Board Meeting Minutes for the month of May, 2011.

EAA Chapter 105 Board Meeting
19 May 2011

Attending this evening were: Jenny Hickman, Len Kauffman, Ron Poe, Rion Bourgeois, Warren Fraim, Joe Miller, Tom Louris, John Jessen, Rob Hickman, Jerry VanGrunsven, Roy Thoma, Dick Vangrunsven, Benton Holzwarth, Michelle Smith and Bruce Rose.

The meeting was held at the chapter's hangar G-1 on Twin Oaks Air Park; the meeting began at a few minutes past 7:00 PM.

The April meeting minutes were distributed just shortly before this May meeting, so we agreed to delay the vote to approve until the board members had a chance to review. We agreed that corrections and approval could happen by email following the meeting.

• (Treasurer) Jenny was contacted by our chapter bank (Bank of America) regarding updating the checking acct signature cards. We agreed by vote that going forward, the chapter President, Treasurer and Secretary would have signature authority. Fresh signatures were collected for BoA's files.
  
  
• Treasurer's Report: Jenny brought paper copies of the P&L and cash flow statements. She warned us to not be surprised by one large expense: we'd agreed a month or two back to pay hangar rent to the Stark's a year ahead for a discount, so that was really not unexpected.
  
  
• Rion, for the Bogardus Trust and Jenny, covering the chapter's finances, met with our CPA to file the IRS CT-12 and Form 990 papers. We typically request an extension to allow filing after May 15.
  
  
• Reports on Annual Pre-approved Program Budgets
  
  
  • BobD: Rogue River float trip: $725 put down up front. We were obligated to 26 seats to be recouped as guests made their reservations. 29 have been filled, so the chapter's off the hook.
  • MichelleS: $20 spent on posters advertising our Youth Scholarships, making a total of $40 for the year.
  • RoyT: Commestibles for our monthly general meetings: There were outsized start up costs with buying the initial pkgs of plates, forks and napkins. Otherwise Roy hasn't counted too closely, but believes we're about on track for the posted charge ($4?) to about cover the costs.
  • LenK: Spent $11-12 on kitchen utensiils.
  • RionB: N/A
  • JoeM: N/A
  • TomL: N/A
  • JohnJ: N/A
  • BruceR: N/A
  • JerryV: N/A
  • DickV: N/A
  • BentonH: N/A
    
    
• Chapter Media: Next order of business was progress on the chapter website. That was prefaced by the news that Sandy has concluded she can't continue to produce the montly chapter newsletter. She agrees to cover it through the summer, but must bow out come fall.
  
  John noted that he'd taken an informal poll at the most recent pancake breakfast and learned the two key things people go to the Website for are to check the roster for the Breakfast Duty and to learn where the next meeting will be. This led into John's conclusion that the chapter might be as well served, if not better, by the website and a Facebook page.
  
  There was some discussion back and forth on the merits of the different mediums. Benton noted that he previously insisted (several years ago) on retaining the paper NL when there was a push to go straight e-delivery, just to support the few members that aren't computer savvy. There was a suggestion that we could continue to produce a scaled back version of the NL to support those members.
  
  DickV noted that Van's dropped their paper NL a while back when their 'board' decided that web+fb would be a better way to reach their audience. Dick admitted that he didn't fully understand the differences at the time, and wouldn't have pushed for the change himself, but noted in retrospect, 'it was probably the right thing to do.'
  
  John noted that while the nat'l organization has Facebooks for each of their divisions, he couldn't find a single EAA chapter with a Fb page. He has registered one (free) for our chapter, though it isn't active yet.
  
  John suggests we consider what the web does well, what a traditional newsletter does well and what Facebook can do well -- short bits and announcements vs. in-depth articles. Also consider how much duplication of effort we're putting ourselves through, trying to maintain both the website and newsletter. Other issues are the general unfamiliarity with Fb -- more than one person had to ask, 'Just what *is* Facebook, anyway?' Rion suggested John put together a demo or tutorial for Facebook.
  
  Also, the NL provides an archive of chapter activities, but John's been archiving the bits that appear on the chapter website as well.
  
  The decision was made to begin an immediate transition from website plus paper (and e-delivery) newsletter plus email to website plus Facebook page plus email. We recognize that it'll take time to get this communicated to the group, and with Sandy's deadline, the time to start the transition is *now*.
  
  
• Breakfast Volunteer Scheduling (Len): Len is ready to hand over the task of organizing the volunteers for the monthly breakfasts. He'll see it through the end of the year, but needs for us to begin the 'talent search' for a replacement. Roy's been his back-up, but isn't ready to step up and take over the task. RonS suggests Len, Roy and Rion get together and consider a way to cover the task, either a search for a new volunteer or some different way to corral the volunteer help each month.
  
  
• Social membership: Bruce missed our discussion of how to keep in contact with, and be inclusive of, our retinue regular attending non-members. He's talked with the people that were there and is satisified with the way it settled out.
  
  
• NW RV Fly-In: We've been going back and forth on whether we'd have to cancel this year's fly-in, due to lack of volunteers stepping up to cover the key positions. [ Late breaking news is that Rob Hickman as agreed to fill the fly-in boss duty, and with that, the rest will fall into place. Seems we're ON for this year, after their being much doubt. --Ed ]
  
  After some discussion with the folks at EAA Nat'l regarding requirements for the folks that might want to perform an inpromptu formation over-flight, the cards dealt have finally revealed to show the requirements (and interpretation of the requirements) becoming more rigid rather than less. For our insurance to guarantee coverage in the face of an FF mishap, the individual FF'ers must not only indemnify the chapter, board and members, they must also specifically show that there is no Formation Flight exclusion on their policies.
  
  The concensus is to move forward with the letter to the groups that might be expected to put in an appearance (Seattle BlackJacks, a group from Independence and our local FF group) advising them of our position and requirements. The board approved and asked Rion and Ron to move forward with the sending of the email Rion had drafted earlier.
  
  
• Hangar Wi-Fi: Tabled for now. Benton has some prices, and summarized them in a few words, but no discussion. o Upcoming events:
  
  
• EAA's B-17 'Aluminum Overcast' has arrived. Eleven folks were taken up for the media-flight. Got some good press from KEX (?) and the vets that were on hand were appreciated and enjoyed themselves. We'll host the B-17 crew at the chapter hangar on Saturday evening. Ron, Rion and Tom will get together after the meeting to consider a menu. (The crew really appreciate something other than burgers or dogs.)
  
  
• Director reports:
  
  
  • Rion: Hangar sub-lease rents are going up, passing on our cost increase. Rion noted that the contract included an appeal process. The current tenants appealed following the procedure. The determination came back down and they were satisfied with the procedure if not the result.
    
    Also, Richard Sheldon has decided to give his RV-9 tail-kit to the chapter. He bought it for $1650 and has it finished, less the fiberglass work. The board decided to post it for sale at $1500 or best offer. We'll advertise it on the local outlets (our NL and website) as well as Doug Reeves' VAF forum, but note that if anyone more distant is interested, they're responsible for crating and transport.
    
    And further, Porta-Potties: Bob Stark offered info that porta-potties can be rented montly or purchased outright with a servicing charge. The service charge is composed of a flat per-site-visit fee, plus an amount per unit flushed. Bob proposed that he and we each sign up for one, either leased or purchased, and split the site-visit charge when they're periodically emptied. This would work out to about $300 for outright purchase of a unit plus $35 per service.
    
    Given the distance to Twin Oaks' permanent facilities and the growing use of our hangar in row G with youth activities and other guests, this seems like something worth serious consideration.
    
    
  • TomL: Bruce Eicher wasn't able to attend, but he handed over to Tom, for him to show around, the wrist watch Bruce has proposed to give to some worthy Young Eagle volunteer. (It is a *seriously* nice Aviator-style watch.) Bruce is looking for someone to take the reins and form some criteria for how to award the gift. The board is suggesting that Bruce and Kim, our YE coordinator, should decide.

The meeting was adjourned at 9:25 PM.