Board Meeting Minutes for the month of February, 2011.

Attending this evening: Ron Singh, Michelle Smith, Tom Louris, Jenny Hickman, Benton Holzwarth, John Jessen, Roy Thoma, Bruce Rose, Rion Bourgeois, Dick VanGrunsven, Steve Payne, Ron Poe and Bob Duncan.

The meeting was held at: Max's Fanno Creek Brew Pub conference room, Tigard. The meeting was brought to order at 7:10. Ron showed 'home movies' of his and Michelle's most recent trip to Ron's family home in India while we awaited the arrival of the members.

• Conflict of Interest:  First business was a form from EAA Nat'l which requires the chapter officers and board to read and sign a 'conflict of interest' statement every year and that was covered first. In short, we won't recommend or vote for any expenditure where we have a financial interest, without fully disclosing that interest to the board. It's okay for members to 'do business' with the chapter, it just needs to be completely above board and transparent.
  
  
• Jan minutes:  A couple corrections and clarifications were made to the January minutes as initially circulated.
  
  
  • Rion filled in his numbers for the 'pre-approved' spending authority that I'd missed noting at the January meeting. Rion supplied that his pre-approval for 'facilities maintenance' is $1000, to include $540 this year for hired steam-cleaning of the breakfast hangar vent-hood and cooking area;
    
    
  • Len's budget is to cover maintenance and upgrade of the balance of the cooking equipment.
    
    
  • TomL had thought he was signing up at the January meeting to handle the B-17 visit duties previously covered by Dunstan Fandel, vs. my notes that he was the fall back if Bruce Eicher (not present at the Jan meeting) was not prepared to take up the duty. Conversations after the Jan meeting confirmed that Bruce was planning to cover the B-17 visit tasks and since then Bruce and Tom are working an arrangement to share the workload. With those refinements, the January minutes were adopted.
    
    
• Procedural Question:  Ron started the new business with a procedural question, whether our meetings could or should start at 6:30 PM rather than 7:00. After voicing different considerations, the decision was to continue the 7:00 start time for our board meetings.
  
  
• 292's Request for Poker Run Help:  Chapter 292, hosting the Van's Aircraft Homecoming event this year, approached 105 and Jenny Hickman for advice or help running a Poker Run in conjunction with the Homecoming. Jenny continues to suggest she's willing to offer advice to 292 on how to operate a Poker Run and that it really isn't hard. DickV suggests that Van's may be stepping up to a more active part in the Homecoming this year. Contacts are: Bill Boyle at 292 and Scott Reisan or Joe Blank (?) at Van's.
  
  
• Action items:
  • Picnic Tables:  Ron Poe was at Nehalem Bay St recently and snagged a photo of a heavy-duty picnic table design which he forwarded to the board members for consideration. Bob Duncan has been chasing this project back and forth with Bob Stark.
    
    
  • Pre-Approved Spending:  At the January meeting, when considering 'pre-approved spending' by the different function/area managers, we didn't know what chapter historian Norm Durrell's plans were. At tonight's meeting, we learned Norm would like ~ $150 to produce additional displays of the chapter's history and events. The board members present voted to approve Norm spending up to $200 for further development of displays and memorebelia.
    
    
  • Scappoose NW RV Fly-In: Steve Payne attended this evening as fly-in boss. As part of our liability insurance coverage that we obtain from EAA Nat'l, we notify them in advance of the date and nature of our events. The notification includes a checkbox list of activities that will be included. Nat'l also provides a list of things that are not allowed -- aerobatics, for example.
    
    Other activities, such as formation flying, as a formal part of the event, are allowed, as long as liability issues are covered.
    
    It's not too hard to make a case that the Blackjack formation team, for instance, flying down from the Seattle area isn't a 'chapter activity,' isn't a 'part of the event.' We control the ground activities at the airport around our fly-in, but it's a public-use airport and they control their arrival. We anticipate they may make an appearance, but have no control or direction over their activites.
    
    A little more sensitive is the local formation team, composed of 105 and other nearby chapter members and non-EAA members. We could make a similar case, that we don't control their activities, except that several event volunteers, including the fly-in boss, also perform with the local team. The fly-in organization is making accomodation for their flight.
    
    The EAA guidelines would be satisfied if the pilots would add the chapter and individual chapter officers as 'named insured's on their policies. The issue for the pilots is that it's a nuisance going through this procedure for each of the handful of shows they fly over each season and there is concern on their part that if they go to their insurance providers too often, they'll either be charged for the individual adjustments to their policies, or the ins-co will decide their formation activity is more than a minor hobby and growing into more of a formal business and review their coverage and premiums in that light.
    
    The plan, as of the February meeting, is that the pilots participating in the formation arrival should not participate in the organization or production of the fly-in activities. Likewise, they'll be asked to not volunteer for their usual slots working in the airplane parking area, etc. Steve will convey that information and position to his fellow formation team members. If this reorganization sticks, we'll have to quickly find additional people to cover the tasks, including fly-in boss, that were previously covered by the FF team folks. Further discussion on the topic was tabled, and Steve will convey that position back to the formation team for their comment and proposals.
    
    
  • In other NW RV Fly-In news, the RV-12 build team is considering stepping up to cover the event t-shirt design and production. [ Late breaking news, their -12 is in the Stark's paint shop now. ]
    
    
• Other business:
  
  
  • Nat'l's request for chapters to contribute to a fund that would be used to assist chapters with infrastructure, like setting up websites. Nat'l is seeking donations of $100, to be matched by some organization. Chapter voted to make the $100 contribution following some discussion as to how this fits into our charter and priorities.
    
    
  • 50th Anniversary: The board approved $500 for BruceR to order several hundred chapter 50th anniversary commemorative pins. Bruce anticipated the total at around $325 for bronze-enamel parts. Bruce's idea was to get enough pins made up that they could be shared very liberally.
    
    We're also entertaining Norm's idea to have anniversary patches made up. We're negotiating for a chapter visit from Rod Hightower. We're trying to coordinate a visit in conjunction with an anniversary event. Perhaps we can arrange something around the time of the B-17 visit. An alternate recommendation is to make a 50th anniversary event its own thing, a full day event, not in conjunction with the B-17 or anything else.
    
    
  • DickV talked about member workshops that would cover topics like promoting safety and increasing aviation participation. JohnJ, Dick and Ron are primed to participate on the organization and planning. They'd like to encourage other members, the broader membership, to join in the planning.
    
    
  • JohnJ reminds us that new, fresh content is always welcome for the website, that he's not going to create everything himself, and in particular the folks responsible for the various activities, Young Eagles, etc, need to check their pages and offer corrections and new material from time to time.
    
    
  • B-17 Visit: The advance work is under control. As in years past, Rion will cover the paperwork exchanged with nat'l. Bruce Eicher and Tom Louris will share responsibility for the activities like lining up volunteers, and advertising. Tom brought the posters, showing very high quality printing he'd had produced by one of his clients (?), and was handing out for distribution to local airport offices and the area av museums. Bruce has lined up B-17 and P-51 pilots to participate in the media-day flights.