Wichita ? With one key union already on board, organizers of a proposed employee buyout of Boeing Co.’s commercial operation in Wichita have begun campaigning for the broad support needed to offer a serious bid.

A small group of Boeing Wichita workers and union leaders formed a coalition earlier this month to devise an Employee Stock Ownership Plan, or ESOP. The effort gained critical backing Thursday with a vote of support from the Society of Professional Engineering Employees in Aerospace in Wichita.

Only about 20 employees of Boeing Wichita turned out Friday for an informational meeting that had been publicized at least a week earlier.

But thousands of fliers have been circulated, and a presentation to members of the Machinists union was set for Saturday following that union’s monthly meeting.

“People are aware,” said Richard Phenneger of Phenneger & Morgan, a Spokane, Wash.-based consulting firm that works on ESOP efforts and is advising the Wichita coalition.

Officials of Chicago-based Boeing officials have been seeking a buyer for the Wichita plant. Boeing CEO Harry Stonecipher said last month that he expected a decision on whether to sell would be made by year’s end.

Boeing Wichita has about 12,300 employees — about 7,000 in its commercial airplane facility and the rest in the military airplane operation, which would be unaffected by the sale.

Among those attending Friday’s meeting at a Wichita middle school was electrical engineer David Moffett, who recently joined the grass-roots effort.

“If the company wants to sell the place, let’s sell to employees,” Moffett said.

Phenneger told those in attendance that Boeing employees would not have to come up with the money to buy the operation.

In the next two weeks, he said, he expects to have a letter of intent from an investment banking group. The group would line up investors to finance the purchase of the facility once Boeing accepted a bid.

Because of the tax benefits in ESOP programs, investors recognize the benefits to them, Phenneger said.