Clubs – lee-lawmaster.com

Adventures in Podcasting

Podcasts, a thing that have soared in popularity. Not with me personally. They are something I never thought I would be on either. I’ve been trying to not say that word, never, though. As just when I typically use it – a thing happens.

A dear friend of mine started a podcast up after his long tenure in local government ended. His podcast is about local government, and how citizens work with it to get things done.

It just happens to be the case that I’ve been involved with a little statue you may have heard about? He wanted to speak with me and the first president of our group.

Peter did a lot of the heavy lifting when it came to working with government to make things happen in the beginning, and I will always state that. I was a part of a separate group, formed on Reddit who were trying to accomplish the same task at the same time. It was the host of the podcast who introduced Peter and I. The rest they say is history I suppose.

My largest role in our group? It was I who officially organized The Janeway Collective to be a 501(c)3 non-profit, and got a lot of that business nobody really wants to do handled.

It was a good experience, and I had fun. I really do not enjoy the sound of my voice, but Peter and Steve’s voices are smooth as butter it seems. Perhaps it’s a confidence thing? IDK.

Stepping down, but not away

As I’m sure I’ve written about here, I am one of the original members of The Janeway Collective. We built a little birthplace statue in honor of a Star Trek captain who will be born in my hometown in the future.

Over the past year, I have been the President, as voted by the board. While incredibly humbled by that, I’ve never been a large fan of leadership. I still feel that I’m at that point of life where I seek out the more adult people.

Life has handed me many blows in the past few months, I’m beginning to think that a Voodoo priestess placed a hex on me. The problems didn’t really start until I returned from what can only be called an amazing vacation in New Orleans.

I have come to find that I need to let go of anything that is keeping me from my mental focus, my professional focus, and the projects that I have that are piling up has become overwhelming. Our elections are taking place right now, and I did not want to continue the role of President. I took one step further however and also stepped down from the board. I will continue in an administrative role. I will stay a member for the rest of my natural life. If I feel that I want to join the board again, I will wait until the next election cycle and let the board know.

As my last act, I sent the following email to the board. I feel that it’s proper to share here, on my personal blog.

Hello to the greater collective!

I write this message as your outgoing president. As many of you know, I am not one who seeks leadership, to the point where I actually despise it. I am one who sees problems and finds the ways to resolve said problems. It’s what I make a living doing.

After the unveiling, I saw a lot of things I did not like. I saw hopes and dreams falling by the wayside due to ego and in many cases, greed. This is not a collective, and behaviors I hope to never see again in this ever growing group. This is why I formally incorporated us, this is why I pushed to get by laws in place and get us that coveted 501c3 status.

In many ways, this is why I was voted to be president. I will always be appreciative and humbled by it.

With that, came opportunity. I got us our own Google Workspace environment, which includes many things I have seen few use. We have Amazon Smile, Kroger Community Rewards and other resources that could be used more as well.

As Peter once again takes the helm, I have a few things I must say beforehand.

Effective this evening, I will be rescinding my nomination for a seat on the board. While this project, and this group helped me survive the pandemic, other things in my life have presented themselves that I must focus on. I will remain a member for life, and I may want to be on the board again at another date.

I will remain as an administrator, unless there comes a time when the board wants to replace me with another. I have no issue executing any and all requests for updates/changes to anything. I take the word “Collective” very seriously, and always have. Is something wrong with our email, website, PayPal, etc etc? Just get a hold of me. We will fix it! I am not the one who shall not be named.

I will remain our agent on record for both the federal government and state government. A large reminder, as the year draws to a close, there is paperwork that needs to be submitted to both entities in different time frames.

I have the bust mold, the Janeway Cutout and lots of official paperwork on the formation and our official 501c3 determination paperwork as well. If it is ever decided that it should be held by another party, they are not being held hostage. Many of you know many and varied ways to contact me.

I have 0 issue in continuing the meeting on IU’s Zoom instance housed on my personal IU account. However, I feel it would be best if we move away from IU’s list system for communications in favor of the Google Group system that could be utilized. The more we stand on our own feet, the better. Our yearly expenses are under $1000 a year, which encompasses insurance, all inclusive website costs, and Quickbooks Online.

I would like to see the collective make some strategic moves financially. For example, the creation of additional accounts for our known expenses, event funds, scholarship funds, etc. Then it’s just a matter of funding them and making the mark. I don’t know if non-profits can utilize investments – but that is also a good thing to look into.

It is my wish that upon the change of officer/titled positions, a peaceful transfer of email accounts occurs. This way each office will keep the information it needs and or works with. There should be an accumulation of information, not a lack of. I will be handing this account over to Peter after our meeting this evening.

I have uploaded all usernames/passwords that are not already available to the board to the drive, sans the president, lee and admin google accounts. I have also uploaded all of the documents I created in an attempt to create a membership card, including an excel spreadsheet with a current list of our members (we have 13 right now). I will also upload all of the files I have on my computer, for the collective to use as it pleases. Many of these files are probably duplicate/triplicate of ones we already have.

Our website has an issue that needs to be attended to in a few months, and is something I have been meaning to communicate to the collective but have not. At the time we created it, we had no actual business entity. Due to this, it was all placed upon my account within the provider Namecheap. I have since moved the domain to our business account with them, but the EasyWP service cannot be transferred. It will require a purchase of a new EasyWP iteration, with an export/import of data to it from our old one. This process is not complicated or hard – but will require our website be down for a period of time.

The QR code on the informational table still needs to be changed. My best suggestion is to have Anywhere Signs create a new one and install it using epoxy. There is a Donors page (what the original one links to) on our website.

This is not a goodbye. This is a see you later. I am extremely proud that these collective groups were able to come together and accomplish such a task. The owner of the Comedy Attic named me, “The Man Who Hates Bloomington the Most” one evening in the green room (which is really green btw). I am spending more and more time away from our fair city, and it is a disservice to all of you if I cannot provide the focus I used to have. I do not know when this focus will return. I will always be with the collective in spirit, and hope I have only helped build a foundation that lasts for perpetuity, and that the dreams of scholarships for STEAM, and ways to be a beacon of equality in this world become reality.

I could write and write and write, but will end this message for now. I will see you all this evening.

LLAP,

Lee Lawmaster

President

What a Week

This week has been full of accomplishments for me as the president of The Janeway Collective.

I was working on a couple of things at the same time that came out beautifully. I will write about each one separately.

May 20th is the birthday of our namesake. A date we decided based upon a listing in the library of congress. It was one of our first points of order actually, as an “exact” date was not set in stone as it is now.

We wanted to have a celebration much like our unveiling but unfortunately were unable to; partially due to the pandemic but also due to our other goings on. But we had a couple of things in mind. To petition the City of Bloomington to declare the day Janeway Day, and to ask persons attached to the show to give the captain some birthday greetings. We accomplished that goal.

The Video

With our former “Media Director” firmly banned from the Collective, it was on me to put together an easily digestible video for our fans, and fans of the good captain. While I certainly have the skills to edit video, I have never considered myself an editor. More of a “cut and chop” guy that fixes errors or removes flaws.

When we received the first two of four videos we received; I was given inspiration by the singing of “Happy birthday.” The song has built in pauses, which give an opportunity. Everyone knows that song. To most, just a video of that would be quite boring, not entertaining. So I intertwined a portion of each clip in those pauses. Nothing fancy; but it really didn’t need to be.

I then had to do some work on our logo for the credits at the end. Our existing logo, created by the aforementioned Media Director, was only suitable for display on white/light backgrounds. I was using a black one. I knew how to invert colors in Photoshop but it became far more complex than the video editing. The red in our logo spilled over into other areas, something I still need to touch up actually. Thankfully it was not noticeable however.

We released the video on her birthday, and I felt proud. The response was overwhelmingly positive. I even sent it to the man to whom I’ve always considered the standard to be judged by with regards to video editing, Editor B.

The actress who played Captain Janeway, Kate Mulgrew liked it so much that she asked the Collective to tweet it so she could re-tweet it. I felt honored. While it wasn’t my words, or my voice, it was my work.

Without further ado, I present to you the video:

Kathryn Janeway Day

Several of us have connections to people on the Bloomington City (common) council. In early April I reached out to my friend and contact, Steve Volan about it. The council had just dealt with some heavy issues and he told me now was not a good time. To wait a few weeks and ask again. So I did.

I also found a “proclamation” template and filled it out accordingly. Steve suggested some edits; which were completely understandable and made. He said he would be in touch. I then waited; somewhat impatiently. We wanted to be able to announce this, but we had to know. We didn’t know proper procedure, and we didn’t want to do anything that would upset the city in this regard.

The night of May 19th, I watched the live stream of the city council meeting; but I did not see a word of the proclamation. My only other experience with such matters was pre-pandemic and was announced at the meeting itself. I assumed the same would happen.

The morning of May 21st, as I woke up I found an email from Steve, with a scanned PDF of the proclamation attached with an invitation to city hall to pickup a physical version.

YES! We had done it. I told Steve how appreciative I was, as he and I have had a rough personal history due to the previous annexation issue that I wrote about previously. I only hope I have continued to show him that I am his friend even if we disagree on some local political points of view.

I picked up the physical copy the same day

The Collective is going through a major stage in transformation right now, as we work on the foundation of being our own non-profit. These things are a definite boost to not just morale but goodwill.

Mr. President

Something I’ve always been critical of, primarily because I’ve never felt comfortable with is leadership. I’m more of a get to work and get things done sort of guy. Handing out tasks, and delegating aren’t tools in my toolbox.

Professionally, I’m an army of one. A lone wolf in a world that praises teamwork and cooperative efforts. It’s just in my bones, and in my nature. I can only blame it on my growing up as an only child. I didn’t have others to rely upon, I just had myself.

A few months ago, I was unanimously voted to be the president of the Janeway Collective. I think primarily because I took a situation that was in free fall and brought some order to it. I officially incorporated us, and we are currently in the middle of applying for 501c3 status.

Moi, when the statue was unveiled to the world – 10/24/2020

For me, it’s not the issue of the doing, it’s the “being a leader” end. It’s my place to set goals, direct our meetings and set agendas. To me, those things are minutia of minutia.

The Collective, and the people within it are near and dear to my heart. It’s a cause I’ve always been for. I’m extremely proud to have been a part of the group that finally got it done. I’m humbled beyond belief that they all trust me to lead our starship on the journey afterwards, or to give Star Trek speak, “The Continuing Mission.”

Our little statue has become an inspiration around the world. With a group working to build one in New Orleans for Sisko, and calls for one in France for Picard.

It feels so odd to just be a part of a rag tag bunch from a “small town” in Indiana that has caused quite the global stir.

Blowin’ Out the Cobwebs, and the Engine

November 8th I participated in a car rally with my girlfriend’s son. The first time I’ve ever done such a thing. It was called “The Hunt” and there were 110 cars in total, including a Lamborghini Diablo, a Ferrari FF and an Acura NSX.

This rally was a trip from Indianapolis to Cincinnati and back, with detours off the interstate to keep things interesting. I went with 4 other cars from the Bloomington Auto Club, where we met up at 6am.

After a swift drive up to the place where we were staging, the cars started to roll in. We had made it around 8am, and were not set to head out until 10. So we hung out, checked out other cars and after checking in we all had a catered breakfast.

Photo of Lamborghini Diablo, courtesy of Chris Cunningham.

I felt a little embarrassed while we waited. Here I was in a incomplete 32 year old survivor car. Surrounded by vehicles worth more than my own home. I was with car people though, and several came to tell me how happy they were to see a 3rd gen Camaro. One guy even took photos of almost every angle imaginable. My car is of the elder generation now, and the respect it is shown makes me very proud.

The rally was started with a fury like no other. Speed limits didn’t exist. Before I realized it we were out of Marion county. We took an exit off I-74 onto a country road that met back up with I-74. I hit a bump on one corner, which put me in a slide that I was able to control. Tyler was loving every minute of the action.

Meanwhile on the app we were using for the rally, messages of “COPS ARE EVERYWHERE” were being blasted. Apparently our shenanigans had caused the phone lines at many police departments to light up.

Pit stop # 1, photos by Chris Cunningham, merged by me.

As pictured, our first official pit stop was something else. We completely filled up the parking lot in this gas station, with additional cars parked on the side of the highway. If you look closely, you will see my car.

That pit stop lasted about 30 minutes or so. When my fellow BAC members finally decided to take off, I went with them and within 15 minutes it all fell apart.

We were cruising on the interstate at nominal speeds, nothing insane, when I seemed to have lost all power. The engine was still running but driving at speed was impossible. I did not want to stop on the side of the interstate, and so I hobbled along 12 miles to Greensburg, IN. During that 12 miles, the temperature gauge began to spike, the car died once. When I made it to the exit – there was no gas station in sight. So I had to make some evasive and illegal maneuvers to keep the momentum going to make it to a gas station about a mile away.

I got the car parked in a way where it could be towed if needed. I then popped the hood and it began to overheat. So I turned the fans on (a little trick is to turn the AC on with the car off) to do what I could to help it cool. After about 30 minutes, I started the engine. Almost immediately, it sounded like a pop can rattling inside one (or two) of the cylinders. Cylinders 1 or 3 to be exact.

That’s when I knew the course of action. We were done, and the car was not going to move under it’s own power. This was to be the last time I took the car out for the year, and what a way to go out.

This was meant as a pressure test on the car for an eventual trip to see my family in Oklahoma. My father bought this car in 1988, and none of them have ever seen it in the flesh. I would have had a massive emotional breakdown if it wasn’t for Tyler, my girlfriend’s son. His positive attitude kept me positive through the whole ordeal. The tow bill? $575.

After I contacted my fellow guys in the BAC, I was a little shocked as to what happened not too long after my break down. There was a road block! One of my guys pulled a U turn and got a ticket. There was also apparently LEO’s in the Cincinnati area trying to catch Rally goers. My red Camaro would have been easy to spot from a mile away.

At this point, the probable diagnosis is a broken valve. It could be much worse however. A piston or rod could have had a problem. The head could be warped. The absolute worst case is that the block is damaged beyond repair.

I have ordered a scope to get a look inside the engine and am still waiting on it’s arrival. Once I get that initial diagnosis in, I’ll get a better idea of what direction I have to take. I have no issue rebuilding the top end of the engine with better flowing heads, valves, and to port the intake or find one of those “big mouth” bases for a TPI.

As I told the BAC, I’m down – but not out.

The Aussies Have Invaded

Yesterday, the Holden Owners of Indiana put on a cruise called the Fall Foliage Cruise. I had Amelia with me and wanted to take her on a proper ride in her papaw’s car.

The route began in Nashville, IN with a destination of Bo-Mac’s Drive-In located in Shoals, IN. We then took a separate route towards the starting point, which literally took me home, ending the cruise for us.

The route was far more twisty than Google wanted to show.

Me and the Camaro, surrounded by some amazing cars from all around Indiana

When I took this picture, the guy in the Ute said, “That’ll be $3.” I <3 these Aussie cars.

We all hung around for about an hour, talked to each other and then took off. Shockingly I has the most conversation with a guy in a Mustang. I was the only Camaro on the cruise.

The Geo Metro driver took this photo and I love it.

On the first leg, not too far out of Story, IN we ran into a group of 4 bicyclists. We were all running pretty hot, warming up the road and our tires. The car in front of me, a Geo Metro Convertible locked his brakes up and went in the other lane. That was when my own brake light came on and I lost a lot of my own braking power. For the rest of that first leg, I had to press the brake pedal about 3/4 of the way before the brakes began to work. We drove by Bedford North Lawrence High School, which is right by where my daughter now lives. It would have been nice if her mom and stepbrothers would have came out and waved in support.

Thankfully we were at a gas station for the first pit stop.

The next leg took us to Shoals, IN and the drive-in. Getting there was a bit of a battle though, as our group of 60 cars was split by a stranger and a tanker truck on US50. This road isn’t exactly “friendly” for safe passing of vehicles. One by one, the guy in the Mustang I mentioned previously, an AMG Mercedes and I passed them both however. Amelia loved it.

When we arrived at the drive-in, Amelia ranted and raved about the place. As a friend of hers had three t-shirts from there. Later in the day, she found out this friend’s grandfather owns it.

We all ate, rested and chilled for a while. Then a group of us, mostly driven by members of the BAC, decided to leave early to do some more “spirited” driving. We of course, went with the group. This became the hardest, fastest section. We took a county road the hardest I’ve done since I was a teenager. At some points my tires were telling me I was pushing the limits. I was proud of the IROC’s performance however, beating anyone was not what I was trying to do, keeping up with the pack is all I needed to smile.

Then we had another “incident.” We had moved from the county road to US450, a proper two lane highway. We turned a corner and were on a bridge when everyone just began braking, hard. It took everything I had to not hit the car in front of me. The 4th Generation WS6 Trans Am behind me almost hit me, but he later said he was under control. Then to my left, a white Fiesta went flying down the oncoming lane, hard. He later said he was going to make that oncoming truck stop, and he did! A couple of minutes later, we ended up on US50 at a gas station with a large parking lot. Upon arriving we all got out of our cars in a collective WTF just happened?

As we were there a Bedford cop showed up, I said well we’ve been made.

In all the years dad owned this car, he never really tried to see what it would do except for the few times we took it to Indianapolis Raceway Park to drag race it. Those who know IROC-Z’s know they aren’t a drag car in stock format. They are killer in the corners however, and can keep up with brand new sport cars in that regard.

I talked to Amelia about this, and how I hoped we were making him proud from wherever he is. It’s all I want to do, make him proud.

October VCCA Meeting

The October meeting of the Indiana region of the VCCA happened yesterday, and I have to say it was a great meeting to me. We had the largest turnout I’ve seen, and two new members joined.

One of those members brought his 57 Chevy Belair. He said it’s his 11th, and he has eyes on the 12th. With my father having one in his youth, this car has always been special to me.

Our October meetings are held at Jim & Holly’s house, and they have a glorious estate. I knew when I made it because I saw his Corvette and Camaro out front. We lined all of our cars up, and I saw an opportunity for a picture. I should have taken another photo however, as more people came afterwards.

Left to Right: 87 Camaro IROC-Z Convertible, 1971 Chevelle SS, 1972 Chevelle Convertible, 1988 Camaro IROC-Z, 1964 Malibu Convertible, 1957 Belair 2 door hardtop

We also had these beautiful automobiles:

We sat around a fire and roasted hot dogs and had our meeting. On the agenda was next months meeting, the upcoming anniversary meet and the Facebook group we agreed to make last month in order to bring our region into the modern world.

After our official business was done, the men kind of split from the women. We actually talked about our cars and had conversations about the automotive world. Something I haven’t seen much of in the group unfortunately.

This journey of coming back into the fold of dad’s car club is really starting to set in for me, and I embrace everything the club embodies. I have much to learn from those I share membership with, and I try to take every moment and every detail of it in.

Next month, we plan to meet in Morocco, IN. We have a couple of people who are interested in joining the club and have been invited to take a tour of a Snowmobile museum. It’s a big trip for me, but I am genuinely excited about the museum.

I’m waiting on some business cards to come in the mail so I can design some for our own club to be used to give away to others to use as materials to reach out and say nice car!

July VCCA Meet

Yesterday was the July meet of the Indiana Chapter of the VCCA. Thankfully all of my ducks were in a row to finally bring the Camaro, and my youngest wanted to come along too.

We had a great drive up to Cicero, where we met at Red Bridge Park. It was during this drive that I learned the cruise control is now working in the car!

We were also visited by a member in a C4 Corvette that was red as well. While having our meeting someone arrived in a 1957 Corvette too!

We then cruised over to Anderson to have lunch at a golf club, where four members of the VCCA who are not members of the Indiana Region were invited. Amelia and I sat to ourselves, and had fun. She kept going on about a YouTube video, speaking in a french accent.

After lunch, we had a pleasant surprise, as one of our invited guests had brought a 1941 Chevrolet convertible with only 12k original miles on it. It was truly a beautiful car that you really don’t see anymore.

While we all were “oooohing” and “awwwwing” over this car, Amelia decided to sit in the car. With the air conditioning not working, she got hot. With the assistance of the wives in the group, I relented to take the t-tops off.

The director talked to me about how most of the members of the Indiana region have been officers multiple times, and are now getting to a point where they just want to come and enjoy themselves. Our official meeting was led by Joe, who appears to be the next closest in age to me. I definitely see and feel a urgency for a new guard to take the helms. Being so new to the club, it’s a little scary to me. This was important to my father however, and I will stand up to whatever task or challenge that is given to me regarding this club. I want it to continue.

We then cruised back to whence we came, but went to an ice cream shop. While there, cooling off from the day the sky turned dark and the weather became nasty. We all parted ways.

The trip home was full of concern and strife, as this car isn’t known for its wet weather capabilities. There were times when we had to slow to 20mph or less, as I could barely see the vehicles around me or their lights. It took us less than two hours to make it there, it took us around three to make it home.

We also drove the entire day on less than a tank of gas, which has been another concern. This makes the possibility of driving to Oklahoma a real thing. I think I still have some tweaking to do, but I am on the right path.

I really had fun, my company really knows how to make my mood be in tip top shape. I also think she really loves her papaw’s car now. That makes my heart happy.

I’m still exhausted the next day.