President's Message - Dale Taylor
I hope the New Year finds everyone well and excited to get soaring. We, as your elected board wanted to update you concerning a few things this year, so I’ve put together this letter. We met as a board and nominated Ned Dolan as the Maintenance officer for the year. He has talked with Walt who has also volunteered to help with maintenance issues in Morgan. This will help us cover both airports better. Roger Moore was nominated as Safety office and has accepted.

With the purchase of our new Grob last year, there have been a few changes to our financial picture. The insurance costs, which are our largest expense every year, have increased. It should be no surprise that it costs more to insure a glider with 3x the value of an older relatively easy to repair model. Jim has put together a nice review of our expenses for the past couple years, along with a forecasted budget for this year. The good news is that we’re on top of things. The negative side is that we’re right on the edge of staying in the black. We don’t have much room for any problems or additional expenses this year. I’ll leave the exact details of the budget for an article from Jim, but Insurance is our biggest expense, followed by tie-down costs in Heber. In years past we’ve had rather high maintenance bills. This year we really need to all work together to keep that from being the case.

2004 Board Members
President	Dale Taylor	801-785-8177	dale@soarwest.com
Vice President	Tom Meecham	435-657-9590	tmeecham@msn.com
Secretary	Bob Briggs	435-649-7189	Briggs8406@aol.com
Treasurer	Jim Krog	801-553-8558	asw20@comcast.net
Maintenance	Ned Dolan	435-649-2896	nedolan@xmission.com
Safety	Roger Moore	801-420-7627	rmoore@phonex.com

We do have a few maintenance items planned for. New seatbelts in 46Y, a new canopy cover for 8BG and possibly a few changes to BW to try and increase the useful load. (mainly a lighter O2 bottle). Other than these issues, we need to keep a little cash on hand in reserve and need everyone’s help in maintaining and caring for our gliders. Concerning maintenance work, if anything comes up that needs to be done, or if you do anything to the gliders, please notify Ned Dolan so that he’ll be aware. We want to make sure all work is coordinated. Ned has put together a parking check-list for each of the gliders, please review those when putting them away for the day.

Considering the tightly balanced budget, it would be wonderful if we could pick up a few new members this year (and not lose any existing members). Please let us know of your friends who might be interested in joining. Just a few new members would give us a nice reserve and keep things from getting close to force a review. I know the current board is very concerned with keeping a positive cash flow. Our dues is very low and we like it that way, but we also need to stay solvent to keep enjoying the sport we all so love.

This is what we’ve got planned for the gliders this year. We’ll start with both of the Grob’s at Morgan. This gives us an early soaring season start. 8BG’s insurance kicks in on April 1st and the first Saturday after that is when Jay plans to start towing. I want to thank Ned Dolan, Lee Steorts, David Lane, Dick Bean and Chris Steinman for helping to get the glider assembled and ready to fly. It should be noted that as the gliders are inspected and ready to go, they will be available on the online reservation system. 8BG has now had a fresh annual, is assembled and can be reserved for use. The other gliders will be available in a few weeks. 46Y is scheduled for an annual in a few days, as is BW in Heber. The insurance for those two doesn’t kick in until May 1st.

Once Heber is open, we plan to keep a Grob and BW there. With the tie-down expenses as high as they are, it helps us to keep a glider at Morgan (the tie-downs there are 1/4th the price of Heber). The additional weeks soaring early and late season is another nice benefit. There are also a few new members interesting in joining in the Morgan area. We’re going to see if they follow through, which would give us a reason to permanently keep a Grob at Morgan. This year we’ll be watching the usage to make sure things are working well.

Expenses - annual
Insurance	$3514
Tiedowns	$792
Annuals	$600
BG payment	$3480
Picnics	$200
Oxygen	$300
Postage/Web	$280
Scheduling	$144
Total	$9310
Income - annual
Member dues	$9260
SSA rebates	$200
Total	$9460
Cash on hand
Savings	$914
Checking	$600
Total	$1514

Our opening assembly day is scheduled for Sat May 1st in Heber. Please plan to join us there to assemble the Grob and 1-34. The Spring BBQ is planed for Sat May 22nd at about noon. Please join us for food and visiting.

That’s it for the summary. I’m looking forward to seeing you at the airport, renewing friendships and enjoying the skies together. - Dale Taylor

Note from the Treasurer - Jim Krog
Here is an estimated list of income vs. expenses. As you can see we are running a very close budget. We are asking the members to be very careful with the equipment. Especially watch out for ground handling and tie down mishaps. This has cost us significantly in other years. We will also expect more help from members in doing work that we have paid for in the past. As the new year gets rolling we expect to find several new members and that will help ease the budget. Also note that BG will be paid off April 2005.

Cheaper billing system - Jim Krog
I'm trying to set up a bill-through-email system instead of using the post office to save the club some money. Please send me some email so I can generate a new list. asw20@comcast.net- Jim Krog