We met at Bandana's in Sunset Hills and had 12 members in attendance.

1. John Buckley reported on possible dates for his October Fly Contest launch. This is an NAR sanctioned contest and all NAR members are welcome to attend. It is anticipated that flyers will be travelling to our launch site at Elsberry from around the US. The scheduled date for this launch is October 26/27 (Saturday and Sunday) and will be listed as an event on our website. John is asking for input on possible events for the contests also. He has set up a forum post at the following link for all those interested:

http://dmortproductions.com/stlrocketry/groups/slra-guest-group/forum/topic/october-fly-xii/

You need to be a registered web site user (you don't need to be an SLRA member) to post on this forum topic. Registering is quick and easy by clicking the "create account" link on the right side of the front page. The Oct 26/27 may also line up with our high power launch at Elsberry depending on weather.

2. Dave Kovar reported on his meetings with the Science Center, the Challenger Learning Center, and Parks College about a spring 2014 educational event to be held in St. Louis. It has been confirmed that Gene Kranz, (wikipedia) author of "Failure is Not an Option" and NASA Flight Director for the Apollo 11 moon landing and the Apollo 13 mission (among many others) and his wife Marta, will be coming to St. Louis for several events on May 15, 16, and 17th (tentatively scheduled). Our club has been asked to hold an educational launch at the Science Center on Friday May 16 and hold another public build and fly event on Saturday May 17th in conjunction with Gene's visit and presentations. The event is in honor of the 45th anniversary of the Apollo 11 moon landing and it is expected that middle school level students from around the St. Louis area and other schools in Missouri/Illinois will attend the educational event. Further meetings are scheduled to firm the details, but we will need participation from our membership to help in this exciting event. Look for more information as we get closer to the event.

3. The membership has decided, for several reasons, to change our rules for fliers wishing to fly at our high power Tripoli research launches. The launch fees will remain at $10 per day but we  will require membership in our group for all high power fliers. Membership fees will remain $10 until the end of 2013 so the cost to fly at our fall launches will be $20 for all non members. Fliers will also be  required to have either Tripoli or NAR membership. Model rocket fliers will still be able to fly for a $5 launch fee and will not have to be members of SLRA. However, the rules have changed so that all model rocket fliers will have to be either Tripoli or NAR members at our Elsberry launches. These changes are due to insurance requirements and we will have to verify membership cards in Tripoli or NAR. These rules do not apply to our Buder Park launches. The membership fee will again be $20 starting in January 2014.

4. We will have a Buder park launch on September 21st. Mike Fischer will be using his setup and will be arriving at Buder Park around 11:00 a.m. Several other members will be attending. This launch will be during the GSLMA Air Extravaganza Fun Fly which will be both days of the weekend. There may be donations requested in the area of the RC pavillion and our launch will be setting up towards the north parts of the park (near the soccer fields at the center of the field). Mike will have up to 3/16 inch launch rods with his setup. The public is invited to our launch and be sure to check out the RC activities at the Pavilion. For information about the fun fly check out this link:

5. There will be an Engineering Career Day at the St. Louis Science Center on October 12th from 9am to 12pm and several members will be setting up an exhibit with rocket models. If you have time and would be willing to help, please email me at heyno@heino.com or comment on this post and I will send the information to Craig Klimsack who is coordinating the event with the Science Center. This will be a great way to promote the club and the rocket hobby in general. Thanks!

We continue to have hats, t-shirts, and polo shirts available for sale. Please comment on this post if you're interesting in purchasing an item.

Congratulation to John Buckley who took third place overall and fourth place nationally at NARAM.