Minutes - August 2010

Minutes of the Meeting of the Greater St. Louis Ninety Nines
Sunday, 15 August 2010

Present: Ruth Bohnert, Audrey Casper, Gussie Freese, Delia Greer, Mary Kinnaw, Sue Mathias, Jean Murry, Martha Norman, Jan Pocock, Sally Siebe, Susan Van Matre, Vivian Waters, and Libby Yunger

The meeting followed our Chapter Birthday Party during lunch at Creve Coeur airport. We noshed on hamburgers or turkey “filet mignon” with condiments, stir fried vegetables, and potato salad topped off by a fabulous sheet cake from McArthur Bakery that was donated by Jan Pocock. Martha Norman and Jean Murry brought photos of past Chapter events. It was fun to visit and reminisce.

The meeting was called to order at 1:30 pm by our Chairman, Jean Murry. We had no meeting in July so there were no minutes. Martha Norman presented the treasurer’s report. Jean Murry reported that we had received a thank you note from the Wings of Hope for our $150 donation in support of Teresa Camp and Beverly Cleair in the Air Race Classic. Jan Pocock was thanked for bringing the cake.
Gussie Freese reported that our library display is on vacation this month but will be in the Lewis and Clark Library in September.

Old Business:

Susan Van Matre clarified arrangements for our tour of the Saint Louis University (SLU) and Parks College Campus on Saturday, 11 September. There is no limit to the number of attendees but the golf cart that will be available for anyone who is unable to walk the entire distance of the tour will only accommodate 6 people. There will be a tour of SLU from 10:30 – 11:30 am and a tour of the new Parks College campus from 11:30 am – 12:30 pm. This will be followed by lunch at 1 pm at The Fountain on Locust. The parking arrangements and assembly point will be announced in the September Newsletter.

The October meeting will be a tour of the TRACON in Weldon Springs followed by lunch at one of the wineries on Rte 94. Once Ruth Bohnert’s son knows his work schedule, the date will be set and Vivian Waters will make reservations for us at the Winery.

The Lambert Airport Tour is scheduled for 13 November.

The Holiday Luncheon will be on Saturday, 11 December at the Mother-in-Law House restaurant on Old Capitol in historic downtown St. Charles. The group decided that we would order from the menu.

Our January meeting will be at the Midwest Aviation Conference and Trade Show. We will again be raffling a goodie basket. Libby Yunger has donated a basket, bottle of wine and salsa. Jean Murry asked the Chapter members to donate other items for the basket.

Martha Norman announced that the Chapter Handbook would be distributed in September.

Since attendance has improved for the first three meetings this year, the group decided to continue calling members each month to remind them of the meeting date, time, and place.

New Business:

The Women with Wings Chapter of WAI asked our Chapter to join them at the Boeing Theater for the showing of Flyabout – an autobiographical documentary by Monika Petrillo about her flight around Australia with her father in a single engine aircraft. The Boeing Prologue Room opens at 5 pm, the film is at 6 pm, and there will be a Q&A session with Monika Petrillo following the film. Enter the Boeing Theater through the Prologue Room.

We discussed future program ideas. 1) Jean Murry suggested that we view the movie Pearl - a biography of Eula “Pearl” Carter Scott. She was the daughter of a wealthy Oklahoma oilman his wife, a Chickasaw Indian. With the encouragement of her father’s friend, Wiley Post, Pearl obtained a pilot’s license at age 14 in 1928. She is the youngest women and the first female Native American to obtain a pilot’s license. This movie was shown at Oshkosh this year but is very low budget and is unlikely to have wide distribution in theaters. 2) Libby Yunger suggested that Susan Van Matre contact Anne Mongiovi to see if she would be willing to arrange for us to fly the sailplanes at Highland-Wynet Airport.

The fall meeting of the North Central Section will be a joint meeting with the Southeast Section in Nashville, TN, on 1-3 October 2010. Jan Pocock is planning to attend and would appreciate if someone from the chapter would share travel and lodging expenses with her.

Newsletter - August 2010

The Greater St. Louis Ninety-Nines
Newsletter
August, 2010

August meeting: Chapter Birthday Party
Sunday, 15 August 2010 at noon
Creve Coeur Airport
Business meeting will follow lunch at 1 pm

Note that lunch at Creve Coeur is now $6 – but the food is always excellent and well worth the modest cost. If you haven’t driven to Creve Coeur airport lately, the easiest way to get there is to take I-270 and exit at the Page Ave Extension (MO-364) west. Exit MO-364 at Maryland Hts Expressway. Go north (right) on Maryland Hts Expressway approximately 1 mile to Creve Coeur Mill Rd. Turn left at Creve Coeur Mill Rd and follow it into the airport parking lot. We hope many of you will come by and wish our Chapter a Happy Birthday.

July Event:
There was no business meeting in July, therefore there will be no minutes. However, 23 members and guests attended Patrice Mullins presentation on her career as St. Louis County police officer and Chief helicopter pilot. In addition to Patrice, chapter members in attendance were Sarah Arnac, Teresa Camp, Delia Greer, Mary Kinnaw, Sue Mathias, Patrice Mullins, Jean Murry, Martha Norman, Jan Pocock, Susan Van Matre, and Libby Yunger. We had several guests from the Women with Wings chapter of WAI and from St. Charles Zonta, of which Patrice is a past president. Patrice’s presentation took the form of an interview moderated by Nanette Malher, followed by questions from the audience. Patrice related highlights of her life from 5-year-old B-B gun marksman through several changes in her college major to a post-college desk job to the police academy. She told of many of her more harrowing or interesting experiences as a police officer and later in the police helicopter unit and as a sniper on the SWAT team. Her goal was always to be the best police officer that she could be. Moderator Nanette Malher is a Ninety Nine from Nashville TN where she owns Aviatrix Enterprises (www.aviatrixenterprises.com). She was in town to garner support for a documentary she is producing on the life and times of Bobbi Trout, entitled “If I Reach” – The Bobbi Trout Story. Bobbi was a charter member of the Ninety Nines whom Nanette met when they both attended Amelia Earhart’s 90th birthday gathering in Atchison KS in 1987. Fifteen years later, when Bobbi was in her 90s, she asked Nanette to help her create a web site (www.bobbitrout.com) so that her memorabilia from the early years of women in aviation would not be lost. Nanette was also involved in the production of the recent documentary on the 1929 Women’s Air Derby entitled Breaking through the Clouds: The First Women’s National Air Derby. This air race was the first time the women pilots had worked together to do something on a national scale, and it became the impetus for the formation of the Ninety Nines (www.breakingthroughtheclouds.com).

Chapter News:
Please mark your calendars for our September meeting and tour of the St. Louis University and the new Parks College campus in midtown St. Louis on Saturday, 11 September. Susan Bloomfield of SLU will conduct the tour. Times are as follows: 10:30-11:30 am – campus tour of SLU, 11;30 am – 12:30 pm, tour of the Parks campus. SLU will provide a golf cart with seating for up to 6 people for anyone not wanting to walk the entire campus. Lunch at The Fountain on Locust will follow the tour. The Fountain has really great soups, salads, and sandwiches and, best of all, ice cream desserts. We hope many of our members will be able to attend.

There is now a web-based St. Louis Aviation calendar listing events scheduled in the Greater St. Louis area. This site also has links to the websites of the GSL Ninety Nines and other local aviation organizations. The site URL is http://stlaviationcalendar.com/default.aspx .


Member News:
We were very happy that member Sarah Arnac could attend our July meeting. Sarah is an aeronautical engineering student at Purdue University in Indiana and is now dividing her time between classes in Indiana and her internship with NASA in California, with only occasional stops in the St. Louis area to visit family. She is planning to change her Ninety Nines affiliation to a chapter in California but she knows she is always welcome to visit the Greater St. Louis chapter when she is in the area.

One of Susan Van Matre’s guests at the July talk was Jennie Fosdick, flight instructor at Air Associates, the new flight school at Spirit of St. Louis Airport. Susan recently flew with Jennie – and, Susan, we hope that’s just a first step to flying PIC again. Another interesting note: Susan and Patrice got to talking at the luncheon and discovered that not only did they both grow up in the same North St. Louis County neighborhood but they were in first grade together. Now that’s a small world!

Corresponding Secretary, Mary Kinnaw, is now sending Chapter thank you notes on note cards created by Vivian Waters from a photo she took at the Compass Rose project in Greenville IL. Thank you, Vivian!