Originally Posted by
Yooper Rocketman
I sent an email last night to national about my disappointment in management over the last 6 weeks. Closing this thread further demonstrated the exact things we as members need to be concerned about. That said, some comments have been very repetitive, mean spirited, and essentially putting staffers in a position they do not deserve to be. If a staffer can't answer your question to your liking, take it further up the ladder with a personal email or phone call. That is exactly what I intend to do.
My chapter has provided just under 5,000 YE flights. While I understand the desire to have a policy in place, this one still needs a lot of work or our count rate will drop a ton. I suspect a lot of chapters will be in the same boat as ours. Have no doubt, we WANT to continue flying kids, and will support a reasonable YPP, but as a member based organization, the entire membership should have been involved with the drafting and acceptance of this policy. Had this route been taken, the dissention would have been against the membership majority, not our leadership at national. We truly need stronger management and leadership skills representing us. This is really the root issue we are dealing with.
Believing the current number of members having completed the YPP and background checks is indicative of acceptance by membership and future success of the YE program is likely not accurate. Maybe a good start in demonstrating true leadership skills at national would be to send out an objective questionaire to every chapter president in EAA about the YPP, it's current rules and what the suggestios are to make it more workable, as well as more palatable. This is not a "for profit" business, with leadership making decisions with little regard to the troops. This is a member organization, and leadership should be responding to membership input. Sadly, lately this is looking a lot more like a government run organization, with total disregard for the people they represent.
Tom Sullivan
EAA Chapter 439 President