Precious resources

As soon as that pilot has heard the buzz about your club from a friend or an airport acquaintance, he or she will go online to check out your club’s website, its Facebook page, or other presence on social media.

If the pilot likes what’s there, a likely next step is to sign up for your newsletter, attend a club event, or contact a club officer to make a more direct inquiry.

The chances of your club acquiring a new member from the contact will be enhanced if the founders have taken advice about “generating interest in your club” from AOPA’s Flying Club Resources—the same space where you have been researching answers about how to shape your club and how to make it eligible to win a Reimagined Cessna 150 in the AOPA Flying Club 150 Giveaway.

From big-picture decisions such as those discussed in the Aug. 4 article, “Questions for your flying club,” to advice about drafting an operating agreement for your club’s aircraft, these online resources cover the landscape, helping you get the job done. Also, the judges who will pick one startup flying club to win a Reimagined Cessna 150 will be looking for answers to the application’s 14 questions that indicate familiarity with the guidance provided in the AOPA Flying Club Resource Library and the Guide to Starting a Flying Club. (Be sure to have your club’s application completed and submitted by Sept. 1.)

When you are working on the website, note that AOPA’s Guide to Starting a Flying Club heads up a list of downloadable resources that go to the nuts and bolts of your startup project. The downloadable resources include a flying club aircraft lease agreement, and samples of articles of organization, articles of incorporation, membership application, and operating rule guidelines. There’s even a flying club’s member regulations.

Sample bylaws are also available compliments of flying clubs that have been willing to help others get going by posting their documents on the AOPA Flying Clubs website.

If lending others a hand getting airborne sounds like something your club might like to do once it is up and running, let AOPA’s Flying Club Network know with an email when the time comes!