Minutes: Atlanta Hobby Robot Club
Date:  12/16/2000
Location: Radioshack.com

Officers in attendance:
 Frank Borowiec, Co-Vice President
 Richard Bodor, Secretary
 Clint Bridges, Treasurer
14 attendees

Club Business:
Frank discussed some items that had been discussed at the end of the
November meeting:
 1) The presentations for next year's club meetings will be scheduled in
advance. The first presentation will be the builder of the winning vacuum
robot determined at the Robot Rally in February. Later presenters will also
be robot builders that competed in the robot rally. We will try to repeat
some of the more technical presentations and "can" them as reference
material for the membership

 2) There was a suggestion for Robot Builder Merit Badges, or Certificates
to identify those builders that have completed some particular robotic task.

 3) The new scoring method for displaying results at the robot rally was
discussed. Richard will secure two video projectors and two screens so that
we can have simultaneous displays.

Calvin mentioned that an email was sent out to possible sponsors. He asked
that this email be forwarded to any other possible sponsors, and their name
be given to him for contact.

Calvin also put out a call for robots at the robot rally. The public
relations work is being done now, so we need a list of robot builders that
are willing to talk to the press about the club, the robot rally, and robots
in general. Anyone interested should contact Calvin or Richard.
The robot rally set up will be done on February 3rd and should be completed
by 10:30am. There was a general request for volunteers to help with setup.

Member's dues for 2001 will begin at the next monthly meeting. Members must
be fully paid up prior to voting at the robot rally.

The Video presentation:

More video on the battle bots was presented.

Around the room:

One new attendee, Chris Carter, introduced himself. He is 13 years old and
saw the 2000 Robot Rally. He has been building robots and intends to compete
in the open rally in 2001.

Charlie Grier was unable to attend this meeting. Some members speculated
that he is busy working on his vacuum robot.

The Technical presentation:
Calvin led an informal interactive discussion on controlling motors and the
different techniques for determining position and speed.

The monthly contest:

The prize this month was a $50 dollar bill. There were two contestants:
Galen Hussey with his "Pokey" kitbot, and Sean Hussey with his "zip" kitbot.
Both contestants ran two heats. Pokey was built from Legos and sought a
flashlight beacon that rested on the floor within the target area.

Zip was also built from Legos and sought a flashlight beacon that was
within the target area.

Both contestants were able to finish the race twice. Pokey finished at 61
seconds then at 59 seconds. Zip finished in 14 seconds and then in 13
seconds.

 Videotape was made of the contest, and will be put on the web as soon as
possible.

The meeting adjourned at exactly 12 noon!

references:
 www.listbot.com(AHRC1) - AHRC listbot services
 www.botlanta.org - AHRC home page