Skip,
Thanks for your thoughtful message. Perhaps you'll listen to some of my comments even though I'm not, currently, a dues paying member of the EOC. Perhaps my past and present time and effort contributions to the EOC and promoting Coupes could justify some of your time in reading. I'll start by going through your points and have added some other comments at the end. Item 1. The EOC has been the mainstay in providing education and support to Coupe owners for what, 40 years? Compliments and thanks. In addition, there've recently been some outside-the-EOC efforts to support Coupes. I remember proposing the EOC website to you and the board, getting your approval and then Tom and I started it and maintained it before passing it on to Mitch, and now, you. It was a good and rewarding thing to do. Tom was the mover in starting the Coupe forums and I was hanging on as an early member, later doing my best to help after Tom sold his Coupe and stopped actively managing the group. Moving the forum here to Yahoo was my idea and has been good, I think. Our membership has jumped from 360/327 on Tom's forum to 482/344 here (some are double-emails for the same person). So, in the last number of years, we have contributed a bunch to Coupers and the EOC in our time and money (though not always in dues). Similarly, many here have contributed lots of time and effort into helping others. Item 2. Indeed, the EOC and you in particular have been key in preventing that service bulletin from becoming an AD and mitigating the center section corrosion inspection AD. There was nothing you or the best paid lobbyist could have done to prevent the 1320 lb. limit on LSA - the FAA took the comments, including thousands requesting higher numbers, and rejected them. Item 3. Well, I think I've urged a hundred people or maybe several times that many to join the EOC. In fact, I've urged every Coupe owner to join the EOC. I think it's a really good idea. But, I have seen the EOC membership drift downward. May I ask what was the summer 1991 membership and what was the summer 1994 membership. Didn't we have an increase over those years when we had the 16-20 page magazine with lots of content? (More on content later.) Would you please print those numbers? I'll agree that a slick magazine won't bring membership. I do think that having lots of available content and references would. Item 4. Big compliments to Mitch for having hung on so long as webmaster after he sold his Coupe. I should mention that Tom kept hosting the EOC website and forum for years after selling his Coupe and losing interest. Indeed, I passed the webmaster job on to Mitch because I had sold my Coupe. (Little did I know how strong the addiction is - as do you. You haven't had a Coupe for 20+ years yet you still love and support them yourself.) The improvements you are making to the website are going right in the direction I'd like to see it go. Well done! You mentioned that this forum has no link to the EOC website. We have had, though, ever since we first put links on this site. Just click on the <Links> link in the left column. We would appreciate a reciprocal link. Item 5. The lack of content in Coupe Capers is a prime cause of distress. I've had 30-50 people tell me that they've dropped EOC membership because of the lack of content in Coupe Capers. As a former editor of CC, that's a big distress to me. Every person who drops membership because of lack of content has made a very strong vote concerning that content. Content just doesn't get sent in spontaneously. When I was editor, I got us first to twelve then 16-20 pages with a lot of good content. It took work to get the content. I continually put comments and requests in Coupe Capers asking for content. I spoke with knowledgeable members and signed them up as regular columnists, worked with them, transcribed their rough drafts, followed up, etc. I encouraged people to write content any way they could and I deciphered their handwriting, called them for clarifications, cross-checked facts with experts and put a lot of effort into making the content worth the dues. This extra effort may be what is now missing. I spent about 50 hours a month on Coupe Capers as editor. Any idea how many hours Carolyn (and you) are spending on it? Item 6. I'm quite sure I didn't suggest reducing dues across the board (though I might have moaned about high dues). I do remember suggesting that we have a web-only lower-priced membership to let those who are electronically connected save money and get their content faster. Priced right, the club could get more net 'profit' from the lower electronic membership dues to use on other needs. I do think that for a while longer, we'll have to have printed editions. Some of our members just don't have any other need for a computer and some may think they are too old to learn new tricks. But I bet 2/3rds of the membership would like to get a monthly e-mail with a link to the current issue at 2/3rds of the membership dues. If there's a financial need, the dues could be kept as they are and the money spent on lobbying expenses or a higher-paid, higher-skilled editor. Item 7. Perhaps the biggest difference between the Executive Director and board of directors form of club government versus a President, VP, method is energy. Continually having new blood in the leadership might be less stable but it often makes for a more energetic, dynamic organization. _________________________ End of itemized comments. Overall, I think the biggest need is for technical content. While the forum is dynamic and useful, we've all seen that it isn't as good a format for reliable information. When errors are posted, it can take a day or two before the right information comes up. Coupe Capers could be the prime source for fresh, new, fact-checked technical content. I'd like to see a pilot or former pilot (or technically savvy) editor who can recognize many technical errors, evaluate for reasonableness, see pilot/owner needs and work with experts to develop content. I'd like to see the best articles be expert-reviewed and compiled on the website into a permanent resource. As we have not seen the EOC doing that, I've done a tiny start at collection and Hartmut has recently started a website to do just this. Doing it inside the EOC would be great. Coupe owners need a very strong technical resource, both in a monthly ongoing manner and in accessible references. Strengthening our associations strengthens the members and makes flying safer and more fun. Ed Burkhead http://edburkhead.com/Ercoupe/index.htm East Peoria, Illinois ed -at- edburk???head.??com (remove the ? marks and change -at- to @)
