MINUTES OF BEECH AERO CLUB BOARD MEETING MARCH 8, 2011
Members present: Dan Jonas, Steve Cote, Gene McPherson, Rick Koch, Mark Gooderum, Tom Corcoran, Eddie Smith, Larkin Braxton, Marshal Whatley, Thom Smith and Mark Weiss. Members absent: Paul Werbin, Robert Schmidt and Dave Gribble
1. Call to Order: The meeting was held via telephone conference call and was called to order by Dan Jonas at 7:35pm EDT. As a quorum was present the meeting began.
2. Approval of Minutes: Reading of the Minutes of the previous meeting and approval was previously performed as referenced in the Minutes of the October 9, 2010 Board meeting. Thus no action was needed.
3. Financial Statements: Gene had posted the Financial statements for the year through February 28, 2011 to the Sharepoint website for the Board’s reference. As of February 28, 2011, we had $ 30,164.59 in the checking account. The savings account was closed when the Club’s funds were transferred to the new Treasurer. Other assets of the club remained the same. A question was raised as to amounts showing on the Balance Sheet for Aircraft Parts for Resale ($ 2,394.25). The point was made that club members responsible for maintenance of this parts inventory should be contacted and requested to provide a current inventory to the Board. Dan said he would followup with Bill Manhein and Monty Spencer to prepare this inventory. Referring to the Income Statement, revenues for the period totaled $5,100 and is in line with projected income for 2011. Expenses to date totaled $ 5,415.37 and consisted mainly of the $ 4,772.70 paid for the first edition of BACTalk for 2011. The bulk of the other expense was $ 425 paid toward the Arlington fly-in in the Northwest Region.
4. 2011 Budget: Dan reviewed the 2011 Budget which projects a positive cash flow of $ 1443.00. The largest component of budgeted income consisted of Member’s Dues ($ 25,000). Dan stated that this reflected a conservative estimate for membership (500 members) and would hopefully be higher if planned membership development efforts were successful. He said he wanted to plan for conservative revenues so expenses could be contained and our deficit spending of previous years brought into check. Other income items were in line with 2010 except the budgeted line for Advertising revenues was slightly higher than 2010 due to planned additional efforts by Chris Linderman and Bob Lewis at getting advertising sold for the remaining issue of BACTalk. The expense side also reflects an austere budget to control spending to maintain a balanced budget. Budgeted expenses are projected to fall
from $ 36,504 in 2010 to $ 30,757 in 2011. The reduced spending was mainly due to reducing the number of issues of BACTalk from 2 to 3 resulting in a reduction of $ 4600. Gene pointed out that this budget item will probably be exceeded by $ 1,000 due to his failure to include the $ 500 per issue stipend paid to Rick Koch for each issue of the magazine in the budget number. Other budgeted expenses are in line with what has been spent in previous years except some money ($450) has been added to the fly-in line item. The Board believes that the more non-members we can get to fly-ins, the more new members we will have. The Board discussed the possibly of allocating more funds to Membership Development. It was determined that the best advertising for the club was no cost or low cost advertising that could be realized by getting non-members to attend a local fly-in. Dan stated that one of his efforts this year will be be to get the information to Regional Directors regarding non-members in their area so a personal invitation can be extended to attend a fly-in. Motion to approve the budget by Steve Cote, 2ndby Larkin Braxton. Motion carried.
5. Regional Directors Budget: Dan reviewed the allocation of fly-in money to each of the BAC Regions. The amount of fly-in money to be made available to the Regions totals $ 4,635 in accordance with the Club’s By-laws. An additional $ 865 was put into the budget to allow for additional fly-in funds to be made available at the Board’s discretion.
6. BACFest2011: Steve Cote announced that BACFest 2011 will be held in Ithaca, NY (KITH) with Taughannock Aviation being our host FBO. The dates will be September 29 – October 2, 2011. Steve is talking with the two available hotels to arrange for our host conference center. It was decided to give Steve authority to plan the details for BACFest along with help from members who live in the area of Ithaca and to save the money that it would normally cost to have the Executive Board meet at the facility to plan the event. Steve stated that the contract with the hotel would be signed no later than June 1, 2011.
7. Website Status: Mark Gooderum reported that the new website is approaching its 1 year anniversary. Mark discussed several improvements planned for the website including increased security from spammers, possibility of improved access for smartphones, troubleshooting of problems experienced in the classifieds section with photo uploads, deploying a Wiki in the site and investigation of methods to reduce the difficulty that some have had with registration on the site. Mark then fielded questions regarding problems experienced with usage of the website.
8. Website Data Base Issues: Dan discussed problems that he has been working on with Mark to rectify difficulties in withdrawing certain useful information from the data base that can then be used for effective membership management i.e. welcome of new members, personalized notification to delinquent/lapsed members, recognition of 5-year pin recipients, etc.
9. BACTalk: Rick Koch gave a report on the latest issue (Winter, 2011) that has started to arrive in Members’ mailboxes within the past week. Several Board members comment on the great looking product that Rick is producing and commended him for it.
10. Membership: Dan reviewed an analysis report that he had prepared to illustrate how membership had fluctuated, by month, since the beginning of the year. The report analyzed New Members, Renewals Due and Renewal Rate to demonstrate to the Board that we are losing an estimated $ 1,500 per year due to late renewals.Dan went over an “Expired Membership Report” that he prepared for use by the Regional Director to enable them to see which members in their Region are expiring so a personal contact with those members could be made. The RD could then invite that member to renew and possibly have a member take the expired member to a fly-in in their area.
11. Tool Policy: Dan discussed a draft document of a proposed “Tool Policy” to standardize rules for renting the specialized tool developed by the Club for compression of the “donuts” and installation of Jo-bolts on the fixed-gear planes. Dan wanted the Board to look at the “draft policy” and be ready to discuss changes and clarifications at the next Board meeting. Several members expressed varying opinions on the proposed policy.The general consensus was 1) we need a Tool Policy 2) we need to collect for rental of the tool plus freight BEFORE the tool is shipped to the member for usage.
12. New Business: Dan stated that a member contacted him via e-mail suggesting that the Club make a coupon available for members to give to prospects at fly-ins which would provide for a discount on first year memberships ($5 discount). The Board agreed to think about how to implement this idea and to post ideas on the Sharepoint Website between now and the next Board meeting to refine this proposal. Tom Corcoran reminded Board members of the upcoming fly-in at Danbury, CT on March 15, 2011. Dan instructed Gene to contact Brad to determine whether bills need to be sent out for advertising for the most recent issue of BACTalk.There being no further business to bring before the Board, motion was made to adjourn by Rick Koch, 2ndbyMark Weiss. Motion carried unanimously. Meeting adjourned at 9:48pm EDT.