Weekly Bulletin - May 8, 2014 Meeting

Posted by Barbara Myles 
on May 11, 2014
 

Steve Bennett of Skyline Flight presented, “Who’s in My Airspace? Some basics about our aviation system.”

 

 

Steve Bennett is the Chief Pilot at Skyline Flight and has been an active pilot for over 30 years.  He holds FAA Commercial, Instrument and Flight Instructor ratings and has accumulated over 5,000 hours of flight experience.  Steve’s presentation was about the three A’s: airports, aircraft, and a little about Skyline.  When most of us think about airports, we think of the big airports like Logan Airport.  Steve told us that of the 19,700 U.S. airports 74% of them are privately owned, 24% are public and do not have commercial aircraft, and only 2% are commercial airports.  That was a surprise!  Next, Steve told us that there are 7,180 commercial aircraft in the U.S. (including cargo airplanes) and 220,000 general aviation aircraft.  In other words, 3% of this country’s aircraft are flying to 10% of its public airports!  Skyline Flight has flights throughout the entire Northeast.  Their Cirrus airplanes hold three passengers plus the pilot.  There are no scheduled flights.  Instead, people book their flights when they need them.

 

Next meeting on May 15, 7:15 a.m. at Colonial Candies, Julia Garcia will talk about today’s Girl Scouts.

 

Membership question for May 15: Four part question:

  1. What year was Rotary created?
  2. By whom?
  3. How many members do we currently have?
  4. In how many countries are we located?

Hint: go to http://rotary.org/

 

Guests:

  • Steve Bennett, speaker
  • Jane Brown
  • Ken Brown
  • Gino Frattalone

 

Club Announcements:

  • Local projects:
    • Wings & Wheels: Please sign up for the Nashoba nights!
    • Wine tasting fundraiser: please give Natascha money and any unused tickets.
    • Stow Springfest is scheduled for May 17 rain or shine. This event is good for recruitment and service.  We will have a table promoting our club and a second table promoting Wings & Wheels.  We will also help with logistics for Springfest, especially directing cars to the parking lot at Bose.  More volunteers are needed.  Contact Chris to volunteer.
    • RYLA (Rotary Youth Leadership Awards) Conference: Volunteers are needed to help at the RYLA Conference over the June 27-29 weekend at Worcester State.  Contact Bob to volunteer!
    • Women in Rotary 25th anniversary bash planning (summer event): contact Natascha for more information.
    • Spirit of Hudson is August 16. Nanci reported that $6,000 has already been raised!  Print advertising will begin in mid to late May.  Contact Nanci to help plan, volunteer or find sponsors for this event.
    • Healthcare Fair on October 20 at NRHS!  It will be a Reality Fair with healthcare providers in attendance.  Contact Jim for more info.
  • International projects:
    • Stop Hunger Now: Our meal packages have shipped to Foursquare Children of Promise International in Cambodia!
    • Natascha is meeting with a contact who was featured in the Rotarian for a hygiene project in the Dominican Republic.
  • Membership Minute: Chris Spear was our member of the week.  As “first man” of our club, Chris told us that we knew why he joined Rotary and why he stays.  He likes volunteering and helping others.  He grew up in Alaska then his family moved to Cocoa Beach, FL so his Dad could work at Cape Canaveral, FL.  Chris remembers shaking hands with a person in a space suit!  Something most of us did not know is that Chris wrote the book, SystemVerilog for Verification: A Guide to Learning the Testbench Language Features.  This book is about designing computer chips.
     
  • Membership Corner:
    • This week’s two-part question was, Who is the current District Governor for 2013-2014? (Douglas Deitweiler)  Who is the District Governor Elect for 2014-2015?  (Val Callahan).
       
  • Member Announcement: Next year Laura will be the District Public Image Chair!
     
  • Activities galore!
    • Wings & Wheels: Sign up for Nashoba nights!
    • Springfest: May 17 – Contact Chris if you want to help.
    • Women in Rotary 25th anniversary bash planning (summer event): contact Natascha for more information.
    • RYLA Conference support: June 27-29.  Contact Bob for more information.
    • Spirit of Hudson: August 16.  Contact Nanci to volunteer.
    • Healthcare Fair on October 20 at NRHS!  Contact Jim for more information.
  • Dues news:
    • To cover RI and district dues, we’ll be increasing dues to $150/year ($75 semi-annually) starting July 1, 2014.
  • Laura has posted the Best Club award criteria and the updated 2013-2014 Calendar of Activities on our website www.nashobarotary.org.

 

Other Club and General Rotary Announcements (Capitalized events earn points for our club!)

  • May 16-18: DISTRICT CONFERENCE (Holiday Inn Boxborough)
    • Register online and get more info here: http://rotaryma.org/rotary-district-7910-conference/index.html
    • Includes a Stop Hunger Now event on Saturday morning (same time as Springfest)
    • Laura will M.C. the lunch on Saturday, May 17!
    • Pay only for food: Paul Harris dinner on Friday, awards dinner on Saturday
    • Bring canned foods, donations for local food pantries
    • Rotary Expo featuring the 5 avenues of service on Saturday afternoon
    • Hospitality suite on Friday and Saturday nights (dessert and beverages).  Contact Laura to help.
  • May 28: Red Sox Rotary Night – contact Lindsay Dean or Jim McFarlin if you are interested in going.

 

Non-Rotary/public announcements:

  • Boy Scouts paper shredding event on May 10 at the Hale School in Stow from 8:30 to noon.  The cost is $0.25/pound of paper.
  • Trinity Church Congregational Yard Sale (Wattaquadock Hill Road in Bolton) on May 17 from 9 to 3 p.m.
  • Bolton Repair Café: May 31 from 9-1 in Davis Hall at First Parish Church of Bolton.  Contact Ray Pfau if interested in helping.
  • Bolton 5K Road Race is June 14: Anyone interested in sponsoring, donating items to raffle, or participating go to http://bolton5krally.com/.  Proceeds will go to the RFK Center in Lancaster.  You can Like the Facebook page: “Bolton 5K Rally.”

 

Birthdays

  • Nancy McPherson: May 19
  • Bill Bosworth: May 23
  • Carol Toomey: May 25

 

Happy/Sad Fines:

  • Jim was happy that the Bolton Town Meeting only went two days.
  • Ron was happy that it seems like spring is finally here.
  • Rich was happy about spring and the daffodils.
  • Chris quoted a spring rhyme, “Spring is sprung, the grass is ris.  I wonder where the birdies is!”
  • Jane had about 20 people attend a seminar at her Hobby Land store about radio controlled flying.
  • Barbara was happy because she received a very good performance review.
  • Nancy was happy that a person she recently hired is a Rotarian!
  • Don was happy that the cost for repaving the runway is $130,000 less than the engineer’s cost estimate.
  • Carol was glad that Jane was at the meeting.  She was also happy that her Mom will be 90 on Sunday, Mother’s Day.
  • Laura was happy that Dana got the Guardian Award from the Chelmsford Historical Society.  She was also happy that Chronicle featured Nancy’s Air Field Café and Nancy got in a reference to Wings & Wheels!  Laura was Deputy Moderator at Town Meeting in Stow and she was happy that it went well.