This is a theme that I have heard often and seen myself in my home chapter. ?Almost always the cause is a lack of effective leadership, which is a chronic problem in most EAA Chapters. ?
As of the new year, I am no longer an EAA Chapter president. ?About 6 1/2 years ago, our chapter had boiled down to a few guys left that would sit around and tell stories and occasionally fly Young Eagles. I took over when our previous president was killed in an automobile accident. ?I made a commitment that every meeting would have a tech talk or demonstration and that every meeting would be an opportunity to learn. ?We also implemented occasional Saturday workshops when the EAA Chapter would tear down an engine (under my supervision) or spend a day hands on learning the basics of welding, or riveting, or fabric work, or composite work. ?While I was able to get the chapter off it's deathbed, the largest criticism I received was because the chapter was now catering to the homebuilders. ?Wow! ?You just can't make everyone happy. I did find that it didn't take a lot of effort to find interesting speakers or interesting topics. ?You don't have to be an officer of the chapter to do that. ?I would bet that most EAA Chapters would love to have someone step up to provide them with speakers or demonstrations for their meetings. ?You don't have to be the speaker. ?On average, I was the guest speaker about once a year. ?Our Tech Counselor usually did once a year. ?The rest were filled in my simply asking people that were doing something interesting to come to the meeting to talk about it. What I found is that if you make the meetings interesting, people will come. ?Before long, the membership rolls are growing. Jeff Scott Los Alamos, NM former president of EAA Chapter 691 > ----- Original Message ----- > From: Phillip Hill > Sent: 01/02/14 05:17 PM > To: KRnet > Subject: Re: KR> I joined my local EAA chapter > > I used to belong to chapter 64 but didn't get anything out of it. All they > seemed to do is promote young eagles, and other EAA programs. There's no > time spent talking about building anything, no demos, no presentations from > other builders, no KR builders and no one who had ever seen one, which is > what I was most interested in, so I never went back. > > Phill > Collinsville, IL >
