Meeting Minutes – Sep. 17, 2000

Members Attending

Chris Boros - President
Jim Frye - Vice President
Peter Campbell - Librarian and Treasurer
Mike Dvorsky - Secretary
Phil White
Larry Kruzan
Andrew Black
Michael Houston
Matt Underwood

Non-Members

Otis R. Bullock
Brandon Dierker
Don Raeuber
Ivan Rhenholt

Discussion

Hamfest. CIRC was represented by a booth at the hamfest on September 16. The booth was manned throughout the day by several club members. Our location, in the building where people turn in their ticket stubs for the raffle, gave us good visibility. Andrew noted that when robots were moving the crowds were larger. This led to the idea that next year we should stage a robot "contest" at our booth to draw people.
Lego Raffle. We raffled off a Lego Mindstorms set. The raffle sold 54 tickets, at $2.00 each, for a total of $108. It provided good publicity for the club, but we agreed that in the future decisions like this should be made further in advance and by more people.
Communication. There was some dissatisfaction expressed regarding communication between club members, particularly officers. Important decisions are sometimes made through discussion in the CIRC mailing list. All interested parties should speak up during a discussion. Since some of us do not check our email every day, critical people should be contacted by phone if an urgent decision is needed.
Bill Harrison. Chris read a bio of Bill Harrison, our emcee and judge.
Robothon? We are having our sumo contest in November and our Fire Fighting contest in March. If we had another contest in July, that would be a contest every 4 months. Coincidence? Chris thinks not. He raised the possibility of having another contest in July, with line following, mazes, etc. The annual Sumo Competition would still be our main contest.
RC Robots. Larry and Jim are both planning to bring RC-controlled sumo robots to the contest for demonstration.
Fire Fighting Arena. Larry asked for help in building the arena for the fire fighting contest. He will provide the brains, but needs some brawn. Mike and Andrew volunteered.
Sumo Prizes. Chris announced that Mondotronics has sent two muscle wire deluxe kits and two $50 gift certificates.
I Knew There Was a Reason I Joined. Chris announced that Parallax is offering a 25% discount on products to club members. Parallax makes the Basic Stamp, Boe-Bot, and other useful (well...fun anyway) products.
Pre-Meeting Meeting. The officers will meet prior to the main club meeting to work out the agenda and decide on proposals to bring to a vote by the members. Next month they will meet at 12:30.

Next meeting: Oct. 15