The 2009 annual membership meeting took place on November 14 (starting at about 5 pm) in Neal Karman’s meeting room at Arlington.  It was attended by 35 members. Outgoing president Fred Hermanspann thanked Neal Karman for again making his facility available to the club and Jim Simmons thanked him on behalf of the Seattle Glider Council for his support of the gliding community.

Fred Hermanspann opened the meeting.  First Marty Gibbins gave an overview of the financial projections he, Dan Teifke, and Brian Hood have developed out to the year 2021, proposed rate increases were discussed and voted on, new officers were elected, Fred Hermanspann gave a review of the club’s accomplishments during the last year, and the new president Gary Paulin presented his goals for the next year.

Marty showed in his presentation that Evergreen broke even financially last year.  If the club continues on in the same manner it will be able to maintain the three tow planes and gliders but it is not clear that it will have sufficient funds to renew the leases on the hangars, pursue new equipment purchases, and deal with unexpected repair expenses. To insure the club will have sufficient operating funds and begin building more reserves, Marty proposed that the monthly membership fee increase from $30.00 to $32.00, monthly glider fees increase from $25.00 to $28.00, the limited use per flight glider fee increase from $35.00 to $40.00, and a sliding scale adjusted to current price of fuel be used to determine the 100 foot tow fee.

A question was raised about the nature of the hangar leases. John Gilbert pointed out that BESC paid $28,000.00 in 1991/93 to purchase the buildings at B14/B15 and lease the ground for 31 years. Evergreen pays an additional $1800.00 per year condominium fee on the two hangars. The other single hangar was purchased by the old ES and the ground leased for $14,000.00. Renting a similar hangar would cost about $400.00 per month.  Fred Hermanspann mentioned that there are ongoing negotiations to extend the leases for some specified improvements to the buildings.

The recommendations for the fee increases were made at the Board of Directors’ meeting one week earlier and thus this agenda item was announced less than 15 days before the meeting.  Fred Hermanspann made a motion to go ahead with voting on Marty Gibbins’ proposed rated increases if there was no dissenting vote. The motion was accepted unanimously by acclamation.

Fred Hermanspann then made the motion to increase:

Monthly membership fees from $30.00 to $32.00.
Monthly glider fees from $25.00 to $28.00

Gary Paulin seconded the motion and the motion carried.

Fred Hermanspann then motioned to increase the per flight glider fee for members who do not pay the monthly glider fee from $35.00 to $40.00.. The motion was accepted unanimously by acclamation.

Marty Gibbins motioned to adopt a sliding scale per 100 foot tow fee that would adjust to the price of tows in $0.05 increments determined by the price of gasoline on the day of billing. The exact equation to be used is contained in a graph created by Dan Teifke. The motion was accepted unanimously by acclamation.

Gary Paulin presented the nominated slate of executive officers for the 2010 Board of Directors.

President Elect                  Brian Hood
Treasurer                            Marty Gibbins
Secretary                             Doug Service
Operations                         Hans Sendelbach

No other nominations were made.  John Gilbert motioned to allow voting by acclamation by a single vote based on the fact that the nominees were unopposed.  This motion was accepted unanimously by acclamation.  

Gary Paulin motioned to accept the nominees as new executive officers and this motion was accepted unanimously by acclamation.

Fred then reviewed the club accomplishments for the year.

• Equipment (special thanks to Tony Puglisi)
• 17Z received a new engine
• Both L-23 were painted
• L-33 purchased
• Two parachutes purchased
• EW logger purchased
• Two hand held radios purchased
• New floor tiles in the club house back room
• Roughly 10 pct more tows than last year (about 1600 tows)
  • Keith McLean – 336 tows so far!
• Excursions with operations at 4 different locations (special thanks to Hans Sendelbach and Brad Hill)
• Darrington
• Ephrata
• Twisp
• Skykomish
• Bruce Bulloch organized the Jeff Renner publicity flight and the Dustup which was very successful.
• Great work by the finance committee
• Marty Gibbins
• Dan Teifke
• Brian Hood
• Bob Wander safety seminar organized by Mark Nyberg
• Active training program with solos by
• Allison Sjoberg
• Hans Sendelbach
• Tim McClure
• Roger Axelson
• Hans received the SGC student of the year award – congratulations!
• More XC flights listed on OLC
• 66 flights vs 39 last year
• 13 pilots vs 9 last year
• 7,482 km (handicapped km) vs 4,778 km last year
• Three new members on the Joe Patton milestone list
• John Gilbert
• Kevin Finke
• Lynn Weller
• Four Cascade crossings
• Ron Clark
• Dan Housler
• Fred Hermanspann/Winfried Feifel (2)
• Ron Clark won the Willy Burhen award with a 346 km flight to Tonasket (new distance record for Arlington!) first 3 places better than last year’s winning flight.
• FAI Badge legs
• Noel Wade - Silver distance and height (Ephrata)
• Doug Service - Silver distance and height (Ephrata)
• Keith McLean - Silver duration (Arlington)

The new president Gary Paulin gave an overview of the goals he plans on achieving over the next year which includes.

• Improving Evergreens financial position and building reserves
• Support off base operations while still focusing on AWO<
• Continue to build the glider fleet
• Provide more opportunities for member socialization
• Get more members volunteering to help with club needs

Hans Sendelbach discussed his goal to enable members to become more self sufficient in organizing operations in the upcoming year.

The meeting concluded with beer, pizza and a slide show about this year’s club operations.