FAQ: Balancing the Needs of Your Members

March 2018 - This month’s question:

In the February edition of ChapterGram, Redding, California, Chapter 157 President Jim Bremer asked the following:

“We’ve reached out to homebuilders, but they don’t regularly attend our meetings. How do we balance the needs of homebuilders with those who fly ‘store-bought’ planes? Thanks for any ideas!”

Jim Conn, President of EAA Chapter 702 in Alexandria, Minnesota, had the following to say:

“We have experienced exactly the same problem. We have an exceptional core group of pilots in our EAA 702 chapter that have formed a strong bond and relationships over the years and are active socially, organizing Young Eagles flights and participating in multiple fly-outs all over the U.S. in summer months. Yet we sense difficulty in attracting those all the way from very youthful to the senior category who are primarily interested in putting their hands on a project. There are significant numbers (based upon data available from EAA) of EAA national members in our area who do not belong to a local chapter. Informal surveys with this group suggest that if we had a project airplane in the chapter, they will come and build it!

“So, to attract this important subset of EAA aviation enthusiasts, we have worked with our supportive airport commissioners here at KAXN, which has resulted in establishing a first-class build area for a project airplane. We have formed a group within our chapter dedicated to locating a nonairworthy project airplane and have several members committed to supporting the acquisition once located. We are confident that once we have acquired a project airplane that several individuals who are national members in our area will turn out and become members of our local Chapter 702. Once that project becomes located in our build facility, we will ask EAA national headquarters to send out a mailing to all EAA members within 50 miles and invite them to visit us at an upcoming meeting.”

Thanks for the response, Jim!

Next month’s question:

What activities does your chapter offer at your monthly gatherings?

Do you have a question you would like answered by your chapter peers? Send it to David Leiting, and we will feature it in an upcoming ChapterGram!