The January, 1974 meeting of the Skywatchers Model Rocket Club was different in that we were now an officially chartered section of the NAR - The Rocky Mountain Association of Rocketry (ROMAR), section #103.
The original charter members of ROMAR consisted of Frank Gee, Glade and Lillian Gordon, Lester and Barb Coburn, Tim Harris, Randy Rinehart, Randy Blosser, Marc Kramer, and myself. In 1974, a club was required to have a minimum of ten NAR members to be able to form a section. There may possibly have been a couple of other individuals in the club at the time, but I have no existing record of their names.
When it became known to the club officials that I was enrolled in Advanced English and Creative Writing courses in high school, the editorship of ROMAR's brand new news-letter, The Cosmic Steppingstone, automatically fell into my lap. If memory serves me right, I believe it might have been Marc Kramer who proposed the name of the news-letter.
Never did I dream that forty-five-plus years later I would again be writing about model rocketry - and to an international audience, no less!
Once the organizational structure was in place, the section immediately set about with establishing a schedule for meetings and launch sessions. In looking through back-issues of the news letter, I am astounded to find that we scheduled business meetings once every two weeks with a launch session the following weekend!
Sheesh!
I could never keep up with such an intense schedule these days. It's a wonder any of us found time to build rockets!
Next post: 1974 - A Great Year For Model Rocketry In Colorado Springs
