You have my vote for NOT providing pleasure cruises to the island, at least until after the solving of the original presumption. Mixing these sort of activities confuses people as to what is the real intent. (Is this a research or cruise company we are running?) I doubt if cruises qualify for non profit activities!? And it dilutes the true meaning of "research".
TIGHAR's tax statements identify it as a 501(c)(3), a steward of a public interest.
TIGHAR's public interest is promoting responsible aviation archaeology.
Solving the mystery of Amelia Earhart's disappearance would do this.
Educating the public about responsible aviation archaeology would do this.
The two are not incompatible. It would be great if both can be done.
The Betchart cruise was very educational.
We learned much. We made mistakes. We learned we had much to learn.
We were tourists but we were also students.
There was high spirit, and even higher seas. We respected the island and one another.
We observed all rules laid out for us by the two supervising archaeologists, and by officers of our ship.
All this seems to me to be consistent with TIGHAR's history, and befits its legal status as a tax-exempt organization on account of its role in educating members and subsets of members, but above all the public.
My two cents.
Joe Cerniglia