Well, maybe the exclamation point is a little overdoing it as it was just our Annual meeting, which we have the first part of every year…

We did not do much damage to the Association and some might say we did some good…

Probably the best thing we did was to unaminously elevate REPA Affiliate Member Jim Whitlock to Honorary Membership status…

As many know Jim was an aircraft fueler in Ramp Service at the Atlanta Airport. He had a second calling though, that creating many, many Last Trip posters for retiring Eastern pilots… He continued this after Eastern closed its doors, painting some for former Eastern pilots who later flew for other airlines. Also over the years Jim created many paintings of Eastern’s airplanes, some for sale and a large number for Door Prizes at the Atlanta Luncheon or to raise money at the REPA Convention Cash Sales… If anyone ever deserved to be an Honorary Member of REPA then that would be Jim Whitlock!!!!!

Of course, much of our time at the Board Meeting was spent discussing  the upcoming REPA Convention, set to start on November 11th at the Westin Resort on Hilton Head Island, off the coast of Georgia.  There will be a lot more about this in the summer REPArtee but already we have started construction on the Convention Page of the REPA website, you can visit it at www.repaonline.com. Right now all we have is an overhead picture of the Westin Resort…

As all know we are losing Eastern pilots at the rate of about 80 per year, many were REPA members. This is somewhat offset at REPA as we do get new members, both Regular and Affiliate, but nowhere near the numbers that we are losing.  So the Board discussed amending the Bylaws to allow former Eastern Flight Attendants to become Regular Members… Many do belong now as Affiliate Members but perhaps there would be more joining if they could be full members, as the pilots are. This will be placed on the agenda for the Convention Business Meeting in November…

In the same vein we also discussed the possiblity of sharing a convention with other Eastern groups, the Silver Liners perhaps… This, too, will be discussed at the Convention Business Meeting…

The Board also took up the matter of the Slate of Nominees for 2013 REPA Officers… At the present we have two members willing to come on the Board as Director, both of whom have already served on the Board. We would be quite happy with either of these gentlemen however we felt we should at least see if anyone else, not having served, would like to be considered… The Slate has to be in the summer magazine, which is already in the works, so anyone interested should contact one of the Board Members.

The last item of interest is that the First Class mailed winter 2012 REPArtee magazines were mailed a bit early, on Friday, January 27th… Probably most paying for First Class already have theirs… The remainder (by far the most) were mailed right on time, that being Tuesday, January 31st…  As they were sent via Standard Mail, no one knows when the Post Office will deliver them! Usually most arrive within 10 days but we know of some that took up to several months!!!!!

Hope you have a happy Super Bowl Sunday!!!!

Jim Holder