March 2020 Club Meeting Recap

President, Chuck Pozanac started the meeting by talking about club membership numbers. We have 257 members as of March 10. For reference, in 2019 at this time we were at 267 members, and in 2018 we were at 284, there is a definitely slight a downhill slope, but we are hopeful that we will gain more members by the end of the year, and are putting some into action…More to come on this.

Chuck said the comment period has closed for the Remote ID NPRM, and currently sits at 53207 comments, we hope everyone had a chance to comment, even if it was just one sentence. Chuck said th FAA will now go quite for 18 to 24 months, while they review the comments and hopefully revise the rules, before they will say anything.

Chuck said they relocated all the tumbleweeds for now to clear them from the field, and placed them against the fence. We have received bids of around $9000 to remove them, which is too expensive. We have been informed by the County, that this is a potential fire hazard. So if anyone wants to take them home to build tumbleweed snowmen, be our guest.

Chuck wanted the members to be aware of how much was spent last year on services to maintain our field. There seems to be the perception that the club only collects money and that it just maintains itself…But it is getting more expensive to maintain the field every year.
In 2019, here was the break down.
$2900 to spray the weeds
$1885 to fix the cracks in the asphalt.
$1500 for discing and mowing the field in front of us. (Discing a field chops and incorporates crop residue into the soil, promoting rapid decay of the plant material, making the soil easier to manage.)
$475 to fix the fence
Totaling $6760 for field maintenance in 2019.

A Web survey asking about how members felt about our events was sent out to all PVMAC members this past month. Chuck commented that there were some interesting comments that the board will continue to review. We received 63 survey responses, and they were generally positive, mixed with some constructive criticism. One result we will share is that of the first question, “What is Your overall opinion of flying events at the PVMAC?” We receive an average of 4 out of 5 on that question with 5 being Excellent. So we will be taking this survey into consideration as we move forward.

An email went out by the board requesting a Newsletter editor or editors. They are looking for someone who is willing to help put together a monthly newsletter to help disseminate information to the rest of the club.

There was as small group of people in 2 cars, a white truck and a jeep, they were flying a multi rotor outside the gates, from the road. They took off flew south then headed toward Prado Park. If you see anyone doing this, please approach them and talk to them and see if they will bring the multi-rotors back in as they are flying in areas they are not supposed to fly and not part of our group. They were reported to the parks, as we don’t want to get blamed for their flying. If you see these people or others like them, try to snap a photo so we might get a license plate to report.

Vice President Larry Marsh said that the weeds were sprayed on February 25th. They will come out and touch it up as the need arises. They need the right rain conditions for weds to be sprayed.

PVMAC Members have only written 8 Day passes to date, which by the way is now at $20 for each day pass. Some discussions arose as to why this might be the case. It was stated by one of the members, that there just has not been that many people flying without a membership so far, so perhaps most who want to fly have joined or are staying away as they have received word that the cost is now $20.

Chuck reminded everyone that the chino Airshow is May 1st- 3rd. May 3rd is also the day of the Northrop Grumman Collaboration Day, held at our Prado Field. Chuck didn’t feel there would be any issues with both events being held on the same day, since the airshow gets a late start, and the collaboration day is over at noon.

Finally, PVMAC Treasurer Roy Lamphear gave a speech about how passionate he feels about the club and about how he felt about the decline in events. He spoke about how we need to do better, to bring members together to hold more events to promote our hobby and Club. A week Prior, he had attended the board meeting to state his case and present a plan for holding an event and then volunteered to be the event coordinator. So, thanks to Roy and all the members who filled out the survey, Roy was able to announce that we would be holding a Fun Fly Scale event on Saturday, October 17, 2020. We will be looking for volunteers to help with Planning and prepping and working the event. Roy is planning to get enough people so that the burden does not fall on a small number of people and volunteers will be able to enjoy the event also. If you want to help make this even a success, please email EventInfo@pvmac.com

In addition, Roy and Chuck spoke about wanting to also put more effort and emphasis in Our PVMAC Facebook Group. It has been up since approximately 10 years, but there has not been much effort to bring members to the page, by adding post there by members or promote it. They talked about bringing some excitement and communication back to the club and using the free tools at our disposal to do so and want to use Facebook to grow our community and encourage more comradery. (more to Come soon)

Check out https://www.facebook.com/groups/PVMAC and join in today.