TTT BOD May 15th 2010
BOD Present: Ollie Gregory, Eric
Donaldson, Steve Lee, Dan Shell, Michael Bradford, Kenny
Sandifer, James Anderson, Buddy Cutts, Barry Klein, Kathy Lee
Members present; Mike Nash, Bill
Colvin.
BOD Absent: Lucas Ridley, Jeff
Wilson, Miller Stroud, Jeff Nibler, Ricker Goldsborough. Jeff
Wilson has been absent three BOD meetings in a row. Three
consecutive absences starts an automatic resignation from the
BOD. The BOD voted unanimously to refuse his resignation at
this time.
Ollie took minutes in Lucas’ absence.
Meeting called to order at 9:30 AM.
Central
Minutes from April were read by Ollie and
accepted unanimously
Steve and Kathy enjoyed using the gift
certificate for St. John’s Restaurant in downtown Chattanooga!
Great food. They thanked the TTT for giving the gift
certificate.
Steve congratulated Ollie on winning the
Rigid Wing class at the Flytec Race and Rally
Old biz.
Dan Shell reports: Whitwell LZ search
continues. No new information.
Storage Container: The board is not going
to pursue this until there is more interest from membership.
Signage designed by Jeff Nibler is up at
Henson’s. Signs need to be installed at Whitwell. James
Anderson installed the signs at Henson’s.
James Anderson installed the launch crew
safety restraint hardware on the ramp at Henson’s.
Firewood for Rick Jacobs and TTT firewood:
The Lee Team will donate a cord of wood from their property they
split up. As funds become available, Kathy will still pursue a
load from Harwood for the campers to use and to help cover the
wood borrowed from Rick Jacobs. Discussion ensued about trees on
the property that might be taken down and some on Dan Shell’s
property that could be cut up. Suggestions for members to
donate time to cut up local down trees for the campers were
discussed. There is no big need for new firewood at this point.
Liability insurance for the land owners was
discussed. The landowner insurance forms are still here and
need to be distributed. Woerner, Hudson, Basham and Castle
property are covered, but insurance certificates are in need of
delivery. The Church LZ certificate was delivered.
New Business:
Land Trust: A letter reporting of The Land
Trust’s annual visit to check for our compliance. We passed the
land management assessment. We are to let them know of changes
in the use of our land in the Land Trust.
Foundation for Free Flight donated $700
toward the Team Challenge 2010 in stipulating that there will be
an article written that mentions the work of the Foundation to
preserve hang gliding sites and to include the FFF’s logo in
advertisements.
Sequatchie Co Chamber of Commerce sent TTT
a letter about their activities and functions in our area along
with a request for sponsorship monies. TTT is a current member
of the Dunlap Chamber of Commerce
There was discussion about the camping
trailer parked on TTT property for most of this year. Steve
mentioned that he was in favor of allowing campers to be left
here to encourage more pilots to come to our sites. So far
there have been no reported conflicts. There was much
discussion on this subject with concern about members taking
advantage of the lax rules to store their campers on our
property and take up desirable spaces. There was discussion of
the liability risk to TTT with campers etc on the property.
Several potential solutions and compromises were suggested, but
all would require policing of the property and enforcement.
There was discussion of charging a fee for storage of trailers
or renting out the trailers when the owners were not present and
the liability involved.
Ollie motioned to encourage members bring
their campers and RVs when they come to TTT to fly, but must
take them home when they leave. Ollie’s motion was seconded by
James Anderson. More discussion ensued. There was a vote to
end discussion. Finally, the motion to require campers and RVs
to be removed from TTT property once their owners were no longer
visiting TTT was passed unanimously.
We will consider investigating the
development of RV sites in the future.
Tandem flights: Tandem students
must sign a TTT waiver and a USHPA membership form to fly.
Currently TTT receives only $5 a flight. Steve mentioned that
the club dues were increased but there was no increase in the
dues for Tandem flights that are done commercially. There was
much discussion of options to manage the tandem fees. Buddy
Cutts motioned to make the minimum membership a 3 day pass and
no longer use the $5 tandem membership pass. This would allow
the change without a bylaws referendum. There was much
discussion concerning this. The motion to no longer use the $5
tandem student pilot membership passed unanimously. Now the
minimum membership for TTT is a 3 day membership costing $25.
This will become effective 5-15-2010.
Other business and news:
James Anderson discovered that one of the
new window’s upstairs was without a screen. Dan Shell will
contact Curly Dunn to find out where it is. Update: Screen has been
located and installed.
Rick Jacobs has marked the trails to the
first bench and the trail down below the cliff with half dollar
sized orange plastic markers at eye level on the trees along the
trails. Rick would like to have the ladder to the bench
improved. The entry to the trail below the dome house is over
grown and needs clearing to allow rapid access below the cliffs
in case of an accident. A work party is needed to correct
this.
There are foreign pilots who are using FAI
cards to show their rating. This does not mean they are USHPA
members or covered with USHPA insurance. They can get temporary
USHPA membership to be allowed to fly here. They should be
referred to LMFP to get temporary USHPA membership. BOD members
should be aware of this before signing off on membership to TTT.
Dogs: James read a
letter that
someone sent him about the issue of dogs on launch, dog fights
and dogs biting people. This was discussed at length. There
was much discussion about dogs and liability risk. A motion was
made to address this by posting on TTT bulletin boards, websites
and newsletters that TTT takes no responsibility for dog
behavior. If any TTT member or guest brings a dog onto TTT
property, that person is responsible for their dog’s behavior.
Also several signs indicating that members and guests should
“Beware of Dog” will be posted about the TTT property.
TTT Face Book site: There was
discussion about TTT Face Book site and questionable posts left
there. To address this, a disclaimer that posts there do not
reflect the opinions of TTT or membership will be made a feature
on the site.
Mike Nash announced that Denny Haldeman has
offered to write a history of the TTT. He will be coming by
during the Mayhem party and events to collect information for
this project.
Michael Bradford wants to digitize all the
recoverable history of the TTT as an IT project.
Committee Reports:
Treasurer:
TTT Checking
account has an available balance of $422.79 and all bills have
been paid to date.
Frig and Stove
Donations -$1,151.00
DSL
Donations -$150.00
Balance
-$ 878.21
TTT CD Fund
has a balance of $56,979.65 as of 04/30/10.
2009 taxes were filed last week at a cost of $100.00 for
Certified Public Accountant filing to insure we are compliant.
Website: Buddy Cutts, Website
Chairman, reports the website is in good shape.
Bylaws: Dan Shell, Bylaws Chairman,
reports the Bylaws are in good shape.
Newsletter: Keith Atkins requests
articles be sent to him as soon as possible. Ollie sent an
article last night. Steve will send in Prez’ Perch. Others are
needed. Ollie can so several but doesn’t want to overload/bore
the membership with his exploits and opinions.
Membership: Jeff Nibler, Membership
Chairman, has been doing an excellent job with automated
notifications of expired memberships which are copied to board
members. As of today our current members totaled 173.
Information Technologies: Michael
Bradford, Chairman, reports that the DSL is open and running.
It was down for a brief time during the April BOD meeting. The
antenna needs to be reinstalled. The TTT proposal to work with
USHPA on the America’s Cup project of automating a online
scoring/log website program to allow a more flexibility than the
Online XC contests was described in the USHPA minutes as a
chapter project. USHPA had indicated interest and support of
the project at the Spring BOD meeting in Utah. USHPA has been
difficult for Michael to contact regarding this project. USHPA
needs to clarify the degree of their interest and support in the
project. Several clubs have asked to use the program Jeff
Nibler has developed for the Weekend Series at their sites.
Competition: Ollie Gregory Chairman
reported that The Weekend Series has had two scored weekends.
The April Weekend was phenomenal. The Sequatchie Sprints will
kick off over Memorial Day Weekend. Discussion ensued regarding
accrediting the Sprints and the Weekend Series. Accreditation
would provide insurance to cover non USHPA volunteers. The cost
was thought to be prohibitive since we are striving to have very
affordable meets and events. Scoring programs for the
Sequatchie Sprints were discussed. TTT will need to have access
to SeeYou program to score the Sprints. This should be
accomplished by the first Sprints competition.
Safety: Kathy Lee Chairwoman
reports that the windsocks are all up and in good shape.
However, we do not have any reserves. At this point we are too
short of funding to purchase new ones, but will when the budget
allows. Miller Stroud has offered to help with a laminated
emergency protocol sheet to use at both our sites. This is an
ongoing project. Ollie encouraged BOD members to hold brief
talks about launch safety tips and guidelines for out sites
anytime we have a pilot gathering.
Maintenance: Jeff Wilson Committee
Chair was absent. There was much discussion about the sorry
state of affairs at the Clubhouse. Work party weekends were
discussed. There are multiple repair and maintenance projects
that have been left unaddressed. The cost of mowing the LZs was
discussed with general agreement that the present arrangement
was working well. The Henson’s Gap launch site is growing up
some. The water pipes that froze in the clubhouse and
subsequently flooded the clubhouse have yet to be repaired. The
cabinets donated by Michael Bradford have yet to be
reinstalled. The broken glass in window has yet to be
repaired. Steve mentioned that he could no longer bare the
burden of doing the lion’s share of maintenance. Work parties
are needed. There was much discussion of this. Since the
Weekend Series is an ongoing event, pilots will still be
encouraged to come and form work parties when the weather isn’t
flyable. This and other projects will require coordination.
Awards: Eric Donaldson Chairman
asked about awards needed for the contests. Ollie suggested
that printed certificates would be OK for the Sprints. Steve
Lee talked about the need for nice awards for the TTT of the
Year and the Flight/Flights of the year. There will be a
greater need for awards this year with the many competitions TTT
is hosting. Steve made several trophies to be awarded to the
winners of the Weekend Series.
Social: Barry Klein Chairman
reports that TTT Mayhem party will be a pot luck. All dishes
should have an aeronautical name. Turbulent Tacos was used as
an example. Ollie will contribute a keg of beer. Eric
Donaldson will bring it.
After much discussion, the meeting was
finally adjourned at 2:30 PM Central time. Whew! Ollie
