A general note:  We are making progress on more efficient meetings. We started on time and were finished in about 70 minutes. We also want to make the meetings more fun and would like to encourage everyone to bring things for "show and tell" - projects, questions, etc.

Notes:

We have decided on a launch schedule for Buder Park. The schedule is already listed on the web site - but will be the third Saturday of the month:
May 18th, June 15th, July 20th (Planetarium launch with Science Center), August 17th, September 21st. Due to budget constraints, there will not be an air show at Scott Air Force Base, so we added the September park launch this year.

The web site and mailing list transition is ongoing. It was reported that some members would like to pay club dues using PayPal on the site. We discussed the service charge of about $1 and are considering including that in the PayPal amount. I am looking into the mechanism to do this  and the web site already has the software to add PayPal capability. I've started a forum post in the member's forum for comments from club members. We would anticipate adding the capability in the April time frame after the next meeting and we've figured out the process.

Dan Welling proposed that there is a demand for e-matches (for igniting motors from electronics) and that we can purchase them at a discount in case quantities. There are already a number of individuals who have expressed interest in buying ematches from the case and it was proposed that we would sell the excess at launches for a nominal fee. It was discussed and it was agreed to proceed with the purchase. I'll create a forum post in the web site's guest forum for those who would like to add their names to Dan's list to purchase boxes of ematches. The cost would be about .70 an ematch for a box of 40. Contact Dan for the exact price if you're interested. The club will sell the ematches at launches for $5 for 5.

Dan also proposed that the club sell logo t-shirts and perhaps polo shirts to those interested. We had a shirt available at Cafe Press, but the quality was not very good. We are looking at local vendors and need to gauge interest from the membership. We would also plan to have shirts available at launches and the Science center launch. I will create another forum post in the guest forum for those to express interest or have comments.

Dan reported that some members have expressed interest in Sunday Elsberry launches since Saturday does not always work for individuals. We discussed the issue and the comments were supportive. Since we are trying to be more flexible in scheduling Elsberry to give the greatest chance for getting launches in, we will consider rescheduling to Sunday and also will consider preplanned Sunday launches if there is a demand. There will be a forum post to add your interest for Sunday launches.

We discussed the field situation with Elsberry for this Saturday and it was determined that the launch would again have to be postponed due to mud. An announcement has already gone out on the web site.

Thanks to all those who attended the meeting. The minutes from the meeting are available in the members forum area.

Heino