Where's the club going?

[John Wallis]

Is it going anywhere?

After the pathetic turn out for the AGM last night I thought it was worth a mention as at the moment it looks like the club is doomed.

I've been involved too long to say nothing and let it all dry up.

We might be at the point where we have so much social media we don't need to meet anymore or at least meet every month. We all know what's going on without going to the club meeting, so why bother?

The committee could meet on our behalf and keep the club ticking over!

In my opinion if the monthly meetings are to be of interest and be a place pilots want to come there MUST be an agenda published so people can plan and attend. I can't attend every meeting as most people can't but I've got to say I can't remember the last meeting where there was something worth going to hear. Nothing that couldn't be posted on the forum or whatsapp.

So what to do?

We've had some great and hard working committees over the years but the one man that stood out for me was a man called Derek Gardiner. He wasn't a great pilot but he was very enthusiastic very intelligent (Prof Gardiner) and he was a great organiser. What Derek did was to invite the committee and what he thought were key members to his home in January and thrashed out an agenda for the year.

January was usually a crap meeting because of the time of year. Feb March April May June July (August Hol time) Sept Oct Nov and Dec all had something going on. He delegated and made the whole process seem a doddle. The meetings were good!

The committee or key member organised their meeting for the month they were delegated to and it worked.

For instance we had people from Newcastle Air Traffic would come and give us a talk. We had people from the Newcastle weather center come and give talks. Members would give talks on air space that was relevant to us and our sport. There was the invaluable first aid talks usually from the St Johns We had the auction we had the xmas party....I could go on.

What I'm saying is if there's nothing going on you will not get people travelling a long way to hear nothing.

If the committee would like to get together and put an agenda together I would like to offer my home to them and key members to put something together in the New year.

I'm having a break from flying at the moment as I'm busy with family and other things but flying and the NHPC is never very far away from my thoughts it's in my blood.

If I get no reply from this fair enough at least I've tried.

Regards

JW

[Christine Nicholls]

A structured agenda is always a good idea, your passion for the club shines through in your email!

[colin keightley]

I think you left before that bit of the conversation on Wednesday night I agree its seriously lacking.

So the last 12 month we've had AGM, Auction, Club Awards, 2 Safety nights presented by Ali Guthrie, Repack Night. So that's 6 out of 12.

I keep being told Jan and Feb are a right off as no one will attend and the same for July and August.

I am keen to have stuff on and anything that is on is advertised on the front page of the website.

As for the next 12 month we have Auction, Awards, still to arrange is repack for March/April, and was going to speak to Jocky about a Flyability presentation for March/April.

Gary suggested Anto Baird to come tell us about his adventures.

One of the other things I get asked is will people be there and to be honest the numbers at the meetings have been dropping for a few years now.

I think your meeting up outside of the meeting is a good idea but maybe from the group as a whole.

So I ask for a show of hands here of people who would be willing to meet up on a date to be confirmed and sort out next years agenda. I will ask though if you have ideas of people or subjects to get a bit of information first so that its not just name dropping for someone else to do all the donkey work.

[Gordon C]

Time to put the thinking cap on and do some home work!