The club held its monthly meeting on Monday July 7 at Fundemonium in Rohnert Park with 23 enthusiastic members and guests attending.
President Dean Wallace started the meeting by reporting on the following upcoming events:
IPMS Nationals at Hampton Roads, Virginia on August 6-9 2025 where the club is sponsoring the Best Aircraft award. James will be attending and will be part of the judging team for dioramas.
The club’s upcoming annual BBQ on Saturday September 6 from 11 am – 3 pm at Ray’s Kummer’s house in east Santa Rosa.
The Reno High Rollers Show on Saturday September 27 at the Auto Museum in Reno, NV. James has graciously agreed to make his vacation house in Truckee available on both Friday night and Saturday nights that weekend for any members that wish to break up the drive to Reno and have a place to crash on either the night before or after the show.
The club’s model display at the Sonoma County Fair being held on August 1-10, 2025.
James and Kevin gave a report on their attendance at the recent Rocky Mountain Hobby Expo in Salt Lake City, which utilized both an open judging format and an “exhibition” style display format. This was followed by an update report from Show Coordinator Kevin Steeper on planning for our club’s “Wine Country Model Expo” show in April 2026 at the Petaluma Community Center at Lucchesi Park. Our format will be similat to RMHE with the contest portion again featuring open/GSB judging in the successful format used at our last show along and utilizing an “exhibition” style of model display. Other exciting show news is expected in the future as the planning continues.
Dean and James then reported on the plan for the club to incorporate as a 501(c)(7) non-profit. We discussed the details of the plan including the filing of Articles of Incorporation, the Board’s adoption of By-Laws and also taking this opportunity to change the club name to Wine Country Model Club along with related rebranding. The plan, including the name change, was unanimously approved by the members. Be on the lookout as we work on rolling out the rebranding in coming months.
Ben Mossing then gave an excellent talk and demonstration of his weathering techniques to represent rust which included some exciting and impromptu moments.
Elections for club officers and directors were held. The members voted unanimously to elect James Morando as President, Dean Wallace as Treasurer and Ray Kummer as Vice President/Secretary.
We then had a great Show and Tell session with a large number of members participating and showing off some really great work. Our discussion topic of the night, “How important is accuracy to you in building models?” generated some lively and interesting discussions.
Following the meeting we adjourned as is our tradition for post-meeting food, drinks and camaraderie at nearby Applebee’s, where a good time was had by all.
Next meeting will be held starting at 6:30 pm on Monday August 4, 2025.
