February 15, 2014, Meeting Minutes

February's meeting began with the Pledge, Bill Doherty presiding. Dave is recovering from a successful surgery.

We moved to accept the minutes from January's meeting.

Don gave the savings and checking balances.

John Tiner, Alan Bane, Paul Vorhees and Brian Kissinger visited today from Chapter 64. They each have a Fly Baby of their own and came to take a look at ours.

Bill briefly covered the BOD meeting. We discussed food costs. Jeff Stephenson will be our new Eagle Flight Coordinator.

Rick covered this year's YE Events Calendar. We'll continue with the 2nd Saturday of the month, April through October. With all the snow so far there's a good chance we could get flood out again and the extra month could be our chance for a make-up date. Rick reminded us about the points that count towards reimbursement for the program. Note that we get credit for a given pilot's flights after flying 10 kids. Rick noted that the program cost our chapter this year due to food costs. We're hoping to get someone to act as a food and beverage director for the chapter, let Rick know if you'd like to volunteer. One of our visitors suggested outsourcing the cooking. We're sending William Frye, who flew with Eve at last year's first event, to Air Academy. His fees are taken care of between points and a donation. We'd also like to send our new member, Hunter. Dave Doherty will take care of a portion of this, we'll need to cover the rest. Motion made, seconded, and passed for this expense.

We took a break before Don's annual financial report, Ron reminded us that he had food cards to sell during intermission.

Don gave a PowerPoint presentation on our 2013 finances. We were down in income versus 2012, though 2012 was an unusual year for various reasons. Expenses were nearly the same. We renegotiated our flight simulator expense, a big hit towards YE, and plan to better manage food costs. Propane price and usage will both be up. We might consider buying in the summer when we'll pay less. Hangar costs are rising, but not by much. We'll need to cut costs or bump up our income in 2014.

After the financials motion was made, seconded, and approved to close the meeting. Afterwards our visiting Fly Baby experts helped us assess our plane.