Hey Team!
As this newsletter comes out we will be officially ending the last week of summer. Finally! It has been a hot and nasty one, That’s for sure.
To start off, I would like to thank the folks who participated on our Labor Day Raffle. We made some great progress towards funding our holiday banquet! The raffle was a lot of fun, with a slew of great prizes, and Subway sandwiches served by Julie and Joe Bonnardel. I would also like to say “thanks!” to the folks who donated prizes to the raffle, the items were really appreciated. Randy Wynant and Quan Nguyen have started looking for a venue for the banquet. If you know of a nice indoor location that can handle 130-140 people at a reasonable price, please let them know and we will look into it.
I want to say to all that I really appreciate the efforts most of you make to keep our club drama free. I hear often from other local clubs on how hard it is to keep the peace at their sites. With that being said, I would like to reiterate some things to the few people that want to push the boundaries… First, some basics. Please give each other the courtesy of loudly announcing your intentions to take off, land, or cross the field. DON’T say it only to yourself, say it so others can hear. To continue this thought, announcing this action does not alleviate your responsibility to turn your head and visually verify you are in the clear to proceed with your action. If you are doing multiple touch and go landings, you must announce EACH landing approach so others know what you are doing. The flip side is the folks who announce “On the runway.” Then step out without turning their head to see if the runway is actually clear. There were a few near misses last month that could have easily been avoided.
There are also a couple of folks that are always flying opposite pattern, or straight up through the pattern as if there are no other planes in the air. This results in angry people staying on the ground instead of risking their craft by flying with someone acting like a fool. Please share our site with others respectfully. If you must fly like a clown, I hear the Chollas park guys are having a membership drive… To everyone else, feel free to say something to the folks that are not considerate to others. If you say nothing they assume it is ok. If you wait until later and send me an e-mail – they assume it is ok. I will rarely send a message to desist on something I did not actually see myself.
Moving on,
Last month’s newsletter had some great input from members and was a great read. Again, our editor Steve Belknap works hard to give you quality, but input from members on projects, shop tricks, and experiences are the icing on the cake. Keep those submissions coming!!
We are almost at 400 members as we enter the last quarter of 2017. A few less than last year, but not by much. We are still looking for current membership badges to fly at the club. I always like to state this time of year that our club still has great value – even at the end of the year, and most other clubs within an hour of us charge more than $15 bucks a month plus initiation fees to boot.
Thanks to the folks that brought brooms and shovels to the last meeting day on the field. We were able to remove a lot of the sand and dust that had lifted from the surface and distribute it into the field. Jim is on the waiting list for rental of the water truck, but will be wetting the field prior to the end of the month. We expect this round of field maintenance to take us to the end of the year.
October will mark the end of the event series we hold on Saturdays. Pop wing racing, Electroglide, and FPV racing will wrap up and start anew in January. There is some tight competition for the top spots so make sure you don’t miss out!
We are a month away from nominations for 2018 board of directors, with voting happening at the November meeting which will be held on the 18th to get ahead of Thanksgiving.
Board members that currently plan to leave their current positions are: Myself, I intend to vacate the President seat, which will automatically move me to the Chairman position – still involved, but with a different role. ; Jim Bonnardel intends to step back from the Vice President position into one of the Member At Large positions to allow him to concentrate on other endeavors. Again, still involved, but with different responsibilities. ; Paul Guidice has decided to vacate the Treasurer position to enjoy some long anticipated travel with his Wife Isabel. This means we will also lose Isabel as our membership coordinator.
The President, Vice President, and Treasurer are positions that require a vote to occupy. The membership coordinator however, does not and can be appointed at any time. While it was handy for Paul and Isabel, the treasurer and membership person does not have to be a husband and wife team. With that being said, I am putting out a call for any member that would like to be involved without taking an actual board position, and understands how to use/manage spreadsheets. The membership coordinator could expect to spend 2 to 3 hours per week managing applications and mailing badges. Is this you? I need someone to take this position quickly, so they can spend some time with Isabel learning the ropes before we start the new year.
For the board positions, I again ask you to look inside yourself, ask the question of yourself on whether your skills, experiences, and qualities would make you the person to advance our club to new heights. Don’t think about what a few hours a month would affect you, instead think about the ways YOU could improve the experience of everyone in the club.
With the Hepatitis A outbreak in San Diego County, I would like to raise awareness that we routinely have homeless folks using our facilities. With that in mind, Paul strongly recommends to all members that they buy and bring a quality hand sanitizer with them for those occasions when the water tank in the porta potty is empty.
There are some really neat items on the sites For Sale tab. Make sure you take a look.
This month’s meeting is on the 23rd, and the fun fly event will be “ Don’t Spill the Beans”. Any member can play, and get a chance at $150.00 in cash prizes! Following the fun fly will be the monthly meeting followed by our hot dog lunch. Staying with the Bean theme, Jimmy is trying to convince me to make a pot of Chili…
See you there!
Brad
