Send Your Chapter Newsletters to HQ!

Although the debut of the first EAA chapter newsletter has been lost to history, chapter newsletters have become an enduring tradition and a vital tool for connecting local aviation communities. Long before social media made it possible to share updates with the click of a button, chapter volunteers worked diligently to write, print, fold, envelope, and mail newsletters to their growing memberships — all in the spirit of getting general aviation news into the hands of a broader community. In fact, many of today’s newsletter editors (an active 387 of them!) can hardly imagine the effort it once took to distribute chapter news in the pre-digital age. (FYI, some chapters do actually still send them out physically!)

More than just a collection of announcements and news, chapter newsletters are the heartbeat of each chapter. They reflect the personality of a community while serving as a critical line of communication. Newsletters capture monthly happenings, celebrate member achievements like checkrides and scholarships, promote upcoming events, recruit help where it’s desperately needed, and preserve the history of the chapter itself. For the 73 years chapters have been around, newsletters have remained an expectation, and more importantly, a way to keep chapter leadership active, engaged, and connected to the communities that they serve.

One of my favorite things to come across from the overachiever chapters is a “newsletter archive” featured on their website. If I have a spare minute to snoop around your chapter, you can bet I’ll take full advantage of it. Before long, I’m caught up on Jimbob’s latest hangar project, wondering who’s still overdue on chapter dues, and learning that the breakfast committee is once again searching for the spatulas that mysteriously disappeared after last summer’s pancake soiree.

As we continue looking for ways to keep the line open between EAA headquarters and our chapters, the EAA Chapters office has cooked up a new way to stay a little more plugged into your chapter happenings: a dedicated inbox for chapter newsletters.

Please send your chapter newsletters to chapternewsletter@eaa.org. If you could pass this along to your chapter newsletter editor and add it to your distribution list, we’d really appreciate it. This gives us a better way to stay connected, keep up with what’s happening across the network, and maybe even spotlight some of the best chapter content along the way.

We’re looking forward to staying in the loop — and yes, we fully intend to read about who still owes dues and how many spatulas have gone missing this year.