My chapter has some tunnel vision going on

[Ron Blum]

I think that this topic is true with all Chapters. We now have 3 EAA chapters in the Wichita, KS area. One is focused on flying ... with Young Eagles as a second. Another is focused on Young Eagles ... with some technical. And the third, which just went through some major problems at the Board level, is going to go toward technical and projects ... unless the remaining members convince me otherwise. We are the only Chapter in the area that owns our own building. We also have an RV group in the area that started 2+ decades ago ... which hurt the Chapter.

So my question then becomes, with only 9 monthly meetings a year (the others are: 2 for fly-outs and 1 Christmas Party), how do you cover all the bases? I'm going to suggest that other members run other events ... like visiting projects, seeing aviation businesses in town, visiting local MakerSpaces (we have a $2M+ one called "Go Create" on the campus of Wichita State University) on non-regularly scheduled meeting days.

The main thing I think that we are missing is participation! I personally think our dues are too high at $36/year. My suggestion (in January ... when I become president again) is going to be to give members a $3 credit for each month that they volunteer during for next year's membership dues. Thoughts?

[Kyle Boatright]

The main thing I think that we are missing is participation! I personally think our dues are too high at $36/year. My suggestion (in January ... when I become president again) is going to be to give members a $3 credit for each month that they volunteer during for next year's membership dues. Thoughts?

I never worried about dues. $36 is pennies for the airplane crowd.

My reality (and why I haven't been to an EAA meeting in a decade) is that I sit in meetings all day long. I don't want to go to meetings on my free time. I want to participate in activities, demonstrations, fly-outs, etc., and my chapter (I was president for a while and am culpable) tended to have relatively boring meetings where we talked about the bank balance, scared up the volunteers for the next burger flip, etc. We didn't "airplane" enough. Sure, there was a guest speaker pretty often, but that wasn't enough to overcome the monotony of living through the same administrative meeting again and again...

[robert l]

Sure, that would be awesome!!

I checked on the Fly Baby today, it's not for sale. The guy that built it is going to replace or rebuild the engine after he finishes his current project.
Bob

[Airmutt]

Got it. Thanks for checking.

[ironnerd]

Yargh!
Two more members just purchased RV-14 kits. One sold his Sling (granted, he had some good reasons to do so).

I can't fault them much, Van's makes a good kit for a very good plane. I'm still more of a Bearhawk or Buttercup/Tailwind guy. I kinda associate bucking rivets with getting paid, so I feel like I'm getting [forked] if a day of riveting does not result in a check.

[ironnerd]

I went to a meeting of the "Georgia Sport Fliers" this weekend. They are a bunch of UL and LSA pilots in Cartersville, GA (KVPC). What a world of difference!
One of the first things they asked was if I had hangar space, and they were sure to tell me that my plane is small enough that I can share a hangar with another member. They offered me the use of their trailer to move the project to the airport.

I told them what I was building and they were all interested. At least one other member had a similar plane (Mini-max). When I mentioned I was going to paint it with latex, one dude smiled and nodded. "That stuff works great," he said. "I've flown quite a few latex planes."

Isn't this what the EAA is supposed to be about?