The video which was recently posted of Rod reading the statement he and Paul Poberezny prepared last week was shown at my chapter’s meeting last night without any judgmental preamble. Immediately after its conclusion, people in attendance looked slightly bewildered for several seconds, then someone said “gobbledygook.” Favorable comments were made that one of our chapter members, Chad Jensen, had been promoted and members were pleased that he is being recognized for his integrity and ability. The meeting then moved on to the next agenda item.

Later at break members raised the subject of the video and reorganization actions again. When they learned that EAA terminated the employment of almost 30 people (with approximately 15 to be replaced later), and that two resigned they were aghast and dismayed that this information was not mentioned in the statement Rod read. They asked “Why did this happen? What prompted this event, and why was this not mentioned?” They felt deceived, and began theorizing about what EAA management is truly doing. One person indicated that they would wait and withhold judgment about EAA’s actions because they did not have enough information to form an opinion; the opinions of the others were unanimously negative about the entire state of affairs.

Had details and information been available from EAA about the reasons for the dismissals, or about why it is necessary to “reshape the organization,” it may have been possible to put some of the speculation and feelings of distrust to rest (assuming the explanations were valid), but given the fact that EAA has only released two uninformative statements on the matter, both nearly identical, it was impossible to do that. Conversation then turned to the direction of the organization in general and Sport Aviation in particular. All present in the discussion unanimously stated their strong dislike over the change of direction of the magazine from a specialized publication into a near-copy of several other general aviation magazines. Members clearly indicated their disappointment (and more in some instances) that the publication today features fewer articles on traditional EAA subjects than it has previously. It was also noted, without dissent, that the articles on more traditional EAA subject matter which remain are shorter and shallower in depth than their predecessors, and lack desired levels of detail. Several people mentioned that they are obtaining much of their current homebuilding news and information from Kitplanes magazine, which features detailed articles in formats similar to what Sport Aviation used to have.