NARAM-52 marked the end of our first-ever official membership drive, and although we did not quite reach the 5200 goal it was definitely a success for us.  Thanks to the generous support of Quest, Semroc, and Aerotech in shipping a total of over $30 in free products to each new member, and thanks to the great recruiting efforts by NAR members nationwide we grew the NAR by over 10 percent and reached 4880 members as of August 14.  This is 450 more members than we had last December, and represents our highest membership level since 2002.  While the free-product offer is over (shipping these items to new members who joined during the drive will continue into September), this does not mean that we can or should stop recruiting.  For the rest of this year we will continue paying a $5 bonus to NAR members who recruit a new member.  As we grow in membership, we can grow the services and benefits that we deliver to all of our members.

I gave an update on the current status of our NAR to the  membership at the annual Association Meeting on August 2 at NARAM, and have posted this update on the NAR website.  The NAR Board of Trustees met on July 30-31 at NARAM and while the full minutes of the meeting will not be finished and posted online until mid-September, here are two important decisions that the Board made:

 

1.  Based on the very clear input from our members in our recent online survey, the legal fee reimbursement of $32K that we received plus $13K of other available funds were placed in a "Reserve Fund" savings account to permit rapid response to future legal or regulatory challenges, and we will add all future Life Membership dues payments ($1000) to this fund.

 

2.  Most of the additional 2010 funds available as a result the increased dues income from our membership growth were committed to immediate delivery of services.  We expanded NAR member student scholarships from 6 to 10 and increased the amount of each from $500 to $750; expanded the number of Cannon grants of $500 to teachers for school rocketry programs from 6 to 11;  provided a second round of $4000 in section safety equipment grants in 2010; added 8 pages to the NARAM (Nov-Dec) issue of Sport Rocketry; and provided a free one-page ad in Sport Rocketry to each of the 3 manufacturers who provided free products for the membership drive. 

 

A big "thank you" to Contest Director Mike Konshak and the coalition of Colorado NAR sections who put on NARAM-52 in Pueblo, CO the week of August 2.   The launch site was amazing and the attendance was strong -- over 250 contest and sport fliers.  In addition to providing the tough model rocket competition that led to determining the 2010 National Champions (who are listed on the NARAM-52 websitel), the event provided a busy high-power range that supported 42 new high power certifications by NAR members (20 Level 1, 20 L2, 2 L3) plus 4 high power competition events. 

 
At the NARAM-52 awards banquet NARAM-53 was announced for Cincinnati, OH July 23-29, 2011 with Chan Stevens as CD.  NARCON 2011 will be March 12-13 in Seattle, WA with Jim Wilkerson as event director.  NSL 2011 will be June 10-12 at Lucerne, CA with Rick Dickinson as event director.  Tom Beach was recognized for his 14 years (and still going!) service as Sport Rocketry editor with the Howard Galloway Award and Jennifer Ash-Poole was recognized with the NAR President's Award for her work in doing the NAR headquarters management information system conversion. 

 

Thanks as well to several key NAR volunteers who completed long periods of valuable service to the NAR at NARAM: George Rachor, who was replaced on the NAR Board of Trustees by Tom Ha in the 2010 NAR elections after 15 years of service; Tom Lyon, who was replaced as Contest Board Chairman by Steve Humphrey, also after 15 years of service; Tom Ha, who will be replaced as NARTS Chairman by Brad Cline on August 20; and Carol Marple, who still needs a replacement as Membership Committee chair.

 

I will be out of the US and out of contact August 19-28 as I travel to Serbia with 40 other NAR members to compete there as part of the US Team in the 2010 World Spacemodeling Championships.  NAR VP Ted Cochran will handle any NAR emergencies while I am gone.  Go Team USA!
  

Be safe, have fun, and pay forward.