DARLING DOWNS SOARING CLUB INCORPORATED Minutes of Committee Meeting 28 August 2010 McCaffrey Field, Bowenville Attendees (Committee): Richard Armstrong, Paul Bart, Robert Bradley, Tony Cavanna, John Moore, Dave Holbrook Apologies: Pam Kurstjens, Lex McQueen Attendees (Other): Bob Flood, Chad Nowak (part of the meeting), Alan Barnes (part of the meeting) 1. Meeting Opened at 7:00 pm 2. Confirmation of Minutes of Previous Meeting Moved: John Moore. Seconded: Tony Cavanna. Carried 3. New Business 3.1 Hangar Agreement (John Moore) Pam Kurstjens Pam Kurstjens via email see Agenda advised of a request by John Moore to have a hangar agreement as exists for Pam and Gerrit Kurstjens. Currently John Moore, and a number of other private hangar owners have no written agreement with the club. There was a discussion on whether Clause 7 of the agreement, The club member(s) will use the site and hangar only for the storage of gliders, aircraft and ancillary equipment, unless approved otherwise by DDSC. hangar would include the caravan sited in the hangar. It was agreed by the Committee that since the caravan in question did not take up any space that could be used by a glider and since it was used to directly support participation in gliding activities, it was covered. Motion: That the hangar agreement existing between the Kurstjens and DDSC to existing hangar owners who currently have a verbal agreement with DDSC namely the following fourteen members: John Moore, Peter Griffiths, Bob Ward, Tony Cavanna, Robert Percy, Dennis Lambert, Fran Ning, Keith Allen, Mike Codling, Charlie Downes, Brian Rolfe, Des Cramer, John Geddes, Ron Muir Moved: Richard Armstrong, Seconded, Paul Bart. Carried with the following members abstaining: John Moore, Tony Cavanna. Action: Richard Armstrong Advise Members listed above of the offer of a written agreement. 333 Future Hangar Agreements Pam Kurstjens Deferred
3.3 Single Seater Insurance Pam Kurstjens Tony Cavanna spoke of the reasoning behind the decision to exclude single seaters from full insurance coverage, viz, financial pressure, proposal to self-insure and to put aside insurance savings to support self-insurance. It was noted by Paul Bart, that once insurance was taken out to cover use of single seaters used in competitions, the savings realised by self-insurance were not as large as expected. It was also pointed out that, as the club was moving to a period of significant spending and borrowing for club assets, it was important that it be covered as much as possible against unexpected expenses and single-seater-insurance should be seen in this light. Motion: That the club negotiate full insurance on the entire fleet effective as soon as possible. Moved: Robert Bradley, Seconded: Dave Holbrook. Carried without dissent Action: Paul Bart Arrange Insurance as soon as possible 3.4 Duo Discus Purchase funding and currency variations Pam Kurstjens Paul Bart advised that Pam and Gerrit Kurstjens had used their private funds to pay the deposit on the Duo Discus XL and that they need to be repaid upon request. The current cost of the entire purchase is $167098 based on an exchange rate of AUD.699 to the Euro and that final payment would be due some time in the Australian Autumn of 2011. Paul spoke at length to the financial spreadsheet he had previously distributed to the committee members. He noted that the cash flows would be adequate although there is a high dependency on the sale of the Ventus GH for approx $45,000 and that things would be tight if this did not occur. Robert Bradley informed the meeting that the sale notice of GH will appear in Soaring Australia in the next two issues. There was a significant discussion on aspects of currency hedging with particular input from Bob Flood who, through his work activities, has some knowledge in this area. A number of members made the point that currency hedging provided price certainty and although there is a potential loss should the AUD appreciate against the Euro, if the Club was happy to purchase at a particular exchange rate, it should not be too concerned about an opportunity lost given the protection and certainty of price that hedging offers. Motion: That the club hedge sufficient funds required to purchase the Duo Discus hull and trailer against currency movements against the Euro for a period of at least 6 months and that the Treasurer, Paul Bart obtain a specific quotation and set of conditions involved in doing so. Moved: Paul Bart, Seconded: Tony Cavanna. Carried without dissent Action: Paul Bart 3.5 Tug Insurance Excess Pam Kurstjens There was a short discussing on the background to this. There was general agreement that tug pilots should not be responsible for paying any insurance excess for accidents or damage incurred when carrying out their tugging duties. Item deferred. Note Changed order of Agenda 5. Standard Items 5.1 Financial Report Treasurer
Large invoices recently pay relate to web site development, fire services for tug hangar, LS7 Form 2 and repairs and insurance. Treasurer has previously spoken to financial status under item 3.4 5.2 Club Statistics & New members No report 5.3 Correspondence Secretary Correspondence received: Kennedy Spanner Lawyers Licence Agreement Shemmp-Hirth Duo Discus order Office of Liqour and Gaming regulations Licence renewal receipt Trailer registration sticker 472QBI Toowoomba Regional Council Rates Notice Dalby Air Maintenance Invoice MLR andswr Precinct Urban Planning Invoice for services Firecom Services Fire compliance work tug shed Queensland Spit Roast - 50 th anniversary catering Robert Bradley asked if there was knowledge of the whereabouts oif the registration sticker for GH trailer. Bob Flood told Robert that he would provide details of registration date. 5.4 Instructors & Training Panel Report Instructor level upgrade for Chad Nowak in progress Update of Standard Operating Procedures Manual underway. 5.5 Airworthiness Report Airworthiness Officer GH was sent to the Engineering course at Warwick and was returned with a list of defects which required fixing. These fixes have been completed by Shane McCaffrey and the glider returned to DDSC without required accompanying log books / documentation and thus cannot be flown. Consequently another Form 2 inspection may now need to be done. RI Form 2 may take up to 3-4 weeks as there are some components which should be replaced. Robert Hart has agreed to contact Nigel Arnott to see if he can do it sooner else Robert will contact Mike Maddocks. 5.6 Tug Report Tug Master None 5.7 Social activities & Bar Report None 5.8 Gliding Queensland Report Meeting schedule for week beginning 30 th August 2010 5.9 DDSC 50 th Anniversary In excess of 100 people have indicated their attendance. Jenny has distributed a program for the day. 5.10 49 th Nationals Dalby Entrance numbers have dropped to 64.
6. Other Business Air Cadets Training Camp Tony Cavanna reported that the Air Cadets have requested access to 2 x 2-seaters for their training camp. Gliders would be taken from DDSC late Sun (19 th Sept) and return early Saturday (25 th Sept) if necessary. Alain Potier would be attending the camp. It was agreed to support the air cadets and allow access to the gliders. Inter-service Regatta Tony Cavanna reported that Dennis Lambert has proposed that a week-long inter-service regatta be held in January 2011. 4. Business Arising From Previous Minutes 4.1 Purchase of land progress There was a lengthy discussion on both the objection to the re-zoning application and the road Access Licence demand. Objection to re-zoning Many of the discussion points have been covered in emails to committee. Some points raised included need to stress that use of new runway significantly enhances safety of operations in less than ideal conditions where existing runway might have been used in the past simply because there was no other choice - cross winds within allowable safety margins but far less than ideal - late afternoon operations which currently require take-off and landing directly into the sun, a particular issue in winter operations Items 5.1(b,c,e) and 5.2 - issues relating to the suitability of the land for the intended purpose; eg soil type, drainage, cost of construction are internal issues for the club Item 5.1(a) approx 1/3 of the land is unsuitable for farming Item 5.1(d) - alignment of proposed runway makes this less likely Item 5.5 objector actively participated in such events, arranged them, coordinated activities, encouraged such events Item 4.5 long standing members are not aware of any such incidents and in particular any which involved members of the club All Items in the objection, notwithstanding their validity or otherwise, which refer to elements other than the actual proposed runway would have existed under a proposal from the objector to sell to DDSC a portion of his land. The objector s proposal to sell a portion of his land to DDSC was considered at the same meeting as the proposal ultimately accepted by DDSC members. At this meeting the objector strongly argued to DDSC members present that the decision should be to purchase his land in preference to the alternate offering and provided a number of reasons why the club should do so. All points made under Section 4 (whether or nor that are in fact valid) would apply if the DDSC members had taken the course strongly promoted by the objector The proposed runway is a safety and operational issue and in itself will not generate any of the amenity, traffic etc issues claimed and in particular all points made under Section 4.
The objector has previously (in 2001) sold to DDSC a portion of land to the north of then existing DDSC runway solely for the purpose of extending the width existing runway and that extension covered land previously used by the objector for farming. When conditions require it for safety reasons, club members use that portion of the runway. Access to Road It was pointed out that this arrangement had been in existence for > 25 years to the mutual benefit of Shane McCaffrey and the previously owner and DDSC and that benefit from this arrangement (eg farming) had been derived by Shane McCaffrey. The period of notice given is unreasonable. It was agreed that 1) talk to our lawyers in an attempt to 2) Determine legality of trying to impose unilaterally a change to an existing arrangement. If the attempt to change it unilaterally is legal a) Seek an extension of time to consider the proposal/demand and/or b) Seek a change to the proposed access closure date on the basis of the unreasonabliness of the demand OR as a last option c) accede to the request/demand this gives us guarantee of access to to existing road until 30 June 2011 at the cost of $1500+GST plus cost of 3rd party liability insurance of $10,000,000.00 covering our use of the road until 30 June 2011 (cost should be minimal) + any costs involved in us maintaining the road to its current state - which should be zero based on the history of the road maintenance. Note we would be liable for the maintenance of the road - this is a good thing because it stops someone else doing maintenance work and demanding that DDSC pay for it. (Clause 2.9) This also buys us time to organise the building of an access road on our own land with construction to start on 1-July 2011 OR alternatively negotiate an arrangement with any new owner should the property be sold before 30 June 2011 2) If the attempt to change it unilaterally is not legal then we wouldseek guidance from the lawyers as to how to proceed. It was also agreed that the Secretary should inform members via email (not chat) of the situation. 7. Next Meeting To be decided. 8. Meeting closed at 10:05pm
Attachment A Tug Masters Report