Spokane Area Rocket Club

The agenda was as follows;

Treasury report
Buying a Port-a-Potty
Raffle report
Club Outreach report
Sport Rocketry Magazine discussion
Club Project flights
Finishing Club Project
Membership Card

We put Bob on the spot and ask for an impromptu treasury report, as he was unprepared (our fault, not his) the report was slim on details and only estimates on monies in the bank. Paid out for the club were Club NAR dues of $40 and received a 1/2 a bill for the March Port-a-Potty rental. The club received in $145 in club dues (and launch fees) at the last launch. Bank balance is somewhere around $500.

The Port-a-Potty purchase was again a topic of discussion. The cost of the Port-a-Potty was about $100 more than anticipated, $250, so we needed a club decision on the purchase. It works out that we pay $55/month for rental, service and delivery, and would only pay $25 for service if we owned one. Running the numbers for the year indicate that the cost of ownership would be repaid in about 8 launches, so the decision was made to purchase a Port-a-Potty post haste. We are going to make the purchase from American On-Site Services because they include a soap dispenser in the cost of purchase. The other places don't. Ray and Krys will take the task of making the purchase prior to the next launch.

Jim Kurilich gave a report on the progress on the raffle for the motors for the club project. He has send 40 snail mail letters to 40 different vendors requesting items for the raffle. He has received no responses as of yet. He mailed most of the letters this week. Thus far we have had donations to the raffle by club members and Puget Sound Propulsion. The donations include Two Estes kits by Mark Howe, an Edmunds AeroSpace Deltie Airshow by Ray Stoner, a customer mid-power kit by Marty Weiser, lathe time by David Stubbs, 29/120 motor hardware by Puget Sound Propulsion, and an Alpha III kit by HobbyTown. Donations are brisk. It was decided that each item will be raffled off individually with prices set in based on the value of the item raffled. Prices will be either $1 or $5. We have red raffle tickets already, and Bob Yanecek will purchase another color prior to launch. An announcement of what will be in the raffle for the April Launch will be made approximately 1 week prior to the launch.

The outreach program is going well, there is a lot of activity related to it taking place. Mark Howe is coordinating this effort, so if you hear of anything, send him an E-mail. Current activity includes (sorry if I missed any, it was hard to keep up in my notes, let me know what you are doing and I'll edit.)

Mark Howe is working with the school at Moran Prairie
Bob Yanecek is working with Midway Elementary
Marty Weiser is working with McDonald Elementary 4H
Marty Weiser is also working with the TARC team at Cd'A High School
Jerry Buckles and John Hearn are working with the Garfield 4H group
A flyer is at the Division White Elephant

Past Activity has been

Marty Weiser and Ray Stoner worked with Adams Elementary for a 1 night Science fair
Mark Howe worked with the school at Moran Prairie
Bob Yanecek worked with the school he has been working with
Jerry and John worked with the Garfield 4H

Future Activity

Place Flyers when we receive them or print them from the website and distribute.
A scouting assembly day at Michaels on the 19th of April.
Newspapers will be contacted for placement of ads, and community events listings
TV stations will be contacted for "human interest" stories and announcement of "your weather" for the club
Inquiries about a possible Mall display
Inquiries about a possible display at the PX at Fairchild AFB
Marty and Ray will coordinate a TARC test/qualifying flight in April

The club has the opportunity to receive 40-50 free Sport Rocketry magazines for the cost of shipping only, the decision was made to proceed with this. They will be distrubed at club launches.

The club project, a 1/4 scale Nike Hercules, need to be complete prior to flight, the major items for completion are; Electronics wiring and installation, Recovery system installation, Rail button installation and some slight finishing activities that are optional. The rocket will be transferred from Mark Howe's house to Ray Stoner's house for final completion.

The decision was made to fly the sustainer on a J570 load (?) at SPARC at the May Launch, the complete rocket in two stage configuration with 5xJ3500 loads at Mansfield at the "Fire in the Sky" launch in late May, and at LDRS in full two stage configuration with bigger motors as yet to be determined at LDRS in Lethbridge Canada in July.

Currently David Luders has donated 2xJ350's to the project, Marty has donated undisclosed motors, but the balance of the motors will either be donated, or purchased using the raffle funds. Final motor configuration for the LDRS flight will be determined based on the amount of money raised and donations received.

A membership card was discussed, and we decided to proceed with creating a card for each paid member of SPARC, and their families. Mark Howe will design and print the cards.

Next months agenda includes a build of rocket gliders led and donated by Mark Howe, THANKS Mark.

Ray Stoner
SPARC President