The meeting was called to order at 7:00PM

Secretary’s minutes from previous meeting were accepted as published in the newsletter with a minor modification.

Treasurer reports a total income of $2122.21 and total expenses of $495.66 (Christmas party DJ and Newsletter expenses). The current balance is $4885.12. The party expenses, amounting to 1251.53, will be included in the next report. $75 was collected as donations for the Young Eagles program. A concern was raised to the effect that such donations should not be expected or solicited. Everybody assured that such was never the case and the money was spontaneously offered. The report was accepted.

Program report - January speaker will be Bob Thompson from the National Weather center in Taunton. The Chapter will try to have a speaker come to the meetings every other month. Suggestions for new speakers are welcome.

Professional Pilot Series - The meeting to talk about reading navigational charts was held at the Chapter trailer on Saturday. Attendance was light. Need to come up for a good topic for the next meeting. One could be “rules of thumb”. Next meeting will be held on Feb. 10th at 9:30.

Membership report - Richard Dupee reported 1 new member. 17 members still have not paid their membership for 2007, which was due last October. Of these, 6 have not paid their 2006 dues either.

Young Eagles report - No young eagles are expected to come to Marlboro this Saturday.

Newsletter report - The latest issue featuring among other things the pictures from the Toys for Tots and Holiday dinner was published this month. The next one will be published in January. Articles or ideas on people to interview are welcome.

Mail in - Dianne Hoaglin wrote to report the passing of her father, fellow member Norman Mendenhall. In the letter that was shared with all the participants, Dianne talks about her father’s love of flying and his impressive career in the medical and aviation fields.

News from 9B1 - A safety seminar will be held on Tuesday, Jan. 23 at 6:30PM at the Juniper Hill Golf Course in Northborough. Airport badges are in the process of being reissued. In order to have a new badge, owners must have their aircraft registered for 2007 and not all registration are in order yet.

I learned about flying from that - Anytime your engine catches fire one needs to keep cranking it to suck the flames out and avoid major damage.

Fred gave us some good advice on how to prime correctly, which is not exactly how the book describes it. Ken Sherman mentioned that after a longer than usual idle descent it is always a good idea to reset the directional gyro with the compass. When the engine is at idle and the vacuum pump pressure goes down the gyro may precess as much as 50 degrees and following its indications may put you on final on the wrong runway…

Old Business - Richard sent an update to the members.

The Toys for Tots event was a disappointment despite all our best efforts and great work and outfits! The little turnout is probably to be blamed on competition from different organizations and on the date. Next time, if the Chapter decides to hold the event, we should probably think about doing it on a different day and target local day care centers and schools.

The 2006 Holiday dinner was a big success. The new location proved great. We had 54 attending. Special thanks go to Dudley Darling who made this possible and all who donated the gifts for the raffle (Dudley Darling, David Clark, The Pilot Shop at Norwood Airport, Harry’s Restaurant, Northborough Liquors, Bob Hanlon, Toby Turner and Ken Sherman)

New Business - The date for the next Board of Directors meeting needs to be determined. Please email Beverly with what day and time works best for you.

As part of the Chapter renewal process Beverly upped the insurance to include coverage for the trailer.

The Halfway Café in Marlboro was proposed as an alternative location for our Chapter get-togethers after the meeting. Motion to adopt the new location starting February 2007 was accepted.

Saturday breakfast: no destination has been set yet. Just show up!

Brian won the 50/50 raffle. The prize money ($20) was split with the Chapter.

The meeting was adjourned at 7:50PM.

Maurizio Izzi (maurizio.izzi@gmail.com)