If I’d had the opportunity to ask him, I would have asked Luke Wippler, the new chairman of AOPA’s board of trustees, how he feels about being characterized as a “good guy” by just about everyone who reacted to his appointment to the uncomfortable post last Friday. You see, that’s what they all said about former CEO Darren Pleasance. And in a delightfully ironic reaction to the appointment, Pleasance himself used that term to welcome the move by AOPA’s board.
I guess we won’t get to test Wippler’s patience in person for another month when he will make his first public appearance in that job at Sun ‘n Fun in Lakeland, Florida. Of course we’d never talked to any previous chairs (or knew who they were), but these are different times and I have a feeling we’ll see a lot of the Minnesota banker at least in the next few months.
Wippler’s replacement of previous Chair Jim Hauslein was fresh meat to appease an increasingly slavering subset of AOPA members who had hit their breaking point with Pleasance’s dismissal. I get the impression AOPA thought the minor adjustment in furniture arrangements would quiet the unaccustomed discontent after the abrupt departure of Pleasance six weeks ago. I think the snapping jaws want more, however. Sun ‘n Fun is a prelude to the May 12 annual meeting of the board of trustees in Frederick.
In fairness, in announcing Wippler’s appointment, AOPA said that more changes, including new bylaws that perhaps better reflect the conduct of nonprofit organizations in this century, are on the way. There may be more openings on the board, too. It’s clear that installing the new chair was intended to buy some time now that a small percentage of the members have raised enough ruckus to spark change. But Wippler was there for all the events that led up to this fracas so there is some mistrust that anything will really change. There are a few things that I wonder about AOPA’s new course and how its members will react.
I don’t think the membership really expected heads to roll over their canceled memberships and proxy withdrawals, and AOPA’s assertion that they will be inviting member input on the bylaw changes turns the tables somewhat. Are the members really interested in putting in the work to participate in effecting the changes and, more importantly, to keep an eye on the board in the future to ensure it doesn’t consolidate all its power in the corner office? That will require active participation by the membership because the alternative to assigning proxies is actually taking the time to become familiar with the issues and voting in person. AOPA isn’t set up for that, so it will be interesting to see how it all shakes out.
The other thing I wonder is if there’s a place for Pleasance in there. It’s been six weeks and he’s been pretty active on social media with some cool videos shot in his Sea Rey and Mustang. He’s also been guest speaker at a variety of aviation events even though he didn’t have an official role at them. No For Sale sign has shown up on his condo in Frederick and his RV-6 is still tucked in a hangar at the airport, according to a few sources inside AOPA. It’s enough to raise speculation that he might get his old job back, but I am assured by someone who has so far unerringly guided my coverage of this spat that a return by Pleasance to the top job at AOPA is not in the cards.
But Pleasance has been unwavering in his support of the organization and was effusive in his support for fellow good guy Wippler on his appointment, so it’s enough to make me wonder if there’s an AOPA title of some sort in Pleasance’s future.
What drove us to this point was his determination to visit and press the flesh with members as a way of turning the organization around and attracting new members. It looked like it was starting to work, and if I was a senior honcho at AOPA I might be interested to see if he could keep that effort going even if he doesn’t have the big title.
One thing is sure, a vocal minority of AOPA members wants to see more of its brass at events where they can get to know them better. If Pleasance can be the “good guy” who takes the stage at town hall meetings and other public events and keeps those initiatives alive on social media, whoever the new CEO is can engage with the board and tackle the structural and financial issues that plague AOPA. There’s a lot to do and it would sure be easier on everyone if the members were on the side of board and senior management in getting it done.
The May 12 annual meeting may be the revelation meeting. Members ought to find out what is really changing, or not.
You know how AOPA gives away a plane every year? Maybe they should give away a rotating board seat to a random member every year. They could do much worse than to have direct input from a member without a personal stake to protect.
“Be indifferent to what makes no difference.”
Marcus Aurelius said that.
If members do get the vote, it can’t be the “5 openings, choose any of the 5 candidates provided” Soviet style ballot.
I think we may have reached a deflection point. “Organizations” in the generally accepted sense of the term, are fading. Younger folks aren’t “joiners” these days, like most of us pilots of “a certain age”. To many/most younger folks, organizations are pretty irrelevant, at least until their personal ox is being gored, which is generally too late. AOPA and other aviation organizations are going to have to figure out how to deal with declining memberships, while trying to figure out how to “reach” all those younger folks, to convince them that THIS organization actually has value to THEM.
i don’t have the answers, but past performance of this “Board” doesn’t bode well. And, old, rich guys aren’t very reflective of today’s young aviators.
You make a couple of good points about “younger folks”, Russell. I certainly wasn’t a “joiner” as a young man, even after I owned an airplane. It wasn’t much (a ’46 Champ) with marginal performance, but thus a great learning machine. Frankly, at that point in my career I was more concerned with buying avgas and affording annuals than in supporting some nebulous organization. That changed on my first trip to Oshkosh in 1978, at which point I had a wife (and two modest disposable incomes) so I joined EAA and AOPA. Needless to say, I’ve gotten ‘way more benefit from the former than the latter.
Airplane owners, like class A motorhome owners, tend to be older and more affluent males. And, let’s face it, we all tend to ignore things until our personal ox is being gored. As I did with AOPA for nearly fifty years on auto-pay.
Without being pedantic, I think that we have missed the “deflection point” with AOPA. The damage has been done and I, for one, am very unlikely to re-join (“fool me once …”). But AOPA may still be at an inflection point where exerting enough pressure could change the trajectory of subsequent organizational asteroids.
IMHO, that’s going to take a whole lot more than shuffling a few butts on the Board.
I’m not so sure about that. Young people are interested in things. In this case, it’s flying. And when they realize there are agents, apparatchiks, and administrators who threaten their ability to engage in that activity, they may also realize that there can be strength in numbers.
1- Thank you Russ for AvBrief and reporting on this story. The GA community would be in the dark without it.
2- Pleasance is right. A healthy AOPA is important for the future of GA. As many problems as AOPA faces internally, the industry faces more. We need a board with functional bylaws and a board that understands the challenges faced by its members. Both are equally important.
3- To some degree, we, the members of AOPA, have been an asleep at the wheel. Russ is also right, our continued participation is paramount to make AOPA a functional, living organization that can advocate for us at scale.
Forgive me if this is not a relevant comment, but with saveaopa.org taken down, I don’t know a path to appointing a non-board member as my proxy at the May 12 meeting. Does anyone know if there will be a list of members who will be attending that meeting and who would be willing to be my proxy?
It’s an excellent question and gets to the member participation question. We have to end the era of “mindless signing over of proxy votes”
Is anyone else collecting proxies? I can’t get to FDK for the meeting, but I sure would like to do more than just sign over my proxy to the Board.
Is there any other way to have an impact?