Dan has a good point. Perhaps we are in some sort of shallow rut with the KR Gathering. We do pretty much the same thing every year (which seems to lean a bit more toward the social aspects) which is especially fun for some but maybe not so much for others. The newbies comments are well taken - maybe we need to re-visit the offering of some hands-on building techniques like we use to do in the past - working with T-88, fiberglass lay-ups, working with foam, "flox", "micro", and finishing composites, etc. Quite a bit of this kind of information is available on short EAA videos, but hands-on experience is often better. I know this would take some extra time, effort and materials - and we certainly shouldn't dump all the extra responsibility on a couple key people. We have lots of experts that have "been there, done that". Could we have some more input on what could be included while planning for next year?
I wouldn't categorize the KR Gathering as being even nearly apathetic, but the interest could be waning a bit. So many organizations are feeling like they need to re-charge their batteries. I'm not sure about other EAA Chapters, but the one I attend is down in numbers to about less than half a dozen members regularly attending meetings and other events. No one seems to be willing to put on a demonstration, or even arrange for one. How many kids do you see building model airplanes to fly these days? What are the reasons? Economy? Endless list of choices of entertainment these days? -that draw the young people away from home-building? - TV, i-phones, other electronics? Weather is always a crapshoot, but maybe, like Dan said, we need to at least try changing something. Dr. Phil would ask "How's that working for you?" Ed Janssen -----Original Message----- From: Dan Heath When you continue to have 10 KRs show up at a Gathering, especially one as important at the 40th anniversary, eventually, you would think that people would realize that something ain't right. And what that is, is that the creek ( whatever it is ) is rising. Change something, or expect to get the same results, 10 KRs ( 2 trailered in ), at the Gathering. Pathetic.
