Open Research Institute, Inc
1873 3525 Del Mar Heights Road
San Diego, CA 92130
23 August 2023 1000 US Pacific
Virtual meeting, held on Zoom
Attending
Keith Wheeler
Steve Conklin
Frank Brickle
Michelle Thompson
Not present (excused)
Anshul Makkar
Approval of Previous Meeting Minutes was unanimously passed.
Motions and Votes
1) Director and Officer appointments.
Steve Conklin, Keith Wheeler, and Michelle Thompson agreed to continue as Directors. Frank Brickle was welcomed as a Director. Steve Conklin to continue as CFO. Michelle Thompson to continue as CEO. Michelle Thompson moved and Steve Conklin seconded Keith Wheeler’s appointment as Secretary. Motion passed unanimously.
2) An offered launch opportunity was discussed.
The short timeline to submit a proposal combined with three days of stabilized platform were weighed and considered. Michelle Thompson directed by the board to communicate with the individuals to thank them for extending the opportunity, decline this particular opportunity, and to identify long-term opportunities with enough lead time to leverage existing and ongoing work.
3) Liability insurance.
The insurance quote received from California Non-profits was reviewed. A motion by Steve Conklin and seconded by Frank Brickle was made to accept the quote and bind the policy. Motion passed unanimously.
4) Director and Officer reports.
A) Detailed updates were presented about Ribbit, ranging from successful DEFCON presentation to international field testing to earning the 2023 ARRL Technical Innovation award. Ribbit has a $1000 balance in a dedicated bank account and has generated $200,000 in capability return on an approximate $250 investment. Ribbit is lead by Pierre Deliou .
B) A new amateur radio club in Germany is seeking advice on low bitrate codecs. Michelle Thompson directed by the board to communicate about the decisions to go with high fidelity voice codecs as implemented in Opulent Voice.
C) RFBitBanger is a QRP HF transceiver design using Class E amplification and introduces a new digital keyboard to keyboard mode called SCAMP. RFBitBanger development team has produced Batch 1 kits, all 96 of which which were claimed by donors. The prototype cost $2,741.49 to design, document, and test. Donors have contributed $14,160.18 to produce, kit, and ship 96 transceivers. Costs are expected to be covered by the Batch 1 fundraising. Commit Change was commended for excellent performance and customer service. Batch 2 is under discussion. RFBitBanger was successfully demonstrated live and over the air at DEFCON31 in August 2023, will be presented at QSO Today Academy’s inaugural event in September 2023, and is lead by Dr. Daniel Marks.
D) ARRL’s new policy of identifying particular amateur radio educational organizations as competitors for ARRL Learning Center was discussed. ARRL’s decision to withdraw support to and drop collaboration with these particular amateur radio educational organizations was discussed. ORI disagrees with ARRL’s new policy of approaching amateur radio educational efforts as a zero sum game. Reclassifying amateur radio clubs that produce educational videos as competitors harms the amateur community and is not aligned with ARRL’s mission statement (ARRL’s Mission Statement: To advance the art, science, and enjoyment of Amateur Radio.)
E) The May 2023 custom training from Mathworks “HDL Coder for Software Defined Radio” class was a success, with excellentt demographics, high impact, very positive reviews, a significant increase in capability realized, and hard copies of class resources for ongoing reference obtained. 17 supporters donated $9,916 in a Commit Change fundraising campaign. 12 students enrolled in the class, which was delivered by MathWorks and cost $15,000.
F) Inner Circle newsletter launch was successful and contains project reports, guest editorials, outreach, and updates. Newsletter is free, friendly, and accessible. The goal is at least monthly, with special editions encouraged.
G) Next scheduled board meeting set for six months out.
Meeting Adjournment Time and Signature
Meeting adjourned at 1100 US Pacific time.
Minutes recorded by Acting Secretary Michelle Thompson
Minutes submitted to the board of directors for review 1 September 2023.