Board of Directors Meeting Minutes 8/13/13

[sailin]

Meeting Minutes – Board of Directors Meeting 8/13/13


CHGPA club members,

Your Board of Directors had a meeting on the night of 8/13/13 to discuss several items to include, but not limited too: our Launches and LZ’s, our tax status and current/future projects. Below is a summary of that meeting. Please feel free to ask any of your BOD for further clarification on any of the topics. In attendance were Jon Brantley, Matt Ingram, Patrick Terry , and Carlos Weill.

We also look forward to seeing you at the Fall Club meeting on 9/13/13 @7pm (location TBD) We would be happy to go into more detail on any of the below items there!!!

Site Discussions-

Site ambassadors—We will soon be looking for pilots to become ambassadors for each of the sites we maintain and fly. More on that soon.

Updated LZ Landowner List- We want to create a new master list of LZ landowners. We will use this to ensure we are keeping positive lines of communications open with these individuals that have extended their generosity to help us achieve our passion of free flight.

We are hoping to make an improved Club Site guide. This will include updated accurate information that will hopefully help newer and older pilots alike. Pilot Peter Van Oevelen was already working on this big initiative. Please, any and all provide him with any information he might need. Thank you Peter!!!!!

Pulpit- We are looking into putting a “permanent” windsock at the Pulpit Launch. The wooden ramps need to be inspected for strength, stability and longevity. We will first be reaching out to any club members that are “qualified” for this type of work and then going down the contractor route. There was discussion about the “need” for weatherproofing on these ramps but the current consensus is it is best not to apply anything to the wood surface. This may change should informed and educated information be supplied to us stating the contrary. The gravel pad is in good shape and does not require any current maintenance. The trees at the bottom of launch are not currently causing any problems but may need to be cut in the future. There was discussion on the structure that is located on the back edge of the Pulpit setup area. Discussion about whether it should be improved upon, demolition/rebuild or left as is. No plans to do anything with it right now. There is also plans to look into the possibility of a Wind Talker at either launch or on top of the Mountain House Restaurant.

The Pulpit LZ’s- We are going to reach out to the landowner of the field out front (HG secondary/PG Primary) and get a sense of his plans regarding keeping that field planted or cut. We also want to renew and update all landowner contacts so we can continue/restart our gift giving and keeping lines of communication open.

Woodstock- We are still waiting to hear back from the Forest Service regarding our plan to improve launch . A reminder of things being considered are tree cutting, smoothing of launch surfaces with soil/grass and concrete strip. We are hoping to hear back from the Forest Service in the November time frame. Some additional things that could affect us positively are the Forest Service plans to repair/replace the fire tower above launch. This could move the road access gate further up (no more uphill hikes in the snow) and allow for other improvements. Standby for more on that. We are also trying to develop a official “Site Adoption” relationship with the Forest Service. This could give us an opportunity to put up some CHGPA signage at our Forest Service sites as recognized site stewards.


Woodstock LZs- No known issues with the Main LZ, Bridge Field or PG Field at this time. We would like to update/renew our contact list for these landowners to start/continue gift giving and card sending. This is the same plan for all our sites.

Edith’s Gap- Continuing this great initiative with the Forest Service. Plans for more poisoning of the invasive ailanthus. Grass planting and netting for erosion control. Designing a barrier to stop large scale trash dumping on launch. We are also trying to develop a official “Site Adoption” relationship with the Forest Service. This could give us an opportunity to put up some CHGPA signage at our Forest Service sites as recognized site stewards.

Edith’s Gap LZ- There is currently a PG LZ out front of launch but it is less than ideal for HG. We are in talks with a landowner that might be able to provide some space to “make” a HG LZ. It would require some large scale clearing of brush and small trees. This is a work in progress and we currently are not moving forward with the clearing until we have better direction from the landowner. Standby for more on that.

Massanutten Mountain SSW Launch- This is on the Massanutten Resort Property at the end of the ridge (by Harrisonburg) There is currently an old HG ramp there. We are in talks with the property owner to allow us the ability to improve the ramp and allow access to fly. It is a small site with limitations to the amount of vehicles that it can handle.

High Rock- Matthew Grahm is spearheading the communication with the contractor regarding concrete and cube maintenance. We talked more about the possibilities of making this a PG site. It would require some large scale tree clearing in addition to other obstacles. We really want to pursue this if it is cost feasible. Patrick Terry is going to look into a cost analysis.

High Rock LZ- The money that was raised by voluntary fundraiser has been given to Emma Jane to pay for property taxes. We will do another volunteer fundraiser next year. This was a joint effort with MHGA. We have the High Rock Fly In October 18-20, 2013.

Daniels- We would like to make a more permanent fix to launch so it does not become so frequently over grown. We have permission from the landowners to do a small scale fix to launch with planting some grass. This would be accomplished with transporting soil and seed up in pilot vehicles and making this a low key operation. There is increasing need to do some road repair (road to launch). It is only a few spots that need repair. Matt Ingram and Matthew Grahm are working on contacting property owners to see who could help cover the cost with this.

Daniels LZ (Main and Spine)- No known issues.

Bills Hill- We would like to work with Buchanan State Forest to develop a more permanent fix to the launch. Our goal is to eliminate as much of the recurrent maintenance that needs to be done to make this flyable. Initial thoughts are to do a large scale cutting and then try to plant grass further down.

Bills Hill LZ- No known issues.

Fischer Rd.- Currently launch is still open to flying . Currently there are no pre-approved LZ’s. We have an eye on one property that we are trying to make contact with the owners to see if it is a possibility.

Shenandoah Natl Park Sites on Skyline Drive (Dickeys, Hogback, Millers Head)- We are going to try and get the language changed on the Special Use Permit that would allow PGs to fly at Hogback and Millers Head. Currently they are HG only. We need to look into our LZ options at these sites as well. Please remember that you need both a National Park Service Special Use Pass (annual) and a National Park entrance pass to fly these site. Also the Special Use Permit does not allow us to do maintenance at these sites.
Maintenance is going to need to be done at Millers Head to make it safe to launch…….maybe Hogback too???


CHGPA Website Update and Maintenance- We are hoping to work with Mark Cavanaugh to update our already awesome club website. Mark has done this duty voluntarily and wonderfully by himself for forever. Thank you Mark!!! Mark we are sending help!!! ☺ ☺

TAXES- It has been brought to our attention that we do not currently have our 501© status. Patrick Terry is going to reconcile this and reinstate our 501© status. It will cost approx $1800 to get our records in order and reinstated. This will allow us to apply for grant monies for site improvement/acquisition.

Pulpit Sticker- We have decided to do away with the Pulpit Sticker.

Raising Club Dues- We had a discussion about raising club dues. No decision at this time was made to do so. We will re-visit this again in the spring.

CHGPA Logo Contest- We would like to open the doors to create an updated CHGPA Logo. This will be a contest. The winter would become our official club logo and will be made into T-shirts available for sale. Stand by for a post on the forum about this.

CHGPA Movie Night- It is our thought that the club would benefit from a social night out that includes some of our own pilots flying. Bring your family and friends. We are trying to narrow down the facility where we will do this event. Right now the two choices are “The Arlington Cinema Draft House” in Arlington, VA and the “West End Theater” in Georgetown. Stand by for a post on the forum with a cost break down. This will be voted on at the Fall meeting on 9/13/13.

Ground Based Events- We would like to get interest levels and feedback from the membership regarding future ground based events. We are envisioning having speakers, seminars, training (examples are cross country clinic or landing clinic…………. )These events would be held in our “local” area. Is there interest in the club to pursue such endeavors?

Volunteer Teams to Support CHGPA Fly In events- We are looking for organizers and planners to help develop a “team” of volunteers to put some energy back into our club fly-ins. It would be great to re-capture some of the energy of yester-year at these events. If this is something you are good at and have a passion for then please let a BOD member know ASAP!!! Thanks!

Launch/LZ Acquisition Fund Raiser- We are always looking for funding/fund raiser opportunities and ideas to help us secure land for launching and landing. Please come forth with your ideas!!!

[dbodner]

Great job, guys. It looks like a lot hard work is going on.

A few notes:

I have most of our landowner addresses, so just hit me up when you're ready. It'd be nice if our ambassadors were able to verify that the fruit we send actually makes it to the landowners.

Pulpit ramps: re-decking the forward portion of the old ramp shouldn't be a big job. I kind of doubt a contractor would be necessary. I recall Kelvin blessing the overall structure before we re-decked the aft portion of it several years ago (spearheaded by Ralph). I probably still have some paperwork on that project. Consider whether this ought to be paid by the Pulpit rather than CHGPA.

High Rock PG launch: Looking at the property books on-line, I believe I've figured out the parcel number of the property (owned by DNR). There appears to be an error in the official documentation somewhere that makes it kind of tricky, so I could be wrong.

Getting rid of the Pulpit sticker: As Pulpit treasurer, I would welcome it. But we have to get MHGA on-board with that. The by-laws actually mandate some sort of visual marker to denote flying privileges, and a stickler for rules might want to enforce it. In my opinion, the by-laws could use a general updating, anyway.

Thanks for taking the initiative and for getting stuff done.

[eggzkitz]

Thanks for everything you guys are doing. It is great work.

Two things:

- XC league. Increasing interest among the PG crowd, so something informal could be in the works.

- Movie night or just social with movies. I'd offer to host at my place.

Best,
Jeff

[sailin]

Dave,
Thank you for the offer to help with the landowner contact info. I know you have been involved in the gift giving and such for quite a while and we definitely look for your insight and help with all regarding that. I will shoot you an email that you can reply to with the contact info you have. That would be great...thank you!
Good point regarding the maintenance of the Pulpit ramps and where the fund should come from. I would love to talk more about that with you at the upcoming meeting.
Regarding the Pulpit sticker- We figured you would appreciate them going away Point taken about the bylaws and the requirement for a visual identification. I will talk with Richard Hays about this and see what his thoughts are as well.

Jeff,

I think the XC league is a great idea. Maybe a HG and PG concurrent league? I know they have a lot of fun and success with the XC league out at Crestline/Marshall in CA. I would love to hear some more specifics on this. Let's bring this up for discussion at the upcoming meeting.
I really like the idea of movie/social nights with other club members on a more regular basis. I think this is just the kind of thing our club needs.

Jon

[mingram]

One other thing we discussed was the spelling of our club's name - Capitol vs. Capital. I just checked the club list on USHPA.aero and our name is spelled with an O - Capitol, but on our website and logos we use Capital everywhere. Is USHPA wrong? Did we decide to change it to Capital?

[Matthew]

The club changed the spelling when we added the word paragliding years ago. I guess no one notified USHPA-- back then it was still USHGA.

We are Capital.

Matthew

[mingram]

Just dreaming here regarding a PG launch at high rock. If the trees to the right of launch come down would it expand the launchable wind direction to the North from the cube?

[dbodner]

On some legal level we may still be Capitol Hang Gliding Association.

[silverwings]

Proposed club meeting on 9/13: Marney and I would like to offer having the meeting at our house in Bethesda. Only 10 minute walk from Medical Center metro.

[Danny Brotto]

Launching off the cube in a north in a hang glider is easy. A slope launch in that area to the north might be shadowed in westerly winds with the rocks that jut out below the cube area.

I'd like to see a slope launch at HR if only to allow flying when not enough qualified wire crew are available.

Regarding the wind talker at McConnelsburg, I designed, built, and maintained such a device in the 80s. The project was called "SAMSON" for Synthetically Articulate Meteorological Station. It operated for about 2 years. The wind sensors were at launch with the electronics located in the bar. You could call a number and SAMSON would vocalize the range and percentage of wind direction from the previous 20 minutes. It would also vocalize the average, peak, and low wind speed from the previous 20 minutes. Thing worked pretty darn well but had issues during lighting storms which would sometimes fry the electronics. On one occasion during a thunderstorm, the electronics in the bar caught on fire. Luckily the fire was quickly noticed and extinguished. SAMSON uttered his final phoneme that day as I shelved the project. The cable which lead from the launch to the bar is still out there I belive.

Danny Brotto

[sailin]

John M.,
Thank you for the great offer to host the Sept 13th meeting at your house. That would be great!!! Thank you! I will add it to the formal meeting announcement.

thanks!!

Jon

[sailin]

Danny,

I would love to talk more about the windtalker technology you have. After visiting some sites out west that have it, and also the Tree Toppers down south, I love the idea! It would be great if we could get something going again. Any chance you will be able to make the club meeting on Sept 13th?

thanks,
Jon

[tomceunen]

There is also plans to look into the possibility of a Wind Talker at either launch or on top of the Mountain House Restaurant.

I came across this article about this topic (cellphone & solar power weather station).
http://www.paraglidingforum.com/viewtopic.php?t=59090

See also the manufacturer website.
http://www.wind-portal.net/weather-stations/

Having a surge arrester in place will be key indeed.

To the board of directors, if volunteers are needed to help on this project, I'm available.

Putting one on the top of the Woodstock tower with permission of the forest folks would be also beneficial.

Regards
Tom