3 FEB 2015 - 2126 CST The CEO Search Committee met briefly right after the Jan 2015 board meeting adjourned. All committee members were present except for Kay Craigie and newly elected member Jim Pace. The following CEOSC officers were selected: Chairman ---- Dick Isely, W9GIG Secretary --- Davie Norris, K5UZ Personal Note: (long) The above message would have been posted to the ODV this past Saturday evening. However, preparations for the first really big Chicago area snow storm this season took priority. The official snow total was 19.3 inches at O'Hare International Airport. This storm is now ranked #5 in the list of the biggest Chicago area snow storms. A few areas recorded as much as 22 inches. Here in St. Charles, we received about 16 inches of new snow with drifts as high as 3 feet. I spent all day Sunday moving snow with my large Honda snow thrower and did not watch the Super Bowl programming except for the last 3 minutes of the game. It was still snowing when I quit for the day. The snow finally stopped early Monday morning - but the 40 mph wind gusts did not abate until mid-morning. On Monday, I moved even more snow, most of it completely filling in the areas I cleared on Sunday. I had to stop before every area was cleared because the snow chute ring gear rotation system was frozen solid and I was getting plastered with the white s... Today, I woke up at 7:00 AM to several UPS alarms informing us the electrical power was off and the inside temperature was dropping below the late night setting of 67 degrees. The power was restored at about 7:50 AM and Judy and I finally got out of bed at 9:00 AM with the house back up to 72 degrees. I spent the early afternoon repairing my snow thrower and cleared the areas I had missed on Monday... just before it started snowing again right before dinner. We got about 2 inches of fresh snow. It was then I discovered the power outage had knocked our telephone system off-line. No calls in or out. Right after dinner, I started trouble-shooting it, found the caller ID device for an older phone was the problem, replaced its batteries, and I am now finishing this message. We may get a bit more snow tomorrow, but the WX guessers are saying we will have a couple of above-freezing days this coming weekend. - Dick Isely, W9GIG