International Comanche Society

Annual Board Meeting

Reno, Nevada

September 9, 2002

ICS President Larry Rackley called the meeting to order at 3:30PM on September 9, 2002, at Harrahs in Reno Nevada. The roll was called by Larry Rackley, and a quorum was declared present.

Attendance:

Larry Rackley            ICS President

John Van Bladeren    ICS Vice President

Carolyn Moody          ICS Secretary

Jim Martin                   ICS Treasurer

Bob Noble                  ICS Past President

Gaynor Ekman           ICS Headquarters

Bruce Berman           ICS Headquarters

Skip Dykema            Southeast Tribe Chief

Monica Rehkopf       European Tribe Chief

Doug Pickett             North Central Tribe Chief

Lorne Harmon         Southwest Tribe Chief

Bob Edelson            Northeast Tribe Chief

Butch Baker            South Central Tribe Chief

Richard Bullock      Mid-States Tribe Chief

Lawrence Paratz    Australian Tribe Chief – Via Telephone

Roger Smith            Northwest Tribe

Don Nelson             Northwest Assistant Tribe Chief

Report by President, Larry Rackley

Larry reported last night at the Executive Board Meeting on September 8, 2002 the 3rd term of Roger Smith as Northwest Tribe Chief was voted on and not approved. Don Nelson, Northwest Assistant Tribe Chief, questioned the Old Executive Board's authority to not approve the extension of a third term for Roger Smith as Northwest Tribe Chief. Don Nelson will assume the position of Tribe Chief, if approved by the Northwest Tribe.

Skip Dykema requested he be put on record as voting for the third term extension of Roger Smith as Northwest Tribe Chief. 

Unfinished Business:

Web-Site - John Dunning has volunteered to help with the Web-Site. Larry ask for and encouraged all Tribe Chiefs to take a part in setting up our web-site and ask that we all take a part in what goes on in ICS and be involved in the operations.

Path Finder – Copies of the Path Finder will be here for distribution on Wednesday or Thursday.  Larry reported that there is some talk about putting the Path Finder on CD and we should look at how that will effect revenue either gain or adversely.

Gaynor reported she has had some concern from members of putting their name and address on the internet because of SPAM.  John Van Bladeren recommended establishing a member only web-site with names, addresses, phone numbers and e-mail addresses.

Flyer Magazine – We must find a way to modernize the Flyer and cut cost.  Our magazine is in the 42 page range, to get it more than the 50 page range would cost more to publish and postage would go up because it would be categorized as a commercial magazine.

There have been requests for more technical articles, somewhere in the past there was a vote taken or something along that line that an article could not be repeated in the Flyer.  That was so the articles in the Flyer would not duplicate the articles in the Tips.  We don't have as many people submitting articles now as we did in the past. Larry, ask if anyone objected to re-printing technical articles from the Flyer or Tips and no one objected. Loren stated he felt that articles from the Tips would promote the Tips.

Larry promised the Flyer will get better, Bruce and I have discussed this and we are going to work on improving the flyer and it will get better.  We need to get more advertising and we need a committee of Tribe Chiefs or volunteers to help solicit advertising.  Bob Edelson volunteered to find out who does the Bonanza Society marketing.  Bruce now has Omri's source for accident reports and has received 140 articles of accidents.

CFI Report - Monica requested a list of the CFI's who have completed the program.

Larry will have a list of CFI's who have taken the course all the way through and have it for the November board meeting.  Larry also said there are still people who have taken only the ground school and have not completed the flying part for one reason or another.

Larry gave an example of a CFI from Northern Illinois who took the course.  The CFI with his fourth and fifth students, owners of Comanche's spent the day doing ground work.  They put their Comanche on jacks and were instructed how to manually put the gear up and down. The first guy went flying and after 2 ½ hour of flying, he had no problem.

The second guy went up and they had an actual gear emergency in flight, what better time to have one, so they had to manually put the gear down.

Doug Pickett said his insurance company required his Comanche instructor to have 100 hours in a single Comanche, which was very hard to find.

Larry responded for the CFI's to qualify for our program, they had to have 1000 hours Total Time, 250 hours in a Twin Comanche, 100 hours in a single Comanche, 50 hours instruction time given in a Twin Comanche and 25 hours instruction time given in a Single Comanche.  That is where the list of CFI's come from.

Bill Harris, who has been through and is a proponent of the CFI program had several suggestions which are important in regards to the program.

First, in order for the program to truly be effective and of interest to the insurance underwriters, we must have a common requirement to abide by a set syllabus for the course and a common set of standards. Second, we need a way to order the books we used for the class so that we can have them for those that wish to take the class. Larry said there would be a book to follow describing the course.

By Laws and Standing Rules Committee – Don Nelson requested a new By Laws and Standing Rules Committee be appointed. Larry agreed to talk with Bryce Campbell and appoint that committee.

New Business:

Headquarters Sale Items – We need to find some more stuff for Headquarters to sale to bring in more revenue. In the past only Headquarters could only sell shirts and jackets and that revenue went only to headquarters as extra income.  It was decided that at annual conventions shirts and jackets could be sold to promote the convention and headquarters lost the revenue from the sales. Larry will contact his supplier about an ICS shirt and the cost.

Larry, ask that all Tribe Chiefs encourage their members to wear Comanche shirts, caps and badges to all fly-ins. Pat Wachsman told of the pride in wearing the Comanche "garb" when we gather together and to get back to promoting ICS with garbing ourselves.

Vice Presidents Duties – John Van Bladeren to head up membership recruiting and expressed his desire to increase membership.  John praised Hugh Crow's recruiting brochure and his generosity to print  and donate 2000 to ICS to be used in increasing our membership.  We don't need to raise dues if we increase our membership. Bob Edelson, ask how he could get a copy of new Comanche owners and addresses from the FAA.

This information is available from the internet on the government website FAAGOV.

Tribe Chiefs should be responsible for getting this information and contacting Comanche owners that are not already members. Every month Gaynor receives a copy of new Comanche owners and she sends them an application, the current Flyer and an invitation to join ICS.

Larry, ask for a motion to pass the CFI program to John Van Bladeren.

Skip made the motion, Rich Bullock seconded. The motion passed.

Appointment of Member At Large – This member is a current Tribe Chief who will become a member of the Executive Board along with the President, Vice President, Secretary and Treasurer.  Larry Rackley, ask to appoint Doug Pickett.  Lorne made the motion for Doug Pickett as Member At Large, Carolyn Moody seconded it.  Skip Dykema nominated Don Nelson as Member At Large, John Van Bladeren seconded it.  Jim Martin moved nominations be closed.

Vote was taken Doug Pickett will be the Board Member At Large.

Other Business - Skip Dykema commended Larry Rackley for opening up the meeting to everyone and asking for their opinions and suggestions.

Skip also suggested that we recognize Omri Talmon and include his picture in the Flyer for his work submitting "This Should Not Happen ToYou". We all have benefited from his articles and are better pilots because of them. Everyone agreed and we do not need a motion for this.

Dale Vandever also needs to be recognized for his work on setting up and maintaining the Forum, which gives us all a place to discuss the Comanches we love. Dale said he would rather have his medical back.

Van Rentals - Gaynor explained that vans had to be rented in the name of ICS and full coverage had to be taken for ICS's insurance policy to be effective.  The driver is listed as driver and ICS is the renter, if there is an accident ICS's insurance will pay for the damage. You can rent from any company, but we do have a discounted rate with Enterprise Rent-A-Car.  ICS's insurance coverage does not extend outside the United States.

Eleven Month Flyer – Consideration was asked for combining the July and August Flyer into one. Concern was expressed that we would loose advertisers and members would be upset.  The consensus was to continue a twelve month publication.

Membership Application & Badge Order Forms - Requests were made that every two to three months that the membership application and badgeorder form be published in the Flyer. Gaynor said she no longer has asource to engrave the badges, but has plenty of blanks.  Charlie Liller agreed to check with his engraver about engraving badges for the whole society.

Deposit on Paint Books – Chuck Medicus ask that Jim Sandilos be appointed to require a $1,000 dollar deposit from anyone wanting to use the paint books and tools. Headquarters has the paint books and tools and there will be a credit card required when taking them. If the paint books and tools are not returned within 30 days the credit card will be charged $1,000.

Increasing The Size of Membership – Bruce suggested to the board that we invite the Aztec and Apache owners and other piper owners to join our society.  Do not change the name from ICS, but increase our membership.

Larry said this is a big issue and should be put off until the November meeting when we have time for discussion.  Bonanza has opened up their membership to all aircraft that has a Beech name on it.

Proxy and Absentee Votes – Monica ask that we consider Proxy voting, Karl Hipp suggested that people could present their point of view on a half page and vote by proxy. Roy Roberts and Jess Bootman express concern of drop in attendance from the annual convention as well as fly-ins.

Next Board Meeting – The next Board meeting is scheduled for November 9th 2002 in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma.

Adjourn – The meeting to adjourn was made by Rich Bullock and seconded by Carolyn Moody, motion carried.

Carolyn Moody

Secretary