BLENNERHASSETT AREA RC CLUB

BARCC POLICIES & PROCEDURES

Revised September 21, 2009  Accepted: October 31, 2009

ARTICLE 1: Safety 

All flight activities

The BARCC club field rules and AMA safety code govern all flight activities.

Members are encouraged to check their homeowners insurance for liability. Damage caused by a member to another’s property is not covered by AMA insurance and restoration is the responsibility of the member.

All members are required to read and sign the AMA Club & Instructor Release Agreement (AMA document 523, as tailored for BARCC). 

Radio Control 

1. New members wanting to fly solo must first demonstrate piloting proficiency and familiarity with the BARCC club field rules to an instructor.

2. If a person (offender) turns on a transmitter without having ownership of the frequency control pin for that frequency, and that action causes another’s (owner’s) airplane to crash because of radio interference, the club expectation is that the offender and the owner will come to a mutual agreement on how the offender will compensate the owner. Usually, the offender will pay the owner the cost of replacing the airplane, plus replacement or repair of damaged auxiliaries (radio, engine, tank, covering, etc.). Either party may request arbitration from the Board. Then, the decision of the Board shall be final and binding, unless either party escalates the issue as a legal matter to the Courts. In that event, the Board defers monetary judgments to the Court.

The Board may take disciplinary action against the offender as outlined in BARCC Bylaws.

3. No one is permitted on the runway while engine driven planes are in the air except to retrieve a plane or for a safety emergency. Then, those entering the runway announce to flying pilots: “On the runway!”. Similarly, when they have cleared the runway, they announce: “Clear!”.

4. Helicopters, electric planes, kites, rockets, etc., may be flown with the pilot/operator on the runway, but only if all other pilots present in the pits or flight line have yielded their priority use of the runway to the individual requesting sole use. Sole use of the runway is limited to 10 minutes per event.

 5.The attached Field Rules, and the AMA rules, are minimum standards.In          addition to them, all members are expected to use common sense in   matters of safety and to be courteous to others. All members are strongly   encouraged to tactfully, in a friendly manner, remind colleagues of good safety practices when they observe something unsafe being attempted. Members violating a field safety rule may be subject to formal reprimand (Attachment A, point #20).  

 Control line

Flying is only to be done in the designated area north-east section of the field.

 All AMA requirements apply, viz.:

I) I will subject my complete control system (including safety thong, where applicable) to an inspection and pull test prior to flying. Pull test will be in accordance with the current Competition Regulations for applicable model category. Models not fitting a specific category as detailed shall use those pull test requirements for Control Line Precision Aerobatics .

 2) I will assure that my flying area is safely clear of all utility wires     or poles.

 3) I will assure that my flying area is safely clear of all non-essential participants and spectators before permitting my engine to be started.

 4) I will not fly a model closer than 50 feet to any electrical power line.

Parking/Driving

  1. The speed limit is 10 MPH.

2. Reckless driving is prohibited.

3. The parking area adjoining the runway, and just north of it, is reserved for pilots whom have brought planes to fly.

4. Other vehicles are normally not permitted off of the graveled road and parking areas. Exceptions are made for special events, field maintenance, retrieval of damaged planes, or for a safety emergency.

 Training

1. New R/C pilots, whom have become members, are assigned a club designated instructor. The instructor is responsible for the flight activities of the new pilot until proficiency is demonstrated to a master instructor.

 2. Visitors, whom do not belong to AMA, may only fly radio control with a Club designated Introductory Pilot and then only by rules as defined in the AMA Introductory Pilot Program.

ARTICLE 2: Dues

Dues are to be paid by March 31 for the current year. AMA verification is required before BARCC dues can be accepted.

The dues structure is as follows:

An Active Full or probationary member, less than 65 years old, pays $70.00 per year. If members of the class, only have not renewed their dues by March 31, a late fee assessment of an additional $20.00 is required bringing their total to $90.00 for reinstatement.

Alumni members are limited to 6 flying days per year: $35.00.(Alumni members may upgrade their membership at any time by paying the balance of the higher class.)

A Senior member is a full member 65 years old, or older, and pays $35.00 per year.

Junior and Associate members pay $20.00 per year. Junior members are younger than 16 years old.

Family memberships are available. Once a family member has joined the club as a Full Member, all the rest of that member's family including grandchildren, or grandparents, may join the club for an additional $15.00.

Any non-probationary member may become a full life member for a one time payment of $700.00 provided that they also become a life AMA member.

( FOR NEW FULL MEMBERS ) Dues are allocated by Quarter as follows:

                           Total dues:

First quarter:              $70.00    April 1 – June 30

Second Quarter:             $52.50    July 1 –- Sept 30

Third Quarter:               $35.00   Oct 1 –-  Dec 31

Fourth Quarter:              $17.50   Jan 1 –-  March 31

Alternatively, new members joining in the fourth quarter may pay $70.00 to cover their dues for the reminder of the current year.

(Reinstatement fee:

A reinstatement fee is waived for Senior, Junior, and Associate members.

A full club member, other than Senior, who has not paid their membership dues by March 31 is assessed a reinstatement fee. This fee will be $20.00. Special cases may be referred to the President or to the Board for consideration.

ARTICLE 3: Membership duties

All full members are expected to support the club by nominating and by voting for officers and for voting on major club decisions, such as approval of Bylaws, Policies and Procedures, and major expenditures. All full members are expected to attend business meetings when possible, to pay dues on time, and to sell (or to buy) raffle tickets, or to make a donation, to support fly-ins.

Officers are expected to attend both Board and business meetings as scheduled, if at all possible. If the officer is unable to attend a scheduled meeting, he/she needs to give as much notice as possible that the meeting will be missed to the President or to the Vice President.

Article 4: Fly-in Guidelines

 Preface

The following guidelines are based on BARCC experiences with conducting many successful fly-ins. Deviation from the guidelines is permissible, but it vital for success that the intent behind the guidelines be maintained. These guidelines should be reviewed, supplemented and modified as the club continues gaining experiences with fly-ins. 

Purpose of fly-ins 

Fly-ins are important for the following reasons:

-        They provide income to the club and help maintain the lowest possible dues rates.

-        They bring in new members.

-        They show the public what R/C airplanes are about and foster community support of the hobby.

 Coordination and Planning

 -   The Event Leader

This person must be a good communicator, personable, and have good planning skills. Dedication to the fly-in success is his chief attribute. His responsibilities are to:

·        Encourage member involvement and participation.

·        Work with the Board to select fly-in date(s) and rain dates(s).

·        Designate core group members as leaders for the planning and implementation sub-groups.

·        Offer assistance to those chairing sub-groups, but do it without taking their responsibility.

·        Set and conduct the planning and coordination meetings. Part of the meeting discussion should be reporting of status and needs by the sub-group leaders.

·        Look for problems early and get the resources and help needed to        resolve them.

·        Contact the Race Car Club to see if they have an interest in attending

·        Hold the club to the fly-in budget approved by the Board.

 -        It takes people: getting members involved

The BARCC core group plus approximately 15 additional people, including spouses, can be persuaded to help for a total of some 25 or more people. Most new members want to participate. It takes a minimum of 25 people to do it right.

 Many members at least partially commit their help during the membership renewal process. Then, a few months before the fly-in, the members involved with the implementation phase need to be reminded of their fly-in commitment. Volunteers may be asked to multitask.

 The planning phase dependably resides with the core group. However, all members should be asked for help with planning.

The Event Chairman, working with the President and the Board, needs to select the fly-in dates. Rain dates should also be decided at this time. Since the weather is not predictable, a well planned fly-in with much time investment may fail because of weather. Late Spring (June) and early Fall (September) generally have nice days, but there is no way to tell. That is the reason for having a rain date. Out of town pilots may not be flexible to accommodate a rain date, but most of the public should be able to. If there is no rain date, and it does rain, all of the planning time and effort is lost.

A budget for start-up funding needs to be set and approved by the Board. The Event Chairman is responsible for holding the club to budget.

-        Planning work groups

  Advertising

 This group should be of 2 or 3 people with the following tasks:

·  Preparation of the AMA advertisement. The ad must be received by AMA at least 3 months before the event and they prefer 4 or more months.

·  Preparation, publication, and distribution of a flyer advertising the event to the public. A rain date should be given on the flyer with reference to the web page for fly-in status.

·  Contacting the Parkersburg News and Parkersburg Sentinel - contact is David Payne, Sr. Also, contact the Marietta Times (don’t have contact). David Payne has told us that his paper wants to advertise the fly-ins, all of them, and encourages BARCC to use the free advertising.

·  Radio commercial if possible and if the radio stations are willing to donate the free air time. They have been extremely generous to the club in the past.

.  R/C champions, and other well known pilots, should be asked early to attend and perform during the BARCC fly-ins. Those pilots create a large draw for visitors from other clubs.

 Raffles and donations

This group should be of 3 or 4 people with the following tasks:

·  Solicit R/C vendors for free materials. In the letter to the vendor include the fact that BARCC is a chartered club and that the fly-in is AMA sanctioned.

·  Prepare raffle ticket layout and have the raffle tickets printed. One of the prizes is strongly preferred to be a Middleton or Middleton Lee doll. Women buy a significant portion of the tickets and they overwhelmingly prefer a doll to money or a GPS system. The money, or GPS, attract the men to buy tickets.

·  Solicit area stores for free donations of food or other items for the fly-in.

·  Solicit members for small items (paper towels, bottles of Fantastic, for example, bottles of rubbing alcohol, etc.) to be given as door prizes. Every visiting pilot and as many of the public as possible should get something.

Every non-BARCC donor must to get a prompt thank you letter signed by the BARCC President or by the Event Chairman. The item donated should be mentioned in the thank-you letter and the letter should be sent within 2 weeks of receipt of the item.

When the raffle ticket winners are announced the sub-group chairman has the responsibility to see that the winners get their prizes promptly.

 Pilots from other clubs

The Event Chairman, or his designate, should e-mail, write letters to, or personally contact pilots from other clubs inviting them to the fly-in, and also provide them with an alternate rain date. They should be advised of the web page for fly-in status. 

Visiting pilots should not be charged a landing fee. Also, preferably, they should be told that lunch is “free”.

 BARCC Pilots

Members, while not busy working, should be busy and having fun flying. The public comes to see the planes fly. There should be at least one plane or helicopter up at all (reasonable) times.

Race Car Club

The Event Chairman should contact the officers of the Race car club to see if they would have an interest in coming to the fly-in. If they do plan on coming, the Field Marshall and CD need to designate the appropriate area for them.

 Many members, besides the core group, can assist with the implementation work teams. There should be a core group person to lead each of the following:

 -        field preparation and tear down (3 people)

-        parking (12 people)

-        food (4 to 6 people)

-        raffles and 50/50’s (2 people)

-        flight school and introductory flights (4 people)

-        safety (4 people)

-        impound

-       spotters

-       financial and new membership (Treasurer)

The following table shows the actions needed during the planning phase, the responsible people, and the required completion dates.

ARTICLE 5: Election Procedure

Nominations for new officers will begin at the July business meeting and will continue through August. Members may mail their nominations to the Club Secretary or bring them to the September Business Meeting. At the September Business Meeting, the President appoints three members, not on the current Board to receive the nominations and from those nominations to select up to two candidates for each position. A given person may only be nominated for one position. His/Her name will appear only once on the voting ballot. After nominations are received and finalized at the September Business Meeting, the Secretary prepares the ballots. Ballots are made available in the Club Trailer and at the October Business Meeting. At the October Business Meeting, the President appoints an Election Committee of members, not on the current Board to receive and to count the ballots. The Election Committee reports the Election results to the Club President who then announces the results. New Officers will be instated by the President at the November Business Meeting.

ARTICLE 6: KEY APPOINTED POSITIONS

1. The President, with the Board, will make appointments for Key  Appointed Positions, such as: Safety Committee/Safety Officer, Contest/Event  Committee Chairman and Meeting Activity Coordinators. Other positions have be added as deemed necessary by the President and the Board. Members in Key Appointed Positions report to the Board when appropriate or a requested by the Board.

  1. Safety Committee Chairman/Safety Officer :

  The Safety Committee Chairman/Safety Officer shall be responsible for     

    chairing the safety committee and ensuring existing rules are enforced.

     This includes processing the grievance forms and following the existing

     grievance procedure documented in the by-laws. 

2. Contest/Event Committee Chairman: The Contest/Event Committee Chairman

      shall be responsible for coordinating and establishing, in conjunction   

      with all the Club’s Contest Directors, a schedule for the next

      contest/event season. The schedule will be decided by the Contest

      Directors, and approved by the members.

3. Meeting Activity Coordinator/s: The Meeting Activity Coordinator/s shall be responsible for coordinating model-related activities, immediately following the business portion of the meeting.

 ARTICLE 7: MEMBER STANDING

1. All persons shall be eligible for membership, and shall agree to abide by the Club’s bylaws, and those of the AMA.

2. The membership shall be divided into the following six categories:

a. Full Member: Is sixteen (16) years old or older and has full privileges and voting rights. Dues: Full Member rate plus AMA Membership

b. Junior Member: Is younger than sixteen (16) years old, and has limited privileges; he/she does not have voting rights. Dues: Junior Member rate plus AMA Membership

c. Life Member: Is recommended by the Board and requires 2/3 of membership approval. The life member is invited to all club activities. Flying privileges require AMA membership.

d. Honoree Member: Is granted by the President as special recognition, is invited to all club activities, but does not have voting rights or flying privileges and does not receive a newsletter.

e. Associate Member: a Non-Flyer, who is interested in the activities of the Club, is invited to all club activities, receives a newsletter (one newsletter per family), but has no voting rights.

f. Probationary Member: A new member within the first calendar year of membership. This member is not eligible for elected office; however they may serve the Club in an appointed position. Member has full voting rights at Club meetings.

3. Flying members will be required to hold and maintain a license issued by the AMA. All first-time flying member applicants, as well as present flying members seeking membership renewal, must show proof of membership in the AMA. Non-flying (Associate and Honoree Members) do not require AMA membership.

4. Before joining the Club, new members shall be introduced in person by their sponsor. The Vice President, as the Membership Chairman for the club, assists the member with preparing application for membership. The membership, by a majority vote of the members present at a meeting, shall approve any application for membership. The applicant will be on probation for one (1) calendar year subsequent to the approval of his/her application for membership.

After the probationary period has ended, his/her membership application may again become subject to the approval of the Club. Probationary members are ineligible to hold any elected office in the Club.

5. Any member receiving a safety Grievance as stated in Article 16, who is involved in non-flying violations, or who has key information of a non-flying violation and withholds it from the Board of Directors,

may at the Board of Directors’ discretion be placed on probation for one (1) year regardless of his or her tenure in the Club.

 ARTICLE 8: FUNDS

 1. The President is authorized to approve expenditures of up to $500.00 requested by elected officials for routine day-to-day club business such as field or equipment maintenance, postage, office supplies, etc. Such expenditures will be reported to members by the Treasurer at a regular business meeting.

2. Proposed club expenditures of $500.00 or more, but less than $1,000 per project, may be approved by simple majority vote of the Board.

3. All other club expenditures of $1,OOO or more per event or project must first be approved by a simple majority of the Board

and then at a meeting by a simple majority vote of those members in attendance. Members must be notified in writing of the proposed expenditure, and the date and time of the vote, two weeks before the meeting.

ARTICLE 9: RESIGNATION, TERMINATION, DISCIPLINARY

ACTION, EXPULSION AND REINSTATEMENT OF MEMBERSHIP

1. Any member in good standing may resign his/her membership by giving written notice to the Club.

2. If any member ceases to have the qualification necessary for membership in the AMA, his/her membership in the Club shall thereby terminate, subject to reinstatement upon restoration of eligibility.

3. This section provides for enforcement of the Safety Rules that are related to flying activities. Any other unacceptable behavior by an individual member or members, as defined by the Board of Directors, become the responsibility of the Board of Directors as stated in Article 1, Duties, Section 1 of these Bylaws. Any individual may be expelled from membership from the Club by a two-thirds (2/3) majority vote of the Board of Directors if, in the Board of Directors’ determination, such individual willfully commits any act or omission which is a violation of any of the terms of these Articles of Incorporation and Bylaws, or the Rules of the AMA, or which is detrimental the Club, the AMA, or to model aviation.

4. Any member who is expelled from membership may be reinstated to membership only by two-thirds (2/3) majority vote of the Board of Directors.

5. The Board of Directors shall have the discretionary authority to provide for and to impose disciplinary action for such acts or omissions, which do not justify expulsion from membership.

ARTICLE 10: GRIEVANCE PROCEDURE (FLIGHT AND GROUND

SAFETY RULES)

1. Purpose

The grievance procedure provides a mechanism to enforce existing safety rules by providing a progressive disciplinary system when needed. Although most complaints can be resolved informally, if a complaint is serious or cannot be resolved informally, the matter should be referred to the Safety Committee for its consideration by

means of a Grievance Form to be filled out and turned into the Safety Committee Chairman. At least one witness is required to sign the Grievance Form.

2. Safety Committee

The Safety Committee shall use its judgment in carrying out action on the following:

(a) A grievance form (see page 9) will be filled out and turned into the Safety Committee Chairman. At least one witness is required.

(b) FIRST VIOLATION

a. Viewpoints of both complainants and accused will be considered.

b. Complainant’s name will be disclosed.

c. A verbal reprimand will be given to the accused by the Safety Committee, and this will be recorded in the Committee files.

(c) SECOND VIOLATION

a. Complainant’s name will be disclosed.

b. The accused has the right to a written rebuttal, to be

reviewed by the Committee.

c. If the Committee so decides, the flying privileges of the accused will be suspended for thirty (30) days. Written

notice of this shall be issued and a copy published in the

Club newsletter.

(d) THIRD VIOLATION

a. Committee will notify the accused in writing and the

Club members via the Club newsletter that the Club will

vote on the expulsion of the accused at the next meeting.

b. Said expulsion will last for a one-year minimum.

(Longer if deemed necessary by the Board of Directors).

c. A member may be expelled from the Club only upon a

two-thirds (2/3) majority vote of the membership present

at the meeting.

d. Voting will be by secret ballot at a regular monthly

meeting.

e. The expelled member may reapply for membership after

the expiration of the expulsion time period.

The three actions will not be enforced unless they are

accumulated within a two-year period of time.

f. Any member receiving a Grievance, who directs any retaliation action against the person filing said Grievance, will be subject to immediate expulsion from the Club. This is to include threats, intimidation, physical harm, intentional equipment damage, or any other action deemed to be retaliatory by the Board of Directors.

 Club Grievance Form

Date: ____________________ Time : _______________________

Nature of Violation:

__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Signature: ______________________________________

Witness: ________________________________________

Additional Witnesses (not required):

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