Earmarking our dollars

Our club has over twenty five thousand dollars. The YNAB budgeting community talks about the idea of wish farms – techniques for saving up for a thing you wish you had: a trip to Dayton or an Aurora AU-520M from FlexRadio… Some use the term earmarking instead of YNAB’s wish farm term.

What is our money earmarked for? Some of it’s in the name of the accounts: life members and the repeater. I’ve learned that “when people pay dues, they sometimes include a little extra to help cover the costs of the repeater.”[1]

When I asked about what might happen if the repeater broke I was delighted to learn “We have spare parts for pretty much everything on the repeater. That said, depending on what fails, we may be stuck waiting. The antenna system is significantly high up the tower. We can't afford to send a dedicated tower crew, but we can ask the next crew sent up to piggy back our load if the antenna fails.”[1]

Asking how much of the $25,000 is sat aside for something (earmarked) I learned “None of the 25,000 is. …. Though one could assume we would fund repairs if needed.”[1]

I’d like to see a series of articles in a ham hum earmarks column about our wish farms and what we might earmark the club’s money for. Will you please help?

Thanks – Matt N3PAY

[1] KD0MMG on groups.io board list message 372