One Of AirVenture's Primary Functions Is Conducting EAA's Business

By Tom Woodward

Have you ever been to the National membership meeting? It’s held at Oshkosh and from the number of people attending, you weren’t alone if you missed it.

As pilots we are drawn to the Oshkosh to view all the bright and shiny innovations like a cat is drawn to a laser light. Every time I leave Oshkosh I tell myself that I can probably bypass next year because there are so few really “new” products. Then June rolls around and I start thinking about what I might miss if I don’t attend, until it becomes unbearable, and then I pick up the phone and make lodging reservations. But Oshkosh is more than new products and shiny objects. Oshkosh is also the time that National Chapter has their annual membership meeting.

This year I decided to attend the annual meeting. It’s early in the morning so it was somewhat of a struggle for a vacationing retired guy (Is that redundant?). I am the Vice President of our chapter and my wife is the Secretary. We joined up with our President, so three-fourths of our chapter was represented.

At the meeting, there was more than enough pastry to feed a small Boy Scout troop. It appeared that the meeting followed Robert's Rules of Order ... starting with Old business and moving on to other things. What we all were waiting for was to hear Jack Pelton speak. Which way was he going to take the organization? I think most members are pretty happy so far with the changes made post-Hightower days. But before that happened we were given the chance to vote for new officers.

Jack Pelton approached the podium and began telling us about all the good things EAA has done. Third class medicals and Non-TSO’ed instruments like the Dynon where home runs. Pelton also indicated that the success of getting the Dynon approved, opened the way for more instruments and appliances like the True Trac autopilot for legacy airplanes which is it making it’s way through the pipeline. Thursday EAA member Harrison Ford flew the Two millionth Young Eagle. That would be a great 'What I did on my summer vacation' story for some youth.

EAA is working closer with the Boy Scouts and is developing a new patch. You will also notice the four EAA buildings at the main cross roads that were designed to create member only value. Other vendors like Office Max offer good discount when EAA is mentioned and EAA gets a small portion of every purchase. You will get reduced pricing for your online testing and EAA has improved the quality and choices of their Chapter gear. National visited 39 local chapters over the year instructing and listening to their members. Jack also gave anyone who wanted to talk a change to air his or her beef or compliments. A handful of people out of the 60 or so spoke.

When Jack was done the numbers guy told us that EAA made 36.9 million last year, down a couple due to the reduction in the returns of their investments, though they recovered after the report was finalized and should show the improvement next report. Oshkosh was the main fundraiser earning 16 million.

It was my first National meeting and for the most part it was informative. Stop by next year and see how your organization is doing.

FMI: www.EAA.org