Just a couple of observations, helped along by my involvement and experience over the past 48 years with aviation folks in general and specifically homebuilders and EAA chapters.
1. There are a lot of enthusiastic people who will jump at the chance to get things moving and get things done. This is great! There are innumerable details that need to be addressed when putting on an event such as a fly-in, pancake breakfast, YE rally, or KR gathering. Having the ability to delegate tasks to one, two, or a crew of willing workers usually takes care of that stuff quickly and efficiently. 2. As individuals finish their projects and they move from being builders into the realm of owners and pilots, most will move away from being willing to take on the tasks they had performed in the recent past at events such as this. There will be some who remain, ready to do what needs to be done to pull off the event. These people are like gold! Experience is incredibly valuable in the field of volunteering. The way to keep these people is to treat them well, never taking their contributions for granted. 3. Some leadership or steering is adviseable, if for no other reasons than to get the ball rolling year-to-year and to be a repository for wisdom & experience gathered from previous events. This doesn't have to be a formal organizational structure, not club, not association, not 501c3, just a responsive individual or team who will see to it that the event planning is taking place and the event runs as it should. The fact is, the majority of us have plenty to do with families and jobs and we have a hard enough time getting everyday life out of the way enough to pursue our aviation interests. It doesn't make sense to have everyone connected with KRnet a decision maker re: Gatherings. We have to trust that those who either step up or are nominated to the task do the right thing. The important factor is that if we keep it simple, that is, no formal organizational structure, then everybody who performs these functions gets to do it in their own style. That necessarily means one event may not look like another year-to-year, and expectations about anybody's actions may not be fulfilled. I haven't been following KRnet all that long so I'm guessing here, but from what I've heard, seen, and read there have been no trainwrecks as far as the gatherings go. I know some details persist after, sometimes long after, an event has ended. Homebuilders are pretty good at addressing details. I'm confident any issues regarding the most recent gathering will be resolved in a positive manner. Thanks, my $.02 Chris Kinnaman
