Newspaper Article RE: Angel Flight (in Texas)

[kimberlyanne546]

Nice new article about an organization I am a member of, Angel Flight (I'm a mission assistant):

http://laketravisview.com/2012/08/29/angel-flight-program-ticket-to-patients-reaching-appointments/

 

[Jim Logajan]

May I ask why AFW charges its assistants $50 to help them out? Do they charge pilots as well? Most pilots and assistants or SICs as we call them here are generous of their time and money so I'm curious as to what the charge is for?

They do seem to require a $50 first year membership fee of pilots ($35/yr thereafter,) so you do have a reasonable question - so I actually emailed AFW a short while ago asking them for their rationale (not sure if or when they will answer.) However, after sending that email I started reviewing some of the other Angel Flight organizations, and found that a couple others do have at least a one-time fee of $25 to $50 to defray the cost of processing the applications. The pilots do tend to get various physical material on joining, to there is a non-zero cost involved to the organization. And I imagine that the organizations have no idea whether a new volunteer will actually ever fly any missions. On the other hand some of the organizations do seem to be short-handed with respect to pilots versus available missions.

But most Angel Flight organizations don't seem to charge volunteers anything to join. Angel Flight East even seems to have gone a bit the other way, in that it seems to have gotten an FAA exemption or waiver that provides a way for pilots to get donations that can be toward fuel cost reimbursement.

 

[Jim Logajan]

When you say "processing", do you mean filing something with the state that cost them money, or just the cost of data entry and filing the application? If it's the latter, you would think they could get volunteers to do that as well.

Then stop distributing physical material. Everyone had an email address and a browser.

Why don't you simply ask them what they mean by processing? I actually went to the trouble to bother AFW with one email. If or when I get an answer that I can pass along, I will.