SBPF Annual dues

[WaiexN143NM]

Hi all,
Just a friendly reminder that with the new year membership dues are due. voting membership is $25 and can be paid on this site. Non voting membership is free.
Happy New Year to all

Stay safe and hope eaa airventure will be a go this year!

WaiexN143NM
Michael

[Sonex Foundation]

Direct link here

http://www.sonexfoundation.com/Become_a_Member.php

[WaiexN143NM]

Hi all,
One other expense to help contribute to if you wish, is this website www.sonexbuilders.net
chris started this and takes donations to keep it going. Look to the lower rt of this page with flashing orange arrows
and a yellow box. This is seperate from the SBPF— the foundation.


best,

WaiexN143NM
Michael

[Sonex Foundation]

Hi everyone

I just want to clarify something, as it can be confusing.

For many reasons, the Sonex Builders and Pilots Foundation and SonexBuilders.net are separate. This has led to confusion over the years.

Neither the foundation nor Sonexbuilders.net *require* anyone to contribute. This forum can be used, for free, by anyone completing the registration and following the rules Chris has established. For those of you that frequent other online aviation forums, some are free, some require membership, some require payment.

The forum is for exchange of information, techniques, best practices, and challenges encountered building, flying, and owning a Sonex, Waiex, Onex, or Xenos. Many of us find it to be a community also. When I first organized the BBQ at Wayne Daniels “7th Heaven” during Oshkosh a few years ago, it was with this in mind. Meet like-minded people, make friends, and share the freedom we all should cherish. Personally, I have met many members over the years, and consider them friends. Some are close friends.

The Foundation is the type club for Sonex aircraft. It is legally separate from this forum, and also does not require payment to join. We participate in the EAA type club coalition, attend the annual meetings in Oshkosh that also include the FAA and NTSB, and do our best to help members and non-members alike as they achieve a dream. Building and flying an aircraft.

Many of us contribute to both organizations. None of you are required to. But I’d like to ask you to. Here’s why.

You can help the forum here:

payment/

This forum is not free to operate. I can attest to the expenses of operating a website, the challenges involved, and the personal commitment required to maintain it. Chris is the administrator of this forum, and I don’t think enough people understand that he is a driving force behind its success. I doubt Chris makes anything financially in this endeavor, but if he does, he deserves it. I can honestly say that as long I have been a member, I’ve never met Chris in person. I wish I had. But when I do, the first round is on me.

The foundation, although not as active as in years past, is our type club. We started it in 2013 as a safety initiative. Consider it a seat at the table when the FAA, NTSB, or alphabet organizations are looking for someone to talk to. It is run by a dedicated group of Sonex builders and pilots, and none of us makes a dime off it.

My point is that we all have a choice. We can just observe, we can participate, or we can put “skin in the game.” I’d ask you to think about the cost, which is less than a tank of gas in a Sonex.

Please. Join the foundation, contribute to Sonexbuilders.net.

I’ll step off my soapbox now, return to reading the forum and watching football. I wish all of you a prosperous and happy new year.

[GraemeSmith]

Robbie,

Do you send out renewals to those who have sent in subs before – or do I just take the hint from this forum post? ;-)

Is it annual on calendar year or annual on last time you sent $$ or.....?

[Sonex Foundation]

Hi Graeme

We don’t send out reminders. It’s been a topic of discussion for years, and we went with using this forum to post an occasional reminder. To be honest, we don’t want to come off as constantly asking for donations. (There are experimental aviation forums that seem to do that)

Last year we set up PayPal renewing annual memberships, so someone can sign up and then each year automatically be renewed.

If anyone needs an update on their status I can always look it up.

Edited to add: it’s annual based on when you last paid.

Thanks

[Aussiecat]

Just tried to go to the foundation website and got the notification that it wasn't available

Tim

[Sonex Foundation]

I can confirm this. The website is not currently functional, and until someone steps up to address it, it will remain that way.

Your foundation needs member involvement. That’s where we are at.

[kmacht]

How about some details on what the foundation has done over the past year or what it plans to do this year? I would be willing to donate money or time if I knew what specifically the money or time was needed for. It was mentioned above that the foundation is a seat at the table when the FAA or NTSB come looking for information. Has the foundation had any direct interaction with the FAA or NTSB since it was formed and if so how often and in what capacity? You mention attending the type club meeting at Oshkosh. What benefits are derived for the sonex community from those meetings? Has the foundation published any reports on what they got out of their attendance? I get that the foundation is a noble idea but if you want more people to donate their time or money then people are going to want more specifics of what is needed and what specifically the foundation is trying to be accomplish. Perfect example is the website being down. What needs to be done to get it running again? Is it money, is it someone to maintain it, something else? People will rally around a specific and defined cause as long as they know what it is.

[Sonex Foundation]

How about some details on what the foundation has done over the past year or what it plans to do this year? I would be willing to donate money or time if I knew what specifically the money or time was needed for. It was mentioned above that the foundation is a seat at the table when the FAA or NTSB come looking for information. Has the foundation had any direct interaction with the FAA or NTSB since it was formed and if so how often and in what capacity? You mention attending the type club meeting at Oshkosh. What benefits are derived for the sonex community from those meetings? Has the foundation published any reports on what they got out of their attendance? I get that the foundation is a noble idea but if you want more people to donate their time or money then people are going to want more specifics of what is needed and what specifically the foundation is trying to be accomplish. Perfect example is the website being down. What needs to be done to get it running again? Is it money, is it someone to maintain it, something else? People will rally around a specific and defined cause as long as they know what it is.

Well that is a lot to answer all at once...and I hope that I am not the only from the foundation to reply.

I’m trying not to sound too defensive here. But I also invested money, time, sweat equity and a lot of work into this. So, I care. I hope you all do also.

First, the website is down because the provider cancelled support for some element used to drive the site. I do not know specifics, I do know I am not able to commit time to fixing it. We could use someone with time and knowledge to do so.

The foundation has not done much of anything lately to be honest. I don’t know when the last board meeting was. But I will add that for years there has not been much involvement other than a core group of members. After a while, that gets old. Life changes and we all have varying time to commit. For me, I cannot commit time to it any longer and I am not alone in that regard. Our hope all along was others would step up and become involved.

What we can or cannot do for members has been an ongoing challenge since day one. I do not feel we ever really answered it. I also think we could have done a lot more, but I know we sure did a lot.

The foundation has had direct interaction with both the FAA and NTSB at the annual meeting in Oshkosh. 2020 is a bad example, because there was no interaction and there was no Oshkosh.

Since being founded in 2013, we co-authored two separate transition training syllabus’ that were provided to the community at no cost. These were also presented to the type club community, the FAA and the NTSB to share best practices and to address concerns about the accident rate.

We also co authored a white paper about this, did a presentation (or two) at Oshkosh, and provided background information for an article EAA wrote. We also did an EAA webinar in starting a type club to share some of what we learned. I know two type clubs were formed from the basic structure we used, which was based on an annual fly in held in Iowa.

Every year we summarized what we learned from the type club meetings in the newsletter and in posts on this forum.

We also started a very popular and affordable Sonex oriented BBQ held annually during Oshkosh, hosted by our awesome friends Wayne Daniels and his wife Kathy. For $10 or less we all got to hang out at Wayne’s and eat big. Honestly, I found that event to be one of the most satisfying outcomes of the foundation. It was fun and it allowed us to hang out and chat at Wayne’s.

The money we got from (optional) membership dues was used to pay the fees and taxes required to have a Not For Profit, and a website. We also donated to both this forum and to the podcast, which are separate legal entities from the foundation.

Finally, what needs to get the foundation back on track is involvement. Member involvement.

If there is no need for the foundation, then it will go away. My opinion is that it is needed, but I am also the first to admit I may be wrong. If I am, then there is no need for it.

But I will ask you all this - do you value your privilege to fly a Sonex, Waiex, Xenos or Onex? Do you value the right to obtain a repairman certificate and do your own work?

Do you want the FAA and NTSB to hear from the community, or are certified type clubs and other experimental type clubs going to represent us?

Keeping those privileges is one reason we started this whole thing. Having a seat at the table was a reason to continue it.