FAQ: Monthly Chapter Programs

April 2018 - This month we received answers from more than 10 chapter leaders! Many chapters incorporate presentations and meals at their monthly programs, but check out their specific responses below.

We have a potluck dinner followed by a chapter update and a speaker/program. If we don’t have a speaker or program, we’ll use the Chapter Video Magazine. We have used the Chapter Video Magazine often. We always try to do something fun and of interest. — John Rousch, EAA 647770, President of EAA 1240, Sebring, Florida

For our monthly evening meetings we begin with socializing at 6:30, start the meeting at 7 p.m., and introduce any new members/guests. We then cover any urgent chapter business (there almost never is any) and get a report on how many Young Eagles we’ve flown that month. Four times a year, we have a treasurer’s report. We will then have some sort of presentation that hopefully lasts about an hour, go around the room for individual project status updates, see if anyone else has anything to bring up, talk about the date and time of our next function, and officially end the meeting while encouraging folks to stick around to mingle. — Jared Yates, EAA 731957, President of EAA 731, Hickory, North Carolina

A focus of ours is to have one of our Young Eagles be part of the program. Last month one young fellow interviewed all of our pilots and the copilots to see how many flying hours we have as a chapter. There was a contest to see which member could guess closest. This month, another Young Eagle played reporter in the field and went to a drone race, then sent the photo and article in for our newsletter. Future plans are to have them interview each of our long-standing members to get their stories — why they got into homebuilding, flying, and EAA in the first place and share those stories with our chapter. — Lynn Weber, EAA 1106631, President of EAA 1387, Troy, Missouri

Our chapter starts with burgers and brats or a potluck, then has a short discussion of items affecting the chapter followed by some sort of program and then open discussion. We also like to include a short discussion on a safety topic. — Paul Schafer, EAA Lifetime 202519, Eagle Flights Leader of EAA 186, Manassas, Virginia