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Thread: Getting Younger People to Meetings

  1. #1

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    Getting Younger People to Meetings

    Our chapter has about 40 members. We sponsor monthly FAA safety seminars, 2 Young Eagles events a year, an airport open house/breakfast, etc. Our monthly meetings feature a dinner and a presentation. We'd like to get more young people involved. Any ideas on how to do this?
    Thanks

  2. #2

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    Quote Originally Posted by kk6mm View Post
    Our chapter has about 40 members. We sponsor monthly FAA safety seminars, 2 Young Eagles events a year, an airport open house/breakfast, etc. Our monthly meetings feature a dinner and a presentation. We'd like to get more young people involved. Any ideas on how to do this?
    Thanks
    Background checks. Free college tuition. Rap music at the dinner. Unisex bathrooms. Poop, I don't know, most chapters have the same problem. When I joined in '72 a life membership was $300 and I passed. Looked around the room and saw a sea of geezers. Was sure the EAA would be dead and buried in ten years. Consider that before taking MY advice.

  3. #3
    Hello kk6mm!

    Chapter 1342 out of Grand Forks, ND is mostly made up of University of North Dakota college students. It might be worth it to reach out to the chapter president, David Leiting, and ask for advice on what activities work best for them.

    Here is there website with contact information: http://1342.eaachapter.org/

    If you find an activity that works best for encouraging young people, please share!

    Best,
    Glory

  4. #4

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    Quote Originally Posted by Mike M View Post
    Background checks. Free college tuition. Rap music at the dinner. Unisex bathrooms.
    Chapter 1342 out of Grand Forks, ND is mostly made up of University of North Dakota college students.
    There ya go Mike, in addition to your politically correct list, hold meeting in a remotely located college town (KGFK) where you have the only game in town.

  5. #5
    EAA Staff Tom Charpentier's Avatar
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    My "home" chapter, 1454 in Fitchburg, MA, had a good amount of involvement from twentysomethings in the greater Boston area, myself being one of them. One of the very effective strategies they used was to integrate with the flight school on the field. When I did my intro flight, I got 3 brochures - 1 for the flight school, 1 for the AOPA student membership, and 1 for the chapter. At the time the flight school owner was the chapter president, but I believe this practice has continued. This gave us a regular influx of new members, many of them younger professionals.
    Tom Charpentier
    Government Relations Director
    EAA Lifetime #1082006 | Vintage #722921

  6. #6

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    I recently came in contact with a program that may be a great way to bring younger people into aviation and at the same time help them excel in school and learn about being good citizens. Look up Wright Flight.org and see what you think. It looks to me that this program is worthwile and may dovetail nicely with the Young Eagles program and give a great opportunity to expose young people to aviation and the EAA while teaching them valuable life lessons at the same time. It may be just what you are looking for.
    Randy Powell

  7. #7

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    Good idea, Tom. Our local FBO has a new owner, who's joined our chapter. He's also doing a ground school. I'm going to see if he'll let me talk about our chapter for a few minutes and hand out some flyers. I'll also see if he'll help distribute our info to his students. In the past, their instructors haven't even mentioned the chapter, the monthly FAAST seminars or any other way to interact with the local aviation community. Maybe we can change that.

  8. #8

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    Good point, Cory. Most of us see the need to get younger people involved in aviation. Young Eagles is a great program, in which I participate, but we (national and chapters) need to find a way to reach out to students and younger pilots and get them involved. We had a recent success story locally...a youngster took a YE flight and recently got his license. You can bet I'm going to invite him to our meetings and pay for his dinner.

  9. #9
    This subject (not just for chapters, and selfishly for EAA Membership, but also all of general aviation) has to be in the top 3 burning questions to keep aviation vibrant. I've been thinking about this subject a lot, and obviously I'm not alone. My first question is, what does 'young' mean to you guys? Is it relative? Meaning if the chapter is largely people in their 50s, 60s and 70s, is someone in their 30s young? Or are you really looking for kids still in high school to get them interested?

    One thing I'm bugging many people internally about is the idea of flying clubs being formed next to chapters. Obviously these need to be separate entities, but the roadmap is there and it's possible. Since aviation requires a significant amount of discretionary time and discretionary income, the hobby does tend to gravitate towards those that have a little bit more of those two valuable commodities. It seems that if we have people that have some level of interest in flying, they see a few big roadblocks right away. Introducing prospective pilots to a community of people that love this lifestyle, and to a portal that is not only more affordable but also would improve the odds of actually completing the training seems like a great way to get young(er) people involved.

    Agree? Disagree?
    Eric Cernjar, EAA # 1133654

  10. #10
    VERY, VERY INTERESTING. My post and my question was DELETED immediately before this thread was referenced on the EAA e-Hotline for all of the membership to view. ERIC, PLEASE tell me WHY?

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