Ed. Note: I goofed when I said you couldn’t tune in online. A livestream of the meeting was announced in today’s ePilot newsletter. Here’s the announcement.
| AOPA special meeting of members this weekend |
| Members who plan to attend the September 19 special meeting at 11:30 a.m. Eastern to vote on new AOPA bylaws are encouraged to RSVP, or appoint a voting proxy if unable to attend. Members who cannot join us in person can watch a livestream (login required). TFRs may be in effect near Frederick, Maryland. |
We now return to the corrected blog. Sorry for the confusion. Russ
Hands up. Who’s going to Frederick, Maryland, on Saturday? That’s what I thought. I’m not going either but our Julie Boatman will be there as the board of trustees of AOPA meet in a special session to take concrete steps to modernize and make more accessible a governing structure that was created when the Fonz ruled the television ratings and we were all flying pretty much the same airplanes except they were 40 years newer then.
You can watch it online but there’s no way for your voice to be heard unless you actually attend and that’s the whole point. The bylaws that set the governance for AOPA evolved over the last 30 years of the last century and concentrated the power with the chairman of the board and his (they’ve all been men) handpicked appointees. The board is expected to make some fundamental changes to the makeup and function of the board after an excruciating six months of unrest that sparked the retirement of Chairman Jim Hauslein and other longtime board members.
Creating the space in the bylaws to introduce term limits and to allow online voting for board members are chief among the initiatives expected to be discussed. Those were two of the biggest issues among members when the antiquated existing bylaw structure was laid bare in the wake of the decidedly unpleasant departure of former CEO Darren Pleasance.
The hastily reconstituted board came up with a host of changes that they put up on the website for perusal by the membership, and I don’t expect there will be much deviation from that. That means there will still be grumblings that the essential issues of democracy and access haven’t been fully addressed and I get that. But it might be time to lighten up a little on what’s missing and marvel at what’s included. After 40 years of virtual autocracy, enabled by an utterly disinterested membership, there is now dialogue between the board and that membership and Saturday’s meeting begins the process of substantive reform.
The board knows there are plenty of members who will consider it too little and too late, but from what I’ve been told change is a difficult process and those leading the charge have agreed to temper their enthusiasm for immediate reform in favor of a measured pace of change over a period of years. It’s not such a bad way to go about it. Kicking down doors may get everyone’s attention but it’s not generally the most productive way of getting things done.
What I hope comes out of Saturday is a roadmap for change that will continue through the life of an organization that has played a major role in shaping this industry, for better or worse, over the last 87 years. The current dissatisfaction with the way things are going has led to inevitable discussion about abandoning it altogether, but that would be a mistake.
AOPA remains one of the most effective conduits for issues facing GA to get in front of the people who are actually in charge in Washington. It has put tremendous energy into its Washington profile and that has worked. We definitely don’t want to lose that or even mess with it in any significant way.
But like a family breadwinner who spends all their time at the office, the folks running AOPA need to kick their shoes off once in a while and play with the people they work so hard to provide for. There is evidence they’ve heard that and we’re seeing more board members and senior staff at events than ever. For instance, this might be the last time the board meets in Frederick, and the days of scheduling the meeting for early on a weekday morning are now over. Future meetings are likely to be held in conjunction with established fly-ins and other GA events.
That does not mean the nuts and bolts can be ignored. AOPA has some serious financial issues and a very strange imbalance in its operational performance and its investment portfolio. Is it time to raid the piggy bank (about $140 million) to fund the operational changes that will get the business side of the organization back on track? I understand it’s a topic that takes up some time in Frederick.
But I suppose the biggest hope I have for after Saturday’s meeting is that members will embrace the changes that are made when it comes to voting and transparency and take part in the democratic processes that are being restored.
While there were certainly some eye-opening revelations made in the past few months and I think there has and will be accountability for those issues, the membership itself takes some responsibility for the state of affairs. Decades of complacency and neglect allowed a steady creep of power concentration that came to a head with the dismissal of Pleasance. The time is now right to get things back on track to restore AOPA’s functional leadership.
Winston Churchill once said: “Never let a good crisis go to waste” (or something like that) and others have bent the quote to their needs. I think Rahm Emanuel’s adaptation suits this set of circumstances.
“You never want a serious crisis to go to waste. And what I mean by that [is] it’s an opportunity to do things that you think you could not before.”
I do not remember when my aviation association memberships lapsed. AOPA was one of the earliest ones many moons ago. Too little to late probably sums it up for most of those who departed the three and four letter old boys wine and luxury clubs.
Overall, I spent roughly 20 years trying to get fellow pilots to become more involved, rather than paying yearly dues and hoping for a better future. For many of these years this happened in exchange for wet handshakes.
Status quo is still alive and well. Most memberships are automatic renewals and the magazines live in a bathroom or on some living room table.
Meanwhile our entire planet is in permanent crisis mode. There comes a time when the problems are no longer focused on the little man who is working stiff and unable to put fuel into their vehicles.
Luxury toys like GA aircraft are inching (ever so slowly) into complete societal oblivion. Taxes, fees and overall pricing as well as some radical political changes after 2028 will solve the rest and get most of those who feel rich enough to keep this hobby to hang it up. Many more will just age out and be done.
We all (members and non-members) had many years to engage fellow pilots and build a community that goes beyond complaining and expecting money to solve issues which traditionally never got solved by money, but required boots on the ground and simple stupid grassroots advocacy work.
I agree that grass roots advocacy is hard to replace. However, it is hard for things like advocacy in Washington to come from grass roots efforts alone. I believe we need both strong organizations and grass roots action.
I disagree that the planet is in permanent crisis. It may seem that way do to 24 hour “news” coverage (thanks for that Ted Turner) and now, even worse, social media. Our planet is in better shape than any time in history, we just can’t see it for all the noise. Anyone who knows history and knows the levels of poverty and wars and disease in the past, knows that we live in remarkable times.
The bylaw changes didn’t go far enough. Their regional/local advocacy is still under-resourced.
I don’t know how they are going to escape this doom loop, but they certainly have the resources to try.
Bylaw changes won’t fix the fundamental problem: untouchable board members. Until we allow all members to vote by mail or electronically so that board members can be easily replaced, little will change culturally and bylaws don’t change culture: new board members can.
I am fine with a measured implementation of change as long as there is a roadmap at least a few years into the future showing the planned changes.
For me, the primary change needed, and the one that matters more than all others combined, is allowing the full membership to vote without being present in Maryland each year. I was going to let my 47 year membership lapse in July, but got the note about this meeting coming up and the fact that electronic voting would be considered. We will see if I was duped or if they are serious. If not, I will leave AOPA next July.
The reason this is paramount for me is that I am on a couple of electric company boards and knowing they can get voted out at any election keeps the board members focused on the membership wants and needs. A board that is untouchable has zero incentive to listen to the membership and act on their behalf. If all members can vote, then the board members will keep getting replaced until the membership feels served. That is far more effective than a boatload of new policies.
To be fair, Russ, there have been two women board members over the past 40 years, including current member Amanda Farnsworth.
Arrogant
Operation
Please
Abandon
I am still considering of canceling my AOPA membership after I renewed it after the firing of Mr. Pleasance. I haven’t seen anything that persuaded me to continue my support of the AOPA. A few of my major gripes with the AOPA are the lack of fly-in and aviation information and the antiquated list of flying clubs. When I logged into the AOPA club webpage, there are only a handful of clubs in the Los Angeles region. AOPA has a few reps in SoCal but they don’t make an effort to update the list. The same with fly-in. The EAA has a more comprehensive list of aviation events. You would hope the AOPA is more attuned to the day to day operations of the GA public but it isn’t.
I think it’s adorable that people still think there is hope for AOPA. That organization – like many others – has been corrupted by greed. The chance to take it back was lost when then majority bought into the Us & Them philosophy that was sold by those with the most power & money. Even the aviation world is fragmented, divided and under attack from within. GA vs Airlines. Certain aircraft ownership organizations who I will not name are fragmented by toxic membership and infighting and are therefore ineffective at advocating for their own specialized interests. Even if the AOPA membership showed up in person I’m willing to bet nothing would change. There’s no profit to be made by giving the members what they want.
Excellent editorial, Russ.
I joined AOPA back when I bought my first C172 in the mid-seventies. I thought that AOPA was the best resource (aside from “Flying” magazine) of aviation information. A decade later some pilot friends dragged me to Oshkosh, and I immediately joined EAA, solely for the annual Fly-In; I had no interest in flying an “experimental” anything.
Over the years, it became obvious that AOPA had nothing really to offer me and my Skyhawk. But I stayed with them because, well, I don’t know, inertia?. Their magazines were usually scanned and tossed on the recycle pile. They did have gorgeous photos of aircraft that I would never in my life see, much less sit in. It was obvious that I wasn’t rich enough to have any real say in the organization.
EAA was where I found community because even our tiny little college town had a chapter. We did things together. Some of us were also AOPA members, but that was primarily so we could keep track of what was going on with the FAA. Then I built an Experimental helicopter. It was pretty obvious that “my kind of (inexpensive) flying” was not a priority of AOPA.
Now, thanks to the Internet and all of your sources Russ, I can know almost immediately what the FAA and our congress-critters are up to. Should AOPA recover from its self-inflicted wound, it will make no difference to me.
Well you have no idea what EAA does. EAA cares only about an airshow and the profits from that show each year. At least AOPA is in dc and active in the states. Better think twice. EAA just wants your wristband.
I agree with you.. to a point!
OTOH, EAA has worked closely with the FAA and has driven many of the regulations for Amateur-Built, Light-Sport, and MOSAIC.
:-)) ValleyFlyer, you appear to be operating in a self-induced information vacuum and unencumbered by factual reality. It appears that you didn’t even think once before posting.
My wife and I have been members of multiple EAA Chapters for almost fifty years, attended every Oshkosh/AirVenture for the last 41 years, and have taken on active “management” responsibilities in the Vintage aircraft flight-line, by far the largest aircraft parking area of AirVenture. Not only do we “have an idea what EAA does”, we are part of the extended family that makes AirVenture happen every year. Even though it involves a long, two fuel stop, flight in a C172, a week before the show starts.
There are several other “families” that make up the AirVenture experience, including Warbirds, Ultralights, Homebuilts, and Aerobatics. Each family is responsible for the aircraft in their category. And while each family has its own management, I have seen no evidence of the attitude you assert by the “EAA” that you disparage.
AOPA’s HQ is not “in DC”: Frederick MD is a two-hour drive to the FAA in DC. (I used to live on a grass strip down the road from them.) As for being “active in the states”, that’s a pretty flimsy assertion, compared to having well over 700 EAA chapters in all fifty states and Canada.
I was unable to sit in on AOPA’s attempt to right its foundering ship this morning. I was at our Chapter’s monthly meeting, where three members of our nearby fast-growing Class Charlie ATC staff came by to make a short presentation. That was followed by over two hours of lively discussion and Q&A about how they manage traffic in the region, best practices for transiting their airspace, inside scoop on which local airports would be getting their own towers (real and remote) and dozens of “what’s the best way to go from X to Y through your airspace?” questions. Their patient and friendly answers revealed the complexity of our local airspace, their flexibility (and where they had little) and their commitment to providing high quality service to everyone. Great guys. We had only 50 chairs and it was SRO.
THAT is what EAA does for us. AOPA? Never seen them at any of our local airports.
-With observers (watching livestream) hovering at approximately 30 members, it appears AOPA was unable to attract a significant audience on Sep 19.
(total views at conclusion: 88)
-Contents of slides were … as expected.
-In-person contributions limited to 2 minutes; three attendees were invited to speak.
New/amended AOPA bylaws passed by majority vote; reported as 40,282 members in favor (64 submitted by ballot, remainder by proxy); votes ‘against’ announced as zero.
Unlike other AOPA presentations, volume for this Livestream appeared very low, despite device volume settings.
Playback posted and available on AOPA youtube channel.
Just watch the live stream of the meeting – WOW that was a dud, looked deserted. The “update” was just a rehash of old information, no new initiatives or updates on financials or membership. Shocker the new bylaws were passed, ~42,000 to Zero – Putin would be proud !