MARS meeting minutes
1/4/2018

MaryBeth called the meeting to order.
Members present introduced themselves.

Attendance

Brett Carrier
Tony Hurd
Kevin McBride
Tom McCarthy
Dennis Jurus
Evan Brown
MaryBeth Clune
Bill Clune
Rick Harrison
Steve Rea
DeWain Feller

Report of Officers

Treasurer:  Evan Brown described the investments in equipment that the club made over the last year, including the new launch system, away cell, low power pads, and signs.

President:  MaryBeth described that we are working to plan the National Sport Launch (NSL), which will be held on the Memorial Day weekend.  Vern and Gleda Estes will attend, unless health issues prevent them from coming.

New Business

MaryBeth passed around a signup list for people to volunteer for committees.

The Rochester Museum and Science Center’s Museum Day at will be on Saturday, February 24^th, 2018, and we are looking for volunteers to staff a MARS table.

Donna from the National Warplane contacted MaryBeth to see if MARS volunteers can set up an information table and do a model rocket demo at their Buffalo Appreciation Day event on Saturday, May 19^th.

Dennis demonstrated the new Wilson F/X wireless launch system.  The new system will eliminate the need for long cables from the controller to the higher power pads and away cell.  The sector boxes are digitally encoded, and the controller learns the addresses of the sector boxes.  It is not possible for a stray wireless signal to accidentally trigger a launch.

The trailer has been reorganized, with all pads on the left (driver) side, and the totes on the right side.  The new low power pads take up less room when folded up.  The shelfs are labeled to make it easy for volunteers to store equipment back into the trailer.

MaryBeth asked if anyone had issues that they wanted to bring up.  Dennis said that we could use a new PA system.  We will get a wireless PA system loaned to us from NAR for the NSL, launch but we could use a new system of our own for future launches.  We should have a speaker facing out toward the pads so that flyers can hear announcements.  We will need speakers of at least 400 Watts to ensure that they can be heard over a wider area.  Steve Rea will research on a new PA system.  MaryBeth said that we will revisit the issue after the research has been done.

Committees

The 2018 committees have the following current members (more help is always encouraged):

Membership:
Bill Clune

Education:
Evan Brown
Steven Rea
Bill Clune

Launch Operations:
Tom McCarthy
Greg Young
Mike Pleban

Equipment and Capital Expense:
Dennis Jurus
Tom McCarthy
Bill Clune

Elections:
Greg Young

 

Show & Tell

Bill showed his AMW White Wolf rocket, which is a 38mm diameter mach-busting rocket with a 29mm motor Mount.

Dennis showed a video of the new away cell tower.

Stephen Rea showed pictures from the Rochester Aero Modeling Society (RAMS) RC flight.

Raffle

An Estes Patriot Missile was raffled off, and Rick Harrison won it.