Jan Squillace: We allow four reservations per member at a time. When you use one, you can schedule another. However, we do primary flight training, so that's not the exact conditions you specified.
Martin Renschler: We have no other restriction than a max of five active reservations and a minimum of one hour Hobbs time per day being away. Sixty-six planes are shared by 1,300 members. As long as I plan a few days ahead, I have no problem getting a plane.
Bob Buchner: We limit the active reservations to three. So far we haven't had to add any restrictions for weekend days or for extended trips; availability is good. More reservations are possible but are first discussed with the BoD.
Beaux Graham: Two questions: How many members and how many planes? We have three planes and 28 members and only have two booking rules. 1) You can book no more than 30 days in advance and 2) you can book a plane for up to seven days. If you want to book further in advance or book a longer trip, you submit a request to the board of directors. Other than that, we communicate with each other.
Ron Stock: We have 47 members and two planes. We have no limit on the number of reservations at a time. And we have no issues as you describe. Planes can be booked for a max of three days, more with board approval which is in place primarily to make sure it won't go over 100-hour inspection.
Joe Gaefe: We have five planes and 85 members. We have no scheduling rules other than not to exceed 100/year. We had one pilot who would take a plane to work everyday - 20-mile flight as he worked at the other airport. We handled that with a talk and continued on with no rules. Works for us. Get rid of members who abuse the system.
Beaux Graham: So what's the logic behind limiting the number of reservations? We rarely have reservations beyond two weeks in advance. Like Joe Gaefe, we prefer to point out any perceived abuses to the system by members and keep the rules at a bare minimum.
IMO, if you have a "minimum flight hours per day" rule, you're not a flying club, you're an FBO that charges admission. Not having that rule is the biggest selling point for our club.
Joe Gaefe: And remember, clubs are not for everyone. The best way to ruin a good club is to try to appease/serve everyone. Some people have use profiles that are outside of what a club is all about. If you try to accommodate them you will probably end up frustrated.
Kevin Jarchow: In my club, which has since been disbanded, we had 15 members; 14 active memberships and about five people who actually flew the plane. Scheduling was never a problem. We even had one guy who had been a member for 10 years and had never actually flown the airplane. One guy lived three states away. And two were 150 miles away. That's the cool thing about clubs - lots of people pay, but most don't play. Sort of like the YMCA.
Frank Beresnyak: Most of our scheduling rules....well most of our rules period have come about due to past members abuses. They are not perfect but we try to accommodate our members the best we can.
Brian McCallion: Seems to me that instead of just writing really complicated rules when members are abusive to try to capture every eventuality, you should instead have policies that allow the board or the other membership to force abusive members to leave after a warning or two.
Eric Berman: I think rules are necessary if your club is like a business, where you don't really know each other. But if you're a true club, focus on bringing in compatible people. It's gotta have the right culture to avoid abuse; rules can't impose culture. Our club has 20-30 people, and we've never had problems, but we've also been really careful to make expectations clear up front before people join.
