|
Meeting Held The meeting was held at the field, there were 32 attendees. One new member: George Burlock attended and was welcomed aboard. The minutes of the May meeting were read and approved. Art Vail gave an interim report on the TOC, later he will provide a written report. Art attributed the decrease in spectator numbers partly to the lack of publicity, e.g. no picture in the Sun papers. Raffle tickets also were down. Financially we made about $1,800. Art then thanked by name all who helped with the event: Dave Parkinson, Greg Gee and his son, Mike, Stan and Michelle Blum for the banquet, Neil Kuchli, Ralph Kriss, John Mulcahy, Abe Roth and his wife - Lorraine, Charlie and Carol Artley, Rich Wright, Joe Happel, Tom Stowe, Stan Stinchcombe, Henry Radtka, Bob Pollokoff, Wayne Pfau, Terry Olver, Doug Young, Johnny Meyers, Bill Haullenbeck, Bob Klein, Dick Graham, Bob Lehr, Pete Mensch, Allen Ballman, Jess Mitchell,.and apologies to anyone who was missed from this list. Unfortunately a pilot was injured during practice before we got started. Prompt action on the spot by one of the pilots and by a pilot-Doctor prevented any serious developments, and the injured pilot was taken off to the Shock Trauma unit of U of M hospital. He was then treated there and returned the following morning to pick up his belongings. This was unsettling, but further on Sunday, a plane disintegrated in the air. An uncontrolled plane poses a danger but fortunately this one crashed without causing any harm. Then there was an argument over a judgment call about a score; the banquet was poorly attended, and lastly on Monday there was a pile of trash left by the pilots on the field. In future Art proposes we still have a raffle, but hold an event solely for the Club, with invitations to some outside pilots. Art then gave us a quick run-down on the details of the income and expenses for TOC. Lack of spectators was a main cause for not making more on the event. Art will present a complete detailed account later in the News Letter, as some expenses are yet to be incurred. Andy Kane was awarded $100 for winning the free style. Andy kindly donated this to one of our youngest members: - Zach Bury, to encourage him. Andy was given a big hand. A discussion about different ways of raising money for running the Club continued, and then Art, who had to leave, was applauded for all his efforts on our behalf.
Bob Sinsky would still like to have a contest and proposed using the field for one weekend; he would get some other organization to run it. With the addition of the TOC profit of $1,800, we should end the year with about $1,000 in the kitty. The dues for next year will add to this. Stan made a plea for payment of dues by April, and to update personal information at the time of payment. The addresses that Bob Belas uses to e-mail meeting reminders can be incorporated into a comprehensive electronic file. Doug Young and Greg Gee have taken over the Website. This is now at the address www.swaprc.org. A motion to adjourn was made and carried. T.O.C of Over the past ten years our annual
event has become something we can surely be proud of. However, after considering the cost in both
time and money spent versus the benefit to our club, I feel it doesn’t quite
balance out. We’ve had a good run over
the years, and not always with ideal weather, for sure. It was a dream of mine to make this a big
time regional contest, and to that end we have been successful. We make a profit of between $1600 and $2500
each year by holding this (which is certainly nothing to frown about), but
the toll it takes and the dedicated members of our club and me is enormous. Some of the unfortunate incidents at
this past T.O.C. were possibly avoidable. Others were a product of disrespect
on the part of some of the participating pilots. We go out of our way to be accommodating to
the various pilots that attend each year and most of them are appreciative
and acknowledge our efforts, but as the saying goes it only take a few bad
apples to spoil the bunch. The lack of
support for the banquet was disappointing, but the “straw that broke the
camel’s back” (or, my back, if you will) was all the trash left behind by those
that stayed around to enjoy our field after we left. After seeing this on the Monday morning
after that weekend, I decided that I don’t think we should do this any
more. The story doesn’t end there,
however. My revelation after my
disappointment was that the main reason we put all the effort into this every
year is to make money for our club…….so my thought is……...Why not raffle off
a plane like we always do, and then hold one or two club related events each
year (Family Fun Days; Fun Flys, etc.) where our efforts go directly to us
having fun where we can fly and have a great time?? I propose that we plan a Fun Fly for
late September of this year (when the weather is cooler!!) and we all come
out and have a BLAST!!!! What do you
say?!? We
have a great club with an outstanding flying facility that we should enjoy
for ourselves!!! |