying intermediate, junior and senior fair entries, those projects that may qualify for this prize. The club's judge(s) will select the best of these qualifying projects for receipt of the an award. If, in the opinion of the club's judge(s), there there are no qualifying entries, no award will be granted, and the prize monies allocated will be returned to the prize fund.

The club sets forth, as the general guideline about prize qualification, that qualifying Science Fair projects will deal with the basic science of radio as it is used in communication. The club's Science Fair liaison will be responsible for further developing, with the Science Fair planning committee, the qualifying and judging criteria that a winning project must exceed meet. This criteria must be finalized in sufficient time to allow interested fair entrants to plan their projects.

The club, in the best tradition of the amateur radio Elmer, will provide, through its membership and contacts, mentoring of interested Science Fair entrants as their project is developed. Any such mentoring with will be with the student's parental permission and with the knowledge of the student's sponsoring teacher. Mentors may also, if called upon by the liaison, fairly act as judges.

The liaison will attempt to resolve, in the spirit of this proposal, any questions that may arise. Issues that cannot be resolved in this way will be presented to the club at the next regular meeting for resolution.