[roc-chat] ROC News and Requests
- From: Gregory Lyzenga <lyzenga@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: roc-chat@xxxxxxxxxxxxx, roc-announce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Wed, 20 Jun 2012 07:43:25 -0700
Greetings ROC Friends:
The ROC board has just emerged from a lengthy meeting at which we discussed
a number of issues that will be of general interest to the membership.
Membership and Flyer Fees:
-------------------------
Although ROC membership dues have not been increased for at least fifteen
years, we have experienced increased costs and a new structure for our BLM
payment fees. After considerable discussion, the board has decided *not* to
increase the annual executive member dues. However starting immediately, all
flyers will pay an additional $5 per day BLM permit fee. This means that
non-members will end up paying a total of $15 at registration for a day's
flying. Paid-up executive members will pay $5 at registration. This new
schedule of fees should be posted to the ROC website in the near future, but we
wanted to give you notification as soon as possible. We are optimistic that
this new fee schedule will keep the club financially healthy and moving forward.
Proposal to Move the Fall ROC-Stock Launch
------------------------------------------
For the last couple of years, October and November have seen consecutive large
launches in the form of the ROCtober youth launch and the November ROC-Stock.
This schedule has proven difficult for the club to adequately handle and staff,
and has had a role in contributing to the club's financial stress and volunteer
fatigue. On top of this, there is widespread feeling that the weather in
November is less reliably favorable than it is in October and that November is
uncomfortably close to the busy holiday season. For these reasons, the board
is proposing to consolidate ROCtober and ROC-Stock into a single Friday-Sunday
event in the second weekend of October. With such a significant proposed
change to the launch calendar, the board does not want to act without input
from the membership. We would like to solicit pro and con comments on this
idea so that the board can weigh the proposal and vote on it next month.
Please feel free to email us your thoughts on this plan.
Board Elections
---------------
As of this writing, David Erbas-White, the ROC Elections Chairman has received
*no* self nominations for the opening vacancies on the ROC board. This is
troubling because the board really needs a full complement of members in order
to keep the club running and healthy. The board has voted to move the
nomination deadline back to July 31, to give members more opportunity to
consider putting their names forward.
**************************
If I may, I'd like to step out of my role as a conveyor of official club
information for a moment, and speak to you personally as a fellow club member.
I've really enjoyed my chance to serve as a board member, and although ROC is
in generally great shape, I'd be happier if there were more people cycling
through the leadership ranks and learning the ropes rather than the same faces
all the time. There are probably many reasons why people are hesitant to run;
among those is the perception that if you are on the board, it's all work and
no fun or flying rockets. I believe strongly that does *not* have to be the
case, and to some degree it is a self-fulfilling prophecy. To the extent that
members buy into this stereotype, the board gets less new blood and less help,
and -surprise- they have less fun in the job. I have personally been
attempting to break this cycle by trying to model "healthy behavior" as a board
member. If I'm not flying any rockets for months at a time, I consider that
I'm not doing my job right. I intend make it my personal mission to see to it
that all my fellow board members, veterans and newcomers alike, observe an "all
work and no play" prevention policy. But this will only work if everybody
catches the spirit. Board membership has some pretty cool perks, and in my
ideal world there would be a long line of people excited about doing this fun
job for a short term (*while* flying rockets!) and then turning over the reins
to the next eager group. So I hope that in the next few weeks, if you are
approached by a ROC member and asked (or even if you are not!) whether you've
considered running, I hope you will have given some serious thought to my
vision for ROC. Let's make the greatest rocket club even greater! Thanks!
**************************
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Greg Lyzenga
ROC Board Member - NAR #13295 / Tripoli #12088
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