Hey Guys!
We are nearly to the end of 2020, and I’m glad it’s almost over! Hopefully we will return to something closer to normalcy in the next few months.
I hope everyone had a chance to enjoy Thanksgiving with their closest loved ones. Normally I attend a large event put on by a co-worker, but kept it (very) small this year in ongoing efforts to keep everyone safe.
As for the current State and County COVID restrictions, our site is tied to the fate of the beach areas. As such, we are still considered a safe outdoor activity – as long as we continue to use smart practices on-site. As we reopened in June, there were some fears of overcrowding at the flight line on weekends. I am there most weekends, and I’m glad to report it just hasn’t been an issue. Try to space yourselves to one person per table, and if you must share a larger (10 foot) table – just use opposite ends. From what I have seen, people are doing very good maintaining their distancing, with some people being proactive and staying masked at all times. For your continued safety, please mask up if you cannot avoid closer interactions with others.
November is traditionally the month we vote for club Officers to manage operations for the next year. I put out a call for nominations in September and October, and the responses were slimmer than expected. We were in need of a President, and our current Secretary has some obligations out of the country that would interfere with his prescribed duties. We had one person volunteer for the President position, and one of our Members At Large agreed to swap positions with the Secretary for 2021, and maybe longer. Since there were no challengers for either position, After a lengthy discussion, I proposed to the BOD that we ratify the positions without a general vote. The Board of Directors voted on my motion and your BOD members for 2021 will be:
Chairman – Brad Bender
President – Jovi Murek
Vice President – Steve Manganelli
Treasurer – Quan Nguyen
Safety Officer – Steve Neu
Secretary – Eric Shapiro
Member at Large – Carl Cox
Member at Large – Jeff Struthers
Member at Large – Ken Dresser
Please thank them for their service to the club when you see them. I Understand these are challenging times and appreciate that each and every one of them has stepped forward instead of stepping back. If any member has thoughts of wanting to get involved in the future and would like to sit in on a Board meeting, or four, over the next year, let me know and I will invite you!
Also needing your thanks are:
Our Club Editor, Steve Belknap – who tracks down noteworthy tidbits to bring this monthly newsletter to fruition, and works tirelessly to maintain our web site, and keep hackers/spammers off of it.
Our Membership Coordinator, George “ MAVERICK” Sullivan – for keeping it straight and spelling everyone’s name correctly.
Our weekend Photographer, Frank Sutton – for some amazing shots!
Our Table repairmen, Jim Bonnardel and Mark Davis – only a few more to go – Thanks guys!!
And the guys that always help with the ongoing maintenance tasks that is generally boring and sweaty- Dennis LaBerge, Jeff Struthers, Nico Goosens, Bob Stinson, Vince Gonsowski, Frank Gagliardi, and Scott Vance. There are quite a few others that routinely assist,( Thank you all!) I mentioned these guys specifically because they ALWAYS show when there is a need.
We are finishing 2020 with 303 members. Not terrible since a lot more people stayed home this year. The club has officially closed its books on 2020. For the remainder of the year we are going to allow non-members of SEFSD to enjoy using our site as long as they have current AMA membership and understand our safety procedures. Quan and Steve have disabled the “Join Now” tab on the web site are working on modifying the required pages to allow memberships for 2021. The tab should be active again on December first for next year. Dues will remain unchanged at $50.00 for the primary member, and $10.00 for family members sharing your address. Remember, it takes up to 2 weeks for your AMA membership renewal to update on their online database, and our application process will not let you complete if the AMA database says you are not current – or are shortly due to expire.
My understanding is there will be 4 ways to renew which can be selected from the web site:
Online application with payment via PayPal.
Online application with payment via credit card.
Online application with payment via check in the mail.
Download and printed application with check in the mail. (board members will also have paper copies for issue if needed.)
For our snowbird members that come in from out of town addresses – please remember to note a local address you would like to have your card shipped to, or ask to have it held by George until he can give it to you. An e-mail to George, Quan, or myself can get a hold started.
We had many great submissions this year for the badge picture for 2021. Thanks to all that sent images! Some of them will end up in our smugmug gallery linked to via our web site. The Photo we picked for next year was submitted by Carl Cox, and it is a nice colorful shot. As people renew, George will print the cards and hold them until Badge Day at the field on Jan 02. If you absolutely need yours mailed before then, let him know. The new badge will have the updated lock codes to the gate and the porta potty printed on the back. I will grant a bit of a grace period for renewals and won’t change the locks themselves until the weekend of Jan 23rd. As I have said before, your membership doesn’t pro-rate, so if you plan to fly in 2021, please renew early and get your new badge!
A couple of things were brought to my attention this month that I would like to touch on. There have been reports of flyers diving across the runway at the pit area at full speed, then yanking up and away just before crossing the fence line. This is outright dangerous and needs to stop. We see servo’s fail every day, it’s just not worth the risk.
Also, there were quite a few flyovers of the pit and parking areas without the pilot calling out to notify others that there is a problem. ( Hopefully ) YOU know where your aircraft is. You should be the one to warn others. On a positive note, People have been doing a very good job of calling their take- offs, landings, and any time they step onto the runway!
I hope you all have a great, safe month!
Brad