Rhinebeck Museum trouble

[cfgray]

Susan,

Thanks for the report, glad you liked our WW1 AERO/SKYWAYS table, and thanks, once again, to Tom Polapink (special thanks) (a Rhinebeck Aerodrome Member and former Rhinebeck Aerodrome Museum Director), Sean Tavares (also a longtime Rhinebeck Aerodrome Member) and Leo Opdycke (formerly a longtime Rhinebeck Aerodrome Member) and others for putting together such a swell booth for us. Glad you and Ian (longtime Rhinebeck Aerodrome Members and substantial supporters) could attend, wish I (also a Rhinebeck Aerodrome Member) could have.

I did my best, as did many others, to urge Rhinebeck Aerodrome to attend WRAMs, but it was their decision to make, and they chose to not be there.

While I understand that decision, I do think it was a missed opportunity. It would have been a very good and very helpful thing had someone, ideally the two presidents, attended and circulated around. That would have been in Rhinebeck Aerodrome's best interest.

I am personally at the point of giving up, after many repeated attempts, on trying to make the folks who are in charge at Rhinebeck Aerodrome understand the necessity for personal contact with those people who were so unceremoniously pushed out or who left in disgust.

What happens next will be a consequence of those currently in charge of Rhinebeck Aerodrome not attending to the urgent matter of reconciliation with those people who were so very wrongly treated between 2003 and 2006.

Best,
Carroll Gray
Board Chair, World War 1 Aeroplanes, Inc.,
Publisher of WW1 AERO and SKYWAYS

[wingnut]

Now that Mr. Gray is fed up trying to talk to the Board members, we can all try again contacting Palmquest and Cuomo. Look at my last post #3007 for info to contact these people. We can not stop here. Read the post and write now and then the next day, etc. LETS BECOME THEIR WORST NITEMARE. Both for the Board and the State officials. Remember, It takes PASSION.

[cfgray]

I want to be as clear as newly-polished optical glass...
I'm not "giving up" - far from it - it's just that I'm about done trying to pursuade the Rhinebeck Aerodrome Boards of Trustees to do the right thing.
Have no doubt, they will hearing from me & us again.
Best, cfgray

[tazbat]

Hi Carroll,

I, and many others to be sure, are glad to hear you are not giving up.

If you had taken some of us at our word ealier, you could have saved some time in coming to your conclusion. But, I understand the necessity of taking the route you took.

The trustees are not going to budge from whatever their game is. To be sure their game has never reflected the welfare of ORA.

I have gone out on the proverbial limb to criticize and speculate on the artful contrivances of the two boards. But, they should have expected it, especially when you try to disengage everyone who knows anything about ORA.

My concern at this point is the old (hiding) trustees may try to put the State off, in the future, with excuses that the new trustees are in the process of coming up to speed, thus again silencing the State and buying themselves more time to continue on the course they have set. Rigth now they seem to be laying low so as to cool down all the attention they have received.

Salute!

[cfgray]

I've been requested to post this (with a slightly altered first paragraph) again, and so I have. - cfgray
------------

Each person who was pushed out or left because of the atmospherics and/or the maltreatment of others or themselves ought to send a letter to ORAA President Hugh Schoelzel (addressed: "Hugh Schoelzel, CONFIDENTIAL & PERSONAL, Rhinebeck Aerodrome, PO Box 229, Rhinebeck, NY 12572) - and also please send a copy to us at OLD RHINEBECK AERODROME, INC., PO Box 715, Red Hook, New York 12571 so we can keep a record of the letters sent, or send e-mails to me at "cfg@carrollgray.com" or "cfgray@mac.com" and I will make certain that only Hugh Schoelzel receives your e-mail.

Please state the following:

1) the approximate number of hours or days or years that they volunteered or worked at Rhinebeck Aerodrome

2) what they did at Rhinebeck Aerodrome

3) why they are no longer at Rhinebeck Aerodrome

4) what they would like to see happen at Rhinebeck Aerodrome

5) whether or not they would be willing to return to Rhinebeck Aeordrome to work and/or volunteer

6) a list of the special skills which they had and still have to offer to Rhinebeck Aerodrome

I would suggest that the tone of the letter not be hostile, but more "just the facts."

Thanks to all who do this, it is important, I believe.

Best,
cfgray

[tazbat]

Originally Posted by cfgray

I have a suggestion. Each person who was pushed out or left because of the atmospherics and/or the maltreatment of others or themselves ought to send a letter to Hugh Schoelzel and Paul Heimbach (Rhinebeck Aerodrome, PO Box 229, Rhinebeck, NY 12572 - and also please send a copy to us at OLD RHINEBECK AERODROME, INC., PO Box 715, Red Hook, New York 12571),...

I would suggest that the tone of the letter not be hostile, but more "just the facts."

Perhaps, if they receive a pile of such letters, it might cause them to reconsider before it is too late to do so.

Best,
cfgray

I have followed your suggestion, Carroll. Hopefully, it won't be judged as hostile, but emphatic. Sorry I couldn't really answer any of the questions, I was never a volunteer. But, I put my two cents worth in anyway. I wouldn't want Hugh to think I never wrote or am a malcontent crackpot, when indeed I wrote many times and never received any replies. Let's see if I get a reply this time.

Salute!

[AAC Cadet Leader]

Originally Posted by tazbat

I have followed your suggestion, Carroll. Hopefully, it won't be judged as hostile, but emphatic. Sorry I couldn't really answer any of the questions, I was never a volunteer. But, I put my two cents worth in anyway. I wouldn't want Hugh to think I never wrote or am a malcontent crackpot, when indeed I wrote many times and never received any replies. Let's see if I get a reply this time.

Salute!

good for you, tazbat! i'll be writing too, even though i only "volunteered" for a week in 1988. i hope all others who have been long-time visitors and fans of ORA and would like to see it return to a thriving, happy place, will write a paragraph and volunteer to assist ORA if the positive changes we seek are put into place.

[Curtiss Jenny]

When I first read CFGray's posting on page 299 of this thread, I objected to the idea. But since then I have been convinced otherwise, and now I highly recommend to everyone who has been reading this thread to write an ethically uncompromising letter.

Perhaps for many the hardest thing will be to write without hostility. I recommend that you just stick to the facts and answer the applicable questions truthfully.

[SteveS]

Yes, please take the time to write to Trustee Schoelzel.

But don’t think you have to have been a volunteer to write. This letter writing appeal isn’t just for ex-volunteers, but for all concerned with the way Aerodrome has been run.

Whether a RAM member or just a visitor, let Mr. Schoelzel know your true feelings about the Old Rhinebeck Aerodrome. Make him very aware that you are concerned with the Aerodrome’s future. And if applicable, how you are able to help and on what terms. Be respectful, but inform him of what you expect of him and the other Board of Trustees members.

And no matter how you send it in make sure you send a copy to CFGray for record keeping.

Together, we will make a difference!

Salute,
Steve

[ONEALM]

Folks -

I'm sure the reason the thread has been so quiet it that we are all busy writing our letters to Trustee Schoetzel. I am.

Over the last couple of years we've all had opportunities to register our complaints here on the forum, to debate the wisdom of some of those commentaries, to denegrate those whom seemed worthy of it and to praise those who have stepped into the breech to help ORA.

The length of the struggle has probably dulled some of our enthusiasm for the task. The tendency to see nothing - or certainly nothing worthwhile - coming of our efforts is a natural reaction to the inaction of those we have spent considerable effort attempting to pursuade.

As I pointed out a few years ago, sitting on our hands and complaining will not solve the problem. Waiting for change from within ORA is irrational. The only thing that will effect change is effort from all of us.

Now we have an opportunity. One that was presented by the BoT themselves and one we have been asking for. For all the talk, for all the rhetoric, complaints, carping, whining, demanding and tossing of insults and praise, this may represent our last best opportunity to get the job done.

Take the advice of SteveS and CurtissJenny and others who have recommended it - write to Trustee Schoetzel and offer your services.

Whatever your talent or availability, if you have anything to offer to ORA to help it grow and flourish, now is the time to offer and to offer directly to the BoT. If you can volunteer on site, working at Rhinebeck that's superb. If your talents and location present other possibilities - copy for the Rotary Ramblings, fund-raising, inventory control (Seem like they need that...), sponsoring a group to attend an airshow - your local Scout troop, senior citizens organizations, PBA or Firefighters, or heck even a bunch of artists will work, if you can donate time, money or effort in any form that may, in any small way help ORA, now is the time.

Why now? Because failing to offer up what is easily offered when asked directly by the BoT undermines our arguments against them. Forget they have been non-responsive for years, forget they have been outright dismissive of the "motley rabel" that the members here seem to represent, forget that you'd sooner stick a pin in your eye than lift a finger to help the individuals on the board as you have come to know them.

We're not talking about them. We're not helping them.

All of our efforts, in all their various forms, are for ORA - the idea of it, the incarnation of it and the reality of it as it once was.

Put your annoyance down for a few minutes, pick up a pen and write.

For those of you who have already done so - I thank you, the Save ORA group thanks you and I am certain, the smiling, bald-headed guy in the Great Lakes, cruising around and watching us attempt to ressurect his dream - thanks you.