Thank you letters cost money

[Vision401]

EAA headquarters:
I just got a letter thanking me for my contribution attached to the AirVenture raffle tickets.
Although thank you's are nice to get, I wasn't expecting any.
I understand EAA is a donation run operation and I don't think spending money to send snail mail thank you's are appropriate use of my donated money. Why not just send an email or a short paragraph of news in Sport Aviation congratulating the winner of the raffle? Like "This year's winner of the Piper Cub is Joe Cool from AnyState and we wish to thank all that contributed to the raffle that netted $x dollars to the general fund of AirVenture, ensuring another successful event."

I know that business etiquette requires thank you's but this is the 21st century and with digital communication available and the economy so tight, I suggest we end wasteful spending like this. I'm sure the budget for thank you's can be used to upgrade some facility on the AirVenture grounds.
Thank you for the forum.

[Dave Stadt]

If you claim your contribution as a tax deduction and happen to get audited you would be glad to have the letter.

[Bill Greenwood]

If I made such a donation I would appreciate such a letter from EAA. It may be the 21 century, but to me and I think most people manners have not gone out of style, just are often ignored.
An email is more akin to junk mail to me.

[gbrasch]

Got mine today, nice touch if you ask me. If someone donates to my app that helps with costs I don't care if it's 3 bucks, I mail them a thank you card.

[rwanttaja]

Got mine today, nice touch if you ask me. If someone donates to my app that helps with costs I don't care if it's 3 bucks, I mail them a thank you card.

Yep. Sure as anything, if EAA *didn't* send some sort of thank-you, there'd be some who'd complain about not being appreciated....

Ron Wanttaja

[WLIU]

EAA does a great job thanking people and encouraging their enthusiasm.

Once upon a time, long ago, my wife and I flew to the Oshkosh convention in our antique airplane. The Pyrotechnic Guild International convention was up at Stevens Point the following week and Ann was a member. So after we did the Oshkosh show I left Ann at OSH with the tent and she signed up to volunteer for a few days before going up to Stevens Point. Enjoyed the experience.

If you fly your antique airplane into the convention they give you a beer stein that says Oshkosh Pilot. A generic but a much appreciated momento.

Some months went by. I think in January a small box arrived in the mail addressed to Ann. No special markings on the outside. Opening the box, we found an Oskhosh beer stein that was more special than the one I brought home. It had Ann's name on it, and said "Oshkosh Volunteer". Completely unexpected. An expression that said Ann's effort was remembered and appreciated. You can't believe how much good will that thank you earned. I hope that EAA still does that. The thank you's keep people coming back.

Best of luck,

Wes
N78PS

[Mayhemxpc]

Warbirds sends a laser engraved wooden plaque with your name on brass colored plastic, a brass colored chit with the year, and about 16 spaces for each subsequent year you volunteer. I suppose that the expense of sending the plaque the first year is made up for by getting you to volunteer each year afterwards for the little marker with the year on it. I think it works.

[djenders]

We try to say "thank you" as often as we can, but also know the personal responses whether in person, by phone, or even snail mail go a long way. As a long time member I know I appreciated even the simpliest of thank you's from Paul or others I met at the fly-in.

We hope the letters continue to reinforce just how important our members and volunteers are to us. We do our fair share of e-mailing as well, if you couldn't tell.

But, rest assured, we are very careful with what we send and how we send to save the organization as much money as possible. Often we plan out our campaigns months in advance to save money by sending mail 3rd class.

So thank you again to all of you, and all of our members / volunteers. We wouldn't be here without you.

Dennis

[crusty old aviator]

Back in the late 70's and early 80's, at every post-convention debrief, I brought up sending all the volunteers Holiday cards, thanking them for their efforts during the past summer and letting them know they are appreciated and wanted back again the next summer. I figured this was a nice gesture that would keep volunteers thinking Oshkosh through the winter, and definitely not feel taken for granted. But Paul always shot it down for being "too expensive." I felt it wasn't, especially when compared to his annual salary increases...

For decades, Chairmen were given little gifts as thank you presents, like a laser engraved, wood, desk set in the early 90's that took many years to accumulate, fancy mugs, and other ephemera. As Chairmen, it was our responsibility to ensure that every volunteer hour was documented and turned into Convention HQ at the end of Convention so the volunteers could be sent thank you notes. Some years, the notes were more elaborate than others. Most Chairmen also sent thank you notes out to their own volunteers who worked more than eight or ten hours during convention. I once gave a three minute talk at a pre-convention Chairmen's meeting in the mid-80's, admonishing the Chairmen to always express their appreciation to their volunteers, always acknowledge their presence when passing them out on the field or in an office, and force the over-dedicated ones to take some time away from their volunteering to go out and watch an airshow, attend some forums, walk the exhibit halls and flymarket, and walk the flight lines, so they wouldn't miss much of what they were working so hard to support. I also suggested sending Christmas cards to their key volunteers. This talk was embraced by the chairmen, but not adopted by EAA as policy.

Managing volunteers is a whole different animal than managing employees. You can't order them around, you can only ask them politely to do things. For decades, volunteers were considered an intangible to EAA's bean counters, but that attitude has changed dramatically, and I couldn't be happier to see that. For years, I advocated for a year round, full time volunteer office at EAA, but the attitude then was that volunteers come and go...like buses, I guess. I saw many fresh faces arrive, they displayed phenomenal dedication and enthusiasm, burned out, felt used and abused and became bitter, and we never saw them again. They were talented assets that EAA had benefited greatly from, but the decision-makers hadn't appreciated enough to retain. I'm wicked pleased to see that whole paradigm is now in the past.

You really haven't experienced Oshkosh, AirDisney, or what ever it's called this year, until you've volunteered at it. It doesn't require any particular skill, knowledge, or smarts to volunteer. You just need to step up the the HQ of your choice and say, "need any help? I'd like to volunteer" to the person in the window or behind the counter. So go do it!