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MARS Meeting Minutes

February 10, 2024

Meeting was called to order at 1001.

Attendance: In-person were members Tom Ha, Dan MacNeal, Todd Smith, Bill Clune, MaryBeth Clune, Maria Ha, Mike Pleban, Evan Brown, Duane Fregoe and guest Larry Wakeman. Online were Robert Hilton, Steven Turner, David Plankenhorn, and guest Chris Jezewicz.

Presidents report
Delivered by Todd Smith. There is still a need for a Secretary. Discussed some possible candidates.

Treasurer’s report was delivered by Dan MacNeal.
No activity to report. A couple of expenses are pending based on approvals given at the last meeting for purchases.

 Secretary’s Report
Acting Secretary Tom Ha explained that the membership had a chance to review the previous month’s membership meeting minutes and request any changes to them to improve accuracy. Tom noted one update that Sue sent in that she was not interested in being on the Outreach committee. Motion made (Tom/Dan) and approved to accept the January membership meeting minutes as amended. Motion passed.

Vice Presidents Report
Tom reported that there were no new member concerns raised since the previous meeting, nor were there any outstanding issues.

Waiver update:

Tom Ha is now the waiver holder (COA). This was originally set to be processed as a new waiver, but Tom McCarthy spoke with our FAA contact and we reduced this to a pen-and-paper update of the contact person’s information with all other data remaining the same, including the waiver altitude and location. Note that COA’s are typically for two years and this waiver is good through April 2025, therefore renewal will be needed in early 2025 for another 2 year period.

The waiver is available for an April launch if the club decides to fly then. Volunteers would be needed to set up equipment etc. No motion was made to hold an April 2024 launch.

The waiver will be 8600′ but 8K max for simulations etc. All flights expected to fly to 6000 feet or higher will require a simulation to verify the expected altitude. MaryBeth noted that this was already the standard for last year. As the waiver holder, Tom Ha plans to be RSO at every launch unless he cannot be there, then he will ask for a volunteer who will be stated to the attendees as my substitute.

(NB: After the meeting Mike P said he might be willing to be Tom’s backup)

Section Advisors Report

• Updates are pending to the NAR Section page to modify waiver altitude, meeting dates, etc.
• Section grants are available again this year.
• A free membership to a new club member for one year (any age) is also available. Cannot be a current or past member.

Committee Reports:

NYPOWER
Robert Hilton is now our Launch Director for NYPOWER. Robert is looking for donations of raffle prizes, to be given away each day. Robert suggested beer or wine baskets, rocket motors, and kits. He is hoping to have them all as baskets and use a Chinese raffle to pick winners so that winners are connected to prizes they really want. Please contact Robert through the contact form on the MARS website.
Some discussion ensued about repair work on the equipment used for NYPOWER.

Outreach Committee:
Chris J reported that there is a committee. Michele McCortney is also on it and emailed information about some events to the Board. Larry Wakeman volunteered to be on the outreach committee.

Membership Committee:
Reported by Bill Clune. 64 adult members as of the meeting. He will start mailing membership cards next week. Only have 3 signed up for NYPOWER so far.

Equipment and Capital Expense:
Reported by Bill Clune. Some batteries have been acquired locally; others are pending purchase. Also pending purchase is the clips. Dan offered to buy the clips.

Old Business
Robert brought up the conex (seatainer, railbox) container. It was noted in the discussion that the Museum already approved placing it on Museum grounds, and the MARS Board has already approved the purchase. Bill Clune and Dan MacNeal will follow up on the purchase and siting of the container.

A motion (Bill/Dave) was made to dispose of the old launch system stored at the Clune residence. Motion passed. MaryBeth offered to reach out to Nat Kinsey, John Dermiggio, and Dave Regal to see if they had any interest in saving any parts of it. Dan M said he might be able to use some relays from it. Members discussed having a system to loan out for outreach events not held at our site.

Consensus was also reached by the membership to have Bill Clune dispose of the old PA system that he is storing at his property.

New Business:
MaryBeth noted that work was needed before NYPOWER on some equipment including new heads on several pads and alligator clips to be soldered.

Tom stated that supporting outreach was important and suggested that MARS use their $250 section grant from the NAR to purchase a small one-pad launch controller. Motion made (Tom/Dan) and passed. Tom will locate a suitable system and apply for the NAR grant.

Discussed purchasing a new Wilson box, due to a past box being unusable due to some unknown electrical issue.

It was noted for the record that MaryBeth and Bill Clune are authorized to provide L2 tests on behalf of the club. This information was passed along to Chuck Neff at the NAR.

Discussion took place about NAR insurance and how it operates. Also discussed placing signs at the approach to the range head indicating that attendees are there at their own risk to themselves and their property (vehicles). This topic was remanded to the Board to discuss and bring back a plan to the membership.

The President of URRG reached out to offer a front-line location for a MARS tent at the upcoming LDRS in Potter, NY, to advertise our club. This was passed on to the Outreach committee.

An update on first aid was provided by Dave Stratton.

Tom Ha offered to hold brief review sessions for anyone interested in working in any of the volunteer positions at our launches, like Assistant LOC, LCO, Safety Check, etc. after each of the next two membership meetings. Tom will also be providing a laminated list of duties to have at each station to remind everyone of the duties.

A motion was made by Maria Ha to adjourn the meeting. The meeting ended at 1120.

Respectfully submitted.
Tom Ha
MARS Vice President/Section Advisor

(Meeting minutes notes: All motions are noted in italics. All headers are noted in bold. All corrections should be noted to be raised at the next meeting before the minutes are approved by the members)