Held the first club meeting. There were just three of us. This is a slightly redacted copy of meeting notes I emailed to all interested prospects:

Hi all,

Paul, David, and I met at the restaurant this afternoon. We decided that there were just enough of us to move forward on forming the club. According to my recollection and notes we made the following tentative decisions (David and Paul should correct me where I got things wrong):

(1) We three would be the initial board of directors. I would be president until such time as some other victim is found. My home is the non-profit club mailing address for the time being.
(2) The Articles of Incorporation are being mailed tomorrow (Friday) to the South Dakota Secretary of State so we can become officially formed.
(3) We all had personal limits of around $5000 joining fee. Applying some estimates for financing and other starting costs yields a plane costing under $40,000.
(4) All three of us would be satisfied with a VFR C-150 as the first airplane. Models with 150 HP or useful loads over 500 lbs would be nice. Either would help climb rate.
(5) Paul works for an airline and has offered to travel to supervise any remote pre-buy inspections. And to ferry any plane we buy back to Rapid City.
(6) Probably base at Rapid City. Hangar space is a question mark – will see what the latest availability and cost is from Westjet Air (the City recently increased their lease rates so Westjet probably followed suit.)
(7) Agreed that student pilots can be members but will add a bylaw requirement that they carry non-owned aircraft (aka “renters”) insurance. Something that all members should have anyway since any insurance the club buys would likely only cover the club, not its members.
(8) I will add a bylaw clause covering death or medical disability of a member. My suggestion is that the joining fee be refunded to the member or their estate if the engine overhaul fund is sufficient to make such a payment or if not, when it reaches a sufficient amount. Sadly, engine overhauls are more expensive to the club than the death or disability of a member. Our shared mortality sets the priority, IMHO.
(9) Once the club is registered with the state several things can proceed. One of which is that I apply for aircraft loan per-approval from AOPA Finance since I will co-sign the airplane loan.
(10) David and Paul both have accounts at BHFCU and I had BHFCU on my short list of possible credit unions/banks to use. So BHFCU will be the club bank unless someone suggests an alternative or some reason(s) to avoid them.
(11) Estimated costs for each of us three will be $5000 joining fee, $250/month dues (no hangar), and $26/hour dry rate. With good fortune we’ll get something under the limit. If we can get three more members the joining fee and monthly dues gets halved (the aircraft hourly rate does not depend on number of members – depends mostly on remaining engine TBO.) As members join their joining fee can be split and paid out to existing members such that all members have equal net joining fees. At least up to some minimum joining fee.

Feel free to comment even if you weren’t able to make it to the meeting or are unable to join the club yet.
As always, let me know if you wish to be removed from these email updates.
Jim