Dear Self-Serve Fuel for PWK petition supporter: Thanks so much for your signature and comments. We had an amazing show of support at Wednesday’s Chicago Executive Airport Board of Directors meeting. There was an overflow crowd, and by meeting time we had collected 190 signatures from both the Chicago area and across the country in just a few days. (Even more came in during the meeting.) The comments, in particular, were very powerful. Thanks to all who added a comment. The news was not great; in fact overall, it was pretty bad, but we made definite progress. Worse than not considering the question of self-serve fuel at the airport, the Board actually passed a resolution NOT to take up the issue. Their defense is that it is in conflict with the airport's Minimum Standards, which they often use as a shield against making changes. The position ignores that 1) they're the ones who adopted the Minimum Standards in the first place and could vote to change them, and 2) the existing Fixed Base Operators reportedly do not meet the minimum standards in the first place (they don't provide maintenance and other services required by the standards.) At the last minute, one FBO—Signature Flight Support—tried to deflect the self-serve initiative by announcing a thinly-documented compromise to mollify the Chicago Executive Pilots Association by offering a temporary test of a discount of full-serve fuel--FOR CEPA MEMBERS ONLY. The proposal is deeply flawed as proposed, since: a) it is only few months' test b) there is no guarantee that it would be kept in place any longer than the test, and c) most egregiously, it would only apply to CEPA members, not to anyone not a member and not to anyone visiting from elsewhere. Also, it was only under threat of getting the airport to offer self-serve fuel, so now that the threat is lessened or delayed by the board's vote, their incentive is gone. They could have offered this at any time in the past, but they only offered it under the duress of the campaign for self-serve, and have designed it for failure. Nevertheless, we accomplished several things: 1) Most important: Demonstrated how egregious the situation is, and how strongly the GA community feels about it. Multiple news stories appeared in the local press: http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/breaking/ct-chicago-executive-airport-fuel-fight-met-20160721-story.html http://www.dailyherald.com/article/20160721/news/160729700/ http://www.journal-topics.com/news/article_990e1620-4f7c-11e6-add0-cf3cc9b1a423.html 2) Pressured at least one FBO into some proposed concessions on fuel prices. 3) Served notice that the GA community will not go away until prices at PWK are in line with the surrounding market. The next step for CEPA will be to review the proposal from Signature and see if it can be remedied to something the group can support. At this time, we’re shutting down the petition, but will get back in touch when we need your support. Thanks again so much, Chicago Executive Pilots Association