Meeting Minutes
December Club Meeting
Dec 5, 2023
Club meeting at Air Museum
About 22+ club members present
Financial report
Checking: $4,730.92
Saving: $2,675.21
PayPal: $
Cash: $
Total $7,406.13
Membership forms for 2024 were passed out.
Elections:
2024 OFFICERS election results:
President: Tyler Vetter
Vice President: Joe Heilman
Secretary: Ron Landman
Treasurer: Dean Gary
Safety Officer: Ryan Johnson
All by unanimous consent
Board member at large 2: Steve Faeth, Andrew Ochoa
TJ Kraushaar from All Wayz Broke RC Car Club talked about their club. They are mostly bashers. They have a FB and web site. They do crawling, jumping and bashing.
He had some RC air stuff to learn about.
There was discussion around having various RC club leaders meet occasionally to see what each other are doing and maybe coordinate activities.
The VRCF Christmas Party will be Jan. 14 th Sunday night. Some Spouses and family welcome. Ideas were floated and Joe said he’d find out more info from each of them. Crooked Pint on 13 th Ave S., Billiards, Golf Addiction, …..
There is some interest in updating our club logo. We decided to get submissions and review them in January.
Andrew O. is working to help keep our FB page clean from scammers.
Dec.9 is the next indoor at Rustad Rec. Starting in the new year we will meet at the Sports Bubble – Feb, Mar. Apr. club meetings. Friday night at 7, 8-10 flying, $15
Our big regional indoor will be March 16, 10-5 at the bubble. $30, prizes
Try for 501 c3, then set up digital payment stuff.
Air Show – need lead. Check with them about where we can fly to see if it’s worth it. Will it be close enough to see. In any case the club should volunteer for setup to earn $50-$60 per person towards the club. Also our static display needs to be manned.
A young member wanted to know if its OK to set up a Geocacheing site at the field. It was agreed that we can.
Several members are interested in club racing? We decided to start with open to any plane racing and once it gets established start adding rules.
October Club Meeting
VRCF Club Meeting
October 4, 2022 – VRCF Field
Attendance – ~8 members missing
Savings 2,261.00
Checking 4,464.12
Cash 100.00
Pay Pal 257.69
Total $7,112.81
OFFICERS
President: Dean Gary
Vice President: Mark Pueppke
Secretary: Ron Landman
Treasurer: Ryan Johnson
Safety Officer: Kevin Paulson
Board member at large 1: Tyler Vetter
Board member at large 2: Steve Faeth
Advocate: Ken Littlefield
We discussed the need for an increase of dues. The increase of costs for garbage, Jiffy John, and gas are major items. An increase from $75 to $100 was discussed as a possible change. The board will meet later this month to finalize this.
Once the dues have been decided, the membership form will be updated and we can start taking applications for next year 2023.
We will be using the Air Museum again this year for winter meetings for free. However, we need to be able to send a few people to the museum to help set up for events. This is part of the agreement for the free rent.
Members helped empty all the trash cans into the dumpster for the final pickup of the year.
Several members flew lighted airplanes after dark. It was quite dark by 7:30.
Indoor flying is set for Rustad Recreation Center in West Fargo for 5 Saturdays from Nov – Mar. We are starting to take money for season passes. Best way to pay is through PayPal. The fee should be added to the payment.
August Board Meeting
VRCF Board Meeting
August 16, 2022 – VRCF Field
Attendance – 5. 3 board members missing
Savings 2,289.24
Checking 4,744.08
Cash 100.00
Pay Pal 257.69
Total $7,391.01
OFFICERS
President: Dean Gary
Vice President: Mark Pueppke
Secretary: Ron Landman
Treasurer: Ryan Johnson
Safety Officer: Kevin Paulson
Board member at large 1: Tyler Vetter
Board member at large 2: Steve Faeth
Advocate: Ken Littlefield
Fun Fly financials:
Fun fly expenses
Kitchen Supplies $200.00
Hornbachers $321.18
Dean Gary prizes and food $450.00
Andrew Ochoa prizes $200.00
$1,171.18
fun fly income
Registration and raffle +1 dues $2,464.00
Lunch $430.00
$2,894.00
net gain
$1,722.82
Monthly Bills:
recent expenses
Jiffy Jon's $94.00
Waste Management $86.46
Red River CO-OP Power $64.29
Gas $60.18
mower hoses $192.63
Total $497.56
Garbage collection has been changed to once/month to save money.
We had on about 30 people for dinner. So, ordering for 50 was way too much. We discussed that some people do not stay for dinner but would like to have lunch included instead. We could give a discount for those not staying for dinner. We did not conclude what to do next year.
Someone contacted the club to donate RC items that were found in a construction dumpster. Ron will try to sell them and give money to the club.
Indoor flying for the winter.
Steve found we can rent the TC Soccer bubble (old golf bubble) – March 25th, 2023 9-4, $970. We decided to have him go ahead and reserve it.
Also we can get 1/3 or 2/3 of the soccer bubble attached to arena in West Fargo for $55/h for each third. Steve set up 5 tentative dates. We can cancel withing 24 hours with no charge. We think we might want to charge a per time fee and offer a season pass for a discounted amount. The passes could give us some up-front money to work with. The per time would work for some who know they will only be able to come 1 or 2 times.
November 5,December 10,January 7,February 11,march 4
So, $825 for 5 dates of 3 hours. Reserved but not locked in. Can cancel 24 hours prior. That’s $165/date.
We can run cost models to see how much to charge for individual or season passes.
We need to put together info sheet on it to help gauge the interest. Maybe guys from Grand Forks would come down?
------------------------
Member dues
We might need to raise dues since we have only 38 paid members this year and costs for everything continue to rise. Ryan ran model with dues raised from $75 to $100 /year. Leaving $10 discounts in place for early payment and seniors. This raises our income from dues from $2,120 to $2,915. No action was taken on the dues at this meeting.
Comment: It might be helpful to mail out renewal notices to get more response and more timely response.
July Board Meeting
VRCF Board Meeting
July 19, 2022 – VRCF Field
Attendance - 8
Savings 2,291.00
Checking 1,166.09
Cash 100.00
Pay Pal 257.69
Total $3,814.78
OFFICERS
President: Dean Gary
Vice President: Mark Pueppke
Secretary: Ron Landman
Treasurer: Ryan Johnson
Safety Officer: Kevin Paulson
Board member at large 1: Tyler Vetter
Board member at large 2: Steve Faeth
Advocate: Ken Littlefield
Garbage and PP ~200, repairs ~200
Ideas for changing garbage service to save money.
Raise dues to $100 with same discounts
Get all current members to pay.
Follow up with insurance to see if we get more money.
Fun Fly:
Door prizes. Can’t get good deal on jet. HH has Draco’s they can’t get rid of.
V900 from Andrew for $100, Maybe Ultrix too
Vulcan jet from Motion RC, 70mm, $299,
Timber good all around for many people.
Spent $350 on indoor
Mark to bring out water for cleaning, pressure washing.
Sign Up Genius:
Ice cream, beans, chips, pickles, hot dogs, desserts, drinks
Clean up next weekend.
Agenda:
VANDALISM
Update on vandalism at the field. Voxland electric has finished the repairs. The inspection is complete, and the power is back on in the buildings and all post outlets. Voxland submitted a bill to the club for $4,800 which matches the quote they gave us. We need to submit that bill to the insurance so they can give us the remainder of the money they owe us. Their original payment was pro-rated for some reason.
The conduits, wires and pipes that the electricians left in the dumpster were removed (likely by the trash collection company) and left on the ground. I guess they don’t take metal.
FIELD CLEAN UP
Nothing is in urgent need of being done. The tables and flight stations are still in the shelter which is OK for now since they blow around if they are not. We will do major clean up prior to our fun fly. The shelter roof and a few other items need to be attended to so we agree to meet first Saturday after July 4th to do this.
We would like to reduce ongoing expenses. One possibility is to eliminate trash collection (~100/mo). This would require training members to bag and remove their own trash, including airplane carcasses. No decision was made.
POP MACHINE
It was deemed best to get rid of the pop machine. It works but has gotten little use in recent years compared to the energy it uses. We will try to sell it, possibly on Facebook for a nominal amount and the buyer hauls it away.
AUGUST FUN FLY
We are looking forward to another good event. Less worries now about Covid-19 but gas prices will possibly affect some travelers. We feel that having great prizes and excellent food contribute to a successful event.
Food – Dean G. said he would smoke some pork butts and use for pulled pork sandwiches for the noon lunch (for purchase). We will investigate the price of chicken dinner again for supper. This is almost universally liked.
Prizes – It was decided that a few bigger prizes are a better draw for selling tickets than a bunch of little stuff. This worked well for the indoor event in March. If we have little stuff we can give it out to everyone as they register. For prizes we thought maybe a 63” AJ, Carbon Cub, Flite Test, Crashtest, etc. We will look into it.
Cost – We discussed and decided to raise the landing fee to $30 due to inflation, etc.
NEW MEMBERS
Discussed again training nights. Decided we need some advertising. Tyler will draw up a poster and/or business card to had out at hobby store and other places. Training can be on Tuesday nights or by appointment.
June Board Meeting
VRCF Club Meeting
June 22, 2022 – VRCF Field
Attendance - 8
Savings 2,289.24
Checking 6,026.09
Cash 100.00
Pay Pal 257.69
Total 8,673.02
OFFICERS
President: Dean Gary
Vice President: Mark Pueppke
Secretary: Ron Landman
Treasurer: Ryan Johnson
Safety Officer: Kevin Paulson
Board member at large 1: Tyler Vetter
Board member at large 2: Steve Faeth
Advocate: Ken Littlefield
Agenda:
VANDALISM
Update on vandalism at the field. Voxland electric has finished the repairs. The inspection is complete, and the power is back on in the buildings and all post outlets. Voxland submitted a bill to the club for $4,800 which matches the quote they gave us. We need to submit that bill to the insurance so they can give us the remainder of the money they owe us. Their original payment was pro-rated for some reason.
The conduits, wires and pipes that the electricians left in the dumpster were removed (likely by the trash collection company) and left on the ground. I guess they don’t take metal.
FIELD CLEAN UP
Nothing is in urgent need of being done. The tables and flight stations are still in the shelter which is OK for now since they blow around if they are not. We will do major clean up prior to our fun fly. The shelter roof and a few other items need to be attended to so we agree to meet first Saturday after July 4th to do this.
We would like to reduce ongoing expenses. One possibility is to eliminate trash collection (~100/mo). This would require training members to bag and remove their own trash, including airplane carcasses. Not decision was made.
POP MACHINE
It was deemed best to get rid of the pop machine. It works but has gotten little use in recent years compared to the energy it uses. We will try to sell it, possibly on Facebook for a nominal amount and the buyer hauls it away.
AUGUST FUN FLY
We are looking forward to another good event. Less worries now about Covid-19 but gas prices will possibly affect some travelers. We feel that having great prizes and excellent food contribute to a successful event.
Food – Dean G. said he would smoke some pork butts and use for pulled pork sandwiches for the noon lunch (for purchase). We will investigate the price of chicken dinner again for supper. This is almost universally liked.
Prizes – It was decided that a few bigger prizes are a better draw for selling tickets than a bunch of little stuff. This worked well for the indoor event in March. If we have little stuff we can give it out to everyone as they register. For prizes we thought maybe a 63” AJ, Carbon Cub, Flite Test, Crashtest, etc. We will look into it.
Cost – We discussed and decided to raise the landing fee to $30 due to inflation, etc.
NEW MEMBERS
Discussed again training nights. Decided we need some advertising. Tyler will draw up a poster and/or business card to had out at hobby store and other places. Training can be on Tuesday nights or by appointment.
March Club Meeting
VRCF Club Meeting – March 3, 2020
Fargo Air Museum - members and guests present - 12
Checking - $5,089.74
Savings - $2,287.27
TOTAL - $7,377.01
36 new or renewed members to date
Treasurer:
• Bills: - electric, safe deposit box, internet site
President: Dean not present.
Vice President Mark Pueppke presiding
• Two items identified at board meeting to address this year
o Gravel work on parking lot and topsoil for ruts and low spots on runway
▪ Verbal quotes received by Kevin and Dean
o Paint cement walls of main shelter
• REMINDER - DL Mall Show – April 4, 2020
AGENDA
1. Jets, EDFs, etc. – Dave Tsen
2. Update on group build of Gee Bee Y – work continues on Sunday afternoons at Ron’s house. Please call Ron to participate.
2020 Officers
President – Dean Gary
Vice President – Mark Pueppke
Treasurer – Ryan Johnson
Secretary – Ron Landman
Safety –-> Kevin Paulson
Members at large – Ken Littlefield, Randy Pitura
March Board Meeting
VRCF Board Meeting – Feb 18, 2020
Dean Gary’s house - members and guests present ~6
No financial report, treasurer not present
Checking - $
Savings - $
TOTAL - $
AGENDA
Discussed Field Improvements list – Zeroed in on two main items for 2020 field maintenance.
• Gravel for the drive and parking.
• Painting of shelter cement
Also discussed that some leveling of ruts on the north end of the field is in order.
Confirmed that our first Fun Fly of the season will be Saturday, June 6.
Other discussion regarding the annual Fun Fly on August 1, 2020.
• Go back to traditional pilot stations. Some found the fence too confining (too high) and also hard to drag items out to starting area. We will need to emphasize safety, maybe designate a starting area to the east of the pits.
• Extra Porta Potty was deemed a very helpful success and we should repeat it.
• Mark P is already working on prizes, has some commitments.
• We considered if we should have vendors there like they did at the GF indoor.
o ExtremeRcPrecision.com
o Bruce Pennington – Horizon Hobby dealer
• Considered other food options for the Saturday night meal. Steak or catering. Could be a few dollars more but many people seem to like this type of thing. Chicken from Hornbacher’s is a good fall back.
• 1-day vs. 2-day. Some like to camp and fly longer. They already can but the energy of the Saturday crowd is not there on Sunday. Maybe just encourage more Friday and Sunday attendance in our advertising.
Club Build of Gee Bee Y in honor of Florence Klingensmith in progressing, mostly on Sunday afternoons. We need to ask for donations or club financial support. Also bring some of it to the club meetings to get more participation and excitement.
Club meetings – March meeting will feature Dave Tsen’s jets and EDF talk. Also club build and any member winter projects.
Misc: Improvement list
<Please see the attachment for a list of improvement items.>
No Board Meeting
No board meeting this week.
November Board Meeting Minutes
VRCF Board Meeting – November 19, 2019
Labby’s Bar and Grill - members and guests present ~9
Checking - $3,624.51
Savings - $2,287.27
TOTAL - $5,911.78
AGENDA
Holiday party – It was decided to set the event for Sunday Jan. 12, 2020 at Spitfire in West Fargo
–. Mark P will reserve the back room. Club and board meeting included in the event.
Indoor Flying - Metro Rec – could be available for $56/hour, available around noon on Sundays. The board is favorable but want to make sure there are enough participant to make sharing the cost reasonable. Maybe just start with one event and see how it goes. Ron and Dean to check out the facility.
Field Improvements list – We updated the list and discussed priorities. No decisions were made to spend money at this time.
Field property is $14.5 Acres. Farmer is renting and paying for 5 acres at $100/acre. Ken volunteered to talk to farmer about the value of the rent and possibly raise it.
Ryan Jordet got quotes on doing allowing membership to be paid on the web site PayPal. Its about 2.5%. Ryan Johnson want to check out other options like Venmo and Square.
Florence Kingensmith memorial. Maybe build a model of one of her planes, then donate to Air Museum. Air Museum needs plaques for the models they have so people know what they are.
November Club Meeting
Club Meeting – November 5, 2019
VRCF Field - members and guests present - 12
Checking - $3,643.78
Savings - $2,287.27
TOTAL - $5,931.05
AGENDA
Ideas for indoor flying - Metro rec, Oak Grove gym, …
Holiday Party location – Spitfire and Frying Pan – have a room
Email members for additional ideas Is alcohol availability desired. Yes
Canopy painting techniques
Update projects list
Priority – maintain the field we have
Elections were held for 2020 officers. Ken Littlefield ran the elections in an efficient and fair manner. The results are as follows:
2020 Officers
President – Dean Gary
Vice President – Mark Pueppke
Treasurer – Ryan Johnson
Secretary – Ron Landman
Safety – Kevin Paulson
Members at large – Ken Littlefield, Randy Pitura
September 2019 Meeting Minutes
Club Meeting – September 3, 2019
VRCF Field - members and guests present - 10
Checking - $4,311.00
Savings - $2,286.69
TOTAL - $6,597.69
AGENDA
• Indoor Fun Fly? Inquiries at NDSU for their indoor track building seem promising. Ron to proceed with looking into available dates for a Sat or Sun in Jan or Feb. Don’t conflict with GF club or Bismarck. Don’t conflict with GF
• Talked about the visit we had from the Civil Air Patrol (CAP). No question we want to cooperate with them in any way we can. This led to a discussion of the club possible charging entities that want to use the field for learning or practicing drone piloting. This would not be an ongoing business model but just have a plan in place so when opportunities come up we can offer a possible arrangement. Government agencies like CAP or Sheriff’s department would have one price, commercial companies like agricultural equipment companies would be a higher price. The board will discuss this further.
• Paint the Shelter? We have prices from 3 sources along with recommendations for how to prime and paint the cement shelter. Lots of stores have paint and even “masonry paint”. Hard to tell what will actually work best and last longest. People seem to have a good impression with Sherwin-Williams paint in spite of the fact that it is the most expensive. Ron to make a recommendation to the board for an amount of paint to do just the west, north and south sides of the shelter this fall for a trial.
• We discussed the field and flight line configuration that we used at the Fun Fly. It was “OK” for the big event but most are not interested or willing to have a permanent fence set up in place of the flight stations. Some discussion was had about moving the safety fence to the east up to 25’ to make more room to park in the center of the field. Also bringing electricity to the center area, maybe even putting it near the safety fence to make it more convenient to charge near the pits.
• Oct 20 – Spud Valley Toy Show Will talk about this more at the next meeting.
• Rodney Johnson and Johan Bauson gave a talk and demonstration of a very nice electronic weighing system used for determining the exact CG of an airplane and then adding weight at the appropriate point to get the exact balance desired. The system is from Xicoy CG scale.
2019 Officers
President – Ryan Johnson
Vice President – Dean Gary
Treasurer – Paul K
Secretary – Ron Landman
Safety – Dick V
Member at large – Ken L, Mark P
August Board Meeting
VRCF Board Meeting – August 20, 2019
VRCF field - members and guests present ~8
Checking - $4,298.70
Savings - $2,286.69
TOTAL - $6,585.39
AGENDA
Air Sho – no donations this year for anyone. Not enough people attended.
Quad Squad – planning on Saturday Aug. 24th. Let club know.
Pop machine is fixed thanks to Bob German.
Fall Fly - ? If someone wants to spearhead it, just an informal one should be OK. Do it on short notice according to weather.
Fun Fly – get sanction # soon.
Winter meetings – replace a club meeting with a Moorhead community course. Negotiate with Air Museum for winter meetings.
Possibility of recreational flying test in the near future. Not sure how it would be administered.
Civil Air Patrol – Two members came to our meeting to discuss possible cooperation. They have been asked to start UAS program. Tasked by government to build program, fly drones near critical infrastructure to test defenses, help with search and rescue, disaster assessment. Need Part 107, have DJI Mavik, etc. Fixed wing in future. It is a service related mission. Need place for training. MOU with CAP and AMA coming. Have “go” kits they send to sights that need them. 1 st and 3rd Mondays are CAP meetings.
Lee G – recognize for working on kitchen doors, etc.
Misc:
Indoor Fun Fly - ? deal with venues.
2019 Officers
President – Ryan Johnson
Vice President – Dean Gary
Treasurer – Paul K
Secretary – Ron Landman
Safety – Dick V
Member at large – Ken L, Mark P
June Board Meeting
VRCF Board Meeting – June 18, 2019
VRCF field - members and guests present ~8
Checking - $5,293.79
Savings - $2,286.12
TOTAL - $7,581.91
?? members so far this year
AGENDA
Quad Racing Region Qualifier – June 29. Sponsored by Quad Squad, local club 13 registered racers so far, likely will go up. ~20 last year. Ron and Ryan to figure out menu. Dean and Johan also willing to help serve lunch.
Fargo AirSho July 20, 21 – with Thunderbirds. VRCF to have a large static display. Need club members to volunteer for both days. ~6-8 each day. Volunteers so far - Mark P, Ryan Jordet, Ron L, Johan B Headcount for passes – Ken will ask for 8 each day. We should all try to wear blue club polo shirts. From last year’s experience, we should try to rope off better so little kids don’t just walk right under and start touching airplanes. Set up shade canopies. We still need an attention getter – like balloons or tall flag/banner. Handouts, ask AMA, business cards
VRCF Fun Fly – Aug 3 (Saturday) Prizes –
• Mark has contacted a half dozen suppliers
• 6 kits from Conrad Toni available for prizes. wing jig, airplanes
• The board agreed to contribute another $400 prize money – Ron and Dean to determine what to get and do it.
Volunteers – Need to fill all positions
• Registration
• Raffle tickets
• Lunch help – grilling and selling (5-6 people), someone to purchase supplies
• PA set up and possibly playing of some music during certain times
• Dinner – arrange meal from Hornbacher’s or other. Pick up meal. Set up serving line including any contributed salads and desserts, clean up
• Drink (lemonade), desserts, salads, condiments
• Field prep, mowing and cleaning of shelter
• Set up new flight line and temporary fencing (week or so ahead of time) Ask to get PA system from Jeff.
Cash or checks
We discussed whether to accept other forms of paymebnt. Seems like a good idea but needs to be investigated as to cost, accounts to be set up, equipment needed, etc. Possible services: Venmo – Square – Google – o.54%
Misc:
Pop machine not working. Paul blew out radiator coils and it seems to be working now. Graffiti – Ron painted over it. We should consider painting the entire outside cement.
2019 Officers
President – Ryan Johnson
Vice President – Dean Gary
Treasurer – Paul K
Secretary – Ron Landman
Safety – Dick V
Member at large – Ken L, Mark P