Proclamations 2024
Here Ye! Here Ye!
The Appalachia Amateur Radio Club is pleased to share that we officially received multiple proclamations from our local, district and state representatives. After seeing it discussed on the ARRL Field Day fb group as well as the ARRL The National Association for Amateur Radio website, I decided to reach out to the two town mayors, our county commissioners and our District Representative for WNC as well as our District Senator to request those proclamations at the beginning of June.
After ongoing discussions with those offices and their representatives, it was made known that we would indeed receive those proclamations except for that of the Governor’s office as there are timeline requirements that have to be met for those to be approved.
We received our first proclamation copy from the Town of Murphy, per Mayor Tim Radford on June 3, 2024. We then received our second proclamation copy from the Town of Andrews, via Mayor James Reid on June 5, 2024. Cherokee County Assist Manager, Maria Hass contacted me with our copy from the County Commissioners on June 12, signed by Commission Chair Randy Phillips. This endeavor with the County Commissioners was introduced and encouraged by Commissioner Jan Dewitt Griggs who also attended our Field Day on Saturday, June 22. We are so appreciative of her continued support over the last 4 years.
On June 20, we received notice from Andrew Bailey, Legal Assistant to Representative Karl Gillespie’s office with the following: Yesterday during session, Rep. Gillespie spoke before his colleagues and recognized the amateur radio operators and their contributions. Those remarks can be viewed in the video link below. In addition, Rep. Gillespie submitted a “Representative Statement,” a copy of which is also attached for your records. A Representative Statement is a statement of personal privilege that a member can make during session and has been included in the House Journal in its entirety. The statement is generally used to honor a significant event, accomplishment, or individual.
The entirety of the Representative Statement was read in following the adjournment of last evening’s House session. The Representative Statement will be “spread across the journal,” which means that it will be published in the 2024 House Journal book upon the conclusion of our legislative actions for the year. In addition, our office worked with Sen. Corbin’s office on a joint certificate of recognition to both the Appalachia Amateur Radio Club and the Clay County Auxiliary Communications. Lastly, regarding an official state recognition/proclamation for 2025, our office is willing to assist you in submitting the necessary paperwork as required by the Governor’s office.
Once all proclamations were received, I notified our NC ARRL Section Manager, Marvin Hoffman, of these accomplishments and he advised me that he would make sure they would be mentioned in the upcoming July edition of the NC ARRL publications. He also offered his congratulations on this and encouraged and looked forward to what we were able to accomplish in 2025 at the state level.
It was with great pride that we were able to receive these acknowledgements from our elected representatives and only encourages for us to strive to be more involved and continue to build those relationships with those officials at all levels within the state.
Please click on links below:
Representative Karl Gillespie statement before the house
Proclamation from the town of Murphy
Amateur Radio proclamation for Andrews
Amateur Radio Operators Weekend from County Commissioners
Shannon Greathead, PIO
Appalachia Amateur Radio Club 2024