| A new airfield for Canberra |
| Thursday, 19 November 2009 13:27 |
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At the meeting in August you nominated a number of us to go away and make things happen. The group you elected to do this were:
The meeting decided that we should investigate a relationship with the Canberra Aero Club. We had a meeting with their directors, and decided that our very narrow goal of getting an airfield did not gel with their broader goal. The meeting was very positive and their directors were very supportive of what we are trying to do. The result of that meeting was that Michael Monck, a committee member of the Canberra Aero Club was accepted as our sixth committee member. We have registered an Association with the ACT Government called the Canberra Region Aviators Association Incorporated, to be known as the CRAA. We are in the process of establishing bank accounts, a web presence and email communication so we do not have to work through the RAA. We have worked through the nitty-gritty stuff related to the establishment of an Association and determined office bearers.
We have adopted the model rules the ACT Government suggests for Associations and all positions on the committee will be up for reelection at our AGM, which will be held in October or November 2010. We have decided on an annual membership fee of $50, with no joining fee, and will be sending out information on joining in the near future. We have decided that all transactions, as far as is legally possible will be electronic. As aviators it is the least we can do for the environment. Our next meeting will be early in the new year. We have had numerous discussions about how we should proceed, and determined that ou r goal will be to get at least one airfield that is within a sensible distance of most Canberra aviators. A question to consider is whether it will be desirable to have both a north and south airfield. There is a great deal of support from politicians at all levels for an airfield to the south of Canberra to allow for rapid access for firefighting in the Tinderrys and ranges to the west. It has now been some seven years since Chris Price presented the Williamsdale proposal to a supportive government and nothing has happened in the meantime. The committee believe that while we should forward the Williamsdale proposal in any was we can, we should also be on the lookout for potential blocks of land we could acquire in order to operate an airfield. It may well be that we will have to purchase or lease land to make an airfield happen and two of our committee in particular, Chris Price and John Washbrooke are looking for possible sites. This will obviously be a major topic at our general meeting early next year, but in the mean time, if any of you are aware of potential sites, could you forward that information on to me and I will inform the committee. At the meeting in the new year we hope to be able to talk in general terms about the options for financing an airfield. Michael Monck has established a website http://www.craa.org.au/ that we will use as our base. It is important that if you are interested you join as a member, as we will start to use the list of members of this site as our contact. Please note that we cannot use the list of people now held by the RAA, as there is an ethical issue in asking them to hand over the list. You will have to register at the new site to keep in contact. Go to the site, click on the members tab, and join. In the near future we will contact you with details on how to become a member of the Association. This is different from registering on the website which for the time being is for contact purposes only. In the mean time it is important that you nag friends who could be interested and forward this information on to them. We will not be able to progress things unless you as aviators are prepared to join the Association and encourage others to join. The next email will go out to people who have registered their names with the RAA, and those who have registered with our new Association, the CRAA. From then on, only people registered with the CRAA will receive communication. We will continue to send information to people who have registered their interest on the website, but people who join the Association will receive additional information related to meetings and the direction of the Association. We will be in touch again soon. Cheers, David Edmunds Secretary, CRAA Inc.
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