Tag Archives: meeting notes

Notes From Last Nights Membership Meeting (July 8 2014)

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1. There will be a launch on July 19th at Buder Park. Set up time is 8:00 am with launch starting at 9:00 am. The launch is planned until 12:00 noon and can be extended if the weather is good and people would like to continue flying. Anyone is welcome to come fly with us. The details are at this link.

2. We have scheduled our first fall launch at Elsberry. It is scheduled for Saturday October 11th. We will be hosting both an NAR regional contest (October Fly) and a Tripoli research launch. We plan to have a total of 3 launches this fall and will announce the dates for the remaining two launches later this summer. The launch has rollover dates if weather forces a cancellation.

3. A number of SLRA members are planning to attend the Argonia launch in Kansas on labor day weekend. Look for a separate post on the web site giving more details of this large regional launch.

4. Based on a motion from the current board of directors (Heino Pull, Dan Welling, and Rob Chapie), we have added the following directors: Don Hanson, Rodney Riederer, David Kovar, John Buckley.

 

Notes from Tuesday 6/10/2014 SLRA Meeting – Buder Park Launch Details

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1. We are planning to have summer launches - the first on Saturday 21 June 2014 at Buder Park. Additional launches are planned for the third Saturday of July, August, and September. With our recent work with the Science Center, we may have access to a much better field than Buder Park so stay tuned to the web site for additional details.

The launch on 21 June will have setup starting at 8:00 am with the launch starting at 9:00 am. We plan to fly to around 1:00 PM. Everyone is welcome to attend and fly rockets at Buder park. You do not have to be a club member or a member of the NAR or Tripoli and kids are always welcome with adult supervision.  This is a perfect place to get acquainted with the club, the national organizations (NAR or Tripoli) and learn the safe way to fly rockets. The park is not large which limits the size and power of models flown with the ultimate limit being a 3.3 lb rocket. We encourage much smaller models though because of the proximity to the Meramac river and the need to avoid landing on the R/C field which we share access. Flights over 1000 feet are allowed, but unlikely to be recoved safely if any wind is present at all so please ask if you have concerns about loosing your rocket.

Everyone who flies with us must also realize that the St. Louis County Parks requires organizations that fly there to have some form of insurance and we will be covered by NAR insurance which will protect our club and members and the property at Buder park as an NAR sanctioned launch. However, anyone flying without being members of NAR or Tripoli will not be insured directly and must fly under supervision of an SLRA member who is a member of either NAR or Tripoli. We will need to make sure all launches occur under the NAR safety code and must supervise the prep of the rockets for anyone not a member of NAR or Tripoli.  We are glad to do that - so feel welcome. It is to your benefit to eventually join either of the national organizations which will then cover your rocketry activity under their insurance - even at other locations. We  want you to try out the hobby first and to have fun flying with your family in a safe environment - as long as all the safety rules are followed. Members of the Boy Scouts or Cub Scouts and their leaders are covered by Tripoli insurance as long as the NAR safety rules are followed. If you have any questions please ask - you can comment on this post or email the club at admin@stlouisrocketry.com.

2. We had a lessons learned session with Dave Kovar after the very successful Apollo 11 45th Anniversary event with the Science Center and Missouri STEM organization. Dave Kovar (who organized the event) handed out Gene Kranz signed "Foundations of Mission Control" certificates to the club volunteers who helped out. Dave provided the following info on the history of the "Foundation of Mission Control":

"After the Apollo 1 fire, he (Gene Kranz) and others developed a charter, "Foundations of Mission Control." It was a contract or code of conduct, which in the NASA human spaceflight world was the closest thing to the Ten Commandments. Foundations very clearly spelled out the values, expectations and responsibilities that each and every employee in Mission Control was expected to understand, believe and live as a member of the NASA team.

As is the case with many others at NASA, I have a copy of Foundations on my bulletin board at United Space Alliance, where I am almost 10 years into my leadership role with the company. Foundations serves as a constant reminder of the traits of a competent and respected leader … one ultimately responsible for the outcome of their decisions. This is the kind of leader I aspire to be."

The event was very successful and hope to have similar events in the future to support science education and STEM. Thanks Dave Kovar for organizing the event.

3. We have not yet set up a fall launch schedule for Elsberry and high power rockets. We anticipate flying at Elsberry in October and John Buckley will hold another "October Fly" contest. Look for more details on the web site in the coming months. We also plan to continue having flier surveys to gauge interest for scheduling purposes.

4. If you need to pay for t-shirts, hats or club membership - you can always send money through PayPal at the email address: admin@stlouisrocketry.com.

As always, feel free to comment on this post or email admin@stlouisrocketry.com if you have any questions.

Heino Pull
SLRA Secretary

 

Notes From the General Membership Meeting – Tuesday, March 11, 2014

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We voted for the rewritten 2014 bylaws which were adopted with 1 absentee ballot and unanimous vote of all members present. The bylaws are now in effect and can be viewed at the member's bylaws and meeting minutes page on the web site.

David Kovar briefed the membership on the upcoming Apollo 11 event in May. He'll provide detailed status on the web site, but he confirmed that there will be a volunteer's dinner for Gene and Marta Kranz at the Moonrise Hotel on Wednesday, May 14, 2014 and we are invited to attend. The dinner will be about $30 per person and Dave passed a signup sheet at the meeting. Volunteers will be needed for a May 3rd practice launch at Buder, and at the Science Center Friday May 16, and Saturday May 17th.

The field owner at Elsberry indicated that the conditions were ok as of Tuesday night for Saturday if we don't get any rain. Unfortunately,  it seems there was significant rain over night. Dan Welling will contact the landowner on Thursday for final determination.

Thanks to everyone who attended.

 

 

Notes From Tuesday’s (2/11/2014) General Membership Meeting

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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

Notes from Tuesdays (11/12/2013) General Membership Meeting

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We had 13 members and 2 guests in attendance.

Achievements: Congratulations to Dan Crank who achieved his Tripoli level 1 certification at the October 26th Elsberry launch  on a 5 lbs fiberglass Shapeshifter and an H120 motor. He has also passed his level 2 written exam and plans to attempt the certification at our next launch using the same rocket.

John Buckley reported on the October Fly contest on October 26/27. Saturday was very windy, but Sunday proved to be a perfect day. There were a total of 11 competitors and the results will be posted on the web site.

We discussed the high power launch on Saturday October 26 and discussed the how we schedule and assess interest. As previously announced on the web site, we now have an RSVP form to help schedule launches and will try to schedule more Sunday launches for those who can't make our normal Saturday dates.  The weather for this weekend may not be good so we are considering a rescheduled Sunday launch on November 24th. We have already received several RSVP forms (thanks) and that is helping with scheduling over the next two weeks. We also plan to have another launch in December.

Craig Klimczak attended the monthly GSLMA meeting. They were happy to see the rocket flights during their Extravaganza and want to encourage our continued participation in their events. They are interested in rescheduling the Boy Scout launch next year and we're looking at different options for scheduling the event. Craig also reported that Buder Park flying permits obtained in the rest of 2013 will be honored for 2014 also. Those who fly at Buder park are encouraged to obtain a flying permit and NAR or Tripoli membership can be used (as well as AMA membership) for the insurance requirement. The form for the permit is at this link. Craig also asked the membership to consider participating in the First Robotics competitions as volunteers (as reported in a separate post).

David Kovar gave a status on the Challenger Center 10th anniversary event on Saturday November 16th and asked for volunteers to help. He has also posted the information on the web site. He will also be procuring prizes for the event as a SLRA member's expense. There was another meeting held at the Science Center for the May 2014 event and there will be a volunteers dinner held Wednesday night with Gene Kranz on May 14th.

Ken Gianino reported that we have obtained our incorporation documentation from the state of Missouri. We are now incorporated and we will have to prepare an annual report in August 2014.

The nomination process for 2014 SLRA officers will start in December. Members can nominate themselves or other members for the following offices: President, Vice President, Secretary, Treasurer, and Equipment Officer. The election will be held at the January meeting.

Thanks to everyone who attended the meeting.

 

Notes from Tuesday’s (September 10 2013) Meeting

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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.

 

Notes From Tuesdays (June 11 2013) Membership Meeting

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We had a good meeting yesterday at Growler's with 10 members. Here are some notes from the meeting:

1. We've gotten a letter from the St. Louis Area Boy Scouts Council asking for assistance in an rocket event at our August scheduled Buder Park Launch. After some discussion, we decided as a group to respond that we could accomodate up to 200 scouts on August 17th - assuming the park is available and that there is enough participation from the membership.  The scouts may build rockets beforehand or at the event - but that is to be yet determined. This will be discussed at the July meeting.

2. The membership has agreed to allocate $500 from our treasury to purchase an assortment of hats and t-shirts with the SLRA logo for sale to members and to the public. The treasury will recover the costs as the merchandise is sold.  We will be using a local shop that has produced quality items in the past and should be better than our Cafe Press Internet experience. Several members expressed interest in polo shirts with an embroidered logo at a higher cost and members will be able to sign up for these also. We intend to have the items available for our July 20th launch at the Science Center. Thanks to Dan Welling and Rob Chapie for looking into possible suppliers.

3. The director of the St Louis Science Center Planetarium, John Lakey, has contacted us to verify that we are still planning to have the launch at the Science Center on July 20th. We have replied yes and John plans to attend our July 9th meeting to discuss details. The membership discussed several ideas and we are going to acquire 50 rocket kits to be sold to the public to be assembled for flight at the launch. We discussed some of the details and are also creating a list of questions for John. We will need the help of the membership for this event and we plan to have separate web site postings to help get a list of volunteers. This is an important public outreach for SLRA and will be a fun celebration of the 44th anniversary of the Apollo 11 moon landing on July 20th 1969 and the 50th anniversary of the McDonnell Planetarium. The launch will be held at the archery field - right next to the planetarium and we will have static displays both inside and outside. All ideas are welcome to make this event successful.

4. Our current treasury balance is $2158.71 and we had our first PayPal dues payment. Heino Pull presented receipts for a year of web service ($114.90 and the domain costs ($13.50) for St. Louis Rocketry.Com.

5. The electric match purchase is almost complete - waiting on payment before the final order is done. Dan Welling is coordinating this purchase.

6. Look for a announcement on the web site for the status of the scheduled Buder Park launch on Saturday, June 15th. I have visited the park and all is well with the  fields there.  We have not heard much interest (1 interested flier at the meeting) in the upcoming launch, but are working on assessing the weather and to see who can move equipment and help out.  Please add a comment to this post if you are interested in flying on Saturday or are willing to help out.  It is currently scheduled for 12:30 to 5 PM, but may be curtailed if there isn't enough interest. The current forecast for Saturday is for isolated thunder storms (30% chance of rain), winds up to 15 MPH and 87 degree high.

Please comment on this post if you have any comments or questions.

 

Heino Pull

SLRA Secretary

Notes from Tuesdays Membership Meeting (4/9/2013)

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1. As already emailed, PayPal is now accepted for dues payments. We can also use a swipe device at the launch locations for launch fee payments or for selling t-shirts/etc. We're in the process of linking the club bank account to our PayPal account.

2. Dan Welling reported on the Saturday April 6th launch at Elsberry. It was very windy but there were several successful high power flights.

Under accomplishments:
Congratulations to Chris Franklin for obtaining his level 2 certification.  Here is the description of the flight from Dan Welling:

Chris Franklin flew his L2 cert flight - not on a little J like most folks and not a low altitude flight, but a window flight to 13,019ft AGL on a 5 gr 75mm Smokey Sam L1685.  Unfortunately, there were clouds somewhere around 9,000 ft or so.  A white rocket, no tracking, drogueless with a white main ;chute - found it in less than 45 min.  (And about 20 minutes of that was a false alarm when we saw a partially unearthed white PVC drain pipe 1/3 mile into a field.)  Main at 500ft was definitely not too low.  It landed about 100 yards from the river.

Congratulations also to new member Greg Pernoud who obtained his level 1 certification using an I161 motor. Luckily, Greg's rocket landed very close to a road for an easier recovery.

3. The group discussed a possibility of a second spring launch at Elsberry. The landowner was getting ready to plant his crops.  Once planted, we will have to wait until fall to fly again. the next possibility will be April 20th. Dan will contact the landowner to get a read on his planting schedule. I won't schedule the 20th until Dan has a chance to talk to the landowner.

4. The first launch at Buder park has been rescheduled to May 11th due to 2 groups of scouts who would like to attend. We will need help to assist the 40 to 50 scouts who may attend so please consider attending the model rocket launch. The setup usually starts at 12:30 Saturday and will run until 5:00 PM or so. Small H motors can be flown at Buder if the conditions are right and the rocket is less than 3.3 lbs. The field is not very large with a river to the south and I-44 to the north so any H motor flights would need to be in "low and slow" rockets (such as the Loc Mini-Mag). Look for more info as we get closer to the May launch.

5. Our new web site has been stable on the new provider and we plan to shut down the old provider before the May membership meeting. The only functionality left on the old provider is the club announcements and rocket-select mailing lists which will be discontinued. To continue receiving club email messages - you'll have to create an account with your email address on the new site once the mailing lists are shut down. I will provide the exact date and time of the shutdown a week before the actual date.

6. Dan Welling has yet to order the e-matches as part of the group buy.  There is still time to order e-matches so contact Dan or leave a message on the e-match forum topic if you're interested.

7. Special thanks to Mark Henriksen who purchased new relays for our relay box in November. This helps maintain the reliability of our launch pads when its time to press the button.  Acknowledgement of his contribution was long overdue and I want to thank Mark for his patience when I let it slip through the cracks. I'm looking at ways to improve our receipt process so that it doesn't take so long in the future. Thanks Mark!

Please let me know if there are any corrections, achievements or contributions that I've missed in these notes. Thanks to all who attended the meeting.

Heino Pull
SLRA Secretary

 

Notes From Tuesday’s (March 2013) Membership Meeting

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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