Meeting Minutes

The monthly BCRCC meeting for January will be held at the usual place and the usual time:

Date

Wednesday, January 14, 2009

Time

7:30PM

Place

Room 107, Santiam Christian High School

This is an important meeting!

Well Polar Bear 2009 is now in the record books and I have to say that it will be remembered as one of the worst in terms of flying conditions. However, it was quite amazing and gratifying to see the number of people who turned out in spite of the weather. I still can't believe that I stood out in the pouring rain and howling wind, with my transmitter in a plastic bag (thanks Tom) and flew my trusty stick. Sometimes my stubborn streak gets the best of me. I got up early on new years day to put in the first flight of the year, and by golly I was going to do it! Cheers to all you hardy souls who showed up on that blustery day.
Sometimes it's good to remind ourselves what a great bunch of people make up BCRCC, and it's nice when you hear it from an "outsider". BCRCC member Dwight Rose came to the Polar Bear from Monroe with a couple of Eugene RC club members. Towards the end of the event when people were packing up, one of the Eugene club members, I think his name was Wayne, came up to Jim Trump and I and asked about joining our club. Basically he said he was impressed by what a friendly, fun bunch of folks we were and wanted to be a part of it (OK, he did also say that he traveled to Salem from time to time and would probably stop by and use the field occasionally).

January Meeting Agenda
* IMPORTANT MEETING. PLEASE ATTEND! *
The January meeting is an important club business meeting. New club officers will be elected and an increase in club dues will be voted on.

• Vote on proposed club dues increase. The new dues will be $50/year. Youth dues, 17 years old and younger, will be one half of adult dues.
• In the November meeting the motion was made, seconded and passed, to form a publicity and events committee to promote BCRCC as a community member, increase membership, and raise money. We will discuss this and form the committee.
• New club officers will be elected.

-Steve

VOICE OF YOUR VEEP

BCRCC CHRISTMAS PARTY:

Sally and Bill Harburg did it again!!! They graciously opened their home to the club and hosted a tremendous holiday get together. Sally is clearly very high up, indeed, on the culinary learning curve--- as the food and treats were plentiful and absolutely delicious. It was a wonderful takeoff into the holiday season. I know I speak for all of us when I say, “Thanks very much Sally and Bill!”

POLAR BEAR FUN-FLY:

Our traditional January 1st gathering was hammered by very ugly weather. While the day before and the day after were graced with but mild, balmy zephyrs and very little wet, the 1st was well---HAMMERED! Nevertheless, the event was quite well attended and a whole lot of fun. This is, indeed, a strong endorsement of our membership’s character, commitment, sense of honor and stoic resolve (or perhaps, instead, of our love for cookies and chili!).

Vern Smith (and caller, Ethan) broke the ice by being the first to challenge the fierce winds and rain with his trusty pylon racer. After their very commendable showing, other pilots were lured out there to try their skill and luck. As an aside, this dredges up from ancient memory a shtick that Steve Allen did decades ago on TV, called “THE QUESTION MAN.” As a twist, he would be given the answer, e.g. “CHICKEN TERIYAKE” and would jokingly come up with the question, “Name the world’s oldest Kamikaze pilot…” Some of us (myself included) fell into this mindset.

About 25-30 brave souls made it to our gathering- from as far east as Lebanon, as far north as Monmouth and as far south as Eugene. It was good to see many old friends: Bob Govro, Arlyse and Dean Link and Dwight Rose- to name just a few that we don’t get to see all that often. Dwight brought up a couple of his flying buddies from Eugene- apparently so they could watch with envy as he won the very nice Mustang which Jim Trump donated to the raffle.

Special thanks go out to Tom Leach for preparing a huge cauldron of his rightfully famous and very delicious chili. Despite the wind and rain, later in the morning, a very sizeable methane cloud managed to form over Brian Unwin Field, briefly befuddling local meteorologists and ecologists once again. Tom, that sure was some mighty fine chili!!!

The final event of our gathering was the drawing for the ride in “RUSSIAN THUNDER,” Jim Bourke’s beautiful YAK 54. Apparently the fates conspired to test my acrophobia and motion sickness as mine was the winning ticket. It will also give me a good chance to test the warranty on my new Futaba Pacemaker…

The next club meeting will be at the SANTIAM CHRISTIAN SCHOOL on Wednesday, January 14th at 7:30 pm.

Have a fine month,

Ed Kreusser