Sonoma Wings Meeting Minutes

 

Thursday, October 24, 2002

 

The meeting was called to order at 7:59 p.m. by vice president Leo Jones.  At the meeting were Leo Jones, Jon James, Matt Jagelka, Ernie Camacho, Justin Miller, Gregg Hackett, Donna Matthias, Kurt Bainum, David (sorry I missed his last name), and Greg Sugg.

 

Christmas Party

Donna suggested that we have the Christmas party on Friday, December 13th so that Lisa Tate and Terri Edington who will be in town then from Idaho can attend.  All agreed that it would be nice to see them at the party, so it was scheduled for that day.  The party will be at Kurt Bainum’s home in Petaluma.

 

Club Christmas Gifts

Each year the club gives Christmas gifts to various people who help the club in various ways and accommodate our needs.  These gifts are tokens of our appreciation.  Justin will bottle some nice wines with custom Sonoma Wings labels for the occasion.  The wines will either be from his vineyard or from another excellent vineyard he knows.

 

St. Helena Gate Keys

Leo brought up the issue of obtaining keys to the gate on the road up to launch at St. Helena.  We still have not been issued keys to the gate.  In consideration of the fact that we pay for a special use permit and pay for site insurance, we certainly deserve keys to the gate lock.  The combination lock is extremely difficult to use in poor lighting or when the ground is wet, and when we more mature club members forget to bring reading glasses.  Leo and Justin will talk to David Nelson, the Superintendent of Parks, about the situation.

 

Jayne Campbell

Leo said that Jayne Campbell called to thank to thank us for the sailplane flight the club arranged for her at Crazy Creek.  Jon also added that while he was driving Jayne to Crazy Creek and then back home, she was very appreciative and said she really enjoyed our company.

 

St. John

Leo noted that we need to find out who owns the field just few hundred yards north from the Stonyford Market.  It would make an excellent landing field and help avoid over using the field east of the market.  We don’t want to wear out our welcome at any of the fields where we have permission to land.

 

Club Training Site

Leo would like to start in motion an effort to find a suitable training site within the next year where club members can hone their skills.  It needs to be suitable for launch and landing practice; soarability is not a requirement.  This would be a place where we can conduct our own launch and landing clinics and could be used to evaluate new pilots’ skills.  Various possible areas were mentioned.  Justin said that Anthony Abate knows of a possible site in Petaluma.  Justin also mentioned Crane Canyon as a possibility.  This issue was touched on at the last meeting.  We still need to see about the land near the Sears Point Raceway.

 

Parachute Deployment and Repack Day

Justin said we should nail down a date for our club parachute repack event for 2003 so that pilots will be able to plan it into their schedules.  The second week of January was chosen.  Kurt will make arrangements so we can have it at the same place we had the first parachute seminar that Betty Pfeiffer presented two years ago.  Last year it was held at Justin’s place, and quite a few parachutes were practice deployed and then repacked.

 

Club Bylaws

Gregg Hackett requested a copy of the club bylaws.  They are not posted on the web site, but are available from Jon James.

 

Bulletin Board Administration

There have been some issues raised recently about the administration of the bulletin board.  There have been deletions and the like that many members have found upsetting.  Several people voiced disapproval with the way John Blacet has been administrating the BB and his unavailability for communication with members and the executive committee.  It was decided at the last executive committee meeting that the BB should be administrated in accordance with the general will of the members.

 

The club voted to have at least two people with BB administrator powers from now on.  One of those people will be the current club president who will actually be an assistant administrator.  By having more than one administrator, we will be able to maintain the BB in the event that the principal administrator is away or unavailable for some reason.  Ernie Camacho will become the principal administrator, and John Blacet will become an assistant administrator.  So, for now, we will have three people with administrator powers.

 

The general consensus of the club members is that the BB should be friendly, welcoming, and non-intimidating for someone like a low time H-1or P-1pilot or even a non-pilot to post to.  We need a nice new introductory statement at the top of the BB.  The club members do not want to require registration in order to view or post to the BB.  If a non-member posts to the BB with a fictitious name, the administrator will politely ask them to post with their real name so we know who they are.  Deleting posts will be a serious last resort option.  If a member’s post does get deleted, the administrator should call or send an email explaining why.  Members’ deleted posts should be saved to another location so that they will still be available if needed.

 

Nominations for Club Officers

 

President:

            Donna Matthias by Kurt Bainum

            Jon James by Leo Jones

            Ernie Camacho by Gregg Hackett

 

Vice President:

            Kurt Bainum by Gregg Hackett

            Justin Miller by Jon James

            Gregg Hackett by Leo Jones

            Donna Matthias by Greg Sugg

 

Secretary:

            Greg Sugg by Matt Jagelka

 

Treasurer:

            Matt Jagelka by Donna Matthias

 

Site Director:

            Jon James by Leo Jones

 

Safety Officer:

            Kurt Bainum by Jon James

            Leo Jones by Greg Sugg

 

Next Club Meeting

The next club meeting will be moved up one week to Thursday, November 21st to avoid a conflict with Thanksgiving.

 

The meeting was adjourned at 9:20 p.m.

 

Greg Sugg, Secretary