SEMSAnews

Spring 1998 (Our 16th Year)
A newsletter for the shareholders and friends of the Southeast Michigan Soaring Association, Inc. (SEMSA)


Southeast Michigan Soaring Association, Inc. (founded in 1982)
SEMSA Board of Directors for 1998:
Linda Stafford, President & Director
Mike Campbell, First Vice President & Director
Joe Domeier, V.P. for Community Relations & Dir.
Jim Barnes, Secretary & Director
Evan Dyer, Treasurer & Director
Dave Finch, Director
Rick Green, Director
Chuck Stoltz, Director
Tom Valen, Director

Web site: http://www.nuge.com/~semsa/

Email: semsa@nuge.com

1982 map1998 mapSEMSA's Richmond Field, Then & Now

SEMSA was founded in 1982 in response to a rare opportunity to purchase an airport where there was already glider activity and to secure it as an active and permanent soaring site. Over its long history, the sport of soaring in Michigan had witnessed the gradual and sometimes not so gradual disappearance of airport after airport and scores of great soaring sites.
In 1982, Richmond Field comprised 27 acres and was already the home of a 30-member soaring club (Huron Valley Soaring Club). The newly formed SEMSA corporation purchased Richmond Field from Gerald and Prudence Crouse with the goal of maintaining and improving it as a permanent soaring site that could remain viable long into the future. The 40 original shareholders were soaring enthusiasts from the Huron Valley Soaring Club (HVSC) and the Napoleon Soaring Club (NaSC), as well others not affiliated with any club but who also shared an interest in supporting the sport of soaring in southeast Michigan.
In 1994, with the help of new and existing shareholders, SEMSA purchased an additional 120 acres as part of its long-term plan to maintain and improve the airport facilities at Richmond Field.
Today, while airports and soaring sites across the U.S. have been rapidly diminishing in numbers, Richmond Field continues to be one of the more active soaring sites in the country. It serves as the home field of the 90-plus-member Sandhill Soaring Club, Inc., which was formed by the 1984 merger-consolidation of the Napoleon Soaring Club and the Huron Valley Soaring Club.
And so, year after year, Richmond Field continues to be the home of many hundreds of flight training operations in gliders and soaring flights.

New SEMSA Web site

Thanks to the initiative and volunteer efforts of Rick Green, SEMSA now has it's own Web site, albeit one that's still "under construction." We'll be adding to it from time to time, so please visit us at the following URL: http://www.nuge.com/~semsa/

Recent SEMSA activities at Richmond Field


A special thanks to outgoing SEMSA Board members...
Rolf Dietrich relocated to Wisconsin this past year, to pursue new business ventures related to his reinvention of the wheel (the Rolf Wheel, U.S. Patent Number 5,445,439!) and consequently resigned his position as Secretary and Director of SEMSA. (The Board subsequently appointed Jim Barnes to serve out the remaining portion of Rolf's 1997 term as Secretary.) We'll certainly miss Rolf's energy, and his knowledge of Robert's Rules; however, he remains a SEMSA shareholder and he's still retaining his active membership in Sandhill, so we can hope that he'll be back here in Michigan someday.
Chuck Franklin and Eb Geyer, who both received nominations for director-at-large positions on the 1998 SEMSA Board, opted not to run this year so that others might have opportunity to serve on the Board. In addition to being sometimes-roofers for SEMSA, both Eb and Chuck have devoted many long years of effort and enthusiasm for the benefit of the soaring community.
Chuck has served on the SEMSA Board in two separate multi-year stints. He was one of the six founding members of the Napoleon Soaring Club (a parent club of the Sandhill Soaring Club) in 1974 and became a SEMSA shareholder at its founding in 1982. He continues to work frequent and long hours as a CFIG and towpilot with the Sandhill club.
Eb Geyer has also served as a SEMSA director for several years. He is a 25-plus-year member of the Vultures, Inc., a long-time CFIG, a former Pilot-Examiner Designee, and an Honorary (but extremely hard-working!) member of the Sandhill Soaring Club. The Board of SEMSA extends its sincere thanks to Eb, to Chuck, and to Rolf for their many years of service to SEMSA and to Richmond Field and for their active and continuing support of soaring in southeast Michigan.

Still more THANK YOUs...
We wish to extend our further thanks to all those who participated in SEMSA's 1997 annual meeting, and in the election of officers and directors for 1998 - whether as nominees or as voting shareholders. We appreciate our forbearance during the tedious (but required) process of counting shares to establish that the necessary quorum was on hand and, later on, to tabulate votes. (Perhaps the coffee and donuts helped just a little bit to conquer the tedium?) And a special thanks to all those who stood willing to run and to serve if elected!

Report on the 1997 Annual Meeting of Shareholders
SEMSA's annual shareholders' meeting for 1997 was held as planned on Thursday, March 26, 1998, at the Ann Arbor Airport Terminal Building. (SEMSA's bylaws prescribe that the Annual Meeting be held on the fourth Thursday in October or as soon thereafter as practicable. Increasingly, because of year-end time pressures on nearly everyone involved in preparations for the meeting, we're finding that mid-to-late March is about "as soon thereafter" as we can muster. Since travel conditions are generally better in late March as well, this also leads to a somewhat better turnout of shareholders. So the SEMSA Board of Directors plans to hold the Annual Meeting in late March on a regular basis.)
Proxy forms, proxy information (including information about each of the incumbent officers and directors), minutes of the previous annual meeting, and current financial reports* were mailed to all shareholders along with the announcement of the meeting.
Seventy-two percent of all voting shares were represented at the meeting by shareholders attending in person or by proxy. In addition, Trudi Geyer (spouse of Eb Geyer) and Mike Bak (an active member and officer of the Sandhill Soaring Club) were also welcomed as visitors to the meeting.
During the first part of the meeting, members of the SEMSA Board discussed various projects and activities over the past year or so since the prior year's annual meeting (as briefly outlined on pages 1 and 2 of this newsletter).
Also as part of the Board reports, President Linda Stafford announced that during 1997 and the early part of 1998, four new shareholders have joined us and three current shareholders have increased their shares of SEMSA stock (Orrin Beckham; Dave Beebe; Bob Bowland; Bill Hahn; Gene Hammond, and Tom Hogan - all active members of the Sandhill Soaring Club).

Election of Officers and Directors for 1998
The next order of business at the Annual Meeting was the election of officers and directors to serve as SEMSA's Board during 1998. Nominations were received from the floor for the nine board positions. All of the incumbents for the five officer positions were nominated - and since there were no other nominees - were re-elected by acclamation:

For the four director-at-large positions, seven individuals were nominated: Eb Geyer (incumbent); Rick Green; Dave Finch (incumbent); Chuck Franklin (incumbent); Chuck Stoltz (incumbent); Kevin Stonebraker; and Tom Valen. [Prior to the voting, however, Eb Geyer and Chuck Franklin - each having served on the board for several years - said they would withdraw their names so that others might have opportunity to serve on the Board.] Voting for these positions was by written ballot, with each share having one vote as prescribed in our bylaws. Chuck Stoltz, LindaStafford, and Jim Barnes tabulated the votes -which was a bit difficult because the results were very close. The four nominees receiving the largest number of votes were elected. In alphabetical order, they are:

For the final portion of the meeting, the Board sought input from the shareholders on areas where they would like to see the SEMSA Board's priorities focused over the near term. The following topics were raised by the shareholders present at the meeting:
* Trees (to develop a systematic plan and criteria for deciding where they should be and where they shouldn't).
* Centerline monuments (to determine whether grade-level markers need to be installed immediately at each end of the runway and, if so, to install them).
* Hangars (to establish whether there is demand for additional aircraft storage space at Richmond Field, and whether we should pursue plans in the near-term for removal of the old Ts and for possible replacement with a special hangar for glider trailers or for assembled gliders).
* NE-SW runway (to establish whether this remains an option for the future, and one that we might be able to afford, and if so to continue development of such a plan).

SEMSA Stock certificates
Stock certificates, signed and affixed with the corporate seal, were issued at the meeting to several to persons who had purchased stock in the past several months but had not yet received their certificates. (Because SEMSA requires a signature when we present you with your certificate, we do not send these through the mail.) If you are a shareholder still awaiting receipt of one or more share certificates, please contact VP Mike Campbell.