Wednesday, June 12, 2019

Back In The Day, Part 27 - ROMAR Resurrected!

Following the resounding success of the HOTROC-1 Open Meet in Colorado Springs, the Mountain Region virtually took off.

ROMAR was able to renew its NAR charter, since the number of members by then had increased beyond the five required to constitute a section.

Also, two thriving new sections were formed in the Mountain Region:  WARP in Utah, and COSMIC in Denver.  Over the next few years, these three organizations grew into a force to be reckoned with as far as NAR competition points went.  In the 1982 contest year, all three sections made the NAR top ten list in contest points totals.  In, 1983, two of the sections (ROMAR and WARP) were still in the top ten.

As for ROMAR itself, we saw a substantial increase in activity:  Several high-visibility public demonstration launches helped to bring in a much needed local exposure to the club, as well as bringing in several new members. 

And, of course, our sport launches and workshops continued to be held on a regular basis, with outstanding attendance.

After a hiatus of several years, the club news letter, The Cosmic Steppingstone, went back into production with a brand new, slicker format and variety of content. News letter trade with several other NAR sections around the country was facilitated, and we printed lots of extras to place in all of the local hobby shops.

At one point in 1982, we were honored by the presence of NAR President J. Pat Miller at one of our club meetings.  Mr. Miller happened to be in Colorado Springs for business purposes, and was able to find the time to stop in and chat.  One of the serious discussions concerned the possibility of ROMAR hosting an upcoming NARAM, perhaps at the U.S. Air Force Academy.

As for me, I had renewed my position as Mountain States Region Manager, and continued the work of keeping lines of communication open and working with members and sections.  Steve Sande of COSMIC in Denver was appointed Colorado State Department head, and Gary Price of WARP in Utah, served in the same capacity for that state.  These two sections also began conducting their own smaller contests, with WARP starting up the 'Pioneer' series of Regional meets.

Next post:  HOTROC-2 !!!