Saturday, June 20, 2009

June 20th, 2009 Meeting Minutes

June Meeting Minutes
by Dave Deweese, Chapter Secretary

The June meeting began with the Pledge, Steve Morse presiding in Karsten's absence.

We recognized visitors, including Bob, an EAA member on the national level, and a Wings of Hope participant. Al, who came last week to our Young Eagles event, returned this week with his membership application.

Our YE Event with the Navy Sea Cadets went well and included plenty of pilots, though there was a rather low turnout of passengers at about 37. Gary reports a donation of $150. Mr. Bill did his regular ground school instruction, and the plastic model builder club came out as well. We discussed difficulties with the Boy Scouts at out prior event, and noted no such problems with
our Sea Cadets. (Editor's note: the difficulties were with the Boy Scout leaders, NOT the boys.)

Ron spoke regarding the ramp. The contractor has Karsten's email address but he has not heard from them. We don't expect this anytime soon as there is lots more work to do outside the airport hangars. Ron suggests pouring and compacting gravel.

Thanks to Bill Jagust for getting our fire extinguishers up to date.

The Ford Trimotor is willing to come to Spirit; word is that Mr. Busch may be willing to donate hangar space. We'll need a 6-8 person crew from Thursday to Sunday, but the dates not are yet firm as of the meeting: September to October is the projected timeframe. Anyone who may be interested in helping please consider volunteering. Steve will post more details on the Yahoo group. Ron suggests that we find out what percentage of ticket sales, and if we need to do the publicity.

Since we've moved the meeting date, we could have a July meeting going forward, as it's now before Oshkosh. Richard Emery advises that people looking at the website might not be aware we're not around on this date. Gale moved and Gary seconded for a special July meeting, in light of a needed Trimotor discussion. We voted on a regular July meeting going forward.

Ron Burnett could not make it in, Richard Emery brought in coupons and Gary Kasten distributed. Gary also advises us that we need to think of more fund raising sources. Our biggest expense is filling the propane tank for the winter. Gale says the B-17 was a good revenue source in the past, the TriMotor may help out, so once again, please volunteer. We also need more participation with Dierberg's, Shop & Save, or Schnuck's cards.

We continued discussion on a ramp, an interim (less expensive) solution, could be simply using boards and ramps. Steve will talk with the contractor and get a price that we can vote on, to see if this is feasible. More information to follow in July. Dave Domeier suggested pricing on a small concrete lip, we could probably handle this within the chapter.

Waco fly-in is this weekend at Creve Coeur.

The meeting closed, followed by a presentation by Steve Morse regarding welding. This continued the session from May.