November 1, 2024 meeting of the Minneapolis Model Aero Club
Meeting called to order by President Dennis Batty at 12:05pm.
Secretary Tim Brockman was not present.
Treasurer’s report by Andy Ringlien indicated the club remains solvent with just under $4,000 in the checking account. Motion to accept the treasurer’s report by Gary Peterson, seconded by Don Granlund. Motion carried.
OLD BUSINESS
Dennis Batty gave a report on the cost of renting the LILA Gym this indoor season. Upon receiving the contract from the school for the gym rental, he found that the cost of renting the gym had gone up substantially over what it was last year. This is the third year we have rented the gym. Rental rates for the three years are as follows:
2022: $844.56
2023: $274.80
2024: $1,128.00
What happened last year was that school forgot to charge us for the school supervisor that has to be at the gym during the time we are there, thus the really good deal. We have decided to go ahead with the gym rental for this the 2024-2025 indoor season, realizing that some restructuring of club finances related to this will need to be done going forward. Event income from the six indoor contests would cover only about half of the gym rental. Dennis Batty, along with several other club members, are going to put together some ideas moving forward in a new letter that will be published sometime before the end of the year, so there will be more discussion to come on club income and expenses.
NEW BUSINESS
Club Meeting Date & Time
Considering an alternate meeting time and date was brought up by Andy Ringlien. The idea, of course, would be to find a day of the month, day of the week and time of day that would make it convenient for more of particularly the younger club members to attend the meeting either in person or by Zoom. Several options were discussed but no conclusion was reached. The way this was left was that the newsletter mentioned above will also propose some alternate times with some time taken to form a consensus on a new time, if it is determined there is a better time. One of the general times that was mentioned was having the club meeting during non-working hours. More to come on this topic.
Outdoor & Indoor Contest Point System
Dennis Batty brought up what has become a continuing discussion on the way contest points are awarded. This is not something I am necessarily itching to change, but I have had several discussions over the past couple of months with different club members on this topic. It was agreed we should maintain the same point system that has been established the 2024-2025 indoor season. We do have time to have an open and, I hope, a robust and frank discussion about the way we do things for the upcoming 2025 outdoor season which would begin June. Again, the above mentioned newsletter will present some new ideas for your consideration. Feel free to express yourself if you have ideas on this topic.
ADDING/DISCONTINUING CONTEST EVENTS
This is a topic that was brought up by Andy Ringlien and Dennis Batty just to make sure we remain relevant, interesting and inclusive the events we advertise and include in a typical contest. Again, we want to encourage input and discussion by club members on your thoughts and ideas about what we include moving forward. Part of the discussion centered around whether the plane used for the WoJoRo event should be changed or remain the same.
MMAC Club officer elections will be held at the December club meeting.
Motion to adjourn by Gary Peterson, second by Don Granlund. Motion carried. Meeting adjourned at 12:55pm.
The next club meeting will be Friday, December 6th at 12:00pm at the White Bear Lake Public Library.
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October 4, 2024 - There was no meeting of the Minneapolis Model Aero Club
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September 6, 2024 - There was no meeting of the Minneapolis Model Aero Club Due to a conflict with the funeral of a previous member
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August 2, 2024 meeting of the Minneapolis Model Aero Club
12:05 Meeting called to order by Dennis Batty
Secretary report: Website is up to date
Treasurers Report: Finances remain stable. Question from club member about if we had more money, what would we do with it?
Old Business:
Tim and Dennis went to NATs and had great weather and good flying. Dennis said he had some disappointments and Tim was very excited about getting multiple maxes in some events.
New Business:
Andy has a conflict for the Saturday of the upcoming outdoor event and we may move the contest to Sunday. Dennis will make the decision next Thursday and let everyone know.
Dennis has reserved the same gym that we used last year for the upcoming indoor season. We have changed the contest time for the indoor events to be from 2pm to 6pm per a previous vote.
Dennis has sent out emails with a list of donations from John Fogg. Tim will check into the RC planes to see if they are any good. Dennis will bring the stuff to the next contest.
Meeting adjourned at 12:45
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July 5, 2024 meeting of the Minneapolis Model Aero Club
12:01 Meeting called to order by Dennis Batty
Secretary report: Working to keep the website up to date.
Treasurers Report: Finances remain stable
Old Business:
Dennis shared info that Jack O. is in hospice with lung cancer at the hospital.
Dennis reported that his article on Greg Thomas has been published in both the NFFS & FAC newsletters.
Dennis reported that 5 people competed at the June outdoor contest.
New Business:
Dennis reported that he is working on dates for the next indoor season and working with the same venue as last year. Ken asked about having contests earlier in the day instead of the 5 pm to 9 pm times that have been used in the past. Dennis said starting at 2 pm would be possible. Ken made a motion that was seconded that we do 2 pm to 6 pm instead of 5 pm to 9 pm. Motion was seconded and passed.
Dennis started discussion about if we should change/add any events for the indoor contests. Andy asked about walk behind glider and Ken gave a demo of one. Nothing was decided but discussion will continue at future meetings.
Ron mentioned a book he had read by J. Spencer titled The Airplane.
Show & Tell:
Tim Showed his Embryo, a Maxout IX by J&H Aerospace.
Dennis showed a plane he made for Nostalgia at NATS, The Last Resort, with a single blade prop
Meeting adjourned at 12:35
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June 7, 2024 meeting of the Minneapolis Model Aero Club
Meeting called to order at 12:00PM by President Dennis Batty
No Secretary’s report as Tim Brockman was in Europe.
Treasurer’s report by Ron Cota. Club remains solvent with a similar monthly balance in the checkingaccount.
Old Business
Dennis Batty reported the publishing of the article about Greg Thomas in both the FAC and NFFS magazines. Copies of the magazines have been sent Valerie Thomas, Greg’s wife. Gary Peterson reported that Greg Thomas had been nominated for the FAC Hall of Fame, an honor well deserved by Greg.
Dennis Batty reported that the three items donated to the club for auction by member Jack O’Leary. The stooge and winder have been auctioned off but no bids were received for the Walston Retrieval System. Gary Peterson made a motion that the retrieval system be kept by the club for use by interested members. Motion seconded by Ron Cota. Motion carried. The retrieval system is currently in the hands of Andy Ringlien who is checking it out since it has probably not been used since the early 2000’s.
No New Business
There were several show and tells by club members.
Motion to adjourn meeting at 12:55PM by Gary Oakins and seconded by Ron Cota. Meeting adjourned.
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May 3, 2024 meeting of the Minneapolis Model Aero Club
Meeting called to order at 12:05pm
Secretary's report: Web page has been updated with April Contest Results. Tim was not present at April meeting so minutes were taken.
Treasurer’s report by Ron Cota: Bank balance remains stable. 2023 paid members 18, so far 2024 paid members 13.
Old Business:
Dennis put together an article about Greg Thomas and sent it to NFFS, Flying Aces, and AMA magazine. He heard back from Flying Aces and they will publish it. Dennis gave an update on some of our older members. We have the old Roadside signs saying Airplane Contest and we will use them this year. Dennis and Tim will put them up on the day of contests.
New Business:
Dennis sent out the outdoor contest schedule for 2024 and it was approved. There was some discussion about contest points and a way to award excellence points vs just quantity of events flown for total yearly club points.
Show and Tell:
Ken showed his tip launch glider
Dennis showed some wings he had made
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March 1, 2024 meeting of the Minneapolis Model Aero Club
Meeting called to order at 12:00pm - Dennis was remoted in while on the road. Tim helped to run meeting. Total of 6 people attending both in person and online.
Secretary's report: Web page has been updated with February meeting minutes and contest results
Treasurer’s report by Ron Cota: Bank balance remains stable. Does not yet have money from last contest but will get it from Andy at the next contest.
Old Business:
Dennis had not heard from anyone other than Tim regarding the summer schedule so he will go ahead and sanction them as has been previously listed.
New Business:
Andy had sent out an email talking about adding some club history to the web site. Dennis has a lot of material on a memory stick that he can add. Tim has a bunch of old club papers etc. Gary P. brought up the article that Dave Edmundson had done a few years ago about the history of the club so we will search that out and get that posted on our site.
It was mentioned that MARCEE has some flying time in the blaine sports dome coming up and we are welcome to fly with them if we want.
No show and tell. Meeting was adjourned at 12:30pm.
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March 1, 2024 meeting of the Minneapolis Model Aero Club
Meeting called to order at 12:00pm - Dennis was remoted in while on the road. Tim helped to run meeting. Total of 6 people attending both in person and online.
Secretary's report: Web page has been updated with February meeting minutes and contest results
Treasurer’s report by Ron Cota: Bank balance remains stable. Does not yet have money from last contest but will get it from Andy at the next contest.
Old Business:
Dennis had not heard from anyone other than Tim regarding the summer schedule so he will go ahead and sanction them as has been previously listed.
New Business:
Andy had sent out an email talking about adding some club history to the web site. Dennis has a lot of material on a memory stick that he can add. Tim has a bunch of old club papers etc. Gary P. brought up the article that Dave Edmundson had done a few years ago about the history of the club so we will search that out and get that posted on our site.
It was mentioned that MARCEE has some flying time in the blaine sports dome coming up and we are welcome to fly with them if we want.
No show and tell. Meeting was adjourned at 12:30pm.
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January 5, 2024 meeting of the Minneapolis Model Aero Club
Meeting called to order at 12:01PM
Secretary's report: Web page has been updated with December results
Treasurer’s report by Ron Cota: Bank balance remains stable
Old Business:
Dennis sent out draft contest schedule for all of 2024. Contests moved to Saturday for outdoor events. The plan was to align our dates with Tripoli club rocket launches but their schedule has not been posted yet.
Greg Thomas passed away on the 19th of December.
The Butterfly event was discussed again. The airplane is no longer available in either form. Dennis proposed we do away with the Carbon Butterfly (which we just added this year) and only allow balsa but allow it to be built as opposed to purchased. There is the prop that has been used by the original butterfly and so the requirement would be that the prop would be an Icara prop and plane must be tissue covered and built of balsa. The motion was seconded and passed.
Gary O. visited Central Turff to give Earl Holly our Christmas gift and card.
There was discussion of finding thermals and the best way to do so.
No new business.
Show and tell: Dennis had 2 airplanes he brought. A No Cal - Goon, and a scale Fairchild 24.