GENERAL MEMBERSHIP MEETING - March 8, 2012

The meeting was called to order by President Steve Rush at 6:30 PM.  There were 20 members present.   Trustee Rick Boylston was absent.

Dave Oltmans read the February 9 meeting minutes.  A motion to accept and a second were received.  Tom Anderson pointed out that there had been a motion with second to increase the compensation of the Flight Representatives.  After a brief discussion the motion was withdrawn.  The February minutes will be corrected to reflect this fact.
Richard White gave the Secretary-Treasurer’s report.  We have 324 members.  A motion to accept and a second were received.  A brief discussion of membership fluctuations was discussed.  The report was accept as read.

TRUSTEE'S REPORTS

Primary:  Jim Guy reported that there had been two engine hot starts in Primary, one spike knock resulting in damage and a hydralics anomaly with no damage.  One of the hot starts was attributed to a mechanical failure with no blame to the IP.  In the second instance, the crew attempted to start, the IP noticed the Fuel Valve switch had not been turned on.  The IP ordered an aborted start but before the throttle was closed the student turned the Fuel Valve switch on toasting the engine.  A letter of reprimand was issued for this failure to follow checklist procedures.

The spike knock was apparently sustained during a training flight and discovered on post flight.  It is believed that the damage occurred while practicing hovering autorotations in the sod.  A letter of reprimand was issued to the IP.

The hydralics anomaly occurred with skid contact on the ground but with no damage sustained.

Advanced:  Claudio Kempa reported that all was well in Advanced Division.

BWS: Floyd Emory ask questions about the Training Contract that new hires have to sign which requires a prorated payback of MOI costs and per diem if the employee resigns prior to his one year anniversary.  Floyd had been told that the company was charging $1,200 per flight hour.

Dave Oltmans responded that every new trainee is required to sign the contract promising to reimbuse the company for its expenses, up to $75,000, should the employee resign before completing one year employment with the company.  According to Keith Sasser, the employee in question is 6 months into his training contract obligation.  Should he decide to resign, he would owe the company $1,200 for every month remaining of his employment year.  For the employee in question, that would be approximately $7,200.  The training contact is binding.  It is an industry standard contract and any one who resigns early can expect to have the balance of their prorated training costs turned over to a collection agency if they fail to pay it back.  The contract does not charge employees who are laid off or grounded since they are not voluntarily resigning their employment.

Steve added that the employee training contract was signed before the official hiring of the trainee and that the agreement is between the company and the employee.  The union cannot help resolve any disputes concerning the training contract.

At Large: Rod George had no report.

OLD BUSINESS

Steve reported that the Mike Antonelli situation was still being investigated although the congressional investigation appears to have ended.  There is still an IG investigation underway.  The Union is still following up with a letter to the Senate Committee charged with this kind of oversight.

The new gutter is in, but Steve admitted that it is not exactly the way he wanted it.

The quote for the 8 foot chainlink fence to secure our property area is $6,400 which includes tree removal.  Steve’s concern is to secure our heat pumps by making them harder to get at.

Heli Expo was held in Dallas, Texas and was very good.  The helicopter industry has come a long way.

Members were reminded that we are in the Scholarship cycle window this month.  We will be granting 6 PHPA scholarships of $1000 each.  Our insurance company will be offering one additional $1000 scholarship.

NEW BUSINESS

Dave Oltmans introduced Ken Ford to the membership as our new Webmaster.  His mission will be to keep our website up to date.  Any suggestions on how to make the website a better tool will be appreciated.

Dave Oltmans asked the Flight Reps to verify the addresses of the employees in their flights.  We have a number of undelivered “return to sender” addresses for Commo Check that cost the Union .45 cents apiece to have them returned.

From the floor.  A question was raise as to why the Flight Reps could not just pick up the Commo Checks and hand deliver them to the employees thereby saving postage altogether.  Another question was to put the Commo Check on the Website and do away with the publication altogether.  The practicality of these suggestions will be investigated.

Tom Anderson made a motion to change Flight Representative compensation from $25 to $35 per meeting.  Floyd Emery seconded the motion.  Discussion revolved around if we could financial support the change and Richard White said that the funds were there.  One question revolved around how many non flight rep members were present, the issue being that since the Flt reps were the bulk of the membership at each meeting it may be consider inappropriate to be voting a compensation raise from the floor.

Dave Oltmans read the appropriate procedure from the By Laws, which would require a motion, second and vote by the membership of the June meeting  to ratify the compensation change.

The motion was withdrawn until June.

There being no new business, the meeting was adjourned at 7:27 PM.

Very Respectfully

David Oltmans
Recording Secretary