A few comments from a business standpoint.
1. PRA is a "non-profit" but that does not mean it "tries to lose money or spend everything." It is a tax status that means that there are no owners or stockholders who benefit from the value in the organization. A properly-run non-profit makes money and uses it to grow, to promote its cause or causes, and to benefit its members. While the reports have slightly different names under US accounting principles, a non-profit produces the same statements that any business does -- and is managed much the same way.
2. Our key problem is too few customers. Remember the crusty old joke about the "it's the dogs' fault they won't eat our dog food"? Is it our product, or our promotion, that's the problem? It's an important determination to make, because a bad product is killed even more rapidly by good promotion. Right now, neither many of the rotor-obsessed (as evidenced by the forum members holding out for a better value proposition), nor many of the potential newbies, are buying.
3. It's not just us. I don't have any hard data, but my impression is that the customers're not buying aircraft either. Part of it is the recession and natural belt-tightening -- the first thing to go is leisure activity, yes? Even those who have not had negative financial consequences themselves are still fearful, and fear drives savings, not spending. Also, availability of capital is not what it was a couple years ago. I know folks who bought their gyro or helicopter kit using a home-equity line of credit. Nowadays, a HELOC is out of reach for most borrowers, and there's not much in the way of kit financing available, so a gyro or helo is an expensive cash purchase. So the very manufacturers, dealers and CFIs who are normally the Association's go-to guys for support are living hand-to-mouth themselves. We've seen the closure of two large gyro manufacturers, and the functional withdrawal of another from the US market. The Aussies look to be barely hanging on -- only Europe seems to have any real development and sales going.
4. EAA. We can team up with them, but we really don't want to get too close. I suggested this myself a few years ago, and have since changed my mind. I've just had another org I've long been a member of get eaten by EAA (that would be NAFI) and it is now run entirely, as far as I can see, for the benefit of the Oshkosh Mafia of EAA insiders (who are nice people and not like the actual mafia). But they do tend to run things for the in-group. The benefits for members seem to have weakened greatly. EAA is fine for what they are, but if we become a branch of EAA like VAA or NAFI, we'll wind up with the same flimsy magazine of the same stuff that's in Sport Aviation with six pages of more-or-less relevant content. Or EAA might just roll it up, as they did EAA Ultralights, leaving us high and dry.
5. John Rountree is right that cost cuts aren't going to help now. At 1300 members we're circling the drain (the number was 3000 when I first got sucked into one of these discussions, like a turkey into a turbofan. Splat!). Cutting costs may have some small impact on how fast we're going around. But what we really need is to climb clean out of the crapper.
6. Depending on what happens with taxation in the US, the PRA may be able to offer valuable tax writeoffs in return for donations. This is all up in the air, however, because along with higher tax rates on individuals the government has proposed a cut in the deductibility of charitable donations.
These are just some thoughts at this point. I have more, but so does everybody.
cheers
-=K=-
