A basic summary of what happened at our EMS Meeting 16.12.2009

In attendance were:

Doc

Glider

PhilJ

Rusty Strings

Red dwalf

Steve922

Ibbo

Brantuk

BazSenior

Bryndalf

Before the meeting Glider got confirmation from Mr Coaker, regarding the use of the dark site at Sawley, Long Eaton. Mr Coaker will allow us use of the field as long as it'soutside the times of the Model Aircraft Clubs flying schedule. We get two keys and must keep off the grass runway and stay within the hard standing which is the car park. The price of the above is £250 to be paid every year on the 1st January, both sides have a one month cancellation policy. The meeting started talking about our possible new site and describing the pro's and cons of the site. It then went on to how we are going to fund this £250 a year dark site. At this stage forming a club was mentioned that would give EMS the money required to proceed. A figure of £25 per year was agreed upon which by my calculations we need 10 members to each pay £25 by the 1st January 2010.

We agreed this will be a very basic club and at this stage will be just myself and Glider running to day to day duties, if we do expand then it might in time have a proper committee but this is a long way down the road.

We then discussed possible monthly meetings and where to stage these meetings. After a while we decided on Village/Church halls. I do know the rough cost of hiring a hall is about £6.50 per hour, so say we had a 2 1/2 hour meeting that would cost roughly £17. It was suggested that maybe one meeting per month at a regular destination still to be confirmed would be ideal.

It was then discussed what would happen at these meetings and the general feeling was a place to talk amongst friends, Glider has access to a projector and screen so anyone with photo's from the previous months astrophotography sessions can plug in their laptops and show us. Also help can be given regarding such things as collimation for example. And tea and coffee will be available.

To pay for the above we either attract more members or just pay a couple of pound each on the night. But to run some costs by you the hall to rent for 12 monthly meetings will cost £250. So once again 10 members paying £25 each covers this.

So basically if we could attract 20 members paying £25 each we will have a club that has access to a dark site and 12 monthly meetings and no other costs will be needed.

We then discussed future meetings such as:

Kelling Heath 2010 where we have 12 pitches dates are 10-12th Sept 2010

SGL5 in Herefordshire 15-118th April 2010

The final topic of the night was do we need our own website. Glider had volunteered to design one but the group decided that it was not needed .

So the meeting was finished by agreeing that a club was needed to finance the dark site and that I would give the 10 members that turned up on the night two days to consider the above and then would e-mail each member asking if they would like to contribute £25 to secure this site for the club’s use.

I will also post this basic summary on the EMS forum and see if anyone else would like to become members. Remember if we can attract 20 members then this club will be secure for a whole year.