Meeting Minutes - Jan. 19, 2003
by Peter Campbell

Attending

• Peter Campbell - President and interim Treasurer
• Tom Spaulding - Vice President
• Mike Dvorsky - Librarian
• Jim Frye
• Larry Kruzan
• Bob Negri
• Alan Kilty
• Steve Kilty

I was happy to see three new people at the meeting, and even happier when they joined the club! Bob Negri came from Bloomington. He is interested in building a hexapod. Alan Kilty and his son Steve are from Peoria. Alan is interested in autonomous robots.

Old and New Business

1. We discussed the lack of updates to the CIRC web page, and I asked if anyone was interested in taking over the Webmaster position, should the need arise. It turned out that Bob Negri is willing and able. Since the meeting, I have been in touch with current Webmaster, Jon-Pierre Gentil. He wants to keep his position and promises that updates to the web site will appear soon.
   
   
2. Jim Frye is unable to serve as Treasurer due to the demands of running his business. I asked if anyone else was interested and got no affirmative responses, so I will continue to be the acting Treasurer as well as the President.
   
   
3. I have paid the museum the $100 annual membership fee and $120 for our use of the conference room in 2003. Including the dues of our new members, we now have $654.23 in the treasury.
   
   
4. I raised the topic of CIRC joining the Robot Fighting League (http://www.botleague.com). Tom said that he will pursue this once our web page has been updated to show some evidence of our last competition and some info about our upcoming competitions.
   
   
5. We talked about the offer from Solutions Cubed (http://www.solutions-cubed.com) to pay us to display their banner ad on our web page. Everyone who responded was in favor of accepting the offer. Since the meeting, Jon-Pierre has put up the ad, and I have sent Solutions Cubed an invoice.
   
   
6. Solutions Cubed has offered to donate some prizes for our competitions, and they are offering CIRC members a 20% discount on Solutions Cubed products. I have thanked them for their support.
   
   
7. We talked about the need for a battle box that is bigger than 4 ft x 4 ft, yet not too big for Lakeview Museum's auditorium, not too costly, and not too difficult to transport and store. I believe it was Tom who suggested a 4 ft x 8 ft battle box. I suggested asking Solutions Cubed if they would be willing to fund it in exchange for having their logo on it. Jim volunteered to find out how much the lexan would cost.
   
   
8. Larry mentioned Parc as a possible larger venue for our competitions once we have outgrown Lakeview Museum.
   
   
9. Mike confirmed that he sent a letter of appreciation to Sam Miller for his contribution as co-emcee at our most recent competition.
   
   
10. I reminded everyone that we are planning to have two competitions this year, on 5/10/03 and 11/8/03. Each competition will include both RC combat and autonomous sumo events.
    
    
11. I mentioned that the Northeast Indiana Robot Games are coming up on 2/22/03. It sounds like no one from CIRC is planning to go.
    
    
12. We discussed Brian Blalock's suggestion that we charge a fee of $10 for non-members and $5 for members to enter a robot at one of our competitions. Everyone who responded was in favor of the idea, so that's what we'll do.
    
    
13. Larry proposed charging spectators for admission. I will call for a vote on the mailing list.
    
    
14. We discussed Roy Birnbrook's suggestion that we acquire a couple of BattleBots toys to allow for some audience participation at our competitions. The status is that Roy will purchase the toys if he finds them at a discount. Tom pointed out that these toys have been discontinued.
    
    
15. Jim proposed spending some of the club's money on the awards for our upcoming competitions, such as large nuts that don't require a lot of finishing work.
    
    
16. Tom mentioned emachineshop.com. You can use their free software to design a part and send them the design, and they will machine it and send it to you.
    
    
17. Mike showed some circuit boards that he had designed. [Mike, Please provide some info here.]
    
    
18. Tom brought a small RC combat robot he is working on. It is based on a BattleBots toy and features a spring-powered flipper made from a rat trap.
    
    
19. Jim brought his redesigned hexapod and a few other robots, all built from laser-cut lexan.
    
    
20. I thought it was a very good meeting. As always, feedback is welcome.

Next meeting: Feb 16