SOAPA Fly-in Meeting 2011

[hharney]

Hello SOAPA and Message board members,

You are all invited to participate.

Every year for the last 9 years the family of Skymaster Owners has converged on a location for what we now call "SOAPA". SOAPA is an official organization with registered papers. We have By-Laws too. It's the Real Thing guys. SOAPA has landed groups of Skymasters in such beautiful places as:

Key West, Florida
Treasure Cay, Bahamas
Branson, Missouri
Nashville, Tennessee
Kalamazoo, Michigan
Las Vegas, Nevada
Freeport, Bahamas
Oklahoma City, Oklahoma
Lakeland, Florida

Well, it's time to plan for 2011 and you get to suggest your favorite, practical, location for the next SOAPA meeting. Please limit your suggestion to one location only. The e-board committee has the following suggestions and you may just want to support your committee by agreeing with one of these possible fly-in destinations. Your 2011 SOAPA locations suggested by your e-board:

Dayton, Ohio
Key West, Florida
Bahamas, (outer island)
Mexico, Cancun/Playa del Carmen
Portland, Maine
Kitty Hawk, North Carolina

That's the list from your e-board members. Each year, at the SOAPA meeting, the participants of that fly-in become the e-board committee. That has been the routine for quite some time now. In past fly-ins, the committee has had several volunteers step up and coordinate all the preliminary arrangements for the SOAPA meetings. Some of these members have done this several times. I just want to say a great big THANK YOU for those committed SOAPA members that have gone beyond the normal member duties to make these past SOAPA events successful. You guys and gals know who you are and you are recognized as premium gold members. This gets you a 25% bonus on your next pay check from SOAPA :-)

With that said, we are looking for those special members who have always wanted to be more involved in this wonderful club. Please step up and let one of the SOAPA officers know that you want to achieve that 25% bonus and help to organize the 2011 SOAPA event. It only takes a small amount of time and your officers are always here to help. Speaking of officers, let me introduce them to you.

Herb Harney - President
Jack Wybenga - Vice President / Secretary
Beth Fiala - Treasurer
Larry Bowdish - Webmaster

E-board members:

Paul Rooy
Alfonso Diaz Delcastillo
Tom Courser
Ed Kalis
William Freestone
Steve Gustafson
Dave and Yvonne Jarrett
plus several abducted lifetime members

All suggested locations will be submitted to the e-board committee for approval and a final ballot of locations will be posted to this message board so that all SOAPA and message board members can cast their vote for the 2011 SOAPA meeting location. Please reply to this thread with your suggested location. Remember, only one location per member posted.

This nomination process will be limited to a 2 week window. All locations are subject to e-board approval. Thanks for your post.


Herb Harney

[hharney]

From Ed Kalis:

I Like Ohio For me but I will be doing Hay and Shirley will be working. The last three meetings were great for us and I feel we should let others have a get together at the more normal time.

[Dale Campbell]

I like Dayton,OHIO. The best Air museum in the USA is at Wright Pat. Air Force Base. Hell the rummers are the Flying Sauser they recovered in 1947 is even there. Maybe they will give our special group a look at it. If they did they would probably shoot all of us next. They know we would not keep their secret. Dale

[hharney]

Thanks for chiming in Dale

Looks like some good interest for Dayton. The tourist and convention team in Dayton are really campaigning for SOAPA to hold the meeting in their city. They have been in contact with me for the past year. The Comanche group had their annual meeting there a couple years ago and really had a nice meeting and good time. Dayton is a great choice for the location and for the amount of aviation related history and interest in the area. It's not as attractive for vacations like Key West or the Bahamas but that's not what some SOAPA members are looking for. Some members have expressed more focus on the aircraft and it's systems rather than white sandy beaches. Dayton may make that focus easier.

The nomimations are officially closed and the voting will commence within a few days. Stay tuned and cast your vote.