Fox Tales (From a Wolf)
A Letter to the FVFC Membership from President Brad Wolf
I just got home
from my first meeting as President of the FVFC. It is after 11pm and I am
still so jazzed up that I can not sleep. I made it through the first
meeting. As I said at the meeting, I am nervous about being your new
leader. Bill Mills has done a great job over the last 2 years and he is a
tough act to follow. In fact, Bill has done such a great job that we have a
number of FVFC projects to keep him busy. (More on that later)
My first official act was to thank Bill for two years of dedicated service. We presented Bill with a plaque to express our gratitude. Years to come, he will be able to remember some good times by glancing at his FVFC memento hanging on the wall of his office. Congratulations Bill and please don’t stop working for us!
We had a great meeting and our new Treasurer was very busy collecting membership dues. Barry Ward has done a great job of grabbing hold of his duties and getting down to business. Barry will be the primary contact for collecting those dues. Please take the time and make the effort to become an official member of the FVFC. We have some great ideas for 2005 and we think we can guarantee you’ll get $25 worth of fun, fellowship and flying.
BIG NEWS!!!!!!!
We have a new membership classification! The members unanimously approved a new type of memberships to the FVFC. We now offer a family membership. For $30/year, immediate family members can join the club. Once registered, family members will be official Fox Valley Flying Club members. Spouses, sons & daughters are all welcome. Often these people are key to our success. Now we offer an economical way for them to have a real stake in the club. WELCOME to all the new family members. Think about inviting your family to the meeting next month.
All members get a membership card and 2005 FVFC calendar.
Roger Kellogg is doing an excellent job as our new club secretary. He is insightful, diligent and committed. Roger will be providing copies of the meeting minutes. They will be posted here on the web in the weeks ahead.. You should be able to catch up on the meetings starting with the January 2005. Roger will also be the official keeper of the club phone / email / address / membership list. You’re not a member unless Roger says you are a member. [And Roger doesn’t say you’re a member unless Barry says you’re a member]
Our Vice President, Joe Simosky has already earned his salary. [more than that really - since he does not get paid anything] His knowledge and experience as past President have been valuable to us relatively new guys serving as your officers. Unfortunately, Joe had some pressing personal business that prevented him from attending the January meeting. Nevertheless, Joe attended the executive officer planning meeting on Monday and helped us chart our course. Thanks Joe.
My personal thanks goes to Phil “the wrench” Bolenbaugh for making a presentation on fuel pumps at the January meeting. In my book, Phil is a top notch mechanic who does fantastic work. He recently completed the Rotax engine school with flying colors. His fuel pump presentation provided some good information and sparked some interesting debate. It was the best “R” rated presentation to the FVFC that I have ever seen. Great job Phil and thanks.
Bill Mills enthusiastically presented the Top Gun concept. The idea is to earn points for either achieving something or working on something for the club. Points can be awarded for making a flight, attending a fly-in, attending a meeting, flying 50 miles, making a presentation or many other opportunities. I believer there are 35 options in the Top Gun program. The points for the Top Gun program look like this:
150 - 199 points = Eagle
200 - 249 points = Ace
250 or above = Top Gun
Part two of this program is the Crew Chief program. This award is for those people who do not fly but participate in the club in many other ways. There is currently 13 different opportunities for Crew Chiefs to earn points. Their award program looks like this:
25 - 60 points = Support Facilitator
61 - 99 points = Ground Crew Leader
100 or above = Crew Chief
The program is posted on the website. I think this is going to be a lot of fun. I look forward to racking up those points.
Fox Pause -- Please take a few seconds of time to thank these people for their time and effort. Our clubs works because people like these folks make the commitment for you. Your personal appreciation helps to keep these people going.
What is next?
Even though it is winter, we have a lot of activity going on right now. We have posted a number of committee ideas on the web and we are asking people to volunteer for one or more committees. Please take a look at the list sign up for something to help the club. We’ll be talking more about that at the next meeting, but the information is available now. We will take some time at the next meeting to discuss the committees for 2005.
Brian Gilomen has volunteered to talk to us about GPS’s at our February meeting. I’m not sure what he is going to say, but I suggest that you bring your GPS, instruction manual, sectional chart, ruler and pencil to the next meeting. This could be fun.
$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$
Budget - In February, we are going to talk about the 2005 budget. Now budgets in themselves are not very exciting, but I think you will find this discussion worth the price of admission. We will be presenting a budget to tackle a number of exciting efforts. I want to provide our committees with seed money which will allow them to break new ground. What if we had a logo committee? They could come up with some neat FVFC memorabilia, T-shirts, hat etc. What if we had our own refrigerator and storage cabinet to store food and drinks for the summer meetings? What if we purchased everyone a new sectional chart or some other education tool? How about some awards for the Top Gun & Top Crew Members?
We are not going to throw away money. But there are a lot of great opportunities out there that could really blossom with a little money to get them started. Most of these things will pay for themselves once they get started. Budgeting makes us think about what we want to do. What do we want to accomplish? It can be anything. We can chose to do one thing or one hundred things. It is all up to you. Please come and participate in the development of our 2005 plans.
It is going to be a great year and I am really excited about it. I am now finishing this at 12:30am and I am still going strong because of the FVFC fun that I see coming our way. We got started tonight. I look forward to seeing you next month.
Live to Fly, Fly to Live
Brad Wolf
President, Fox Valley Flying Club
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