Experimenter

June 2013

Experimenter is a magazine created by EAA for people who build airplanes. We will report on amateur-built aircraft as well as ultralights and other light aircraft.

Issue link: http://experimenter.epubxp.com/i/134623

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To w e r Fr e q u e n c y Coffee and Doughnuts With Your Directors By Jack Pelton Every summer at Oshkosh we host The World's Greatest Aviation Celebration. Our AirVenture Oshkosh has grown beyond the wildest dream any EAAer could have had 60 years ago. But our big aviation festival is still the annual convention for EAA, and a key element of the convention is the annual meeting of the membership. However, I'm willing to wager that you have never been to the annual meeting of the EAA membership, because very few have. The meeting has been, well, pretty dry and boring. It has been held on Saturday morning the past many years and has been perfunctory. There were brief reports on the association's financial status, the names of directors elected were announced, and changes or adjustments to the bylaws were approved. Routine is a word that comes to mind to describe what happened at the membership meeting. Last year was a little different. A few hundred people, instead of a few dozen, attended, and several members addressed the leadership with comments and complaints. Chalet tents that were new to the flightline generated the most comments, and they were uniformly negative. And your directors listened. The chalets are gone. Though none of us on the board of directors relishes listening to unhappy members, last year's meeting was an eye-opener. The comments from those who spoke at the meeting made it clear we have not done a good enough job communicating with members. So this year the annual meeting of the membership will be held on Wednesday morning at 8:30 at the Theater in the Woods. We directors believe holding the meeting midweek will provide the greatest opportunity for members to attend, because by Saturday many of you who came early for the start of Oshkosh, or even before the opening weekend, are heading home. We on the board also learned last year that the annual meeting can and must be a two-way exchange of in- formation and ideas. Of course, we still need to handle the procedural matters of electing directors, accepting minutes of the last meeting, presenting the financial report, and so on. But the other directors and I will make less formal presentations to bring you up to date on what your association is doing, what our goals are, and frankly, what really big challenges we face. EAA is progressing through a time of transition. Our founder Paul Poberezny and his son Tom served EAA tirelessly for decades, and we all thank them for their vision and hard work. EAA and AirVenture reflect the thumbprint of their legacy. The other important transition is building an association that is responsive to members' needs and addressing the critical issues that personal aviation faces today. It is imperative that EAAers and all who love the freedom and challenge that can only be found in personal aviation work to find ways to protect our freedom of flight along with igniting the enthusiasm we all have for all things aviation with the next generation. These and other topics are what my fellow directors and EAA leaders and I want to talk to you about at the annual membership meeting. There won't be time to hear from everyone, but there will be a dialogue between members and the leadership. And, just like last year's complaints about the flightline chalets, your board will listen. We will also have the annual financial report in the August issue of Sport Aviation (available on the AirVenture grounds) so you will have a chance to review the numbers before the meeting. So please come by the Theater in the Woods on Wednesday, July 31, at 8:30 a.m. I'll make sure we have the coffeepot on, and if you get there early enough, there will probably be a doughnut left. See you in Oshkosh soon, and don't miss the annual meeting. I promise it will be worth your time. On the cover: Te new Zenith 750 CruZer. (Photography by Notley Hawkins) 2 Vol.2 N o.6 / June 2013 Photography by Jason Toney

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