The August 2008 MASA meeting was held on the 7th at
the Science Museum.
A total of 16 people attended the meeting.
Next Launch: The next regular launch will be on
August 23 at the Nowthen sod
fields. The theme for the launch is "multistaging."
Special events include the annual Great UFO Drag Race and the Annual
Comanche-3 drag race. An Open Spot Landing contest, run by Art
Gibbens, will be held. (For contest info, please
download this PDF file.) Art will be donating up to 18 old
MRC B4-4 motors for use by participants in the contest. Info
on the performance of these motors will be submitted to the NAR's
expired motor testing program.
Next Meeting: The next club meeting will be on
Thursday September 4 starting at 7pm. Since the Science Museum
will be closed for the Republican National Convention, this meeting
will be held at Bailey Nurseries in Newport. Directions will
be posted on the mailing list and web site soon. Thanks to Art
Gibbens for arranging this meeting location!
At the conclusion of NARAM 50, the prestigious LAC Newsletter
Award was presented to the MASA Planet for best NAR section
newsletter! As recipient, MASA is entrusted with the
history-laden North American Rockwell Trophy and the "annex"
that accompanies it for the next year. Congratulations to
MASA Planet Editor Jeff Taylor! Huge thanks to all the
different contributors to the Planet over the years!
Ted Cochran (Planet editor from 2002-2006) accepted the
trophy at NARAM and brought it back to Minnesota with him.
At the meeting, we unboxed the trophy. In use since 1969,
the trophy is a little battered and worn around the edges.
In fact, this was the 40th time that the trophy had been
awarded. We persuaded Jeff to pose with the trophy, and
then got Ted into the photos too.
Todd Schweim told us that this was the trophy's first return
to Minnesota since it was won by the former Zenith section for
their "View From Zenith" newsletter back in 1979! (and sat
in Tom Beach's house for a year)
Accompanying the trophy is a locked wooden "annex" box.
This box contains items placed in it over the years by all the
different sections that have won the trophy. Only members
of the section winning the trophy get to view the contents of
the box, and they are never to be divulged to anyone else.
When the moment came, we "tyled the lodge", closed the door,
put away the cameras, and opened the box. There's a lot of
neat stuff in that box, like
[THIS SECTION REDACTED
BY NAR EXECUTIVE ORDER #011678347B].
Wish you were at the meeting to see it in person, don't you?
;-)
The trophy and annex went home with Jeff for the next year
until we have to deliver it to NARAM 51.
Jeff writes:
At the August meeting on the 7th, we opened the LAC Annex.
This is a wooden box about the size of a box that a new pair of
snow boots would come in. It came to us under lock and key as
part of the LAC
Newsletter Award that MASA received at NARAM 50. There is a
long-standing tradition that the contents of the Annex are to be
shared with the winning club but are to be kept secret outside
of the
club. If you missed the meeting and would like to see what's
inside, let me know and we can figure out
how you can get a peek inside. At the end of MASA's reign in
June 2009, we will make a secret contribution to the Annex and
pass it on the next year's LAC Award winner.
Also, the LAC Newsletter Award includes the Rockwell Trophy.
This is a very large trophy that has been traveling from club to
club since 1969. It has many miles on it (and it shows) and has
a long history. Again, if you would like to see the trophy
before we give it up next June, let me know.
According to Ted's report from NARAM when MASA was presented
the award, we were in the running with two other club
newsletters, but the one thing that put us above all others were
the number of contributors that we had over the past year.
Having said that, I would like to personally thank the following
individuals who contributed to the MASA Planet over the past
year:
Caleb Boe
Ted Cochran
David Donovan
Ben Ericksen
Mike Erpelding
Alan Estenson
Art Gibbens
Ken Jarosch
Ray King
Carol Marple
Glen Overby
Rick Vatsaas
I can't thank Ted enough for being the club editor for 5
years before I took it over last June. He did an amazing job and
deserves a huge round of applause from all of us. He had built
up a solid publication that I tried to continue when he retired,
and I don't think we would have won this award if it weren't for
the foundation that he had built.
As I enter my second year as editor of the MASA Planet, I
would like to ask all of you to consider contributing something
to the Planet. Diversity in the Planet's content and
contributors keeps it interesting for all who read it. Please
consider submitting a short article or two, and let's see if we
can keep the LAC Award in Minnesota for another year!
Thanks to everyone! Wining this award was as much of a
surprise to me as it is an honor, but it wouldn't have happened
without contributions from MASA members like you.
