Due to continued cold temperatures and possibility of more snow, sleet and freezing rain this weekend, we have decided to postpone the spring launch for another week and hope for better weather next weekend. Our next opportunity to launch will be March 8-9. Please continue to watch this site for schedule updates, particularly before traveling to Elsberry on launch day.
Fellow Rocketeers,
Plans for the Apollo 11 45th Anniversary Celebration are proceeding along at a much faster pace now that we are within double digit days of the event coming up on May 15 – 17. I am in need of volunteers for the following Events:
Saturday May 3rd
Significant items of note:
John Lakey has ordered the rocket kits and motors for the Precision Duration Model Rocket Competition. The Missouri Space Grant Consortium is picking up the tab for purchase of the Balsa Machining Bulk kits and Estes A8-3 engines.
The St. Louis Science Center is getting ready to send out the invite to regional middle schools for their participation in the Friday May 16th Education and Outreach Event at the St. Louis Science Center. Participation will be limited to 250 students. If you know of any area Middle Schools that would like to participate, let me know and I will forward the information off to John Lakey. This event will run from 10:00 am through 2:00 pm. The SLRA part will be from 10:00 – 10:40 putting on the launch demonstration of historic NASA manned space vehicles and the Apollo 11 Launch Reenactment. Besides the Saturn V launch, I am thinking we can also launch a Mercury Redstone, Little Joe II, Mercury Atlas, and Gemini Titan. Let me know if you have any of these rockets you would like to launch.
Initiations have been sent out to regional Boy and Cub Scout groups to seek their participation in the Saturday May 17th Apollo 11 45th Anniversary Celebration Precision Duration Competition. To date, three teams have registered. If you know of any Boy/Girl Scout groups who would be interested in participating in this competition, please let me know and I will forward them the information. This event will be held on May 17th from 9:30 – noon at the St. Louis Science Center Archery Field.
John Lake would also like SLRA to have a static display on hand at the Science Center during the Saturday event as well.
For the Apollo 11 45th Anniversary Celebration, there are three events that we will need club participation for:
Saturday May 3rd at Buder Park – Precision Duration Competition Pre-Launch Activity. This event will enable teams to come out and launch there rockets to test different recovery systems to see which one provides the best opportunity for a 30 second flight. Groups will need to provide their own motors. We provide the launch equipment, expertise and fun. I’m really looking forward to this event.
Friday May 16th from 8:00 – 11:00 am. Apollo 11 45th Anniversary Commemoration Education and Outreach Event at the St. Louis Science Center Archery Field. Most of this time is set-up and take-down. Our Scale Rocket Launch Demonstration and Apollo 11 Launch Reenactment event runs from 10:00-10:35. We will need help for set-up and testing of launch systems, rocket recovery, RSO, Launch Controller, at tear-down. This event will also include a presentation of colors by a local ROTC group, singing of the National Anthem by Anna Green (SLSC Education Director), Opening remarks by a local dignitary, a talk by Gene Kranz prior to the launch reenactment, and play of Stars and Stripes forever to end the event. It is going to be an awesome day!
Saturday May 17th from 8:00 am – 2:00 pm Boy/Girl Scout Precision Duration Model Rocket Competition and SLRA Static Display. This is the day we will need the most help with running the competition (rocket prep, RSO, launch Controller, launch Racks, Pre and post-flight check-in, results board, and timers) and the static display.
Please contact me to let me know if you can help out. I hope so see you all there!
Happy Rocketeering
Your New Club Vice President and Apollo 11 45th Anniversary Commemoration Event Director
(575) 312-2893
Due to heavy rain today and continuing snow melt, it will not be possible to access the Elsberry launch field this weekend. As many of you know, there is a strong possibility of damaging the gravel roads around the field if we go in when it is very muddy. Our next opportunity to launch will be the following weekend, March 1-2. Please continue to watch this site for schedule updates, particularly before traveling to Elsberry on launch day.
I've just created a new RSVP form for members and guests to let us know if they can come, what they would like to do at the launch, and when they can come. We will use the data to help us choose the best days to schedule a launch since our group is small, and we are so dependent on volunteers to make the launches successful. If we receive poor response, we will likely cancel any scheduled launches so this is the best way to avoid that situation. We can operate under regular commercial launch rules, or research rules and it is very important that potential research fliers fill in their preferences so that we can insure the launch is setup for research rules (and that we have the right people available for research fliers!). Spectators are always welcome at our launches and do not have to be members. If you are a spectator, it would be a good idea to fill out a form so that we can contact you directly if the launch must be canceled.
The form is available at this link
Thanks for filling a form out!
1. Election results. All in attendance plus one absentee ballot confirmed the ballot and officers.
2. New bylaws - based on the work of Ken Gianino and a Saturday bylaws review session (Heino Pull, Ken Gianino, David Kovar, Rodney Riederer and comments from Rob Chapie and Dan Welling), we have a proposed new document for the membership to review and vote on next month. The new bylaws are oriented towards a simplification and a necessary report for the corporation due towards June 2014. The corporation requires a board of directors which already have 3 members when we submitted in the paperwork to the state: Dan Welling, Rob Chapie, and Heino Pull. The new bylaws allow up to 9 directors and will be voted on by the membership. The board of directors will then in turn elect officers which now are President, Vice President, Secretary, and Treasurer. The equipment officer position is now an equipment committee and there is also defined an IT committee both authorized by the board. Detailed rules for running elections and the timing have been removed from the bylaws and will be determined by the board of directors.
As per the current bylaws, it is required that the new bylaws be available for review by the membership and will be voted on at our next meeting. We intend to switch to the new bylaws after the vote and will have a board of director election later in the year.
The bylaws are available at the following link if you have membership status on the web site.
3. A weather committee email list will be created this weekend for launch weather decisions. Anyone who is a member and wants to discuss the weather decisions is invited to join. Send an email to me and I'll add you to the list (heyno@heino.com).
4. I'll be adding launch surveys to the web site this weekend. Fill this out to let us know when you want to/are available to fly at Elsberry.
5. The web site status of 2013 members who haven't renewed will be change to non member status on 1 March 2014, or on the Saturday of our first Elsberry Launch, which ever comes first. As a reminder, you have to be a member of SLRA to participate in high power launches at Elsberry. Model rocket fliers who aren't members can still fly if they have proof of insurance - (NAR or Tripoli membership). Spectators are always welcome and don't have to be members of the club.
6. Look for more details of the Apollo 11 event at Buder Park and the Science Center. Retired Apollo launch director Gene Kranz and his wife will be coming to St. Louis and we will need club volunteers to help with the events. This will be an exciting event and should be a great deal of fun.
Heino Pull
SLRA Secretary
I've placed Ken Gianino's updated bylaws to reflect the corporation. I plan to bring this up at Tuesday's (tonights) meeting to replace our old bylaws.. The draft document is available on the "meeting minutes and bylaws" web site page.
(At this Link )
The newest revision is a the bottom of the page. Thanks Ken!
Next Meeting: SLRA is having our regular monthly meeting on Tuesday
evening, February 11th, at our new meeting location: Google Map Link
Bandana's Bbq Sunset Hills
11750 Gravois Road
Sunset Hills, Missouri, 63127
We are continuing to meet at Bandana’s BBQ Sunset Hills. Lets us know what you think about meeting at this location. Even though Bandana’s Sunset Hills doesn’t have a minimum food purchase, we are encouraging members to purchase something to support the use of the room. We have the room from 6:30 to 9:00 and we’ll need to leave promptly since 9 pm is the closing time.
The room will be available at 6:30 PM and the business meeting will start at about 7:00PM. We'll need to be out of the room by 9:00 PM (closing).
If you're a member of SLRA, the meeting minutes from the January meeting will be available here: Meeting Minutes Page,
The standard agenda for all meetings is as follows:
1. Treasury Status.
2. Recognition of Achievements
3. Recognition of Contributions
4. Members expenses.
5. Old Business - please review minutes for last month's meeting for topics
6. New Business
On line and paper membership forms with payments received by mail to be processed by treasurer and president.
Please comment on this post or email me at heyno@heino.com if you have new business for the meeting.
Heino Pull
SLRA Secretary
We postponed our election until the February general membership meeting. Our bylaws allow absentee ballots and I've made the ballot available to be filled out on the web site. We are in the process of changing our bylaws to line up with our corporation status, but the elections are being held under our current rules.
We have received no new nominations for any of the officer positions so the ballot has one name for each office. Here are the candidates for officer positions:
President - Rodney Riederer
Vice President - David Kovar
Treasurer - Don Hanson
Secretary - Heino Pull
Equipment Officer - Dan Welling
If you are a member you can either enter you vote at the upcoming meeting, or fill out the absentee ballot and submit it on the web site. Only one ballot per member is permitted and you must have a registered web site account with member status. The ballot must be entered by our Tuesday (Feb 11, 2014) meeting.
Look for an upcoming meeting announcement post also where the upcoming draft of our new bylaws will be presented.
The ballot is available under web site "Members" tab which is at the following link:
http://dmortproductions.com/stlrocketry/2014-slra-officer-elections-absentee-ballot
The meeting attendance was very light and we barely reached quorum until quite a bit of time after the official start. Here are the notes:
1. The bylaws prohibited proxy voting at the meeting (but do allow absentee ballots). Since we had such light attendance and still some questions on nominations we postponed the election and Tripoli election until the February meeting to allow the nominees to be solidified. Rodney Riederer was able to attend (Thanks Rodney!) and indicated that his availability to attend meetings will be limited this year, he questioned whether it would make some one else to assume the Presiden'ts office. Of those attending the meeting last night there were no one who officially accepted the nomination for President (although Rodney offered to run if no one else was able). We made note of David Kovar's acceptance of nomination for
Vice President and Ken Gianino indicated he would withdraw from consideration for Vice President but would help the club with the incorporation, bylaw process, room reservation, and attending the Apollo 11 meetings with Dave Kovar (Thanks Ken!). All other offices have candidates (equipment - Dan Welling, treasurer - Don Hanson, secretary - Heino Pull, NAR president - John Buckley, Tripoli Prefect - Rob Chapie, Tripoli Secretary - Dan Welling. It was noted from the bylaws that the quorum requirement currently is that either the President or the Vice President attend an official meeting and we did have at least one meeting last year that wasn't official according to the bylaws. The group noted that our bylaws are overly complicated and we need to address the current state at a separate working session. We can offer absentee ballots for February (on the web site) to get more participation in the elections but we need to resolve the nomination issues.
2. The bylaws mandate that the club dues be set and the group voted to keep the dues the same as last year. This will allow memberships to be received for 2014. The on line membership form has been updated for 2014 and we encourage all to enter a new membership form with payment (either by Paypal or by check/cash). The existing membership forms have been saved along with the 2013 membership list, but forms will be required for 2014 again. All 2013 SLRA members still have membership privileges on the web site, but we will purge the membership list on 3/1/2014. Login accounts will not be removed, but those who have not rejoined by March 1st (or our first spring launch whichever is first) will be set to non member status and will not be able to access the members only area of the web site or fly at Elsberry.
3. As indicated above, the bylaws are very complicated and are oriented for a bigger group. They also have various amendments that have not been incorporated into the main document. We are planning to readdress the bylaws at a separate working session which is tentatively scheduled for the weekend of January 25/26th. Ken Gianino and Heino Pull have volunteered to work the changes and we invite anyone else interested to review and attend the working session. Ken has offered his home as the working site although we can obtain a room at the coffee house across from Growler's in south county if that is more convenient. Please let us know if you're willing to help with the effort and can support the working session. We can reschedule to later in January if this weekend doesn't work. This effort is critical to help make the bylaws match the current state of SLRA.
4. For the spring launch schedule, it was suggested that we use the week by week scheduling system starting February 22, 2014. This would be the same process that we used in fall along with the use of the survey form to measure interest in the various launch dates (Saturday and Sunday launches starting on Feb 22). This date can be changed, but we need something to post on the web site. It was also suggested that we resurrect the weather committee process as an email list that any club member could join to discuss the process of launch cancellations and anticipated weather. I would create the email list that would allow emailing the various members separate from the club web site. We need comments from those not at last nights meeting for this potential addition to our launch scheduling process.
5. We discussed a reply that John Buckley received on the insurance situation at Buder Park launches from the president of the NAR. The current NAR insurance rules will not cover any fliers who are not NAR members for any damage caused. However, the club members, officers, and land owner (St. Louis County Parks) will be covered for any lawsuits or damage caused by a non-member non-insured accident. To proceed at Buder Park we determined that we will need to ask GSLMA if we can allow non insured individuals to fly rockets at Buder with perhaps the the requirement to sign a liability waiver for the club, GSLMA, and St. Louis County Parks. It was also mentioned as a possibility that insured club members could inspect, prep, and fly rockets for non insured individuals at Buder. Boy Scout groups, school organizations/groups are covered by NAR insurance and would not be a problem. If GSLMA would allow us to fly with non-insured fliers, we would need to keep careful track of who attended and offer liability release forms. We would also encourage members to obtain Buder Park flying permits. As part of the discussion, a member indicated that there is private field in Illinois where we might be able to fly if the owner agrees. I can provide a link to the current club officers so we can discuss the possibility of flying at this location with landowner permission.
6. Ken Gianino attended the working meeting with Dave Kovar and the Science Center group. Ken gave us a summary of the revised schedule and contest plans for May. Dave Kovar has emailed more information since last nights meeting and I can forward the info to anyone who is interested and has not received Dave's email.
For those who atteneded, please let me know if I left anything out or made any errors in the above summary.
Thanks!
Heino Pull
SLRA Secretary
Passing this on to the club from Dave (Heino)
Just wanted to let everyone know that I will probably not be at the meeting tonight. If nominated I would accept the position as Vice President of SLRA. I would continue to seek opportunities for participation in public outreach events, particularly those related to education events that promote both high and low power model rocketry. Hopefully through this time of involvement we increase awareness of SLRA which will ultimately lead to increased membership. I look forward to the social interaction as well at our launch events at Buder, Ellsberry, and beyond.
Prior to the meeting, I hope to send our notes from the Apollo 11 Planning meeting that Ken and I attended yesterday at the Science Center. The big item is that we moved the Precision Duration competition to Saturday and are inviting local area organizations that have a focus on exposing middle school age youth to science related activities. I am currently focusing on inviting area Boy and Girl Scout troops from both Illinois and Missouri. That means the Thursday event will be pretty easy to staff since we will only be doing the scale model launch demonstration and Apollo 11 launch reenactment from 10:00 - 10:45. We are also looking at having a static display on Saturday as well but that depends on how much additional support we get to help out with the Precision Duration Competition.
Heino, please pass this email along to the other SLRA members I do not have email addresses for.
Happy Rocketeering!
Dave Kovar