All great comments. Larry Krengel posted a good history of the club and how things have been handled in the past. Aaron M. makes good points as well however I disagree with some of his points. I belong to a flying club which uses assessments all the time. Almost every quarter their is an assessment for something that needed repair or some other expense. For example; if their is not enough money in the mx fund to cover the annual inspection, all members of the club split the remaining cost. When the annual insurance premium is due, all members split the cost evenly to pay the insurance. No member loans of any kind.
Let’s take a look at the 2020 Sky Soaring engine fund starting from the beginning of January 2020. The year started off at $10,000 in the fund. Since my club dues for 2020 was $0.00, I personally donated $350.00 to the engine fund. The fund stood at $10,350 until I made a motion to the board in the September/October time frame to transfer $2000 from the general fund into the engine fund. That brought the engine fund to where it is today at $12,350.
If the club was only able to input $2000 over the coarse of the year, with all the flying that went on this year, the year of covid, it will take 10 years to pay off a loan for the engine rebuild.
I speak for myself as a club member, not for the board. I believe a special one-time assessment is the best for the club. It evenly distributes the fund to ALL members, not just the ones who fly most and pay full dues.
With that said, it will be up to the board to bring this to the membership. If it passes the board, the C&B states that any assessment must be voted on by eligible voting members and pass by three-forths vote. In the end, it will be the Regular, Patron and Honorary members that decides whether we do a special one-time assessment or go with the old traditional way of taking a member loan. If you are an Associate member, you may want to become a Patron member now so that you can vote on this important measure. Talk to Steve Synder to become a Patron member.
Respectfully Submitted,
Don