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Thread: Idea: Traveling Chapter Leaders Academy

  1. #1

    Idea: Traveling Chapter Leaders Academy

    This is excellent. I just wanted to chime in. Jeff Skiles and I are looking at taking the Chapter Leadership Academy on the road. Many chapters cannot afford to send their leaders to Oshkosh for the weekend workshop. We are considering breaking the country down by regions...having a Chapter host the "Leadership Academy"...and then invite other EAA Chapters within a certain mile radius.

    Any thoughts?
    Last edited by Hal Bryan; 08-17-2012 at 12:37 PM. Reason: Split from Chapter/SportAir thread.

  2. #2
    Jim Heffelfinger's Avatar
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    Trevor.... move this traveling Leadersahip Academy idea to it's own thread..... I will add my thoughts
    JIm Heffelfinger
    Sacramento

  3. #3
    EAA Staff / Moderator Hal Bryan's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Jim Heffelfinger View Post
    Trevor.... move this traveling Leadersahip Academy idea to it's own thread..... I will add my thoughts
    JIm Heffelfinger
    Sacramento
    Done.

    Hal Bryan
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  4. #4
    rosiejerryrosie's Avatar
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    Traveling Chapter Leaders Academy is a great idea. Would allow more leaders to attend and would send the message that headquarters is actually really interested in chapters.
    Cheers,
    Jerry

    NC22375
    65LA out of 07N Pennsylvania

  5. #5
    Are you still going to have some of the leadership academies at OSH? That's part of the fun, to be able to walk the grounds, tour the museum, etc.

  6. #6
    Jim Heffelfinger's Avatar
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    Trevor,
    I also agree that the important piece about travel to HQ is the ability to connect with nearly all the key staff and Paul and Audrey. These, and more, are elements that cannot possibly be taken on the road.

    I had not been to OSH, yet had spent many hours on line, watching and wishing I was there for AV. My heart and spirit wanted to be there but plans made to attend had to be changed for family and work over a number of years.

    I attended Leadership Academy in February of 2011. It was a treasure to be treated in such a respectful manner, to connect and share with other chapter leaders from around the country, to have open access to EAA staff during unstructured social time, to have such a focused effort on chapter development during meeting “on” time and “off” time in the lodge. My chapter partner was unable to travel at the last minute and I was solo – I spent lots of time in the quiet hours working on a chapter action plan.

    I was impressed that Steve Buss remembered that I had a few key topics on the 365 forum. I mentioned that I was unable to be with my first grandchild for his 5th birthday and magically a handful of youth aviation projects showed up on my assigned seat. We had dinner with Paul and Audrey, an open Q&A plus a personally guided tour of the Founders Wing.

    The Air Academy lodge is a monument to the passion for aviation and the support of youth by very generous donors. It is a beautiful building, full of wall memorabilia that can take hours to view. The food was great, plenty of it, served with a smile and a thanks for coming. At night there were snacks and drinks in the open frig for those with body time issues. Beer and wine for social times and 3 vans for the asking. I really felt pampered – kind of like a spa resort weekend - only with planes. Heaven !

    The topping for me was the museum. Entering from the staff entrance there was such sudden flood of history and individual passion of flight that I had to step away and deal with the flood of tears. The tour was quite a ways along before I was back with them. We had open access to the museum. Crawled inside a few planes, left a few unintentional nose prints on the Bugatti canopy, took in pieces of history that are found in no other place on earth. I shot over 400 frames in the museum alone.

    I had a bonus day too. It snowed Sunday evening – enough to scramble flights well into the next. Soooo I HAD to stay another night ( darn) and about 8 of use were able to tour the Sonex factory hosted by John and Jeremy Monnett. We were able to see the work on the Onex, Subsonex, and e flight work in the Hornet’s Nest and tour the warehouse during the 3 hours.

    My contribution to the long weekend nearly $0, Chapter – plane flight, EAA - priceless.
    Hard to take that … on the road.

  7. #7
    Jim Heffelfinger's Avatar
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    Sorry I outed the least known benefit that EAA offers.

  8. #8
    Jeff Point's Avatar
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    Jim H. hit it on the head. There is so much to the event that is interwoven with the EAA facilities themselves that it would be nearly impossible to duplicate that on the road. To Jim's list I will add one more- the bus tour of the convention grounds (I attended in April 2008) was a great thing for everyone, to see the grounds during the off season, and to see and hear about improvement in progress and in the plans. I was shocked at the number of people in the bus who had never even been to Oshkosh before (and these are all chapter leaders.)

    I suggest as an alternative, that you look into taking the money that would go to the road show (including the local chapters' investment, which could be a lot) and put that into subsidizing distant chapters to send their leaders. All that would really be needed is airfare into MKE and a shuttle bus. EAA already pays for all the room and board.
    Jeff Point
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  9. #9
    Jim Heffelfinger's Avatar
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    During Rod's grass roots tour at Golden West Fly-in last year there were a number of the members who were feeling left behind and isolated (their choice) from the direction of EAA national. They were really hammering on Rod - the usual "it's not the same as it was" stuff. I suggested re-connection through attending Leadership Academy. I got a wink from Rod - as he moved on in the questions.

  10. #10
    Jim Heffelfinger's Avatar
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    Grounds tour !!! it was too windy, cold and eventually snow covered to tour the grounds in Feb. Would have been great.

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