September 21, 1997Minutes of the fourteenth meeting of the Tri-State chapter held on September 21, 1997 at Sam Liebowitz's Home.In Attendance:
Eugenia Criss (New Member)
Excitement Sharing The various members present discussed some recent events that they found interesting or exciting. Questions & Answers on FMF in general For the benefit of the members who had not been to a meeting recently, and for new members, there was a discussion of what is currently happening with the FMF. The FMF is now approximately 500 members, and Richard Crews is now the official 'Executive Director.' We also discussed the revisions in the structure of the executive board, with the three permanent positions proposed to be turned into regular elected positions. It was also asked if the FMF had any stand on the Cassini satellite. No position has ever been expressed by anyone official for the FMF, and since it is a government program, it falls outside of FMF concerns. There was some discussion of the booklet 'Why the FMF is needed' which Richard Crews put together. There were a number of criticisms of the booklet, and it was decided as a chapter project, that we would work on our own brochure for the FMF. There were a few questions that were brought up on a number of topics that have been discussed on the mailing lists in the past. It was recommended that interested members refer to the e-mail archives on the FMF website. SEE Review The land has been purchased for SEE in Bastrop county, Texas. Gale passed around an updated sketch of the property to give us a better idea of the layout of land, and how we may build on it. Gale is currently working on the legal paperwork for the cooperative. The first structure on SEE will probably be a double-wide mobile home with six guest rooms, and will house all of the initial settlers until other housing is constructed. SEE finances were presented as follows: $ 20,000 per settlers, of which, $ 8,000 would go for community costs, and $ 12,000 for the individual dwelling. Of the $ 20,000, each settler is expected to have 25%, or $ 5,000 at initial move in. The land in Bastrop county gets around 30" of rain per year, so it is far from desert, but also not as wet as New York City. Road access and electricity are of primary concerns, and are being researched further by Gale. In discussing layouts for SEE, Gale proposed 3 clusters in total for this piece of land, for total population of 74 people. Business Basics As a new feature of our Chapter Meetings, we have started a session to encourage and teach our members about the basics of running a business. We started with a case study of a successful business man who lost it all, only to come back even bigger the second time around. The lesson to learn; never give up! We started with an exercise of giving each individual a $ 1,000 bill and asking what type of business each of us would start. Outreach We discussed working with other space oriented groups, such as the local NSS chapter, as well as other groups. We also discussed developing a model of SEE to be able to show people a more physical representation of what we hope to build. We also discussed trying to create a brochure, booklet, and flier, that we could use for outreach to a wide range of people, including college students. New Business For the next meeting we would come up with goals for the Chapter. Next Meeting The next Tri-State Chapter meeting was scheduled for October 19th, 1997. contact the author of this home page: Dmitri Donskoy  Last modified: Sunday, October 12, 1997  Home |