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Newsletter
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IWRA Newsletter
International Water Rocket Association
A trimonthly publication of the International Water Rocket Association
Issue 7 / November 2009
MESSAGE FROM THE PRESIDENT:
Hi Everyone,
A lot of progress has been made over the past year. Ratification of the final competition package of the water rocket achievement recognition guidelines and the associated peer-review process was the highlight of the year. The founding of the President’s Council (PC) and Peer-Review Board (PRB) this year have played a very important role in setting the direction of the association and has helped in the discussion-making process of the President’s Office. A big thank you goes out to all the members of both groups that have served this past year.
The association just completed its 2nd Annual Membership drive and is now gearing up for its annual election of officers that is scheduled for this December. The following schedule will be followed:
Nominations of Officers: December 18 – 24, 2009
Election of Officers: December 25 – 31, 2009
Officers take office: January 01, 2010
Voting Challenge Period: January 01 – 06, 2010
Its time to start thinking about who you wish to nominate for the office of President, Vice-President and Secretary and make contact with those individuals to see if they are interested in serving. At that point you can forward your selections of names and offices that they are being nominated to the president’s office. They will be added to the master nomination roster that will be sent out to all members on December 24th. Due to not filling the office of Secretary this past year, the office of President with the help of the President’s Council will oversee the election this year.
As of this writing, there are no pending voting questions or amendments scheduled to be voted on by the membership during this years voting cycle.
Gene F.
IWRA – President ‘09
Membership Roster and Administrative Withdrawal:
One of the most difficult duties of the office of president is to recommend members for administrative withdrawal from the membership roster of the association. This past year the President’s office has gone through the roster to try to make contact with those members that have not renewed their annual membership or that the association had a dead email address for the member.
The process was to try to keep an up-to-date membership roster of active members. Because the association did not have and needed a procedure for withdrawing inactive memberships administratively, the following procedure was adopted by the President’s Council for this purpose.
• Section 1. Annual membership renewal required.
• Section 2. Renewal period is 30 days either side of the member's birthday.
• Section 3. Members are subject to administrative withdrawal (AW) from the official membership roster 30 days after the renewal cycle has expired.
• Section 4. Administrative withdrawal is recommended by the President of the association and an approval vote conducted by current members of the President's Council.
• Section 5. Withdrawal votes start on the 15th of each month and are conducted for a 7 day period.
• Section 6. A total of 5 membership notices constitutes making an attempt to contact for purpose of renewing membership.
- 1 Membership notice sent 30 days before member’s birthday.
- 1 Membership notice sent during the week of member’s birthday.
- 2 Membership notices sent during the 30 day period after the member’s birthday.
- 1 Final membership notice sent just before being sent before the President's Council for final administrative withdrawal vote of the council.
• Section 7. Once administrative withdrawal vote is taken and approved, the official membership rosters are updated and related members privileges revoked.
From this process the following members were administratively withdrawn from the association this past year. Please note that a couple of the members were deemed special order recipients and have been kept on the mailing list only.
John F. 11.2008 (AW)
Dan S. 03.2009 (AW)
David L. 03.2009 (AW) Special Order Recipient
Phil W. 03.2009 (AW)
Joseph S. 04.2009 (AW)
Suwan P. 05.2009 (AW)
Lonnie E. 07.2009 (AW) Special Order Recipient
Arthur R. 09.2009 (AW)
Communication and Collaborations:
Twitter Account: http://www.twitter.com/waterrockets:
As in the last issue of the newsletter, the president’s office has opened a Twitter account to provide another avenue to inform the water rocket community and the general public of what is happening within the IWRA.
Presently, “Tweets” cover the President’s office day-to-day operations of the association. But the technology could also be used by the PC & PRB in future functions of those groups.
MySpace Account: www.myspace.com/waterrocketassociation
Facebook Account:
http://www.facebook.com/pages/INTERNATIONAL-WATER-ROCKET-ASSOCIATION/
Recently, the president’s office opened both a MySpace and Facebook account to provide another outlet for the association to connect with the water rocket community and the general public. Both social networks are very popular and should provide a great tool to get the association message out.
Blog Account: http://waterrocketeers.blogspot.com/
Along with the social networks (Twitter, MySpace and Facebook), the president’s office has also started a blog account which highlights the upcoming events of the association. As of this writing an announcement on the upcoming election cycles is being prepared. Again, all the accounts are seen as a way to get the association name “brand” and what the association is about distributed to as many people as possible and to seek interested individuals.
Webinars:
Still in the planning stages is the use of “Webinars” were the association could provide free seminars on topics of interest to members and non-members within the water rocket community. One issue that would need to be addressed using this technology is the time differences of participants involved and archiving of the conference. One solution to the time issue is to record the webinar and provide this recording in the archive area of the IWRA website. Along with the recording a list of contact email address or a discussion forum could be setup with the presenters.
IWRA Official Website:
Work continues on the site but no discussion has been started about obtaining server space or a domain address for the association. After the first of the year, I have decided to personally donate the cost of a dedicated site and domain address for the association for at less the first two years of operation with the newly elected president and President’s Council approval.
In my option the association needs a permanent presence on the web and will need a website to move forward with the water rocket achievement recognition project and other future proposed projects which the association is getting involved.
Once the website is up and running, I feel membership will increase and discussions within the total membership can start on how best to generate operating funds to maintain the site after the two year period is completed. Weather or not I continue as your president for the upcoming year, the need for a dedicated website and related discussions will need to take place. I as a member of the IWRA, plan to make several proposals and recommendations to the newly elected president and president’s council for consideration. Positive input from members is encouraged and necessary to make this a usable organization. Along with making recommendations and proposals to the president’s council, open discussions with the full membership on the IWRA forum should start shortly after the elections are completed.
Gene F.
IWRA - President '09
Contact Information:
International Water Rocket Association: Website
International Water Rocket Association: Forum
International Water Rocket Association: General Email Address
International Water Rocket Association: Twitter Address
2009 International Water Rocket Association
(REVISED: 11.22.2009)
