RAC-VI Update
The Regional Activities Council, Region VI (RAC-VI) met last Saturday. This is a quarterly meeting of the Regional Director, the Deputy Directors, and the Section Chairs from all over our region; we meet to discuss issues we have been having, ideas for new programs, and to get the update from AIAA National.
First off, mad props (highest compliments, for the older crowd) to Kia for setting up an awesome new website and getting this blog working. We have received many compliments from the Regional and National level for being the first AIAA Section to explore this medium of communication. I would like to see a gradual transition to having this blog serve three functions that were previously separate: updates, newsletter, and forum. I will continue to send out updates via email, but they will also be posted here for easy reference later. Articles and such that would normally go in a newsletter can be posted here by any officer (or member, just email us), and anyone us free to post comments under each thread, serving the forum function.
Our updates:
Our membership is at 286 as of September 1st. This is great, but I think we can do better! Think of the thousands of aerospace professionals and related personnel in the AV... I think that maybe they do not see a value in being a member, or just don't know about us. So, my two top goals this year: 1. generate value to members, 2. create a sense of community within AIAA through strong and relevant communication. I think that these tasks must precede any other.
Those of you watching the numbers will notice that the budget I submitted this year cuts funding to areas like educational outreach and local community programs. My reasoning behind this is that we need to get the membership involved and participating in AIAA AV first, through generating that member value, and then later (maybe next year) we can use our built-up human capital to make more of a difference in the local and education community that we could by plugging along at the existing low levels of participation. So my number one budget priority this year is to provide events and programs that are often enough and quality enough for YOU to value your AIAA membership, and thus feel inclined to participate more in our activities. John and Scott have been helping me immensely in this regard, I don't don't how I could accomplish this task without them. And I always welcome YOUR ideas, please look me up in the AIAA member directory or send an email to aiaa.av@gmail.com.
These restructured budget priorities are not to say we are ignoring education completely... our Educational Outreach Committee (EOC), led by Jinu has assembled quite the task force of engineers, educators, and local leaders to address educational issues in the AV and sponsor what events we can. I've been very pleased with the way things are going with the EOC, and the Deputy Director for Pre-College Outreach had some high praise for our Section's efforts. Great job EOC team, keep it up! My long term plan is to provide the EOC with increased capability and funding as our core membership strengthens.
Thanks for everyone's kind contributions to the Scaled Family Support Fund. The tragedy at Scaled Composites affects us all as neighbors and colleagues. AIAA AV was able to to send a consolidated check for $225.00 to the fund thanks to your help.
We are still proceeding with our plan to host an "AV-ation History Symposium" this year, though logistics have pushed us to delay it until National Engineers Week in February. This will allow us more time to acquire speakers and work with other organizations (such as SFTE, SWE, the AV 99's, and EAA) in the planning efforts. Jeff has been spearheading this effort (along with his many other functions) and I'm looking forward to seeing how this develops. I hope we can start a new annual tradition here!
That's all for now, stay tuned.
First off, mad props (highest compliments, for the older crowd) to Kia for setting up an awesome new website and getting this blog working. We have received many compliments from the Regional and National level for being the first AIAA Section to explore this medium of communication. I would like to see a gradual transition to having this blog serve three functions that were previously separate: updates, newsletter, and forum. I will continue to send out updates via email, but they will also be posted here for easy reference later. Articles and such that would normally go in a newsletter can be posted here by any officer (or member, just email us), and anyone us free to post comments under each thread, serving the forum function.
Our updates:
Our membership is at 286 as of September 1st. This is great, but I think we can do better! Think of the thousands of aerospace professionals and related personnel in the AV... I think that maybe they do not see a value in being a member, or just don't know about us. So, my two top goals this year: 1. generate value to members, 2. create a sense of community within AIAA through strong and relevant communication. I think that these tasks must precede any other.
Those of you watching the numbers will notice that the budget I submitted this year cuts funding to areas like educational outreach and local community programs. My reasoning behind this is that we need to get the membership involved and participating in AIAA AV first, through generating that member value, and then later (maybe next year) we can use our built-up human capital to make more of a difference in the local and education community that we could by plugging along at the existing low levels of participation. So my number one budget priority this year is to provide events and programs that are often enough and quality enough for YOU to value your AIAA membership, and thus feel inclined to participate more in our activities. John and Scott have been helping me immensely in this regard, I don't don't how I could accomplish this task without them. And I always welcome YOUR ideas, please look me up in the AIAA member directory or send an email to aiaa.av@gmail.com.
These restructured budget priorities are not to say we are ignoring education completely... our Educational Outreach Committee (EOC), led by Jinu has assembled quite the task force of engineers, educators, and local leaders to address educational issues in the AV and sponsor what events we can. I've been very pleased with the way things are going with the EOC, and the Deputy Director for Pre-College Outreach had some high praise for our Section's efforts. Great job EOC team, keep it up! My long term plan is to provide the EOC with increased capability and funding as our core membership strengthens.
Thanks for everyone's kind contributions to the Scaled Family Support Fund. The tragedy at Scaled Composites affects us all as neighbors and colleagues. AIAA AV was able to to send a consolidated check for $225.00 to the fund thanks to your help.
We are still proceeding with our plan to host an "AV-ation History Symposium" this year, though logistics have pushed us to delay it until National Engineers Week in February. This will allow us more time to acquire speakers and work with other organizations (such as SFTE, SWE, the AV 99's, and EAA) in the planning efforts. Jeff has been spearheading this effort (along with his many other functions) and I'm looking forward to seeing how this develops. I hope we can start a new annual tradition here!
That's all for now, stay tuned.
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