Meeting Minutes - May 9, 2016

Meeting called to order at 7:05pm on May 9, 2016.

Old Business:

• Easter Egg Launch
• Several launches occurred
• Barbie won the Easter Egg competition with a flawless flight
• Space Grant
• We were awarded a grant from the WV Space Grant Consortium
• Received $3,000 from the Space Grant for the S4 Camp
• Treasurer’s Report
• One deposit of $25, otherwise unchanged
• Membership Report
• One new member since last time
• Currently have 33 paying members
• Approximately 20 members that are inactive

New Business:

• TARC National Finals is May 13-15, 2016
• Five club members are heading to Virginia to volunteer for the event 
• The Website has been hacked several times over the past month
• The hosting company has had multiple issues over the past few months
• If there are issues with the website please contact Todd, Ricky, and/or Mark and they will get it resolved as quickly as possible. 
• TARC Summer Camp
• Camp will be July 18-21, 2016
• This is a change from the previous meeting
• Camp goes from the beginnings of what a rocket is through building simple rockets all the way through a TARC-ready rocket. The participants will be able to launch multiple launches.
• Small Satellites for Secondary Students (S4) Camp
• Camp will be July 25-29, 2016
• This is a change from the previous meeting
• Received money from the WV Space Grant Consortium in addition to monies from WV Physics Department and WV Rocketry
• This year there will be some accommodations for teams that are traveling from a distance.
• Upcoming Launches at the WVU Animal Husbandry Farm
• May 21: TARC for the Rest of Us
• Ricky and SarahEllen are the Launch Officers
• Using the same rules from the 2015-2016 TARC competition
• Only change to the rules will be the scoring (no x4 multiplier)
• June 25: Highest on an A Engine
• Mark is the Lunch Officer
• Simple goal: Highest altitude on a single A engine
• July 30: “Follow the Leader”
• Aaron will design a rocket on OpenRocket and make the plans available
• Club members are tasked with developing a rocket that will match his rocket’s altitude performance
• Closest to his design wins

Meeting adjourned at 8:00pm. Next meeting is June 13 at 7pm.

Meeting Minutes are available in PDF format here.

Meeting Minutes - March 14, 2016

Meeting called to order at 7:20pm on March 14, 2016.
Old Business:

• Safety Grant
• Safety grant money has been received
• Mark will be making the Lowe’s trip soon to purchase the items specified
• Treasury Report
• Same as last meeting
• S4 Grant
• Dimitris with the help of Todd, Ricky, and SarahEllen wrote and submitted the grant to the West Virginia Space Grant Consortium
• The total budget is for $6,000
• $2,000 from WVRocketry
• $1,000 from WVU Physics Department
• $3,000 from WV Space Grant Consortium
• Budget includes significant increase in travel and support
• Will begin actively recruiting teams throughout West Virginia
• The WV Space Grant Consortium will vote on the grant during their April meeting
• Membership Report
• Launches since last meeting
• Three launches since last meeting – Two club launches and one launch at the Tenant Farm
• TARC qualifications are starting to take place
• CTI experiences
• They work really well as long as you get your delay correct

New Business:

• Upcoming launches
• One this Saturday, March 19. Will likely be at the WVU Agriculture Farm
• Added a launch on March 26
• Future launch sites
• Two possible launch near Reedsville
• WVU Farm at Reedsville
• Possible friends of Ricky and SarahEllen with farm land
• Still need to find a HPR launch site, will continue investigating different sites
• Future Launch Competitions:
• Launch your [plastic] Easter Egg – Bonus points for “painted Easter eggs”
• Just the plastic containers
• Ed will specify the rules
• Launch will be at the end of April
• Club TARC-like competition
• TARC-like rules
• Two-eggs to 500ft
• Todd will specify the rules
• Launch will be towards the end of May
• Highest on an A Engine Altitude Competition
• Mark will specify the rules
• Launch will be at the end of June
• Follow-the-Leader
• The leader gives out specifications and club members have to build a similar rocket attempting
• Aaron will specify the rules
• Launch will be at the end of July
• TARC team updates
• Teams are making progress and using all available resources and spaces

Meeting adjourned at 8:20pm. Next launch is March 19 likely at WVU Agriculture Farm. Next meeting is April 11.

Meeting Minutes are available in PDF here.

Meeting Minutes- April 11, 2016

Meeting called to order at 7:30pm on April 11, 2016.

Old Business:

• TARC Recap
• NAR Section #749 was started over 3 years ago with the goal of outreach to students
• Have successfully met and continue this goal
• Quite a few members aiding the National TARC launch
• S4 Update
• No news on the Space Grant
• Anticipate hearing news very soon
• Treasurer Report
• Dues money has been added.
• The Safety Grant was received and has been spent.
• No other changes to the treasurer’s report.
• Membership Report
• Have just over 50 members currently (not all paid)
• If you owe, pay up

New Business:

• TARC for the Future (Successes and Failures)
• It was difficult to fine tune the parameters
• The national cutoff was extremely challenging
• Need to implement a different launch setup
• Rage Safety Officer is responsible for just the pad area
• Launch Safety Officer is responsible for inspecting launches
• Recommend this for all our launches, not just TARC launches
• Launch earlier in the season
• Suggest teams to launch in September and October
• Incentivize launching early
• Buy teams engines that launch early?
• As a NAR club we need to realize that TARC season starts in the summer, not in the winter
• As a club we need to make the effort to launch when the weather was good
• Make the teams “pay to play” to make them take ownership of the project
• Recommend having a backup rocket
• Something will fail and a backup is always good to have a backup
• Consistency and repeatability between rockets is key
• Upcoming Launches
• April 30 – Easter Egg Launch
• Ed will provide guidance
• May 21 – TARC for the Rest of Us
• Will follow most of the same rules except for time
• 45 seconds (no window), no multiplier
• 850 feet target altitude
• Above/Below altitude is 1 point. Time is 1 point for second above and below
• June 25 – A Competition
• Only limit is the using an A engine
• Use the Alt-tracks to track altitude
• Highest altitude wins
• July 30 – Follow the Leader
• Likely will use a C6 with tube fins
• Do not have to follow the rocket exactly but try to match the leader rocket’s anticipated performance
• S4 Summer Camp
• July 18-22
• Work is underway to prepare for the upcoming camp
• Encourage all team members to support the TARC final in Northern Virginia the weekend of May 13-15.

Meeting adjourned at 8:45pm.

Meeting Minutes are available in PDF format here.

Meeting Minutes February 8, 2016

Meeting called to order at 7:20pm on February 8, 2016
Old Business:

• Membership Report
• 14+ members have paid
• Treasurer Report
• $2,789.00 is currently in the bank account
• Past Events
• TARC Launch on January 30, 2016
• The Facebook page was highlighted
• Multiple people contributed photos to the site
• Encouraged people to share what they are doing with rockets on the site
• Snowy and muddy but very successful launch
• NAR Safety Grant
• Mark wrote the safety grant and submitted it to NAR
• NAR accepted the proposed safety grant
• Four safety cones
• Pole pruner to get rockets out of trees
• Couple safety vests
• Club first aid kit for launches
• Club Non-Profit Discussion
• Aaron has recommended we work with the Community Foundation
• Use them as a mechanism to obtain 501.3c non-profit status
• Community Foundation would provide this means and would do the paperwork aspects of the 501.3c record keeping

New Business:

• S4 Grant
• Todd presented the Sense Hat and Raspberry Pi combination to the group as the S4 version 2
• Last summer WVU, ERC, and WV Rocketry successfully sponsored the S4 Camp
• Motion was proposed for the club to spend up to $2,000 on the S4 Summer Camp Project
• Ed seconded the motion
• Discussion:
• There are ideas for an intern to take care of the logistics
• The Raspberry Pi system is less expense than the arduino-based system
• Additional agreement that it is good project
• Want to have 10 teams as part of the camp
• Middle school groups
• High school groups
• A motion was approved by all members present to spend up to $2,000 for the S4 summer camp
• Summer TARC Camp
• Jamie proposed hosting a Summer TARC camp
• Advantage is students do not have miss a day of school
• Supports our objectives for student outreach
• Needs:
• Funding
• Supplies
• Engines
• Barbie proposed the TARC Summer Camp
• Discussion:
• Discussed when to host the camp
• Tentative date: July 25-29, 2016
• SarahEllen motioned to have a TARC Summer Camp on July 25-29 pending funding and supplies
• Jamie seconded the motion
• The motion was approved by all present
• Future Events
• Next TARC Launch is February 13
• Attempt to launch from Mylan
• Will attempt to be HPR but focus is on TARC
• Animal farm is a very good backup site
• Following Launch is February 27
• New Launch Sites
• Holtzers are still looking into the Laurel Fields Soccer Complex (potential for HPR)
• Tennant Farm is generally available pending weather
• Preston County High School in Kingwood (plenty of space for TARC)
• WVU Farm in Reedsville (potential for HPR)
• North Marion High School
• Club Competitions
• Adult TARC Competition
• Cluster Engine Competition
• Staged Engine Competition
• Toilet Paper Competition
• Pink Launch (October – Brest Cancer Awareness Fundraiser)

Meeting adjourned at 8:30pm. Next two launches are February 13 and February 27. Next meeting is March 14.

Download the meeting minutes in PDF format here.