Hey Dan
I was hoping to come down last night for the March meeting but family obligations kept me from attending. Will there be one in April ? I would be flying my Long down from Hawthorne, the restaurant is at the airport isn't it ? Jeff...
Jeff, I'm sorry we missed you, but next time!?!
The question of how often was best for meetings was discussed - without complete resolution (i.e., opinions remained mixed).
For many years (>20) the SDEZ Squadron met once a month. Then interest seemed to taper off as fewer squadron members were building - one of the main focuses of the original group being construction issues, sharing techniques and tools, etc. Anyhow, we dropped back to every other month. It isn't clear that this had a big impact on attendance one way or the other. For some, once a month was too much, so they dropped out altogether; for others if it wasn't a regular event (monthly), it fell off their calendar. (Darned if you do, danged if you don't?)
So anyhow, one member was strongly in favor of going back to once a month. Some others questioned whether we wouldn't just be back to "over doing it again". In my mind, the big problem with once a month is that it's not practical to put together a well organized program (with a speaker, avionics demo., etc., etc. [particularly if I'm the only one doing it]) that folks who are coming a long distance sort of expect. They come and enjoy the food and talk, but conclude that they didn't get a lot of new information, and then we don't see them again - which isn't the direction that we want to go.
So here's where we left it. At least for some of us (like me) it's easy to get to the Casa Machado. We like the beer, the food's OK, and EZ pilots/builders are our type of folks; so we are going to give the once-a-month format another shot for at least eats and tall tales. I would like to make an extra effort to have a more formal, better organized (e.g., publicized and with speaker/show-and-tell) format every other meeting (odd months) or perhaps quarterly. Please keep your eye on this forum while we (me?) figure out what, when and where for the next meeting. I'll try to make a better effort to give a decent interval for a 'heads-up' on what's the plan. Also, send me your email address to: dpatch1 at san dot rr dot com & I'll let you know what's happening.
In answer to your other question - Yes, the restaurant is right at transient parking at the airport and you can park your plane within 100 feet of the tables - 50 ft if you're lucky! That's a main reason for meeting there, so folks can fly in, and summer is coming!
So here's my short take on the March meeting:
1) Meeting attendance was not quite up to the Jan. '05 meeting, but pretty good, and enthusiasm for the squadron is up! We had two new builders and a guest, and I know of several more new builders that couldn't come for one reason or another (e.g., off skiing).
2) There is a lot of interest in daytime/weekend events; e.g., look at a project, mini-fly-ins/fly-outs, etc. We are going to pursue this idea with our June picnic and EZ weigh-in (mark out Sat. the 18th, Brown Field, San Diego on your calendar); informal flights to Big Bear, Chiriaco Summit, Borrego and
; formation training flights; etc.
3) Bill Ingram brought his new VariEze cowl for show-and-tell and it looks great!
4) We had the whole enclosed-patio area of the restaurant to ourselves and it was a HUGE improvement over being in the noise of the main restaurant - SCORE!
5) Everyone got a chance to update the group on who they were, and what they were building/flying. It was great to get back to this tradition!
6) We are going to get (we hope
) our good ez.org webmaster to put up a spot on the site for SDEZ members to post their weekend destinations/events/news/etc so we can link up activities better. I'm going to seriously hassle SDEZ Sq. members who don't bother to look at the site until they do!
7) We (re)discovered the fact that there are four quite active EZ mini-groups in the San Diego area - they just need to be connected.
The SDEZ Squadron has always been run by & for its members, so it's yours, guys. Since 1976 we have held exactly zero elections and elected exactly zero officers. So comments, ideas, suggestions, or ?? to make the Squadron better? Fire away!
