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MARS Membership Meeting February 9, 2023

In Attendance:

MaryBeth Clune, Todd Smith, Dan MacNeal, Tom McCarthy, Bill Clune, Darren Slocum, Ken Foss, Camille Foss, Evan Brown, Doug Snyder, David Stratton, Chris Jezewicz, Tracy Jezewicz, Robert Hilton via internet

President MaryBeth Clune called the meeting to order at 7:05 PM.

A motion was made to accept meeting minutes from January.  Motion was agreed to and January minutes were accepted.

Officer Reports:

Treasurer Dan MacNeal gave a detailed report on the standing of the club.   He is working on the budget for 2023 at this time, work still is needed to the blue launch tower and that is budgeted for this year.  A couple of bills for porta potties were rolled over to 2022 due to getting lost .  T shirt sales made a good profit for the club.  Camille gave Dan a list of tumblers sold for the club.  No bylaws on thumb drive that Dan has.  In general, MARS is in very good financial standing.

A discussion amongst the officers regarding if the inclusion of all the financial details of Dans report should be in the meeting minutes.  It was decided to include only the high level of details reported above, but as a 501c3 organization, any member can have access to the report upon request.

Secretary Tom McCarthy had no report.

Vice President Todd Smith still needs the latest bylaws so that he can begin working on updating them.  Bill Clune has a copy of the last known bylaws.  Todd and Bill both agreed that they have a good starting point and path forward.

President MaryBeth Clune had no report.

Committees:

Membership Bill Clune – open 23 adult members 7 junior members.  Bill also gave a report on the Website, Website has been moved to AWS VPS.  Membership system has been modified and the volunteer signup sheet from NYPOWER website is now integrated into the MARS site.  Can be used for both club launches and NYPOWER launch. NYOWER.org url will be moved soon and NYPOWER registrations will be opened also soon.

Launch Operation – Chair Greg Young stepped down suggested Todd Smith, gratefully declined.  Evan Brown will step in at this time, Todd Smith and Tom McCarthy will be on the committee.  No report at this time.

Equipment Bill Clune- power controller is being repaired by Tom McCarthy.

Solar chargers for launch towers have been delivered and will be installed in the spring.

Bill had been in contact will Ed LaCroix and Ed will get photos and measurements to us soon, but no CAD drawings are available.

Credit card reader we currently have will no longer work.  We will need to order a new one.  A motion was made and was approved to purchase one.

Hope to move the blue launch tower to Dan MacNeals house soon so work on that may begin.

Storage unit was discussed and at that time Tom McCarthy asked about renting a storage unit.  Club discussed different options (sea container), but nothing was decided at this time.

 NYPOWER MaryBeth – Ideas for logos were discussed and it was asked if anyone wanted to be the launch director this year, no takers at this time.  Robert Hilton set an idea for logo.  Committee will start meetings in the next week or two.

 Outreach Michelle McCortney – although not present, Michelle gave her report to MaryBeth.  Below is Michelles report (verbatim).

1. Rochester Museum and Science Center:  April 3^rd-8^th, 2023
   1. This is their kick-off to the ONE YEAR UNTIL THE ECLIPSE of 2024
   2. They are featuring space themed activities all week (during the break) and have a big event on Saturday the 8^th
   3. I’ve spoken with the Public Programs Coordinator, and they are definitely interested in having us there on the 8^th, and possibly more times during that vacation week.
   4. We are meeting on Zoom next week to review the details.  If anyone wants to join LMK and I will share the link.
2. Scouts
   1. Larry Wakeman is active with the scouts (as a merit badge counselor).  Kathy and he will take responsibility for contacting the scouting council to see how we can be more active – either with individual troops or maybe as some type of meet and greet with troop leaders (or the council) to get our information to them and what we could offer to their troops.
   2. Potentially schedule build events prior to launch dates, and have a “dedicated” launch station for the scouts to use when they come to Geneseo
3. Strong Museum of Play
   1. Connected with the Director of Public Programs.  They have their 10^thAnnual In Another Galaxy, which is planned for November 4^th and 5^th, 2023.  They definitely want us there – both days if we can.  We also talked about a random weekend in either late April or early May, which she will get back to me on.
4. Other
   1. Kids Out And About – is a magazine and web-site listing family/kid friendly activities.  They have area-specific reach, so we could possible choose areas within the Rochester and Buffalo realm to advertise.  It seems like we can list our launch dates on their calendar free of charge.  They also sell packages ranging from $30/week to $1000 to advertise in their magazine with various levels of ads and information.  The first step is to create an Organization Log-In and Profile in order to get more specific advertising options – you have to sign up even to do the free stuff.  I can do this if the club agrees, or maybe the Webmaster?

 

We were not able to connect with our other potential members, but I think this is a good start.

Old Business:

Low power pads haven’t been fixed yet, Dan MacNeal brought material as an option to make new pad heads out of.

The hydraulic lift pads are going to be maintained and tweaked, Dan MacNeal is working on this project. At some point, the blue pad will be taken to Dan MacNeal’s shop for work.

New Business:

MaryBeth brought up that the club needs to rework the clubs brochure, update cost of membership, and TRA club now among other things.  Email was sent to Steven Rea to see if he would be willing to do that again for the club.  Darren S. volunteered to do that for the club also, he has the software.  A motion was made and agreed to to update the brochure.

Tom McCarthy suggested to create a QR code and post it at locations where our brochures are displayed.  The QR code would take you directly to our website.

Todd Smith brought up purchasing at least 4 fire brooms and it was discussed and a motion was made and agreed to to purchase 6 at $20.  Todd will take care of the ordering.

MaryBeth discussed changing the NYPOWER fee, should we leave it at $15 or increase it to $20.  A motion was made and agreed to to increase fee to $20.

MaryBeth NAR grant and TRA PIP money it hasn’t been decided where the money will be spent this year at this time.

Robert Hilton asked if the NWM was ok with the cleanup and the condition the building after the Christmas Party , museum was happy no issues.

Robert also brought up if we have new rails can they have the same way of attaching to the pads so its not guess work on which goes where. MaryBeth suggested using different color paint on the ends of the rails and have a chart in the trailer.

Robert also brought an idea to have a way to list of emergency contact list on the membership card. Suggested to members to put emergency contact info on a label on the back of their membership card.

Robert wants his trailer to be a fun place to hang out after the launch has closed for the day and asked if anyone would object to people gathering around his trailer to shoot the breeze and have a drink.  Dan MacNeal voiced his concern over the liability of members drinking and driving.  Robert felt misunderstood about the assumption of drinking alcohol, just wants a fun place to gather.

Dan MacNeal suggested that the club purchase a used golf cart or something similar to help our members that are not physically capable of recovering their rockets.  Also could be used for emergency situations.  It was brought up where to store it?  Dan MacNeal will investigate a solution.

With regards to emergencies, MaryBeth voiced her concern about not having a defibrillator readily available on the field.  MaryBeth will contact the National Warplane Museum and discuss the availability of a defibrillator for our launches and events.

Chris Jezewicz brought up if the club was interested in buying pins and selling them at NYPOWER.  Quantities and cost was discussed amongst those present, but no decision was made.

Ken Foss asked about the possibility of having an April club launch.  Ken suggested the launch could coincide with the equipment cleanup party.  A discussion amongst all those present took place and a tentative decision was made to attach the launch to the cleanup party and the launch would be weather dependent.

Chris Jezewicz asked if we could get the featured flights up and going on the MARS/NYPOWER website to draw people to the event, especially if Dan Michael is going to be flying his Patriot missile collection.

Todd Smith shared his plans to be the vender on the field taking over for Brett Carrier, selling the full Aerotech line, Quest, Estes, and LOC.

Chris Jezewicz shared his concern as to why MARS meetings are not virtual.  Chris stated its 2023 and it should be.  Bill stated that he doesn’t have the equipment to do that anymore.  Chris felt there would be more participation by members if it was virtual.  MaryBeth thanked him for his concern.

President MaryBeth Clune adjourned the meeting a 8:34pm

Respectfully submitted by

Tom McCarthy