TRA Lifetime Membership is an award that is intended to recognize significant achievements by members, sustained over an extended period of time. It is awarded by the Lifetime Membership Committee sparingly, and is not always granted at LDRS every year.
This year’s second recipient, due to the variety of contributions he has made to TRA over the course of many years, clearly exemplifies the concept of “significant achievements sustained over a period of time.”
Steve Shannon has served on the TRA Board of Directors since 2016, and in his many years of leadership service, has filled several important roles with dedication and successful results. Chief among these is Steve’s service as TRA’s president, and currently as secretary. He has invariably shown talent and energy in handling a diverse set of tasks and duties that he has undertaken for TRA. He serves on the NFPA committee, recently stepping up to be TRA’s primary representative. He has leveraged his talent in understanding rules and codes to undertake a lead role in comprehensively revamping, updating, and streamlining of several TRA codes. This alone entails a considerable amount of personal and interactive work, as well as close attention to detail.
Steve serves as an important presence on social media, being an administrator of TRA’s Facebook group. In this role, he shows great patience and judgment when dealing with what can often be a quarrelsome group, imparting facts and solid rationale for issues under discussion, and projecting a clear professional face for our organization.
The list of the leadership hats he has worn is impressive. Prior to joining the TRA Board, Steve was a founding member of Big Sky Rocketry Association (Tripoli Montana Prefecture #113). Serving as their prefect for many years, Steve worked successfully with the BLM and FAA to obtain and retain a high-altitude waiver (52K’). He has also worked with both TRA and NAR members to support NASA’s Student Launch Initiativefor many years. And he ensures he can attend as many TRA launch events as possible, interacting with our members and imparting strong and positive guidance.
In all of these roles, Steve has shown tireless dedication, and has been a key influence in improving our organization in years of considerable growth and change for TRA. Volunteer leadership such as Steve has provided is never easy, and requires a level of time management not always appreciated by those who have not served in such capacities. This is especially true in Steve’s case, since he has been so deeply and continually engaged in several important efforts for TRA.
Congratulations and “well done” - and thank you for the years of strong support for TRA!