JANUARY 2010 NEWSLETTER

Posted: 14 Feb 2010

From Management: Lots to talk about in February -- contest planning, ride sharing to ODO, what you've been doing to stay warm, the new NASCAR season, Winter Olympics ... certainly not ACC basketball ... See you next meeting.

Minutes:  16 Jan 2010 Members Attending:  Joe Callahan,  Frank Eason,  Joe Gray,  Andy Fulcher,  Willie Lanier,  Bert Mason,  and  John Ratzenberger.  And, of course, wives !!! Alice Gray, Cathy Lanier, and Annette Ratzenberger. Guests: Hunter Oliver, who willbe our food vendor for Down East Con 2010.

Business: John R called the meeting to order. National: John reports that: -- National Officer changeover occurs 1 Feb. -- no one (in the East) has bid for the 2011 Nat'l Conv so it'll be thrown open to any region. -- the 2010 Nats website is open and working. John also reports that the 2011 AMPS International Contest will be in Fredricksburg, VA. Regional: John reports that the Region 2 Regional will be also be in Fredricksburg, Oct 2010. Chapter: Treasurer Andy Fulcher reports that he has paid the 1st Quarter to Garber UMC for our meeting room and has sent money to sponsor one award each at ODO and R12, with the Nats due to be sent soon. Lee will confirm our payment schedule with the church. Andy and Pat will be taking an extended holiday to celebrate her retirement, leaving in June and not sure when they will be back. The timing of this is, of course, just before our contest so we must plan for receipts and disbursements as well as cash on-hand at the registration desk, etc. Lee has signature on the bank account so we can continue to do business but we need to be sure all receipts and expenses are documented. A copy must be made of all checks before they are deposited.

Here's the group - they're probably talking about Annette's new Chevy Equinox and Andy's new Camaro.

Down East Con 2010 planning: With Andy and Pat possibly not here, we need to cover two areas -- Head Judge and the Cashier at the Registration Table. John R is back-up Head Judge and will simply move forward -- this leaves two gaps, Registration supervision and photography. Annette R runs Registration and we'll have to be sure she has enough helpers. We'll use PTT sets to call for help at the Reg-Desk. Lee may have to cover photography himself, or worst case, we just drop it or just try to get winners. Awards -- Frank Eason, whom we welcome back!!!, is now handling these; we have sponsorship letters to send out. We have a count of awards left from the last contest and an estimate of the number we can recyle. It looks as we might be in good shape. Raffle -- Frank will handle this also. We have a donation letter to send out. We need someone to run it at the show. Food -- Bert brought in Hunter Oliver who will set up a stand in the parking lot, running about 9am to 2pm. Cathy Lanier will also have her world famous pecan pies. Onsite food and drink will overcome a big problem with previous contests, but remember this is a learning year. John has forms, to include the Flyer on one page with rules and categories on the back. He will bring a batch to the Feb meeting for members to distribute, and he will take care of having lots at ODO and R12. We will have at least one "club" vending table, with Annette and Cathy having some non-model items on it.

Show and Tell:   See the Member's Pages for more images of these models.

Bert Mason brought in the start of his Hasegawa 1/32 P-40E which he will be doing up as George Preddy's 1st aircraft, no doubt with his sights on competing for theme at our contest.

Joe Callahan is back, bringing in one of his long term projects -- the F6F Hellcat he started back in 2008. He also brought in the Attack Hobbies 1/72 Tetra, a nifty little "car" kit.

Joe Gray saw something about a small scale styrofoam brick and asked the manufacturer about them. They not only answered his question but sent along a free sample. They are a bit big for our usual scales but Joe is going to tinker with them -- he's pretty creative so look for something interesting shortly.

Frank Eason brought in his new WingNuts Wings 1/32 SE5a (Hisso) kit; we seemed to have missed getting any pix of it.

John Ratzenberger brought in his "completed" Hobby Boss 1/35 M4 High Speed Tractor. This was actually done as an IPMS/USA review of all the Eduard PE sets for that kit. It's "complete" in that the review is done -- the review didn't need tracks and John is still working on a pile of ModelKasten parts. By the way, John really liked the HB kit and the Eduard PE does add some value -- his review will be posted here shortly. Andy Fulcher, returned a favor, and gave John a Matchbox 1/32 kit of the Jaguar SS-100, so John has another Classic British Kit for his collection and workbench. Oh, yes, the engine from the Tamiya Spitfire IXc is in there also.

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