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August, 2000
This month I have chosen our President, Bill Jones, as the candidate for our Member Profile. Bill was born and raised in Corona California. He is the youngest of three children. He has an older brother and sister. He and our First Lady, Kim have been married for 17 years. They have one daughter, Melissa, who is soon to give Bill and Kim their first grandchild. Bill served in the Army for two years. He was stationed in Monterey. It was during this time he and Kim met and got married. In 1985 Kim bought Bill his first plane, an Eagle Star Glider. His first attempt at flight was very brief, since he had no one to show him anything about how to fly. Eventually, he contacts some other modelers who helped him learn how to fly. In 1988, Bill and Kim moved to Santa Rosa. Bill eventually made his way to Coddingtown Mall and found the Toy and Model Store. There he met Steve Jensen and some strange looking redheaded kid named Robbie. Steve and Robbie talked Bill into giving powered flight a try. Bill had a relatively easy time transitioning to powered models. All he had to learn was how to take off. He told me that he gave Gene Novak a scare one time as he was powering up to take off but aborted it just in time, but not before big Gene had run for cover. Bill's most memorable event is pylon racing. Bill also told me that during our most recent Fun-Fly he and Steve Cole were engaged in a serious combat plane race and Bill got a little too low and turned a little too tight and gravity just jumped up and grabbed his plane. He said his Corsair will be flight ready again soon. As most of us know, Bill is a very accomplished builder. Since he entered the modeling hobby, he has built well over one hundred planes. This does not count the numerous planes he has repaired. If you wish to see an example of Bill's craftsmanship, the next time you are down at Hangar One, look over the counter with all the engines in it and look at the beautiful P-51 Mustang suspended from the ceiling. Bill finished it. I can only hope that someday I can build with this kind of skill. Besides building and flying model airplanes, Bill occasionally enjoys fishing. He used to ride motorcycle dirt bikes but had to give that up due to too many injured body parts. Bill still works from time to time at Hangar One Hobbies to give Dave and Judy a break and he always has a plane at home that he is repairing, building or finishing for someone else. Recently, Bill got to fulfill a longtime wish. Our Treasurer, Dale Chiaroni, who just got his pilots' license, took Bill up for nice long plane ride. Bill got a chance to try flying a real plane. He said it was a great experience and he had a great time. Our Club is fortunate to have a guy like Bill. I think he has done a terrific job as our President. Bill is involved in a lot of Club activities in ways that don't really get noticed by a lot of members. The next person to hold his office is going to have some pretty good-sized shoes to fill. MESSAGE FROM THE VICE
PRESIDENT To all the members of the Wine Country Flyers I must inform you that at the end of this calendar year I will regretfully have to resign from the board. I have already informed the rest of the board of my decision. There are a couple of reasons. The main reason is my job. I work for Agilent Technology as a mechanical technician. I have seen my workload virtually double in the past year. And it is only going to increase. As most of the club members closest to me know, I work swing shift Monday through Friday. Since becoming a board member I have had to take 8 hours a month in vacation time to attend club and board meetings. After this year, I can no longer do this. It puts too many burdens on my co-workers. Add to that the time I have been spending doing the monthly member profiles and it has just become too much. So, I would like to take this opportunity to thank all the people who have volunteered at my request to assist with activities related to field maintenance and staffing the barbecue duties as well as procurement of food and supplies for the barbecues. I would also like to ask all the members to try to get more involved in helping with the things that have to get done to make this club a successful one. One of the things the board has been working on is a point system where members will get credit for helping with many of these things. Watch for it in a future mailer. It will have incentives to reduce your membership fees. One of the things that I have been doing over the past year is looking for alternative flying sites. I acquired from the county a listing of all parcels within Sonoma County zoned recreational where we can fly as a club. Believe me, these parcels are virtually non-existent. I hope I am wrong about this but I believe there are many members of our club that don't realize how fortunate we are to have the field we have for the purposes of our hobby. There just aren't many suitable places. At least not in Sonoma County. I wish all any of us had to do was show up at the field and fly our planes. Unfortunately, that is not reality. So please try to change your mind set, and instead of waiting for "others" to get the less desirable things done contact a board member and ask what you can do to help. Otherwise I fear that the same core of people who have been shouldering this burden for too long will simply burn out and the club will surely suffer. I will still be involved as much as I can with assisting all future boards of this club. I do not like to get involved in anything that I cannot give my best effort in completing or doing the way it needs to be done. So I am sure that I will be heading up some committee that has a considerable amount of responsibility attached to it, but one that will not take so much time. So, again, please consider getting a little more involved. I had never been on any board until now. It has been a very rewarding experience. I have learned a lot as well. Sorry if I have been a little long winded here. Until next month, happy flyin'. RED'S CORNER POINT SYSTEM PROPOSAL 2001 OBJECTIVE: To increase club members participation in necessary tasks of running the Wine Country Flyers organization, by implementing a mechanism that assigns point values to various tasks with the reward of decreased dues for those who put forth the effort. Hopefully this will increase the member support, and relieve some of the burden, on the same core group of people who seem to do all to keep the club running. OUTLINE: It is proposed that the Wine Country Flyers raise yearly dues to $80.00. A system of point values will be assigned to all Club related tasks. Each point will equal a $1.00 credit toward yearly dues. Each member will have an opportunity to earn points which will be credited toward his/her annual dues with a maximum of 40 points earned per member, per year as a credit toward the annual dues charged. Juniors will be $30.00 per year with a 10 point credit maximum. POINT VALUES: The following is a list of Suggested point values:
ACCOUNTING: The Treasurer shall be responsible for keeping the accumulated point totals for all members. At each point scoring opportunity, there shall be a sign-in sheet for the members who participate. All members who wish to receive points for their effort must sign in to receive credit. In the case of a Newsletter article or other task where a sign-in sheet is not used, members shall be responsible for reporting their own points earned to the Treasurer. PROCEDURE: Dues will be increased to $80.00 per year beginning 2001. However, all existing, and new members, will pay $60.00 for the first year and be responsible for 40 points worth of effort for the Club. Any member who meets his/her full 40 point obligation will only be charged $40.00 in 2002. Each point earned less than 40 will be credited toward the $80.00 dues at a rate of $1.00 per point. Every member has the opportunity to reduce his/her dues in half each year by just making a little effort to make the Club better for us all. There are plenty of things that EVERYONE can do (like make phone calls to organize work parties, coordinating food and help for events, etc.) that are helpful to the Club and to all of us. So let's all do our part and pitch in! This new Point System will be introduced to the membership by motion at the August 15th regular meeting and the members shall have an opportunity to discuss this proposal. It is anticipated that there will be a vote by all members in attendance to adopt this proposal for the Club membership of 2001. We look forward to your input and vote on this important issue. Please attend the meeting to make your voice heard. SCHOOL INSTRUCTION PROGRAM The County Public Works Dept. has stated that we (Wine Country Flyers) are in their favor because we perform public service. It is much to our advantage to foster that image and what better opportunity could we have than to help the kids in the Technology High School Program. Rob Jensen, Dale Chiaroni and I have put on classes at various schools and it has been fun. Students are turned on by RC aircraft. When it is a subject we like, it is easy to talk about it. The Club has worked up a basic school program. We need some of the retirees to step forward and help with this worthy endeavor. Do yourself and these students a favor by talking about RC aviation at a school once or twice a year. The letter below from the Cotati-Rohnert Park Unified School District was received in appreciation of our efforts in their behalf. Call Larry Frank 546-8753 for more information. FLOAT POND FLYING RULES Our keys open the lock box on each gate with a key to the gate lock inside. Please remember the following rules: 1. Re-lock all gates you unlock 2. Remember that you are trespassing on private property if you have not signed the Hanson Waiver form. Call Chuck Green for the Waiver Form at 887-7044. We still need a couple of rowing oars for the boat if anyone has a pair |
MEMBER PROFILE-BILL JONES
