At last months meeting everyone agreed that the
Chapter should continue. I said that we must reduce expenses and increase
income. Suggestions from the meeting (all 9 of us) were: - raise dues
- investigate cheaper meeting places
- e-mail the Hawk where possible
- increase membership
The weekend after the meeting, Art Storm, Dave Simpson, and I attended the EAA
Chapter Leaders Workshop in New Garden, Pa. It was reminiscent of all the
similar workshops that I went to back when I was working, yet informative.
Topics like Strategic Planning, Core Values, Missions, Visions, Goals,
Objectives; we've been hearing about them at work for years. How do they apply
to us? Right now, I'm interested in short term things (survival), not in
strategic planning. Anyway, as I see it, our primary mission is aviation
education for ourselves and others. This encompasses everything from historical
data to present day operation, maintenance, restoration, construction, and
flying. We are NOT going to have a hangar, workshop, or other property. After
all, this is NJ where we are lucky to even have an airport to base airplanes at.
But we could expand our educational mission into our communities if members can
spot opportunities. The multi-Chapter Fly-Ins went down the tubes basically
because no one would take the initiative to organize them. That’s why Chapter
7 decided to distribute the remaining money to the other Chapters. They did
manage to have a successful Fly-In and pig roast but it took a lot of arm
twisting to bring it off.
The only other Chapter 238 member there was Nick Folger. This may be partly my
fault, I didn't publicize it. I miss Jack Elliots ‘"Wings over NJ"
column because he managed to keep us abreast of activities on a weekly basis. We
no longer have a forum to publicize Chapter activities, Mikes' "NJ Aviation
News" could do that but it comes out so late that it is hard to be timely,
most everything is after the fact. Anyway, I don't see us having a future Fly-In
without sharing with other Chapters as we have done in the past. Young Eagles
are probably best handled on an individual basis or also in conjunction with
another Chapter.
Anyway, back to the top. To get more money we need to raise dues and get more
members. Art Storm got a list of some 600 EAA members in the area. Hard to
believe, isn't it? The last time that we tried this our response rate was maybe
5% and our retention rate was only a small fraction of that, I don't know why.
We gave up after only trying about half of the possibilities. I believe that
there are a lot of EAA members who view their dues as either admission to
Oshkosh or Sun-n-Fun or as a magazine subscription. As such, they are not
interested in us. On the other hand, there are numerous former EAA members who
feel that membership is simply too expensive. For them, membership with the
Experimenter rather than Sport Aviation costs only $30 a year. At the conference
I learned that the EAA will rebate $10 to the Chapter if you indicate that you
are a Chapter member when you renew. Keep this in mind; we could get a few
hundred dollars a year.
Anyhow, apparently only about 30% of the national EAA members are Chapter
members so the problem is to convince them that Chapter membership is
beneficial, informative, and fun. To do that we need some programs, but what? We
have a newsletter, a show and tell, discussion of local and national issues,
etc. Attendance hasn't been better with programs or without. It has been
suggested that everyone be responsible for one program. This would put the onus
for programs on each of you rather than on a Program Chairman and force you to
come up with a program that at least you like.
Even more important to me is to discover why you existing Chapter members don't
come to the meetings. Why struggle to attract new people when the old ones don't
show up. I don't know what happened in July while I was at Oshkosh, but for the
other 9 meetings this year, two of you, Barton and Mitchell haven't attended a
single meeting, two others, Folger and Watkinson have gone to one, Richter,
Simpson,Shellby,Pote,and Perkins have made two , while Wertz made three. HALF OF
OUR MEMBERS WENT TO LESS THAN HALF OF OUR MEETINGS! WHY? I appreciate your money
but I would also like to see you!
We all have conflicts. I belong to three organizations which meet on the first
Sunday of the month. If I really strain I could get to part of one and part of
another but---. So I balance what I expect to get from each and select
accordingly. We all do. How can we get you to select Chapter 238?
We need to consider other meeting places. For most of our existence we have been
meeting in the Summit-Morristown area. I think that should continue. Moving
further afield would tend to alienate the existing membership. Churches,
libraries, and community buildings (like Gero Park) are the obvious choices.
Let's check some out.
And finally, I've asked Alvin to e-mail the Hawk to some of the members in
addition to the regular mail to see how well it works.
The ball is in your court.
ED
From your editor.
Pardon the temporary appearance of this edition of the Hawk. It looks like I
will have to learn html or whatever it takes to make an electronic newsletter. I
will keep trying.
Steven has been getting lots of frequent flyer miles travelling where the AFA
football team goes (he plays in the band). Last weekend the group was at Nellis
AFB and was treated to an almost private performance of the Thunderbirds. (They
performed the last show of the season for their families). The fighter planes
are getting to him, and he really likes the flyovers at the AFA. Since he must
study all kinds of silly facts for weekly knowlege tests, he now knows more than
I do about military aircraft. So far he is not interested in flight training
since it adds 5 years to his commitment, but the planes are getting to him.
Cygnet is fine. Gave a prospective builder from southern Jersey a ride, and
he seems hooked on the design. He lives too far to join our chapter-too bad.
Alvin Sager
