The May 2008 meeting began with the Pledge, Stevepresiding. He started out by mentioning the recentpassing of Al Lowe, then recognized visitors and newmembers. Lon Lowe, one of Al’s sons, was in attendance. As a bitof trivia it was Lon who designed our logo back whenhe was in high school. He explained the Al’s Culver andother items will be up for sale, details will follow.
David Davis is a new member who had joined up earlierbut has not been to many meetings as he has beenbusy working on his Sport Pilot certificate. He announced that he had accomplished this feat in April atMuni after about 32 hours of instruction.
With large doors open some avian guests elected tojoin the meeting, providing several interruptions andleaving before we officially adjourned.
On to outstanding business. We have bought a newYoung Eagles laptop and printer for approximately $650,helped out by an anonymous donation of $150 towardsthe purchase of Dell hardware.
Gary Kasten attended an official airport meetingconcerning KSET’s August 23 and 24 open house anddebriefed us on the proceedings. He reiterated that the airport will run this event so we need only concernourselves with Young Eagles. As this will span two days we plan to limit registrations to the first 100 attendees per day. If enough pilots show up we willplay it by ear, perhaps flying another 20 or 30. The airport has assigned us a space near Skylink. Since this is some distance from the ARC we’ll set up our tents. Skylink has power available so we can plug in ourlaptop, fans, etc. The area near our building is designated space for vendors, of which there will be 15 to 20,including such organizations as the Shriners. This is shaping up to be quite an event, flyers will be available shortly so please be prepared to take a few and postthem at work. Parking for YE volunteers will be at the ARC, but will becontrolled by others. The local Sheriffs will be on hand, and most likely the CAP will perform traffic and crowd control as at some other events. More details will follow, however parking passes will be provided for our pilots and volunteers. We’ll still be responsible for our own ramp safety. We discussed the possibility of possibly doing educational displays and/or registration at the ARC. An additional concern is confirmation from Herman at Skylink that he’ll be available both days in case our pilots need to refuel, since the CAF may not be an option: much of the ramp will be closed for vendors anddisplays. Steve Miles, Bill Jagust, and Laura Million are on the airport advisory board and will attend further aiport meetings to look out for our interests.
In our immediate future is the International YE Day on June 14. (The CAF will be available for gas at this event.) Once again we discussed how we might helpout our pilots with the ever-increasing cost of fuel. Since they are all volunteers we cannot, as a chapter, pay for gas. At the Alton event the airport pays for fuel, so Gary will pass this on to the advisory board who will ask if the county would be willing to help out. Steve will contact EAA national regarding the do’s and dont’s of paying for fuel as well as for creating ways ofhelping with this expense.
Chris spoke concerning the new lock, which Bill Doherty has in his posession. He’s holding off on installation until we can decide on the best means of generating and distributing pass codes. The last 4 digits of an individual’s EAA number was proposed,but since this is fairly easy to find we decided it wasnot a secure solution. Steve will work with the Executive Committee to set up the lock and codes.
Gary again addressed the group, this time on financialmatters. We received a check in the amount of $1.46 from the IRS, and have another registered letter waitingin the Portage Des Sioux post office. Gary is checkinginto the status of the last payment we sent to the IRS as it did not appear to have posted as of the meetingand he has not been able to get in touch with the man who helped us with that issue.
At our last YE event a CPA left his card, Gary got in touch with him, and hehelped to file our most recent form 990 along with taxesowed. Incidentally the money owed is a consequenceof the IRS’s interpretation of how we earned some ofour funds. Since the food coupons do not deal directlywith aviation, unlike hangar rent or the B-17 event, thegovernment feels we owe taxes on such earnings. Thisdespite the fact that the dollars are spent on aviation-related expenditures. Leo suggested that it might beworth contacting Schnuck’s since they promote their fund raiser as tax deductible. Gary is going to seek asecond opinion from another CPA, and Steve Miles may have a contact there. Tax preparation is not themain business for our current preparer. The importantpoint is that we have filed our form and submittedpayment and are current with the IRS. After the tax discussion Gary announced our checking and savings account balances.
