On October 26th, the HACD Board accepted the resignation of Barb Davis as both Chief Observer and Secretary. The entire HACD Board would like to thank Barb for her professional voluntarism of many years to Competitive Ballooning. Thanks Barb!

The elected members of the Board have appointed Jim Dieball to replace Barb as Chief Observer. The position of Secretary will be permanently filled at the upcoming Board Meeting. Also, earlier this year the HACD held two formal elections in both the North Central and Southeast Regions. Congratulations to Jason Jones (North Central Region) and Sam Parks (Southeast Region) for their respective victories. A third Board position, At-Large Official, will continue to be filled by Mike Gilligan. Since there weren't enough candidates for a formal election to be held, the elected Board members appointed Mike to another three year term in August.

Congratulations Jim, Jason, Sam & Mike!

Last but not least, the HACD will be meeting face-to-face November 14-15,2009 in Houston, Texas. Please don't hesitate to contact your Regional Director or myself should you have any thoughts, ideas or suggestions you'd like to have presented at the meeting. (Click here to view the agenda for this meeting)

Sincerely,

Paul Petrehn

HACD Chairman/Great Lakes Region

734.426.5525 (office)

517.294.3995 (cell)

Sam Parks/Southeast Region: sam@parksqualityair.com

Maury Sullivan/At-Large Pilot: TequilaTom@aol.com

Andrew Baird/BFA Board Liaison: baird@cameronballoons.com

Dale Wong/West Region: dhwong1@earthlink.net

David Levin/Event Director: davidnlevin@gmail.com

Steve Lombardi/Southwest Region: TXHotAir@aol.com

Richard Sabin/At-Large Pilot: RFST91@aol.com

Al Nels/Northwest Region: al@nels.us

Jason Jones/North Central Region: jjones05@bluevalleyk12.org

Mike Gilligan/At-Large Official: gilliganm@suddenlink.net

Jim Dieball/Chief Observer: jdieball@wi.rr.com