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Good evening!
Per ALERT’s By-Laws, it’s election season!

At our March meeting, we appointed a nominating committee (Dale Chambers, Justin Glass). Please be sure to provide him your thoughts on the next year’s elected officer nominations soon as you can, should they reach out to you.

The elected positions are: President, VP/Membership, Treasurer, Secretary, NWS Liaison.
Current officers for each of the above: Casey Benefield, Lloyd Palmer, Bill Rodgers, Justin Glass, Russell Thomas.

Appointed positions, for the incoming president to choose: Operations, Training, Public Information Officer.

By-Laws Excerpt: “Election of Officers shall be held at the regular meeting in May. The President shall appoint a Nominating Committee of 2 voting members at the March meeting. The Nominating Committee shall post its report at the April meeting for all the voting members to review. Nominations from the floor will be accepted at the meeting of the elections.”

Have a great week!
Casey Benefield, NZ2O

The last Advanced Skywarn Spotter training for Spring will be held this Tuesday, online webinar, at 6:30PM.

If you haven’t had a chance to get basic training, there are two courses available online, self-led, to catch you up. There’s also an in-person training in Selma, AL at Wallace Community College, on April 18.

For more info, or to register for the final online webinar, please visit:

https://www.weather.gov/bmx/skywarnschedule

Over the weekend as I was traveling, I learned that a part of our amateur radio family, David Hanna (WX4NCS) became a victim to an accidental injury, and passed away in surgery. David was a major contributor to the amateur radio community, and had also served as Assistant Emergency Coordinator for Jefferson County, frequent net control operator for emergency nets.

David leaves behind his wife, and young daughter.

At this time, his family does have a need, to care for his final arrangements. For those who are able to donate to his family, another trusted amateur radio operator, Dale Wisely, has set up a GoFundMe account for David’s family, at the link below.

https://www.gofundme.com/davidhanna

Let’s keep his family in our thoughts and prayers, and do what we can to lift them up and support them. 

Goodnight everyone, and until we meet again,
Casey Benefield, NZ2O

It’s February, and March/April/May is on the way. Why is that significant? It is one of our major severe weather seasons.

Ahead of this, we wanted to share a few resources for severe weather. This is not exhaustive, but do check these out!

  • Our first priority is to make sure we ourselves are ready and safe. Dust off that family, or business emergency plan before the weather keeps us busy.
    https://www.ready.gov/make-a-plan
  • Parents and Teachers: Here’s some weather safety content geared to you.
    https://www.weather.gov/owlie/safety_tp
  • SKYWARN(R) training time.
    ALERT and Amateur Radio is encouraged to refresh their storm spotter training at least once a year. SKYWARN(R) Storm Spotter training is FREE, and is a requirement for ALERT members to be trained.
    Click here for the schedule of web and in-person classes for Spring 2018
  • Weather.im is where the BMXSpotterChat room lives. Check out the spotter chat info on this site for more info.
    This chat room is available to any Skywarn trained spotter, even those not in amateur radio, and is watched by ALERT members during activated events, for spotter reports.

Hope to see you at the meeting tonight at 7PM at the NWS office in Calera.

–Casey, NZ2O

ALERT / National Weather Service Birmingham Coverage Area

  • ALERT covers the BMX county warning area. Presently, this includes: Autauga, Barbour, Bibb, Blount, Bullock, Calhoun, Chambers, Cherokee, Chilton, Clay, Cleburne, Coosa, Dallas, Elmore, Etowah, Fayette, Greene, Hale, Jefferson, Lamar, Lee, Lowndes, Macon, Marengo, Marion, Montgomery, Perry, Pickens, Pike, Randolph, Russell, Shelby, St Clair, Sumter, Talladega, Tallapoosa, Tuscaloosa, Walker, Winston