MARS Membership Meeting January 12, 2023

In Attendance: MaryBeth Clune, Bill Clune, Doug Snyder, Darrin Slocum, Dave Stratton, Todd Smith, and Dan McNeal and Robert Hilton via phone.

President MaryBeth Clune called the meeting to order at 7:10 PM.
The meeting opened with an introduction of those present at the meeting, followed by a notice that Tom McCarthy would be absent due to illness.

Officer Reports:

• President Clune began her report by thanking Greg Young and Brett Carrier for their service to the BOD in 2022. Greg served as VP, and Brett served as Secretary. Greg will be replaced in 2023 by Todd Smith, who accepted the VP position, and Tom McCarthy will replace Brett as Secretary.
• Dan McNeal reported that the 2022 Treasurer report would be available the following week.
• VP Todd Smith reported that his focus in 2023 is on the club bylaws. The club bylaws will be updated and distributed to the membership before the next nomination cycle.

Correspondence:

• President Clune announced that both the NAR and Tripoli grants for 2023 are available, and she is seeking input for wants and needs to fulfill those grant requests. The NAR grant is $250, and the Tripoli grant is $500.
• President Clune announced the dates for the 2023 airshows. The Geneseo airshow will be the second weekend of June, and the Rochester air show will be August 12 – the 13th. MARS outreach will be attending both events. Anyone interested in attending these events to represent MARS should contact President Clune.
• Dan Michael reported MARS maybe able to acquire the range equipment of a now defunct club in PA, he is working on an inventory.

Committees:

Membership/Webmaster

• • Bill Clune informed the club that the MARS website is currently broken and is not able to process membership renewals at this time. The current server that hosts the website is unstable. Bill is working on a new membership system along with his goal to move to an Amazon Lightsail Cloud Server, to host the site. This new server would cost roughly $3.00 a month. Bill hopes to make the transition within the next week.

Operations

• • Greg Young, chair of the Operations Committee, has announced that he is stepping down from the committee. Greg believes that it is time for some new blood in the committee. The MARS board will be seeking a new chair for the Operations Committee.

Equipment – Bill Clune

• • Pad Batteries – The controller that charges and maintains the batteries used at the pads had a problem. A temporary repair was put in place, and the batteries are again in maintenance mode. Bill and Tom McCarthy will make a permanent repair after the February meeting.
  • Away Cells – The hydraulic lift pads are going to be maintained and tweaked. Dan McNeal is working on this project. At some point, the Blue Pad will be taken to Dan McNeal’s shop for work.
  • HP Pads – Bill Clune is working on the development of new HP pads.
  • LP Pads – The low-power pads require repair. The heads to these pads are failing at an exceeding rate. There was a discussion on how to repair/replace these pads and what material to use. More discussion is needed here, and the Equipment Committee will be taking on the development of the low-power pad upgrades.
  • Storage – Bill Clune looked into obtaining a Conex storage unit for holding extra equipment on the field that is currently being stored at multiple offsite locations. This storage unit would be 8’6″ wide by 8′ tall by 20′ long. The cost of the unit delivered to the field would be $1850. Extra site work would also need to be completed to give the unit a solid base to rest on.

Education

• • President Clune reached out to Michelle McCourtney, Camiele Foss, Sue Broad, and Kathy Wakeman, asking them to assist with MARS outreach. They all agreed and were excited to do so. Michelle has already reached out to several contacts, and the committee is off to a good start.

NYPOWER

This NYPOWER will be the 25th launch bearing the name and 30th anniversary. NYPOWER was started 30 years ago, in 1993, and has had 24 events since the original, some years NYPOWER was replaced with National Events like LDRS-23 NSL and NARAM. The club is looking for logo ideas to celebrate this historic event.

Old Business:

There was no Old Business.

New Business:

• • President Clune announced that John Hochheimer reached out to MARS and asked the club to support and host a regional launch for the Hot Nozzle Society. The Hot Nozzle Society is an organization whose goal is to bring rocketry to populations that might not have exposure to the hobby. This society has held events in both California and Texas. This event would be their first launch on the east coast. The MARS will host the event on July 22nd and 23rd. Nothing is needed from our membership as this society is self-sufficient. They will be Renting the field and Renting our equipment. MARS members may fly for free at this event.
  • President Clune also announced that the signup sheet for the 2023 committees would be available soon.

President Clune closed the meeting at 7:54 PM
Respectfully Submitted by
Todd Smith