Anyone heard from Joe Kutz lately? The site went down sometime in the last week I think. I went there just prior to Memorial Day for the Clippard Article that Stuart Calvert did. I'm planning to rescue as much of the tech articles as I can this weekend from there (there were some good ones there) and put them back up on RCWarships so they don't get lost. Thanks Jeff ***Changing subject, since Battlestations is back up ******
The Battlestations! website is back up, guys... (I got curious and looked) This is good, and bad. Why bad? I was reading the rules and such. If the guys who formed the original Battlestations are in fact still around and operating, then we can't really be an affiliated club because of the rules changes that we have made (their bylaws prohibit affiliated clubs from changing rules from those posted on their sit). We also haven't required anyone to join NAMBA as a prereq to battling. Not saying that these requirements make them bad people, just pointing out where we differ beyond the rule changes. So if they are around, I'm not sure we can keep using their name unless we revert all our rules back to the originals and complying with their bylaws. To do otherwise would be unfair to them. If they aren't still active, it'd be nice to contact them and ask if they mind if we pick up the torch and keep going. Does anyone have contact with an original member?
Hi Tug, Battlestations never really got off the ground. Joe Kutz had a mail list for it. Art and Stuart from NZ(Shimikaze,Artemis and Gearing)and Mikey Deskin (Strasbourg) we're the only operational ships as far as I know. There was a Keenan Akin(sp??)who was working on a Narwhal sub and Carl ,who is on these forums, with his Shimikaze. the list was battle@kutz.com but haven't received mail in a long time so don't know if it's been deactivated or not.
Tug, I don't think it will be an issue. Joe hasn't battled (or built) in years. I'm suprised he got the domain name back, to be honest. Joe knows about this forum, but has chosen not to participate. Mikey and I are the only ones left from the original group. The only email I had on Joe's mailing list in the last year and a half was about the formation of this forum, so Battlestations was all but dead, even if the mailing list and website still worked. I'd be glad to email Joe and let him know about the rules changes, but I don't think it will matter. As far as I could tell, the old Battlestations is dead. As far as Namba goes, that may be worthwhile to get the insurance protection, especially if one of us doesn't own the site we battle on. Namba was willing to insure us, we just needed to join them and download the forms. Not sure what the Namba fees are today, but two years ago it was pretty cheap... Carl
My thoughts are: -get NAMBA membership (individually) and become a NAMBA-affliliate (collectively) (does that cost money?), if not for self-defense, but because the owners of lakes I've battled on like to see your insurance before the shooting starts. -See if Joe will let us take over the Battlestations site (both admin, and paying for hosting)[hosting doesn't cost much, I can cover it]. -Maybe rewrite the bylaws a little, as we probably don't need that many officers. I'm happy being 'Rules Bi-otch for Life' and moderator. I would NOT want to move our forums from here, we have a good thing going I also don't want to have club dues, beyond those for NAMBA membership, there's not really any reason I can think of and it avoids having more paperwork! I figure that as long as a few of us have CO2 fill station, the club doesn't need one, and a $5-10 fee at a battle to cover CO2 and drinks&snacks is plenty (that's what we use in MWC Region 3), seems to work).
Tug, I'm not sure Joe will give up the admin, as he hosts it on his own personal server. But it doesn't hurt to ask... As for the NAMBA, I went to their site to check it out. It costs $45 a year for membership, and $10 per club to register. (BTW, I see the North Texas Battle Group listed as a club under District 7.) BTW, site insurance is $45 a year, and only protects the owner from damages caused by NAMBA members. I noticed that there is a Single Event Insurance form on the NAMBA site. It evidently can provide insurance for a non-member one time a year for a $10 fee, and the fee can be applied towards your membership if you join NAMBA after the event. So prospective members could participate in one battle and get insurance w/o being a full NAMBA member. To be registered with NAMBA as a club, you have to have a Commodore, Vice-Commodore, Secretary, and Purser. The Secretary and Purser are required to be paying NAMBA members, but the Commodore and Vice-Commodore are not. I don't remember anymore what the club dues were for, but they might have been intended to pay for CO2 and hosting the website. Carl
If he doesn't want to give up admin, we need to look at something else, then... If people looking for us under Battlestations go to the original site, they might draw the conclusion that we're defunct since it hasn't been updated in a while... beyond the rules differences, etc.
Don't know if it matters, but as I recall we never agreed on all the rules, only the construction rules and safety rules. I don't think we ever worked out the officers rules, and we never appointed or elected officers. I do know that we never collected dues, and we never agreed on a scoring system. BTW, I'm been reading thru the NAMBA rules, and it turns out they do have the following safety rules that NAMBA requires of R/C combat: I don't think these conflict with our rules, but I wanted everyone to be aware of them. Carl
I don't think they do, either. Thanks for doing the research! I think as long as our safety rules do not contradict NAMBA's (even if we add stuff in like the safety cease fire call), we'd be okay under their safety rules. Probably ought to contact them and ask! So who wants to be President? (not me, I'm rules bi-otch (i mean scribe) and forum mod I have enough scrap wood to make a frequency board, but it'll probably only make it to southern battles for the next year. I figure that we need pins for 27 and 75 MHz, 2.4GHz is not really pin-able. I'll address the scoring, etc in other posts so that the discussion doesn't hijack this thread.
Hmmm. I'm not sure I recognize that position as an official club office. Does that mean you want to be club secretary? [] Should we start another thread for nominations? Carl
All, I just emailed Joe and asked him about letting us update/admin/pay for the old Battlestations! website. I pointed him to the RCNaval website and informed him that we had made some changes to the rules. I let him know we're trying to sort out the officers and get registered with NAMBA as a club, and that we're at the point we either need to update the old Battlestations! site or go form our own. I'll let you know Joe's answer as soon as I get it... Carl
Thanks for doing that, Carl. I don't want him to feel like anyone is pushing him aside, especially (to me) since his maintenance of the site is the reason that I'd heard of Battlestations! to begin with... even before getting on RCNC...
Well, I heard back from Joe. He's really not interested in doing boats anymore, and he's fine with letting us take over the domain/website. Simply put, Joe has transfered command of Battlestations! over to us, including the rights to make rule changes. Tug, I'll send you an email tonight after I get home with Joe's email address. Then you two can work out the details for taking over the domain. Joe did say his son had some stuff stored out there on the Battlestations! domain that he'd like to move (you can't see it from the Battlestations! website), but Joe has two other domains to use so he didn't think it'd be a problem. It makes me sad that Joe has left the hobby, but I understand. We've lost a great guy, though... Carl
Thanks, Carl, as long as Joe knows he's always welcome to come get on the water with us As far as his son's stuff at the Battlestations! domain, that shouldn't be too big a deal.
From experience, make sure to do an active handoff of the Domain! Do not let it lapse. If you do not do an active handoff, squatters will take control of it before you even get a shot at it, and they will not let go either. Even years later, when it's obvious nobody else wants the domain. !@#$ (have had several problems trying to re-assume domains that have lapsed, but were ours over the years, with NO success) cheers Jeff
Joe knows he's always welcome. He told me if he ever got back in the hobby it would be in 1/96. He just doesn't envision getting back in the hobby... Thanks, Carl
