October, November, December Quarterly 2011

Air Heritage’s largest problem is manpower. We have a lot of projects and too few volunteers to work on them. The handful of volunteers that do volunteer two to four times a week do a terrific job and I am very grateful for their volunteerism. A lot of decisions I make, or Air Heritage’s Board makes is based on this shortage of volunteers. I am telling you this because of a controversial decision that I made recently. An outstanding member of this organization quit because of that decision. He had arranged for a donation of three or four pallets of aircraft parts that he wanted Air Heritage to accept them. I based this decision on that fact, all the time consuming hours of work it would have taken to transport the pallets, finding space in our already crowded hangar to put them, sorting through the parts, and finding ways to sell them I felt was too much for the few volunteers we have to undertake. I did not want to ask any of our volunteers to stop working on a project they volunteered for, or to become a parts salesman. We did have one individual who spent a great deal of time trying to sell equipment and aircraft parts with no success. Was I wrong to turn down this donation from a devoted member? Call me, or write, let me know what you think, pro or con.

I hope all of you had a Merry Christmas, and I hope everyone has a happy and propsperious 2012. I look forward to serving another year as President of Air Heritage. If you have any suggestions, or complaints please feel free to contact me, or any member of your Board of Directors.

Bill Schillig
President Air Heritage Museum Inc.