Christmas Party — The annual Christmas Party held on Saturday, December 9 was a great success. Ray Rice offered the club's thanks to Matt Kriech for hosting it at Wabash Brewing and taking care of the arrangements. All who were there or RSVP'd to be there are requested to forward their $15 per person to Matt to cover the catering.

Introduction of Guests — Bret Pritchett is working at Montogomery Aviation and is working on an A & P license. He got interested in Boone County Airport through Matt Kriech and is interested in flight training. Matt's business partner Nic Stauch was also present and is a partner in Matt's airplane. Nic plans on flight instruction soon. Ray Rice commented that Matt is moving along very quickly in his flight training. He started around the end of November and is already preparing for his long cross country flight.

Snow Removal — The club sold the old dump truck snow plow last year, which did not have working brakes. We were unable to get any club members to plow the runway this past fall so Ray Rice called someone to do it. Don Geisler has offered to plow but was unavailable at that time. The club's threshold for plowing is one and a half inches of snow. John Saalwaechter has a plow that requires a 2-inch ball hitch on the front that he is willing to donate, as it will not fit his new tractor. Earl Brosman is interested in using it on his tractor. Mark Poliak has a proposal from a local guy, Tony Montgomery, who will plow the snow. The rate is $85 per hour, and can do a two-inch snow in about two hours. No contract is required, and he would only do the job if we can't get it done internally. Michael Mossman motioned that we use Montgomery as a back-up, Earl Brosman seconded. All voted in favor; motion passed. Mark commented that the FAA will not allow salt to be used on an airport, and only permits one chemical, which costs about $80 for 50-pound bag.

BCAA Events Calendar — Michael Mossman will be preparing another calendar of aviation-related events for Boone County Airport. If any club members know of an aviation-related event that they would like on the calendar, they are asked to forward that information to Michael via email. Michael also added if anyone is looking for another place to fly to, Terre Haute Regional Airport now has the Fly-In Cafe open for breakfast and lunch.

Hangar Door Updates — We do not yet have enough people who are ready to move into an enclosed hangar, so the hangar door project is on hold. Cost is about $1,000 for materials per set of doors, with an estimated $500 each for labor. John Saalwaechter is willing to pay for one set of doors to finish off a building if he would get paid back by an incoming tenant. Dick Gurley will send invoices for door construction deposits for $1,000 each; Earl Brosman will buy the materials; the the club will generate final full-up invoices. Michael Mossman to send addresses for invoices.

Fuel System Update — All fines have been paid for the removal of the underground fuel tank. Don Geisler has a new above ground tank made that will be coming out soon. No details are known on the new fuel system but the current plan is to pump fuel from the remaining in-ground tank and transfer fuel from the above-ground tank when necessary.

New/Prospective Member Report — No updates from the owner of the warbird who is interested in relocating to Boone County Airport. His plan is to hire an engineer to re-work the structure of building number four to accommodate his Vultee. He plans on paying the costs of the rework then renting two spaces.

Treasurer's Report — The club did not have the minimum amount of cash in the checking account so Dick Gurley closed the general savings account and transferred the money to checking. Account balances are $6,716.11 in checking and $9,557.07 in fuel savings. We do not yet have enough cash for 3,000 gallons of fuel; all fuel bills are caught up. Dick has been in touch with Adam Coker, who is more than one year in arrears on hangar rent. Dick reports that the club ran 2017 about $3,000 behind in cash flow; hangar rents were almost $5,000 under budget. Only expenses that were seriously over budget were airport facilities (auto gas, etc.). Some of these supplies are still on hand so expenses will moderate a bit in the coming months.

Meeting Minutes — Ray Rice motioned to approve the minutes from the December 2017 meeting; John Saalwaechter seconded. The motion was approved by voice vote.

Scholarship Report — The committee is moving forward with the flight scholarship program, having met with the superintendent of Lebanon Community Schools, and also with the superintendents of Western Boone and Zionsville schools. The current plans is to give five students lessons up to solo, then re-evaluate if we are going to go further. The club will need to put out feelers for someone who wants to run a flight school. The club will dedicate a room for training; the school operator will need to manage the flight school operation. The club will have five guaranteed students. John Saalwaechter, Jay Schaumberg and Chuck Leucht will form a committee to interview prospective candidates and oversee the operation. Ray Rice wants the flight school to be a zero load on the club. Don Geisler bought a Cherokee 180 to dedicate to the program. Jay Schaumberg is talking with the insurance company to see if the Cherokee could also be used as a rental. Projected cost is $80 per hour wet, which should more than cover the costs. Jay believes that with a couple hundred hours per year usage the annual maintenance expenses would be about $5,000. The plane is not yet currently set up for rental use but has an open pilot policy. We need to ask if we can use it for lessons. Dick Gurley will ask the insurance company what our limitations are.

Club Equipment — Earl Brosman reports that he has come out to the airport many times and found the operations building unlocked and unattended. He bought a new electronic lock that will automatically re-lock itself after 30 seconds. The lock combination is the CTAF frequency plus an additional button to press to unlock. Since the price was less than the $100 threshold Ray Rice authorized Dick Gurley to reimburse Earl for the cost of the lock.

Club Associate Membership — Ray Rice made a motion to amend the club bylaws to include an associate membership for persons that do not own an aircraft. After floor discussion the motion was formalized as an Associate Member. Applicants will pay a $50 membership fee and annual dues of $5 per month, payable only as $60 per year. Associate Members would not have voting rights, nor be able to rent the maintenance hangar or buy fuel, but would be able to rent club aircraft if available. Associate Members would be invited to all club activities. Associate Members would also be able to convert their membership to Regular Member status with an additional $50 fee (bringing the total to $100) and rental of a hangar. Chuck Long motioned to allow the Associate Membership. Michael Mossman to send a notice to members that the club will vote on a change of the bylaws at the February 2018 meeting.

Adjournment — The meeting was informally adjourned.

Minutes by Michael Mossman, Association Secretary