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Hi gang,

Pursuant to a comment Scott Krueger made a few days ago I had a discussion
with Bob Mackie (EAA director of chapter services) yesterday about the
potential of turning the LML into the 2nd cyberchapter of the EAA.  Since
this is relatively new territory to them, Mr. Mackie felt that it needed to
be discussed at EAA HQ a bit more before any sort of decisions could be
made.  Naturally, with all the present hectic activity regarding AirVenture
'99, he admitted that likely nothing would happen until the completion of
that event.  He did suggest, however, that we might get together while at
AirVenture to further investigate the possibilities, and he did seem
genuinely interested in the prospect.

The operation of typical chapters usually incorporates several basic
activities, those being furtherance of the homebuilt movement (which we
most certainly qualify for in a big way), the social aspects of chapter
operations, such as pancake breakfasts, dinners, etc, and lastly the
sponsoring of related aviation activites such as fly-ins and seminars
relevant to chapter members' interests through the use of guest speakers,
film programs, product demos, etc.  Because of our diverse real time
locations and based on the fact that our meeting place exists only in the
virtual world, doing anything relevant to the last two activities is
extremely problematic, to say the least.

One of my concerns was what benefits might we, as chapter members, expect
to gain through an organized chapter affiliation, and his concern was
similar, as what benefits would this new chapter provide to the
organization at large other than being a source of additional dues.  His
attitude was that it had to be win/win situation for both parties for such
a venture to make any sense, and I understand what he's saying.  Still, I
haven't a clue as to the answer to these questions, but they are things
which need to be considered.  If a chapter affiliation would in some way
positively affect the insurance situation, my attitude is that would be
reason enough to travel further down this path... I have no idea whether
that would be the case, of course, (and it is a pretty one-sided attitude),
but it could be a consideration.

Another issue which was discussed was the fact that as a group we are
focused on a particular aircraft type and, as such, would resemble a "type
club" more than a normal chapter... normal chapters consist of members who
are usually pretty diverse in their interests, and represent a varied
cross-section of aviation interests.  I don't know whether that's a problem
or not, but it seems to me that our focus should qualify more as a strong
suit than a disadvantage... I guess it depends on your point of view and
into what sort of mold one would be attempting to fit.  It's obvious,
however, that we would have a hard time fitting this group into a typical
chapter mold <g>.

If any of you have any strong feelings about this one way or the other, I
would certainly like to hear from you and get your input.  Feel free to
post your comments to the LML... that way we can all share our thoughts.
I look forward to hearing from you in this regard.

   <Marv>

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