It was a lovely afternoon. Warm, but not hot. Breezy, but not too windy, and with just a soupçon of flowery scent in the air as I turned my mighty Cessna 140 from base to final with both of my cockpit windows open to enjoy the day. Life has been quiet and semi-nice around the old aerodrome.
Sure, there is the ever-present controversy about what the heck a “teardrop entry into a downwind” is, and why pilots who constantly whine about building up their flying time are the ones in such a hurry to land that they drive across the pattern at jet downwind altitudes.
After crossing athwart the runway, they then dive to piston airplane levels and drive in a circle that allows their wings to block their vision of the other traffic that is already established and is frantically trying to avoid them. Then there is the “hey, look at me!” crowd that, when they aren’t bragging about their expensive airplanes and robotic tugs, are buzzing the field at high speeds and low altitudes to confirm what most of us already know—that they are idiots.
A short nap in my ancient, hangar-based lounge chair, and I brewed a fresh cup of coffee. Sitting calmly in the peace and quiet that only a wonderful flight can bring, my harmony was broken by a malcontent with a beef against the alphabet.
Sherman came in hot. He strode into my hangar with a frown, and was waving his iPad around feverishly and yelling a loud “son of a bug!” which is a pretty strong phrase from a normally reserved and quiet man.
“I stayed with AOPA after they fired Pleasance so I would have a say in how the organization would be run in the future, and now this!” Now what? I inquired. Having exited the whole teapot tempest after they fired Darren months ago, I had been enjoying (up to now) a serene flying life bereft of emailed political screeds, insurance, and other commercial come-ons from AOPA.
To me, the peace of mind I got from dropping out of all the nonsense promulgated by the “Perfumed Princes” at that club has been wonderful.
Once Sherman calmed down and accepted an iced tea from my hangar fridge, he sat and regaled me with the latest offense. Apparently, AOPA decided to get out the rule book and whoop their membership upside the head with it in advance of the yearly meeting held in Frederick [May 12].
According to Sherman, they would allow member input, but only if the board selected them to provide it. Twenty selected serfs from the verdant fields of the AOPA plantation would be allowed to speak to their betters (the Board) for a grand total of two minutes, or less, each.
During those two minutes, they were reminded by the Perfumed Princes that any anger, name-calling, spitting, under the arm fart noises, or the pointing of select middle fingers in the general direction of the elite leaders would be forbidden.
Further, the board demanded that the “great unwashed” (dues-paying members) would not be allowed to record, photograph, or make crayon drawings of the gods of AOPA under penalty of something or other.
“They just don’t get it,” said Sherman.
I am not sure that you get it, I said.
That got me an angry glare from a usually quiet guy, so I figured that, unlike the AOPA board, I would explain myself.
Sherman, at what time and in what universe did AOPA ever tell you that you had a say in the way things were run in that organization? I mean, I know they send out surveys (at least I think they do), but they don’t use these to find out what you want them to do. They send out the surveys to see what you would be willing to buy.
The membership does not choose the board, and the board does not ask for membership input on who they hire or how they run the whole shindig, making my feudal references petty daggum apt.
In my never-to-be-humble opinion, I added, “What they really want the membership to do is get in line, pay their damn dues, and shut the hell up.”
“Well, I’m going to quit!”
They don’t care, because the very few people like you that leave are a trifle to them. Quit all you want; the bulk of the membership will continue to renew, pay higher and higher dues, and eagerly await their free hat.
The board wants this to blow over, and I am willing to bet that they are shocked that members like you and I have the unmitigated gall to speak to their betters like that. I mean, really!
They want to run their yearly meeting, eat a few hors d’oeuvres, and jump on their high-speed aircraft to beat feet to their respective gated-community hideouts.
As a recent non-member, I really have no dog in this fight, but I will say one final thing before I head home to dinner.
AOPA would not be making these rules and preaching about them to the membership if they weren’t at least a little afraid of what would happen if the membership got to say what they really think and want.
And that is how the cookie crumbles.
The majority or members is happy, fat and lazy.
A couple thousand proxies to other people are irrelevant.
I feel better for myself having decided to pull the AOPA plug.
This would be funny, except that we really do need an effective lobbying organization in Washington representing GA interests. AOPA is the only one we’ve got, and these things are not easily rebuilt once destroyed. So let’s hope they pull their heads out, start listening to members, and generally turn the organization around.
The EAA does a great job at representing GA interests.
While I agree with you that the EAA has been doing a massively better job of representing GA, having just one organization to do this is a single point of failure.
I agree, but EAA and AOPA have represented somewhat different interests and GA is quite diverse – ultimately we need both, not one or the other.
Pardon me for switching gears back to the teardrop entry… I’ve always thought this was the “gold standard”. I had not considered any jets at a higher downwind altitude… good point.
It appears – and I could be wrong- that if you vote by proxy, you are just voting for whatever the board decides. No way to vote for other people. AOPA’s website is a total disaster- intentionally so, I suspect. Since no one will ever travel to Frederick this ensures continuity of insanity.
If they truly do allow for proxy votes, any member can name any other member as a proxy, in which case voting by proxy means voting for whatever your named proxy votes for. It just happens that AOPA would very much prefer you list one of their board members of their choosing as your proxy.
I don’t see a way to do that. After you click “proxy” you just get a thank you message.
I’m sure they want to make it as difficult as possible to name someone other than a board member as a proxy.
It’s not available from the website. You can designate another member as your proxy by sending an email to memberassistance@aopa.org and cc’ing charles.lehman@aopa.org . Include your own name, member number, and email address.
But the Board controls about 30,000 proxies, so a successful proxy fight will require serious organization and time.
The REAL answer is to either use an independent 3rd party online proxy, like proxyvote.com , or to allow online or mail-in voting. I spoke with Luke Wippler about doing this and he’s not willing to support it or to commit any effort to making it happen.
There are other ways of exerting pressure, but they’ll take time.
A lot of calories are spent trying to change an unmovable association.
For those still following “those we don’t speak of” (5 letter aviation news site run by bots and AI): Mark Baker has penned a plea for continued support of (4 letter aviation association which has lost touch with members and reality). I stopped reading when I saw who edited the advertorial, however the big guns are showing up to save the day.
It’s funny how all of these “big guns” are pleading for the members to continue supporting a certain 4-letter aviation association, but not pleading the board to pay more attention to said members. It really does seem that as soon as they show a glimmer of moving in the right direction, they fall back to the “pay up and shut up” mentality.