Whirlwinds of Southwest Michigan

Minutes for the Meeting of November 4th. , 2009

The meeting was called to order after 7:00 by President John Neboda. 

The minutes from October meeting were glossed over. 

Roll call was taken. There were 12 members present. There were no guests.

The Treasurer’s report was read. We have only 843.44. Another 70 was collected tonight for 2009 assessment fees. We still have some members who have not paid their $35 fee for this past year.

OLD BUSINESS:

Remember that we have reduced flying hours to allow the neighbors to hunt on the adjacent property. Flying will only be allowed on Wednesdays and Sundays. We are still waiting on a loader to get some free gravel to repair the potholes in the lane. We are still waiting on a him to get a loader to load the stone. This may be falling thru.

John sent out an email to all asking for feedback on membership plans for 2010. He has only received 13 replies so far. If anyone hasn’t replied, please send John an email stating your intent for 2010. We need new members, so if you know of anyone who would like to join, let John know that as well. The more members we have, the cheaper it will be for each.

NEW BUSINESS:

We continued discussion of club expenses. At present, we still don’t have enough to pay for field lease for last year. We only had 13 members committing to membership for 2010. Dick compiled a list of our static expenses and estimates for 2010. We still have some members who have not paid their extra assessment fee of $35 from this past year. We are forced to make some cuts to reduce our expenses a little. It was suggested that we do not renew our post office box when the current lease expires. And we will need to delete the Port-O-Pot next season. Thirdly, it was decided to do away with the website. Field lease, insurance, mowing costs however, can not be eliminated….we can only hope for less rain next season to reduce mowing expenses.

After a lot of discussion we decided to establish $75 as the dues for 2010, payable in January, with the provision of an assessment later in the year if necessary. We want to keep the fee as low as possible, and just hope for some increased membership and some luck with the mowing expenses so that we don’t have to make an assessment later in the year.

John asked for ideas for winter meetings. We want to schedule something for each meeting starting in January. Bob stated that he would do a presentation on fiberglassing and airbrushing. Chuck said he would do one on setting up radios. We would like to see if we could get Brenner to do one on electrics/batteries/charging/etc. We need someone to present a soldering/brazing session. Someone suggested we have one one ARF building. If anyone has an area of expertise the would be willing to share with the other members, please contact John with your idea so we can add to the schedule.

Anyone having a request for a class on something , please contact John, or send an email to John, Dick, or Larry.

MODEL OF THE MONTH:

Bob brought in his “new” old P-38. He has redone his old silver P-38, upgraded the batteries and electronics, and given it a new Olive Drab paint job. It looked very nice. I apologize for forgetting to take pictures to post. I look forward to seeing it fly next summer. It should scream.

 Meeting was adjourned.