Agree with supporting, strengthening and changing the existing EOC, rather than
creating a competing group. However, that requires involvement and work from
EACH OF US ("We, the people...").
Each EOC member needs to evaluate if his/her personal desire for change is
strong enough to make him/her get involved, work, invest the time and effort,
and create the desired change...
Eliacim
N87071
61TE & GKY
----- Original Message -----
From: AJ DeMarzo
To: [email protected]
Sent: Sunday, December 30, 2007 8:46 PM
Subject: Re: Ercoupe Club Was:Re: [ercoupe-tech] Re: c,cd,c/d
It's too bad that you feel that way. Regardless of the job their doing they
need your support - everyone's support. With that I will shamefully say that
I'm not a member for the very same reasons. Pot asking the kettle not to get
black! But logic tells me not to advocate starting the International Ercoupe
Association because at this time splitting up the membership is not wise,
unless of course a big majority of the membership thinks it's necessary. Even
then, democratically taking over the current club would still benefit more.
What is needed to be done is to rally the members, get them enthused about
ownership and convince them to participate. I echo your sentiments about the
rag, most people look at it for the ads and it could be so much more. One of
the first thing a smart prospect does before buying that "new" aircraft is to
join the type club. This gives them a primer on what ownership would mean,
support, availability and activities. Let's face it. We're mostly flying our
Ercoupes for fun. Nowadays they're not the cross country machines they were
designed to be in the 40's.
VANSAIRFORCE was started by my friend and neighbor Doug Reeves when he wanted
to promote ownership and learn more about the RV6 he eventually finished. It
turned out to be a great page, even allowing Doug to quit his real job and
pursue his other hobby as a professional photographer. Very inspiring! The
"members" of Van's Air Force are it's greatest asset and there should be no
reason that the members of an Ercoupe group couldn't be the same. Hartmut and
I have discussed launching a web something with everything available and it
looks like he's started doing something. Believe me when I tell you that there
is more publishable material out there than you can think of!
Let's see what the future brings and what the owners really want. Could be a
lot of fun. And thanks to all for those off list emails, they're pretty
inspiring!
Al DeMarzo
Visit the Ercoupe Swap Page - Free and Easy
http://www.ercoupeowners.com/swap/swapbook.htm
----- Original Message -----
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] ; [email protected]
Sent: Sunday, December 30, 2007 8:09 PM
Subject: Ercoupe Club Was:Re: [ercoupe-tech] Re: c,cd,c/d
Al,
I somewhat share your feelings about the current owner's club. In fact, I
just got a renewal notice and I don't think I am going to renew the membership.
From my perspective, the only benefit that I see out of belonging to the club
is the monthly newsletter, and to be honest, I can usually read everything in
the newsletter that is of interest to me in about 3 minutes per copy. With all
of the people restoring, rebuilding and upgrading these planes, I don't know
why there isn't an article in there every month about a restoration, rebuild or
upgrade project. I have sent in an article or two over the years, and they
have been published, but it's pretty obvious that nobody is going out and
soliciting any technical material for the newsletters. Lately there have been
reprints of articles pertaining to insurance issues or legalities, that while
useful, are not related specifically to the Ercoupe/Aircoupe. I consider these
articles to be "filler material" in a type-specific newsletter, and they rate
just about one step above the advertisements that usually fill about 4 pages of
the newsletter. I can read all of that generic stuff online or in the EAA,
AOPA, Flying, and Flight Training magazines that I get. (Of course, EAA has
recently started taking up space in Sport Aviation (emphasis added) to let us
know which new Very Light Jets are being brought to market, and how fast the
top of the line Mooney's are. What either of these have to do with Sport
Aviation is beyond me.)
I would love to see the existing club, or a new club, publish a better
newsletter, conduct fly-ins, promote the airplane, and be more proactive. I
don't mean to slam the existing newsletter or club management. I've been
involved in publishing a couple of newsletters for work, and it's not a trivial
task. Twisting people's arms to get them to contribute articles can be a job
in itself. It also takes lots of dedication and commitment to publish a
newsletter month after month, especially after the novelty of it wears off.
And to EOC's credit, Coupe Capers has been published for many, many years.
It would be interesting to hear what the others on this mailing list think
about the club and the newsletter. Make the old one better? Start from
scratch? Leave it all as is? What do you think? Maybe what we really need is
a really good Coupe website like the RV crowd has at www.vansairforce.com.
This website has so much to offer that I read it weekly, and I don't even have
an RV. Of course there are lots more RV's than Coupes out there.
Best Regards,
Wayne DelRossi
Alon N5618F
Hours logged since restoration: 347.5
"Nobody has ever scientifically proven that life is supposed to be serious."
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