EVERGREEN SOARING
Minutes of the Annual Meeting
December 10, 2002
Keith Turner called the meeting to order at 7:30 PM. The meeting was held at the Puget Sound Yacht Club. There were about 20 active members and 2 special members present. Some of the members held voting proxies for members who could not attend.
The meeting began with officers’ reports. Keith Turner’s President’s Report began with the year in review. The landing clinic, trips to Darrington, sale of the Russia, soaring and Arlington and Mid Week Flying all went well. We had a lot of towplane maintenance costs this year and have returned to using only Avgas. We have about 1600 hours on the towplane engine and need to plan for a replacement engine within a few years. We had ground handling accident with our 1-36 this year but the glider has been repaired and is back in service. We have returned to a system where instructors and towpilots are scheduling themselves again and this is expected to resolve a lot of the scheduling problems we have had. We sold the Russia and have put the Lark up for sale. We did not move as much equipment to Ephrata this year and did not leave our equipment there so long. This worked very well and helped keep our costs down.
In talking about the year ahead, Keith talked about his plans for:
· Possible Grob 109 Motor Glider Lease
· Replacement for Russia and Lark - A High Performance Two Place?
· Membership Drive
· Ground School (Starting January)
· Minden Expedition?
· Spring Clinics
· Expeditions
· Encampment
· Cross Country Training
· Commercial and Instructor Pilot Training
· Mid Week Flying
BESC/ES Closer Relationship
Mike Delaney began the Treasurer’s report by announcing that our financial health is good. Mike went on to explain that we have about $48,000 in cash including money received from the sale of the Russia. Membership and revenues are down this year over previous years. Mike passed some spreadsheets and piecharts around for members to review and these details of the club’s financial position will be published soon on the members only section of the club web site.
In response to increasing operating costs Mike proposed the following rate changes to be effective January 1, 2003:
· Increase tow fees from $8.00/1000’ to $8.50/1000’
· Increase charges on our Blanik L-13 gliders from $10/hr to $12/hr
· Increase charges on our Lark from $14/hr to $16/hr
A vote was taken and the proposal passed by unanimous vote.
Mike also explained that the SSA has raised their yearly dues from $55/yr to $64/yr. This new rate will be passed on the members next year.
As part of the Secretary’s report Mark Nyberg reported that we are down to 46 active members and gave a breakdown of our membership by category. He also noted that we have approximately 18 privately licensed and 17 student members.
Eric Shahan gave the Chief CFI’s Report and talked about how instructors will be matched to students as part of their mentoring programs in the coming year. Additionally, he will be concentrating on safety issues and a broad range of training issues including better ground handling and tieing the equipment down following the days' flying. A landing clinic is planned for March. In addition to helping students proceed toward getting their pilot’s licenses, the instructors will also be looking for ways to help licensed pilots increase their proficiency. Instructor self-scheduling is working very well. Ground school is planned for January 2003 and will be offered to the other area clubs.
We need to develop more commercial and CFI rated pilots. We also need to make the Darrington operation better and we need a cross-country training program. Eric is going to look into the SSA ABC Badge Program to see if it is something we want to pursue.
Roy Parzyk gave the Maintenance Report that included the following:
· The towplane needs fabric and tires. This needs to be addressed soon.
· There has been a lack of interest in the Lark.
· We need to move the Borgelt vario from the Lark back into the 1-36.
· We need to install the Cambridge vario back in the Lark.
· We just bought a new canopy cover for the 1-36. Please treat it with care and never leave it on the ground.
Keith Turner mentioned that we have new steel cable tiedowns for all gliders – thanks to Roy. Angus McKinnon will make up rudder locks for both of our Blaniks.
Gary Thayer asked for continued contributions to Glidepath. Let’s put some of those digital cameras to use!
Moving on the election of officers: Keith Turner was elected unopposed to the presidents' position for a second term. Even though Mark Nyberg ran unopposed for the position of President Elect, he was compelled to make a brief election speech. He felt is was important to remind everyone that he would like to see a lot of changes and that the membership would be stuck with him for the next two years. Mark’s election to the office of President Elect was elected by unanimous vote.
Mike Delaney ran unopposed for his second term as Cub Treasurer and was elected by unanimous vote.
Joe Patton ran unopposed for Club Secretary and was elected by unanimous vote.
Both Keith Turner and Mike Delaney are limited by club statutes from running for a third term so this will be their final term in these positions.
Keith Turner has found volunteers for appointed positions. Appointments will be formalized at the next board meeting.
Operations Manager - Keith McLean
Assistant Operations Manager - Paul Adriance
Maintenance Manager - Roy Parzyk
Assistant Maintenance Manage - Scott Watson
Towplane Manager - Brooks Johnson
Membership Board Member - Mary Blonski
Chief Instructor and Safety Officer - Eric Shahan
Chief Towpilot - Howard Glover
The next item of business was whether or not to donate $1,000 to the Seattle Glider Council Soaring Foundation. John Gilbert talked about the new building and what the SGC has done for gliding in the state. Keith Turner argued against the donation saying that we need the money more than the SGC does and encouraging members to make a personal donation rather than voting for a club donation. Other club members added their comments and the issue was put to a vote. Ballots were given out to active members according to the proxies they held. The results of the vote were 14 votes in favor of the donation and 16 votes against. The donation will not be made.
Keith Turner has placed a photo ad for the Lark in www.wingsandwheels.com and has already gotten some interest. Keith Turner appointed Mark Nyberg (the new President Elect) to head the committee to get the next glider. One of Mark’s first duties will be to find out what kind of glider the members want.
There was a long discussion about whether or not our club should manage the Grob 109A motorglider as part of our fleet. Evergreen has been negotiating with Steve Smith (the Grob owner) to make the glider available for club use and paying him $50/hr. Keith presented a concept whereby the members would be charged $65/flight hr to cover costs of fuel and to provide a buffer against minor damage that the club may have to fund. In addition to the hourly fee, the club would need to cover the estimated $2,500 per year insurance plus the fuel. The discussion included advantages and disadvantages:
· Eric Shahan is concerned about the effect of the motorglider on the instructors. If the motorglider is as popular as predicted then lot of members would need instructor checkouts. This will stretch our instructors very thin and may take them away from instructing students.
· No one knows exactly what kind of interest the motorglider will bring or how many new members it will attract.
· There was considerable discussion on how we would handle the $2,500 insurance bill. The initial idea was to divide up the cost equally among those people who fly the motorglider. There was a suggestion that the club the $2,500 or divide the cost equally among all members so that everyone can take part of this motorglider experiment.
· Use of the motorglider may reduce tows. Since we make money on our tows there is a concern that motorglider use may reduce overall revenue. Some members asked if we are in this to having fun flying or to make money.
No vote was taken with the matter deferred to the first meeting of the new board.
As the last item on the agenda Mark Nyberg announced that he will be looking into encampments at Darrington for 2003 and is looking for volunteers to help. He would like us to work with the Darrington Airport managers to be more of a partner and less of a guest there. Roy Parzyk asked to be part of that effort.
There was no further business and the meeting was adjourned/
Respectfully,
Mark Nyberg
Secretary