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Thread: And now for something completely different...

  1. #21
    Hangar10's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by malexander View Post
    OK Mark, how's the Piet coming along? You need to have Geoff bring you over to Twin Lakes sometime.

    Marshall Alexander
    Hey Marshall, the Piet is coming along ok. Slow at times, but I'm planning to get up there tomorrow and do some metal work.

  2. #22
    steveinindy's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Tom Downey View Post
    Getting into some of these chapters is like breaking into an old boys club.
    Yeah, there's a few like that that I have encountered. I've noticed that a lot of them are more or less a type club masquerading as an EAA chapter. Going looking from homebuilding advice from them and their finding out your not building a Sonex/Vans/Zodiac/etx is...just not going to go smoothly after that.

    That said, I've found two really great chapters here in the Indy area. I count myself very lucky.
    Last edited by Hal Bryan; 11-18-2011 at 05:25 PM.
    Unfortunately in science what you believe is irrelevant.

    "I'm an old-fashioned Southern Gentleman. Which means I can be a cast-iron son-of-a-***** when I want to be."- Robert A. Heinlein.



  3. #23
    Hangar10's Avatar
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    Reading through some of this thread again it seems that there is a enough blame to go around... I suppose the real message is two part...

    1. If you are a member of a chapter, try to make the new guys feel welcome. Find out what there interests are and what brought them to your chapter.

    2. If you are new member just walking in, ask for a copy of the newsletter and also ask what events are coming up that you might attend or even help with. Prepare to make a few visits before things start to feel like home, but if you pitch in it will be more fun. Get involved and make it YOUR club too... then pay attention to how you treat the next new guy. Especially if you are a younger member... eventually it WILL be YOUR club to manage and maintain, and other younger members will probably relate to you a bit easier (less intimidating) at first... take an interest in them and get em hooked! They are your long term members! If you don't have the time to commit to regular appearances, well, it may take a bit longer to warm up to everyone. Don't give up, it's a lot of fun.

    One more observation that somewhat shapes/slants my opinion... I too am very lucky to have chapter 10 right here in my back yard. A great group of folks, and I this is what I think of every time someone mentions an EAA chapter... apparently that is not the case, but I would think that any group could be fun with some proper direction and effort.

    Off the "my chapter is better than your chapter" soapbox.

  4. #24

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    I'm such a big ham that I strolled up to my first EAA meeting with my "practice" rudder over my shoulder. This did a few things:

    1) It let me know if I was in the right place. There are two organizations meeting at the same time - the EAA (very blue collarish) and the Birmingham Flying Club (not to say they're different than us, but they have a cocktail hour with wet bar and catered food table with an awful lot of jackets over shirts with ties).

    2) It established that I was building a plane and needed a LOT of help.

    3) It derailed the meeting! After a lot of initial "wow, that's a great job" stuff they realized that I wanted a critique and advice and slowly but surely the piece of craftsmanship was devalued to being a piece of something else.

    We had a young guy (my age) show up a few meetings later and he was a bit overwhelmed by his welcome, as it was the opposite of being ignored. He's building an RV-something and had a lot of questions and advice thrown his way; and since there's a sort of RV builder group around was also referred to them, as they'd be the resident experts.

    He never showed up again. I think we scared him off, to be honest.

    Our chapter's active membership is pretty small - about ten or twelve - with folks coming off the "reserve membership" roles now and then to help out with events and meetings.

    Last meeting we elected officers and I escaped by pleading youth and inexperience; they bought it with a grin and then served notice that everybody takes a turn doing something official eventually. One of the guys elected made the mistake of taking a potty break; heck, my back teeth were floating but I wasn't moving (I know how stuff like this works)!

    Some of our guys have never built an airplane and haven't flown in years - we even have one guy that's not even a pilot but digs airplanes; one would be hard pressed to figure out who they are at a meeting or event, though.

    And yes, I'm the youngest at the meetings (but not by too much), which is a big plus in my book. These guys have forgotten more about airplanes and flying them than I will ever learn, which means I have this huge human interactive research library to draw on.

    Heck, I'm so ignorant that I've had to ask people to explain what the question they're asking about my build means!

    "How are you going to place something something gascolator something something firewall something something vapor lock something something leak?"
    "The what with the what?" is my usual reply.
    The opinions and statements of this poster are largely based on facts and portray a possible version of the actual events.

  5. #25

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    I would like to point out a couple of reasons guests at an EAA chapter may not be recognized. First I think many people feel ackward to go up to someone they don't know and start a conversation. Second it is easy to get involved in hangar flying and not even notice that a guest has came into the room. I have been guilty of both.

    I have used an analogy of visiting a new church in that if no one welcomes you the odds are that you will feel this is not the place for you. I have encouraged our members to make a special effort to make guests feel welcome and show them we have something to offer that will be a benefit. You have to figure out what makes people tick and what they are looking to achieve. I say our pancake breakfasts are mostly social events and not all people are comfortable in a social setting but they may be very interested in building an airplane or learning to be a safer pilot so we try to offer something to interest them also.

    Ken Edens
    Chapt 1398

  6. #26
    DannO's Avatar
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    Not only do I, as President, but rather an enthusiest, start each meeting with, "Do we have any guests or new faces with us tonight?" But then I also have each member who is currently building a project stand (or sit), give a little update. Ideally, the members meetings is where I get the members to interact, be involved and make that person have a little spotlight. It opens up questions and a whole lot of interaction among those present. Also, I can't stress the importance of making sure YOU, as a leader make the first impression by introducing yourself to a new face but make it your priority to introduce that new face to the others.

  7. #27
    Treetop_Flyer's Avatar
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    I'll echo what others have said. In EAA 307, we also make sure to ask if any guests are present at the start of each meeting and we ask them to introduce themselves. We also have a Membership Coordinator appointed to welcome new faces at each meeting and hand the new person off to another "friendly" member. We are also planning to get official name tags printed up via EAA Chapter 1095: http://www.eaaapps.org/nametags/. The plan is for our membership coordinator to hand these out as people walk in the door for each meeting and collect them at the end of the meeting (though we're still deciding whether we want to saddle the membership coordinator with this task). I know I was intimidated by my local chapter the first couple of times I showed up. Everyone was so much older than me and they all had airplanes (or were building airplanes) and had tons of flight hours. Luckily a couple guys took me under their wing and a couple years later...they elected me VP of the chapter. Now I also chair our local "Learn to Fly Day" event and I am heading up our new "Eagle Flights" program for 2012.

    The key is for the leadership of the chapter to do just that...lead by example. The rest of the membership will follow.
    Dave Sterling
    1957 PA22-150/160
    N6929D
    Website

  8. #28

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    I've been wanting to get to a chapter meeting in my local area but have been putting it off. I don't want to be just sitting in the corner listening to others talk but I am not an out going, walk up to strangers and shake thier hand type of guy. Actually it is kind of hard for me to make a social event. I guess you could say i'm shy. I have started my project but it is going kind of slow. Perhaps i should just buckle down and start going to meetings. It has got to be a motivator for my project.


    skeeter

  9. #29
    Sonex1517 - It is truly sad that this happens. Regardless of how big a chapter is, there should be an opportunity for new introductions. It's not like there are 50 new members every meeting. Had you shown up at our chapter and many other chapters you would have been treated quite differently. I think it's easy for a chapter to get wrapped up in meeting minutes, procedure and protocol. It's easy to turn something that should be fun into a business meeting. I also think it's easy for chapter members to be very friendly... to each other. Maybe in large chapters it's easy to catch up with old friends once a month and overlook the new guy.

    I can only suggest that rather than give up, go back to the next meeting and the meeting after that. If you're an EAA member, I'd say it's your job as a member to make sure what happened to you NEVER happens to anyone else who walks into that chapter. If the chapter is large then it would be in their best interest to create a "welcoming committee" and appoint people to that committee. Those people would be in charge of seeking out new members at meetings and making sure they get acquainted and plugged into like minded folks within the chapter.

    Don't give up! Change it!

    Best of luck.

  10. #30
    When I had my kit delivered I invited my local chapter (I was already a member) to visit for a show and tell.

    -One of the club officers looked at the "motivational poster" of a factory airplane on my hangar wall and told me "Yours won't look that nice."
    -Another officer clapped me on the back and went "Thanks for volunteering your kit to be the new club project. What's the combination to your hangar and we'll work on it while you're gone."
    -They've asked for updates for the chapter newsletter, the first two times I sent them images and a hundred word update, they never ran anything. The third time they asked I told them to use what I had already written but was never used, got a blank look in response.


    I'm polite when they stop by but that's about it, I don't bother with meetings anymore and just do my own thing. The local Tech Rep is a great guy though.
    Last edited by EAA in name only; 04-28-2012 at 03:10 PM.

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