What an amazing year 2012 has been for TEMAC – the best ever? There are so many great things to talk about; it’s hard to know where to start.
We were blessed with a mild winter and if I use my photographs as a record, I think I first flew at ROGO-Field on Feb 5th this year! But it just got better – I have photos from 18th March with us flying in t-shirts! About this same time, in March, we started with the first of our 2012 field improvements, with a huge work-group coming to help improve the water flow in the drainage ditch. It was messy but great fun, and evidence of the great community we have at TEMAC, with so many people coming to help. The spring saw more field improvements; the use of a roller for the field, new pilot stations and new gravel for the driveway. I’d like to say a big thank you to all our members who came to help with these activities – without your support our club wouldn’t be what it is.
2012 was also a record year for membership and growth. We broke the 100-member mark, and we’ve continued to encourage and support many new Junior fliers, who now make up about 10% of our membership. As a result of the growth, and some great stewardship from Andy Hoffer, we are financially healthy, and are able to continue planning for more club improvements in 2013.
To support the growth, and to appropriately reflect what a great club TEMAC is, we launched a new website in June. If you haven’t seen it yet, check it out www.TEMAC.ca and make sure you find the message forum, where the information-sharing, banter and conversation is truly entertaining. I’d like to thank Ben Feist for all his help with our web presence.
Our Flight Instruction program continued to be a great asset of the club, with many students successfully achieving their MAAC wings. Congratulations to all our new pilots! We also implemented our Chief Flying Instructor succession plan, and even though it’s long after the change occurred, want to congratulate Mike Hazelton and thank him for stepping in to the role. We have some changes planned for 2013, to make our program even more robust and relevant to the changes our hobby is going through, such as the lower cost and easier accessible models and equipment.
And what about our themed events? We had more this year than ever before, and still you want more! These are my personal highlights of the year: I love flying with you, with similar themed models. I know we’re on to a winning formula when you, our members, are even arranging informal fun-fly events via the forum, like Battle of Britain day, something that we will add to our calendar going forward. With your input from the forum poll, we are planning another stellar events program for 2013, with the addition of new events like Float flying, Speedfest & an Aerobatics day. Way to go Jack!
I heard many comments from you that, on any given weekend (and some weeknights) our field had more fliers than many other clubs’ fun-fly’s! This is a wonderful indication of how much people love coming to our club, but does raise some questions about growth and our infrastructure, that we are planning to address for 2013. In addition, again based on your feedback, we’re working on a proposal for a racing program in 2013, something that all members can enjoy and have fun with.
I’d to recognize all the members of the Board for their leadership and dedication. Greg Hazelton, Greg Cadez, Jack Higgins, Andy Hoffer and our advisor (and TEMAC founder) Michael Rogozinsky. They are a great team to work with, and put in many, many hours behind the scenes to bring our TEMAC motto to life.
As a final note I’d like to thank YOU, for an awesome 2012, and here’s to an even better 2013. Let’s continue to “Have fun. Be safe & be courteous.”
Simon Hinchcliffe
Forum discussion of this report: http://temac.ca/smf/index.php?topic=3612.0