Message from the President : State of the NAR
I just returned from the NAR Annual Meet (NARAM-51) in Johnstown, PA. A big "thank you" to Steve Foster and his team from the Pittsburgh Space Command section for organizing and hosting a very well-done national meet. Congratulations to our 2009 National Model Rocket Champions:
A Division: Alyssa Stenberg of New York
B Division: Brian Guzek of Pennsylvania
C Division: Chad Ring of Indiana
Team Division: Pod Bay Doors team (Matt Steele, Chas Russell, Bob Ferrante, Pat McCarthy) from SSS section
Section: Superstition Spacemodeling Society (SSS) of Arizona
Congratulations and thanks as well to the recipients of the NAR's two annual national service awards:
NAR President's Award for service to the NAR: The Tom Ha family for exceptional service in running NAR Technical Services
Howard Galloway Award for service to the entire spacemodeling hobby: Mark Bundick for leading the successful 9-year legal battle against BATFE
As part of each NARAM we hold our required annual meeting of the Association, where we complete the process of elections for the three Board of Trustees positions that are up each year, and complete the process of voting on any ByLaws changes that are up for consideration. The three candidates that were up for election this eyar were Trip Barber, John Lyngdal, and Jennifer Ash-Poole. All were elected. The ByLaws amendment to permanently establish a Technology Committee was approved, and Jennifer Ash-Poole was appointed as its first chair. At this meeting, I also reviewed for the participants the overall status and planned future activities and initiatives of the NAR. These are fully described in a document that I handed out at the meeting.
The Board of Trustees also held one of its two semi-annual meetings at NARAM. I will have the detailed minutes of this meeting posted within 30 days. The two big decisions affecting the largest number of members were to establish a set of organizational growth goals for the next year (described in my handout document), and to establish an annual High Power Technology Award.
Be safe, have fun, pay forward.
Trip Barber
NAR 4322
NAR President