Attn: Kankakee / Bourbonnais residents

[Mike]

Be on the lookout in the Sunday (11/19) or Monday (11/20) Daily-Journal newspaper for a photo of some ultra-cool kite flying dudes.

edit:

Oh wow, they work fast! Check out this Link
He only took the photo a few hours ago.

I don't see a photo (you may have to subscribe to the paper), but the caption is there:

Ken Krueger, of Calumet City, crosses his kite, far right, with the kite of Mike Kory, of Champaign, left, Saturday afternoon at Perry Farm in Bourbonnais. They were flying their Revolution Quad-line Sport kites in the field across from the Exploration Station. The two are part of the Illinois Kite Enthusiasts club and decided on meeting at Bourbonnais' Perry Farm because it is about half-way between Calumet City and Champaign. Anyone who wants more information on the club just go to www.ikeclub.org.

Steve? Denny? Can someone get a copy and scan it or mail it to me for our online scrapbook?

[Frodos Majik]

Ya some ultra-KWEL flying DUDES!!!!!!

[Boondagger]

WOW, WE HAVE CELEBRITIES AMONG US

Sweet plug, I guess that means we are open for business, huh?

[Mike]

it's moving that way. Word is slowly leaking out. What do you think? Wait until the webpage and registration is done before hitting the other forums? Or are you dying to go for it as it is?

What does Denver think? Since you've come in from the outside, what did you think of the forum what you logged on? Did you know that by registering on the forum you are now a member of the club?

[Frodos Majik]

There will be an Autograph signings at the next club fly!!!!

[Babbman]

There will be an Autograph signings at the next club fly!!!!

I got your autograph...

way cool guys....

[Frodos Majik]

Well then I guess you have a precious collectors item then.

[Mike]

Just wait until we see the photo. It will turn out to be one with me and Ken tangled and crashing. No, wait, that never happened today so we're good.

We had a good fly today and came up with a new game to play with those orange cones. Even have theme music to go with it

[Chris]

Cool, looking forward to the post turkey day fly.

I changed the welcome message a bit to inform people that registration is also membership. Babbman fixed the problem with saving info in the custom fields.

So, with the exception of the web page(when Chris gets to it, the autoredirect works for now) lets take a vote of all members. I say lets go live!!

[Mike]

when do they see the welcome message?
When I click on register I get a bunch of standard mumbo-jumbo
"While the administrators and moderators of this forum will attempt to remove or edit any generally objectionable material as quickly as possible..."

Maybe we can we change that page a bit? Put a graphic and some nice text?

[Mike]

also, the new users are listed at the bottom of the "forum" page as "users" rather than club members. Maybe we should just lose the "club members" designation.
We should probably move any subsequent conversation to the Founders section...

[Chris]

It is on the portal, under welcome. They also receive a private message welcoming the to the club.

Hello!

Welcome to Illinois Kite Enthusiasts Club.

We hope you enjoy your time at this site!

Feel free to join in and share with others or start your own discussion!

~Enjoy!
Illinois Kite Enthusiasts Club Staff

[denverberry]

Sounds like everyone is on the same page, when I signed up I thought it was just a forum/discussion board, and had to be told this was a club I was joining. The site is set up well, usable, and friendly... Perhaps a club constitution page, and club hierarchy. I I have a good idea about perhaps the sight admin being joint founders, but has anyone been nominated spokesperson?

I'm very much interested in learning the history of how you guys met, and desided to finally form an official club. But that's just me.

I like the idea of having a club "home page" that redirects to this site, that REALLY sounds official. I've had a very enjoyable read in here, look forward to getting to know you guys/gals, and get some FLYING in together. I've been promoting this hobby shamelessly for the last few years, and I'm excited that I'm not alone in my love of kiting.

Just my $0.02, ~D~

[Mike]

thanks for your input Denver, much appreciated.

Back to the day of flying we had. It was a light wind day, 3-5 mph according to the weather service, we flew ultralight Rev 1.5s on 120'x90# lines the whole time.
Love that SUL. We could barely feel the breeze on our face but we could fly those kites. We danced around to the music Ken brought, played around with that pipe structure Ken made and figured out how to scoop up the orange cones and carry them around with kites. All in light winds.

We also had a flock of migrating sandhill cranes fly overhead, making their odd warbling call, which I thought was very cool.

Right now the snow is coming down pretty hard outside my window, so I'm really glad to have gotten in some flying with a good buddy yesterday.

[Frodos Majik]

Aaah thanks, thats a BIG 10-4 GOOD BUDDY!! It was amazing how well we could make those sul's dance in the minimum winds that were blowing. Thank goodness for Mike's 120ft lines. I am still waiting for mine to come in.

The cone game if fun to playing.The music we would play the game to is: Khachaturian's "Sabre Dance". If nobody know how the song goes, just remember Bozo's circus with the plate spinning or magic acts. Daaaa da da da da Daaaa da da da da da ... Everybody knows it at the first note.

[Mike]

I have a good idea about perhaps the sight admin being joint founders, but has anyone been nominated spokesperson?
I'm very much interested in learning the history of how you guys met, and desided to finally form an official club. But that's just me.

I agree, we should get all this down on a web page.

On paper, as far as the AKA is concerned, Chris and I will be the contact people. I'll be club president for now and Chris will be VP. But in reality, Babbman, Chris, Ken (Frodos) and myself have made all decisions jointly.
I'll probably forget something, but I'm sure others will correct me. Here's a brief history, from my point of view anyway.
I've been involved in a few kite festivals here in Champaign and tried to get some folks interested in a club several years ago without much success. They weren't die-hard enough fliers I guess.
One year I organized a Quad Festival of various quad fliers I met at different festivals which was quite fun. Denny was there for that one, so he's been here since before the club started.
Then I didn't do anything more about it.
A couple years ago I met Ken at Grand Haven and told him I was thinking about doing another quad party but another summer went by and I didn't actually get around to it. The next year at Grand Haven, Ken didn't forget and bugged me to get my act together. It was his enthusiasm that got the ball rolling. So as I went to festivals in Illinois, WI, MI, OH, and CA, I collected email addresses and sent out bulk emails and got another little quad party going. A one day gathering of quad-fliers. Steve has some photos of it on his webpage.
The wind was almost non-existent so many of the local fliers didn't show up (the same guys who weren't interested in a club before), but the fliers who did show were a great and dedicated bunch.
Then Chris and I exchanged a few emails and it was his enthusiasm that got the club idea going again.
I sent out bulk emails on short notice to get as many fliers as I could to a festival in Naperville, IL and that's were I met Chris Babb (babbman).
His enthusiasm and web expertise moved us from a lousy Google forum to the fantastic web presence we have now.

Dave at [strike]Kite Connection[/strike] is sponsoring us and helping to cover some of our expenses so we don't have to charge dues.
[EDIT 3/6/2008: That should have read: Dave at Chicago Kite. Chicago Kite sponsored IKE's first year]

Because of our history, we're all mostly quad fliers but we also fly duals, fighters and SLK. And we want and need to attract more folks from those areas as we build our club.

We will have a presence at most of the kite festivals in Illinois and will have a banner and a tent in Grand Haven, MI. which is the big festival for the area which draws folks from several states and Canada.

We currently have members from Kentucky, California and Tennessee and they are entertaining and lively additions to the forum, even if they may only occasionally get to fly with us. That's pretty good since I haven't sent out one last bulk email announcing the club yet, and we haven't hit the other forums yet either.

The original founders, who were at Naperville, are:
Myself, Chris, Babbman, Ken, Steve, Denny, and Rose.
Anything I forgot folks?

[denverberry]

Thanks for that mike, Glad to be here with all you great folk. Much looking forward to the face-to-face routine, and getting to fly with "PRO's"

[Mike]

Why don't the rest of you founders tell us your story. You've heard my point of view, tell us yours, or tell me if I got it wrong
Then we can edit it all into a nice history page and stick on the site somewhere.

[denverberry]

Right on Mike.

[Frodos Majik]

I cannot say you missed a single beat there Mike, hit the whole description on the head.

As far as myself, I have been flying for around 4 1/2 yrs now. Got out of rc helis, stumbled onto snunt kites. Bought a beetle,(a dual line) found out about a fest in Wis. at Veterans park. Went to it, met Lolly from Rev. got my hands on a exp, as they say: "the rest is history".

Ken