Sonoma Wings Meeting Minutes

Thursday, November 21, 2002

The meeting was called to order by president Larry Roberts at 7:40 p.m. Those in attendance were: J.W. Seeley, Donna Matthias, Charley and Elaine Warren, Scot Huber, Albert Branson, Leo Jones, Ernie Camacho, Kurt Bainum, Matt Jagelka, Jon James, Gregg Hackett, Linda Sauer, Larry Roberts, Anthony Abate, and Greg Sugg. Steven Harvey also came to the meeting. Steven lives in Windsor and is interested in learning to hang glide. He came to check out the club and get some information on how to get started.

Club Officer Elections

President: Albert Branson is the new President.

Nominees were: Donna Matthias, Jon James, Ernie Camacho, Albert Branson, and

Larry Roberts

Vice President: Donna Matthias is the new Vice President.

Nominees were: Justin Miller, Kurt Bainum, Donna Matthias, Leo Jones, and Jon James

Secretary: Greg Sugg remains Secretary.

Greg was the only nominee.

Treasurer: Matt Jagelka remains Treasurer.

Matt was the only nominee.

Site Director: Jon James remains Site Director.

Nominees were: Jon James, and Larry Roberts

Safety Officer: Kurt Bainum is the new Safety Officer.

Nominees were: Kurt Bainum Leo Jones, John DeAugiar, Scot Huber, and Anthony Abate.

Bulletin Board Administrator

Larry Roberts will contact John Blacet, the former BB administrator, to arrange for the transfer of the administrator duties to Ernie as voted on at the October club meeting.

Parachute Clinic with Betty Pfeiffer of High Energy Sports

Several club members have expressed interest in attending one day only of the up coming two day parachute clinic on the weekend of January 11 and 12, 2003. So, in order to assure an adequate turn out to justify Betty Pfeiffer’s participation, the clinic will be opened up to all bay area HG and PG pilots on a first come first served basis. There will be twenty openings for interested pilots at a cost of $50.00 each. The clinic will be a two day event as it was in 2000. Betty will offer her vast expertise on all aspects of reserve parachutes. Parachutes will be practice deployed, and participants will be taught and shown how to repack their own parachutes under the supervision of Betty and a master parachute rigger. Kurt will now make the final arrangements with Betty.

Award Trophies

The current holders of the club trophies for the various categories and competitions must return them to Larry ASAP so he can have them engraved for the new recipients in time for the Christmas party on December 13^th.

Red Tail Competition

Starting next year will be the new club competition called the Red Tail . It will consist of a pilot’s best five flights from local sites. There will be no bonus multipliers. All flights including triangles and out-and-returns will be counted on the basis of actual miles flown. This competition will include all local sites including Mt. Diablo, Hull Mountain, Elk Mountain, Mt. St. Helena, Mt. St. John, and any other local sites.

St. Helena Gate Keys

Leo said he called David Nelson of the Parks dept. about our obtaining keys to the gate at the bottom of the mountain. David said that the department recently changed all their keys and they don’t want to give any out. Leo said there will need to be a little more effort on this issue and that he will make another attempt to persuade the department to issue keys to the club. There does not seem to be any room for more locks on the gate mechanism in its present configuration. Anyone flying Mt. St. Helena should be sure to have a flashlight if they have to do a late vehicle retrieval this time of year! Matt says that you can see through the side of the mechanism to work the combination lock in case the ground is wet.

Campbell Ranch LZ Access

The ranch foreman has asked that we not climb over any fences or gates at the LZ fields because the fence wire is old and brittle, and the gateposts are old as well. When you need access to the large field at the corner of Hwy. 128 and Franz Valley Road go in the next gate to the west down Franz Valley Road and then use the small frontage road to get back to the large field. These other gates are unlocked. Latch all gates as you leave. (As a general rule, when you must go through any barbed wire fence, go to the middle of a span, and slip through by pushing one strand down some and lifting the other up. If you ever have to climb over a gate, climb the hinged end and not the latched end.)

Parking vehicles at the corner of Hwy. 128 and Franz Valley Rd. severely blocks the vision of drivers turning onto Hwy. 128. It is better to park adjacent to the LZ on Franz Valley Rd.

Club Dues Increase

Club dues of $15.00 per year have not changed in over a decade, maybe two. Even though Sonoma Wings is technically solvent, it is so only because of the generosity of various members who each year pay out of pocket hundreds of dollars of club expenses.

Leo brought this topic up recently on the BB, and people have been chiming in ever since. Some think we should cover all club expenses through dues. Some think we should be more forward looking in anticipation of possible future expenses such as purchase or lease expenses for such things as a training site, launch, and LZ’s and so on. Leo urged the creation of a “Supporting Membership” option of some higher amount for those who would like to contribute more. Others argue that the club has a tradition of low cost high value flying and say that high dues will dissuade people from joining Sonoma Wings.

After much discussion a vote was taken and the decision was made to raise annual dues to $25.00. Leo offered a motion to create a Supporting Membership to encourage some members to contribute more. This motion was voted on but did not pass. Twenty-five bucks to be in the best HG/PG club in California is certainly a great bargain. That’s just $2.08 per month! You can hardly find a hamburger for that price.

Club Training Site

We continue to search for a suitable site for club training purposes. J.W. Seeley said that he knows of three places, which would make good training sites. As he put it, “These places NEED to be training sites.” Jon, Site Director, will coordinate with J.W. to assess these sites and pursue them as warranted.

Work Party at Elk Mtn.

A work party to repair road drainage/erosion and launch conditions is tentatively scheduled for Saturday, November 30^th. Watch the BB for further details.

Posting of Club Meeting Agendas

The president shall post up-coming meeting agendas on the BB one week before the meetings. This will help the membership to come to the meetings prepared for important club business. Linda Sauer suggested that particular members be appointed to expedite various club business items so that they don’t become forgotten and not get done. As it turns out, this is one of the president’s responsibilities in the by laws.

Greg Sugg, Secretary