Most EAA chapters die slowly — not from one bad year, but from a decade of "we'll figure out recruiting next time." Members age, programs shrink, the Facebook page stays warm while the in-person room gets smaller. Chapter 1343 isn't there yet. It's at the moment when small moves still compound.
This memo is what those moves look like. Not exhaustive — opinionated. Aaron and Montie pick what's worth doing.
01 Diagnose what's actually broken
Before fixing anything, name the gaps.
The chapter currently shows up online in three places: the official EAA template page (chapters.eaa.org/eaa1343), the Facebook page (EAA1343KXNX, run by Aaron), and... that's it. The official page is a directory entry: address, president's name, no recent events, no Young Eagles dates, no signs of life past the AirVenture banner.
The failure mode of every dying chapter site is the same:
- "Latest news" with a date older than 18 months.
- An event calendar that lists only the recurring meeting, never anything that actually happened.
- One officer's name, no email, no phone, no path to "I'd like to come visit."
- A newsletter link that goes to a 404 or a 2019 issue.
1343 currently sits about 60% of the way down that list. Reversing it is mostly a content cadence problem, not a technology problem.
02 Pick the metric that matters
If we're tracking everything, we're tracking nothing.
The single number worth watching for the next twelve months is Young Eagles registrations through the chapter site — not Aaron's Facebook DMs, not phone calls to Montie. The site has to be the front door, and the registration deep-link to yeday.org has to be the obvious next step.
Why this number and not membership? Because a kid who flies Young Eagles in 2026 is a parent who knows the chapter exists in 2027 is a member who shows up at a meeting in 2028. Membership is a lagging indicator. Registrations lead.
03 The 12-month playbook
Six moves in order. Skip none.
Months 1–2 · Stand up the real site
Replace the chapters.eaa.org template as the de facto front door. The site this plan lives on is the candidate. Everything below assumes it's live at a real domain (eaa1343.org or unusualattitudes.aero, both available as of writing — verify and grab one).
Months 2–3 · Establish the content cadence
Three things, monthly, forever: meeting recap (200 words + 4 photos), Young Eagles or rally update, one project spotlight on a member's airplane. Aaron writes them. Posted on the site, cross-promoted to Facebook — not the other direction. The site is canonical, Facebook is the megaphone.
Months 3–4 · Wire Young Eagles end-to-end
Every rally posted to yeday.org gets a matching site post 30 days out, 14 days out, 7 days out, and a recap after. Parent FAQ stays on a permanent page. Photos and a short video clip from each rally, posted within 48 hours.
Months 4–6 · Build the visiting-pilot funnel
KXNX gets transient traffic from across the southeast. Add a "fly in to visit a meeting" page: pattern info, parking, fuel, what's nearby (Beechcraft Heritage Museum at KTHA is 90 min south — package a fly-out destination). Other chapters' members are the closest thing to a warm lead pool we have.
Months 6–9 · Sponsor program for local aviation businesses
Three tiers, simple. The chapter has Murfreesboro Aviation, Wings of Eagles (MQY + Clarksville), Jet Access Music City (KXNX FBO), and a handful of FBOs and flight schools within 90 minutes. Pitch them on a "supporter" placement on the site + recognition in the newsletter. Even one $500/yr sponsor pays for the domain, hosting, and Young Eagles fuel.
Months 9–12 · Newsletter as a real product
Monthly email newsletter, MailChimp or Buttondown, opt-in capture on the site. By month twelve there should be 200+ subscribers in middle TN aviation. That list is more durable than the Facebook page and more valuable than the website itself.
04 Money
Dues alone are a treadmill. Find one more rail.
Most chapters fund themselves on dues + the occasional pancake breakfast. That's enough to keep the lights on, not enough to grow. Two realistic supplements:
- Local aviation business sponsorships. Three tiers ($250 / $500 / $1000 per year), modest logo placement on the site and a thank-you in the newsletter. Aaron's pitch deck for these doubles as his portfolio when he's selling marketing services to the same companies.
- The Ray Aviation Scholarship pipeline. EAA national funds private-pilot scholarships for young pilots, administered through chapters. 1343 is already nominally in this program. Profile each year's recipient on the site — that's recruiting copy that writes itself, and it's the kind of story local newspapers will pick up.
05 The "old guys" question
A feature, not a bug — if you frame it right.
Aaron's read on the chapter is that it's "a bunch of old guys who like planes." Every chapter is. The question is whether those old guys are actively bored of being a closed club, or actively defending it.
The chapters that grow are the ones where one or two senior members publicly want a kid in the right seat. The chapters that don't are the ones where the same six people have run things for fifteen years and like it that way.
Test this early: pick one Young Eagles rally and ask three of the older members to volunteer as ground crew (registration table, parent intake, photo wrangling — not flying). The ones who say yes are the chapter's growth engine. The ones who say no are who they are. Build the program around the yeses.
06 Aaron
The chapter's website is also his portfolio — design accordingly.
The reason this plan exists in public, on a chapter site, signed by Claude, is that Aaron is building a career as middle-Tennessee's aviation marketing person. The chapter is exhibit A. Every page he writes, every recap he posts, every Young Eagles flyer he designs, is a sample of what he sells next.
Three rules for Aaron specifically:
- Sign your work. Not on every post — on the masthead and the about page. "Communications by Aaron Linn." When someone hires the next aviation chapter's marketing person, they should be able to find him in two clicks.
- Pitch sideways, not up. The flight schools and FBOs around middle TN are his real market. The chapter is the demo that earns the meeting. Murfreesboro Aviation, Wings of Eagles, MTSU Aerospace — that's the prospect list.
- Build the system once. Whatever cadence works for 1343 (newsletter cadence, photo workflow, rally promotion sequence) becomes the package he sells to the next client. Don't custom-build for each gig — productize.
That's the plan. Pieces of it survive contact with reality and pieces don't. Worth more than nothing.