AceMaker & Baker
Volunteer Newsletter
Abbotsford International Airshow Society
Sept. 2013
Volume 1, Issue 4
Calling New Members
C h a n g e s c o m i n g to A i r s h ow S o c i e t y
Abbotsford
It has been said with some truth that
airshows run on beer. Here are beer
The AceMaker T-33 piloted by Greg “Wired” Colyer makes a spectacular banana pass in front of the crowd silhou-
team volunteers Robin Fraser, Sheila
etted against Mt. Baker at this year’s airshow. Greg’s program was a real hit with fans in his Canadian-built aircraft.
Flavelle and Sile Gaughan loading up
Greg sent a message after he left telling us what a great time he had - “Abbotsford absolutely lived up to everything
for delivery across the show site.
that I had heard about it. What a great show!”
Airshow
2014 Dates:
August 8/9/10
RCAF Hats & Badges
Vo l u n t e e r B l owo u t !
We’re on the web
abbotsfordairshow.com
This year we brought in a number of
very high quality hats and badges highlighting the RCAF for sale at the show.
These are the well known, high quality
Red Canoe brand and include RCAF
roundel hats in navy, burnt yellow and
stone plus an RCAF wings hat. We
have a number of these items left and
are making them available to volunteers
at a blowout price which will cover our costs.
They would certainly make great Christmas gifts
for the aviation enthusiast in your life. Hats
which retail regularly at $26 are available to you
for $16.00 (taxes included) and the small RCAF
badges (regular retail $7) are only $4.50 Please
call the office at 604-852-8511 or visit the Airshow Volunteer Info Page if you would like to
order any of these items.
In a challenging financial environment for
event producers, the Airshow has been
accessing funding from Lottery Commission.
1464 Tower Street
Letter from the Prez
P.2
Airshow Appreciation
Ali & Mindy (cont’)
P.3
P.3
Volunteer Bar-B-Q
P.4
RCAF Hats & Badges sale
P.4
Canada V2T 6H5
Tel: 604-852-8511
Fax: 604-852-6093
Abbotsford
International Airshow
Certain changes are required to the Society and
Board structure to continue to be able to apply
for this source of funding.
Essentially the Board has proposed
constitutional changes removing the reserved
spots on the Board for members of the AFC,
reducing the overall size of the Board of
Directors, and recommending a membership
drive to greatly increase the size and diversity
of the Airshow Society membership. Under the
new structure, the membership of the Society
will elect new Board members, with half of the
spots open for election each year. This is news
of interest to volunteers and others with a keen
interest in the Abbotsford Airshow—we want
Ali & Mindy Conclude a Great
Summer of Ser vice at the Airshow
In this issue:
Abbotsford, BC
The Abbotsford International Airshow
Society was created many years ago as the
organization responsible for producing each
year’s world class airshow. The Society has
consisted of a number of members and a
Board of Directors to oversee operations.
Half of the Board positions have
constitutionally been reserved for election by
members of the Abbotsford Flying Club,
which along with the Rotary Club was
originally responsible for creating the
Abbotsford Airshow.
Our 2013 summer staff
of Volunteer Coordinator
Ali Siemens and Corporate Sales staff member
Mindy Black completed
their work tours at the
end of August and have
headed off to tackle new
challenges and assignments. Both girls
expressed how exciting and fulfilling it has
been to work for the Airshow.
Ali: “At first, I didn’t know what to expect but
once I understood the role, I found working at
the Abbotsford Airshow to
be one of the best
experiences I have had so
far. The adrenaline keeps
you going, and the smiles
on people’s faces at the
end of the show are
priceless.” Ali was the
person responsible for,
among other things,
coming up with a great variety of meals for
volunteer work parties leading up to show
week and also for the massive job of keeping
our volunteers fed and watered throughout
show weekend.
Letter from
The
President
Volunteers;
The 2013 Abbotsford Airshow is now
one for the history books. To say
that this year’s show was challenging
would be an understatement. The
challenges came in the form of early
morning weather on Saturday and
Sunday that seemed threatening,
sequestration which dampened the
US military participation and competitive challenges of other airshows in
the same region.
you to be our partner as a member of the
Abbotsford Airshow Society.
With this in mind, membership in the
Abbotsford International Airshow Society
is now open for applications! Who better
to become members with the greater good
of the airshow in mind than our great
group of volunteers themselves who put in
such an effort every year to produce our
world class airshow? We are hoping that
most of our volunteers will want to become
members of the Airshow Society and have
a vote in electing members to the Board.
Membership is available by going to our
website and looking for the Membership
Application under “News Feed” on the
Home Page. We have also included an
application form attached to the email
which delivers this newsletter.
Although there is a nominal yearly fee for
membership ($10), your initial
membership will come with a RCAF
patch from this year’s show and entitle
you to receive by email, newsletter
updates on the Airshow’s yearly plans
and operations. The membership drive is
commencing immediately—please head
to the Abbotsford Airshow website and
sign up now! There will be a further
newsletter giving new members of the
Society information on upcoming
meetings and elections.
Nevertheless, together we faced and
overcame these many obstacles and
in the end, we were able to once
again put on a first class show. I
heard nothing but great comments
from our patrons on the quality of
the airshow and the experiences that
people had at this year’s show. Our
KidZone was a huge hit with young
& old alike. The static aircraft display was large and varied despite
the absence of US military aircraft.
The show schedule had lots of variety with excellent performers. There
were very few major operational
problems that we had to resolve so
kudos to all the volunteers for the
great job you did once again.
We will now turn our attention to the
2014 show and start the planning
cycle. No doubt because of the challenges enumerated above which will
likely continue into next year, we will
need to consider changes that we
can make which will keep the airshow viable for years to come. But
based on what I witnessed this year
of the incredible dedication and commitment of our group of volunteers,
I know that we can continue to overcome the challenges and produce
one of the best airshows in North
America.
Ali & Mindy
Airshow
Appreciation
Event
One of our priorities for this
year and for future years is to
highlight our connections to
the community that helps us put on
this airshow and to do so in a public
way. Airshow Directors joined staff
and Mayor Bruce Banman on Tuesday, August 27th at the Sandman Hotel for an Appreciation Event honouring volunteers who went the extra
mile, community businesses, service
groups, and airshow sponsors.
Mayor Banman spoke of the importance of the airshow to this community and how it “puts Abbotsford
on the map,” so to speak, in wide
reaches of North America. “Every citizen
in Abbotsford seems to have some kind of
connection to the airshow at some point in
their lives”, he said.
More than 100 businesses in the community contribute to the Airshow in some way
and several were honoured with lithograph
presentations. Key volunteers of the airshow were also presented with lithographs
to acknowledge their many hours of service. Local service groups received honoraria cheques in excess of $35,000 for their
role during the airshow
It wasn’t all work and no play; here
Ali is helping out Kent Pietsch in his
act by “catching the spinner” at the
end of Kent’s deadstick landing.
Top: Harold & Cheryl Kasper receive a Snowbirds
lithograph from Board Chair Jonathan Dugdale.
Above: Kevin King & Angie Korkowski accept a
cheque on behalf of Joshua House from Director
Stu McIntosh. Below Left: Director Augie Rinz
presents a cheque to St. John Ambulance rep.
Mindy also enjoyed her time with the
Airshow and said that she really liked
having a variety of roles within the
airshow to handle. Among other duties, Mindy organized the McDonald’s Kid-Zone which was such a
great success this year. Ronald himself made an appearance on Sunday at
the show, arriving in Randy Kelley’s
vintage Fleet Canuck. He had to remove the control stick from that side
of the cockpit to accommodate
Ronald’s size 62 feet!
Sincerely,
Jim Reith
President
Mindy Black with Ronald McDonald and Randy Kelley just prior to boarding the aircraft to arrive at the
airshow in style.. That’s Randy’s classic Fleet Canuck in the background.