Last year was one of the biggest in HARA’s recent history. As HARA President, I wanted to grow the club’s membership, improve attendance at regular club meetings, & promote HARA to the public. Club meeting attendance has been very high with a lot of new faces. We had four guest speaker nights, five Tech Talks, & one hands on workshop. We launched 463 motors this year (307 at Southern Thunder) totaling 166 lbs of propellant or about 0.196MNs of total impulse. That number in perspective is equivalent to 0.014% of one Space Shuttle SRB, 0.33% of the Space Ship One propulsion system, 22% of a Black Brant X booster, or 5 hell fire missiles. HARA’s TARC workshops were wildly successful in preparing 15 teams for the TARC competition, with 3 local teams finishing in the top 11 in the nation. We have had a general PSA playing on 89.3 FM WLRH in Huntsville, & our Facebook page has been very active. The club enacted new bylaws this year, & saw a membership fee increase for the first time since the club was formed 34 years ago. The increase helped us purchase a new club equipment trailer buy or refurbished equipment, & help sponsor club projects & outreach opportunities. It has been a successful year, but the best it ahead.
January 9th marked the first club meeting an exciting year for HARA. 2014 Officers are as follows: President – Daniel Cavender, Vice President – Woddy Bevill, Secretary, Elliot Laramie – Treasurer – Duane Mayer, NAR Advisor – Vince Huegele, & TRA Prefect – Fred Kepner. We are very fortunate to have these members step up & serve as officers.
HARA has set a few exciting goals for 2014 & I encourage all to find a way to be involved. First of all, HARA will be hosting an Open House event on March 6th starting at 7PM. The objective is to show visitor what HARA has to offer. Please let me know if you are interested in participating. Our new website committee, headed by Jesse Jones will be online soon. Jesse has put a lot of effort into these improvements & I encourage all to find ways to share photos, videos, & blogs through our new website. Jesse has offered to help teach the word press software to anyone who is interested.
The two most exciting goals this year may be the student launch experience & club rocket projects. The student launch experience project, led by Duane Mayer, will give local schools an opportunity to design a hosted or deployable payload that flies on a high power rocket. Student will propose a payload, submit several life cycle reviews, build the payload, & then attend its launch. The club rocket build project will also serve as the student launch experience rocket. Those two projects are large undertakings & require sustained support from club members. I ask that you help support these two projects to the extent possible. HARA will also host Southern Thunder, our annual two day rocket launch event. Southern Thunder will be June 21-22 in Manchester, TN. We need a member to step up & organize the launch in the next month. Also, HARA has an opportunity to participate in the TEDxHuntsville event in September. Woody has agreed to organize that effort. There is an exciting new collaboration in the works between Boeing & HARA to support TARC team mentor recruitment & development. Vince Huegele will be representing HARA’s interests in that developing relationship.
Membership dues for 2014 are due March 1st. Individual memberships are $20, & family memberships are $30. Our next club meeting is February 6th @ 7:30PM. This year will be a definitive one for HARA. I am glad to be able to lead this club in this direction, but it cannot be done alone. I thank everyone who has already stepped forward to lead projects. I ask that others please find a way to support one or more of these projects. It is an opportunity to be a part of something special that could profoundly influence the career & life paths of those that have the opportunity to experience it with us. Thank you.
Daniel Cavender,
HARA President
