Question of the Month: What should clubs discuss in their first club meeting of the new year?

January brings the opportunity to set the tone for your club’s operation for the year, and your first club meeting of the new year is where that starts. While I can’t help you with your New Year’s resolution (if you’re going to pay for a gym membership you might as well use it), I can help you with some ideas and guidance on what your club should discuss in your first meeting.

First and foremost, this should not be your only club meeting of the year. Healthy clubs hold meetings at a minimum once a quarter and, better yet, monthly. This first meeting, however, allows you to set expectations for each meeting moving forward. This aids in planning for the future of the club as well as increasing the efficiency of the meetings themselves. 

There are three types of meetings that clubs should hold at relatively regular intervals. Those meetings, and what should be discussed are as follows…

• Monthly Club Meetings: These are the formal meetings where the club discusses “important” stuff such as operations, finances, membership, club goals and more importantly, club challenges, maintenance issues, you name it. This is a must for clubs to maintain a healthy, cohesive member experience.
  
  
• Social Meetings: I presume, since you’re a good standing club operating correctly, that you are established as a non-profit social club. The IRS says that you should then be “co-mingling” or partaking in social events. This is another must for healthy clubs. These include events like hangar nights, fly outs, plane wash parties, etc. For some more ideas see our Event Spotlight from a couple years ago.

• Safety Meetings: While holding safety meetings can sound like more of a chore than an event, I can make a strong case as to why your club should be holding them. Hint: it could save you money. Have a listen here.

So, what are some topics that should be discussed at your first meeting of the new year.

• As your club evolves so should your bylaws and operational rules. You should assign a specific committee to refresh your likely outdated bylaws and operational rules. 
  
  
• Insurance will likely be a hot topic, and rightly so, as you will likely be paying more year after year. To learn how your club can take back a little bit of control when it comes to insurance premiums have a listen to Flying Clubs Radio Edition 49, Edition 14, and Edition 3.
  
  
• Determine if your fee structure is appropriate for the coming year as well as think about the value of an equity share of the aircraft if you’re an equity-based club. Find more specific information on that here.
  
  
• Talk in depth about your club’s safety culture. If you don’t have a Safety Officer, now is the perfect opportunity to appoint one.
  
  
• Consider changes in leadership.
  
  
• Ensure that the club secretary takes detailed notes. This is a business meeting.
  
  
• Lastly, allow some built in time for members to share their opinions and grievances. Afterall, happy members make a happy club.

Hopefully this has given you some ideas of what topics to cover at your first club meeting of 2025. While not an all-inclusive list, it should get you going on the right track. If your club does anything unique to start the new year off, we’d love to hear about it. See you all next year!