Clutter In The Clubroom

K2GXT tunnel outside clubroom with just part of the mess.

Imagine the following scene. Opening the door to the club station you notice the door bumps against something as it swings forward. “Ah! I forgot to move the rusty repeater the club owned in 1982!” you exclaim; at the same time wriggling through the doorway into the room. Flipping on the light switch you take notice of the decades of successful radio, electronics, and other assorted equipment collecting by past and present club members. Congratulations on owning a 12 foot by 8 foot junk box.

K2GXT clubroom Desk Fall 2007 with old unnused and/or broken radio gear.

Clubs are a collaborative effort. They take years to establish and decades to perfect. Along the way good intentions get the better of us all and university students are not excluded. Ham radio enjoys a large percentage of people who like to build projects; often the projects pertain to radio but this is not always the case. We all have a time where after obtaining someone else's junk, namely your treasure, intended to be put into a project but in the end you get busy and it never gets done. Do this over the course of fifty years and jeez, it adds up!

One of the best ways to correct this is to make it a club event. Club room cleanup days can make monotonous and often laborious tasks fun for everyone. Well, it may not be THAT much fun but its a heck of a lot more enjoyable than doing it alone. It's nice to get permission from the proper authorities (i.e. club advisor, president, etc) to get rid of equipment that is cluttering the club room. First off give members a chance to grab what they want from the dumpster pile. Just do this under the condition that the equipment can't be stored in the club room. We all know where that leads too and it can be counterproductive. Recycle as much as possible and find a dumpster you're allowed to dispose trash from your club into for the rest.

K2GXT clubroom even had three Rhon 25 tower section in the room, they are still there but hung up on the wall as shelves.

Clutter free club rooms are efficient club rooms and as my rowing coach (RIT Crew) always says "A clean boat is a fast boat!" More members can fit into the space and it becomes a showcase for prospective radio amateurs rather than the equivalent of a walk-in closet for junk parts. Winning the award for the messiest shack isn't exactly prestigious! Good luck to all who are affected by messy club rooms, you may just need all luck you can get

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