President's Message for March/April 2024 Post-pandemic inflation and the resulting economic pressures have impacted us all. The Society for Aviation History, unfortunately, is not immune to these issues. In the post-pandemic world, food and labor prices have escalated to record highs. Add to this an increase in minimum wages, which rippled through the labor market, saw a number of venues start to charge a room rental fee in addition to the food and beverage cost. Many venues will extend a discount to our group in honor of our non-profit status, but room rental fees that average $10 per person have priced us out of a number of establishments. In spite of these headwinds, the board believes a lunch, room rental, and educational program is worth the $42 per person that we have to charge to cover costs. That said, we are going to try a number of different options to reduce costs for our members. Our February meeting at Wagon Wheel BBQ in Mountain View Ð a new venue for us Ð was a learning experience. The food was excellent, however, the room set-up and how things functioned left a lot to be desired. We will return to Wagon Wheel in October, this time armed with the lessons learned from February. For our April 6 meeting, we will host our educational program at the Moffett Field Museum with sandwich box lunches. The cost of lunch includes discounted admission to the museum, so be sure to come early or stay late to enjoy all the displays. Please see our "General Meetings" tab at the top of this page for more details. In June, we will return to Don Giovanni's restaurant, also in Mountain View. This restaurant is a short, two-block walk from the CalTrain and VTA station, so if you're able, we encourage you to take public transportation. Our last meeting at Don Giovanni was the Catch-22 Pilots' Panel hosted by member, author, and historian Scott A. Thompson. If you missed that meeting, I encourage you to borrow a dvd from our lending library. Change is always difficult. Lessons are learned, and changes will be implemented as we move forward. We appreciate your patience as we work to explore new venues and ways to hold costs down. Nick Veronico
Past President Messages can be found on the new page below: |
