Meeting Minutes - Mar. 20, 2005
by Paul Peterson

In attendance:
Peter Campbell
Brian Blalock
Paul Peterson
Paul Pawelski
Roy Birnbrook
Bruce Stott (father)
Merritt Stott (son, goes to Whittier school and is in Whittier Robotics Club)

As a result of Paul Pawelski’s stepping down as president, the current CIRC officers are as follows:
President: Roy Birnbrook
Vice President: NONE
Webmaster: Roy Birnbrook
Secretary: Paul Peterson
Treasurer: Peter Campbell

Paul Pawelski talked about getting Servo subscriptions into schools and libraries. Subscriptions should start within a small local radius within Peoria at first. Then, expand the radius out to the surrounding cities within central Illinois. He considered putting the CIRC name on the mailing labels, so that our group will be referenced on the magazine covers. He suggested a form of corporate sponsorship to help cover costs.

Paul Pawelski assigned duties to members:
- Paul Peterson will contact ‘local radius’ libraries and create an address list of libraries that would welcome a subscription. Peter will then place orders with Servo for the listed libraries.

- Paul Peterson will refine the list of schools to Middle, Jr. High, and High Schools (grades 5-12) within the local Peoria area. He will contact the administration to confirm the grade level of the school, to inquire if the school will take a subscription, and to confirm the school’s mailing address. Peter will then place orders with Servo for the listed schools.

Paul Pawelski discussed getting the videos of last November’s competition onto a compact disc. Pictures of December and January’s Lego Races would also be included on the disc.

Paul Pawelski talked about having a Lego racing type competition with the Chicago and St. Louis clubs. The competition would be a great opportunity get to know the neighboring clubs. Additional issues were discussed:
- Location: Where to have it, and whether it will be big enough to hold the extra people.
- Time: Around summertime, at the end of the school year. Kids will be free of homework and most vacations won’t be planned yet.

- Tracks: What shapes they will take, and what materials will be used to build them.
- Rules: Use the Lego FIRST rules as a guideline or standard.

Paul Pawelski inquired about future solder classes and other classes after meetings. The build-it-yourself “CIRC-Bot” kit is still in the works and the cost is under $50 per kit. Paul is looking for ‘beta builders’ to test out the functionality of the kits before issuing the kits in classes.

Bruce and Merritt brought a line follower robot.

Enhanced software for Lego Mindstorms robotics kits are available below:
- Robolab (http://www.ni.com/company/robolab.htm )
- NQC (http://bricxcc.sourceforge.net/nqc/ )

Peter went to witness The Boilermaker FIRST Robotics Regional Competition. (http://first.purdue.org/boilermakerregional/) It was held in West Lafayette, Indiana, on the campus of Purdue University. He went along with Caterpillar employees, Peoria high school students, and teachers. Participants came from throughout the Midwest United States. Peter was concerned over the robots being mostly built by professional engineers, then tweaked by the competing students. The final competition will be in Georgia. Caterpillar is planning to sponsor a FIRST team in a future competition. Debbie Lewellyn is one of the Cat employees in charge of the project.

Peter brought a line following robot.

Next meeting: April 17th