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NARAM Auction Donations
The NAR supports teachers who use rocketry in their classrooms via the Robert L. Cannon Education Award program. This program, initiated by Vern Estes, gives grants of $500 to deserving educators who have a model rocketry program in a public school or college. The Cannon grants are funded through donations of rocketry "stuff" from NAR members that are auctioned at NARAM. The funds received at this auction are used only for the Cannon grants.
If you would like to make a donation to the NARAM auction you can either send the NARAM-51 CD a list of items you are bringing to donate or if you need to ship the items ahead, send them to him at the following address: Steve Foster, NARAM-51 Auction, 125 Crestline Dr. Leechburg PA 15656.
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Call for NAR Board Agenda Items
NAR members who have matters that they would like the NAR Board of Trustees to consider at its next meeting on Friday, August 7 at NARAM-51 are invited to send their inputs to the NAR President by July 5.
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Call for NAR Volunteers
The NAR continues to need more volunteers to help its national committees deliver all of the many services and programs of the NAR. We have specific openings for at least ten people for a wide range of interesting and important tasks. Check out the newly updated list of opportunities on the NAR website and become a NAR national volunteer!
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TARC 2010
The new rules for the Team America Rocketry Challenge for the 2010 academic year will be posted on the TARC website on Monday, June 22. The changes will be significant enough that even prior-year teams will be sent "back to the drawing boards"! The event will also expand to have more international participation than just the US and UK.
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Message from the NAR President
Greetings!
Our nine-year dispute with BATFE continues, despite our decisively favorable court judgment that they chose not to appeal. On June 9, the NAR/TRA legal counsel sent the Director of BATFE a letter demanding action in response to the now-final Court judgment. We insist that they comply with the judgment by publicly canceling their regulations on APCP, by instructing their field agents to cease regulatory inspections of those who possess it, and by removing the now-superceded information on hobby rocket regulation from their website. We will keep you posted on their response, and we will take them to court again if they do not comply. Please advise me if you are subject to inappropriate regulatory action by BATFE field agents; but remember that black powder and some forms of igniters are still regulated and still require magazines and LEUPs.
Meanwhile, NAR and TRA have directed our counsel to file a motion with the court for recovery of our legal expenses. This is justifiable because the court found the agency's actions to be "arbitrary and capricious" and wholly without merit. This will take months to play out, and while our odds of success are OK they are not 100 percent; and even if we succeed we will only get back a fraction of what we (that's you!) spent due to the arcane federal rules that govern this. If we ever get any substantial amount of money back, we will consult with the NAR membership before deciding what to do with it. But until the date that we actually get anything back, there is no point in theorizing about how to spend it.
On May 29 we had one of the most serious safety incidents in the history of the hobby. A flier of unknown identity flew a rocket that looked like a medium-size high-power sport rocket directly in front of a commercial airliner flying at 11,000 feet in clear skies about 30 miles east of Houston, TX. This rocket came so close that the pilots thought they were going to hit it. An observer on the ground saw the rocket as well. The FAA and the FBI are investigating this outrageous incident and it has been widely reported in the press. Both the NAR and TRA are cooperating fully.
Our 50-year record of self-regulation and safety is our hobby's number one asset in dealing with public officials and launch site owners. A single incident such as this puts our hobby's reputation at risk. While this incident was almost certainly a deliberate criminal act, even an inadvertent near miss resulting from flying through clouds, breaking a waiver ceiling, or an RSO's inattention to aircraft before launching could have the same effect. Flight safety always has to be our number one priority when flying, or our flying will be at risk.
I hope to see many of you at NARAM-51 in Johnstown, PA August 8-14. If you are there on Friday August 7, you are welcome to stop by and listen in on your NAR Board's meeting.
Be safe, have fun, pay forward.
Trip Barber
NAR 4322
NAR President |
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NAR Section Financial Grants Awarded
This year the NAR implemented two new trial programs to provide some NAR money directly to sections for specific purposes. The "Section Safety Equipment Grant" program has now sent checks totalling $4000 to 17 sections for the purpose of buying specific equipment that they needed to enhance flying range safety. The "NAR Membership Growth" program will be rewarding efforts to increase the number of NAR members in sections by sending a total of $1090 in checks next week to 46 sections at the rate of $5 times the number by which the number of NAR members in each of those sections at charter renewal this year exceeded their number of NAR members at last year's charter renewal.
The Board will review feedback from these two programs and the state of NAR finances at its meeting at NARAM to determine if these programs will continue next year, or if we will try some other way to demonstrate NAR support for its sections. |
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High Power Certification Procedures
The NAR's procedures for earning a high power user certification have recently been updated, and are described in great detail on the NAR website. Our Level 2 certification exam is under revision to reflect recent changes in FAA and BATFE regulations and a new version should be out before NARAM. Those who have passed the current exam but not yet flown their certification flight will be "grandfathered" and will not have to retake the new test.
NAR HQ gets a lot of inquiries about what kind of paperwork is needed there in order to get a new NAR card issued with a new certification level on it. The basic answer is that HQ needs the certification flight form that your certification team signed off, and (for Level 2 only) needs the graded exam that you passed. It is best if these two go in together, but if the exam comes in first it will be held for up to a year until a flight form shows up to go with it. Or HQ needs a scanned or photocopied copy of a TRA membership card reflecting the certification level from them that you want entered into the NAR records through our reciprocal recognition policy. | |
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