I happen to be teaching gliding to one of the VP’s at the EAA (an old college friend) and his 13 year old son. They both plan to solo on his son’s 14th birthday next May. I know the EAA was a big part of pushing for the changes to allow a 14 year old to solo on their birthday. They are the ones that wrote the petition that pushed the FAA to change the policy.

Maybe the question should be:
How do we turn EAA, AOPA and FAA employees, who make the decisions that shape our sport,(or their kids) into gliding enthusiast?

This way we do not have to worry so much as to whether they are looking out for us or not. Since many pilots in European countries typically start out flying gliders this may explain why they are already very well integrated with the power flying pilots, as was pointed out in the original post.