2026 - Who's going?

Did they have anything to say?

I also turned my autorenew off and right now they are not earning me back.
 
bflynn said:
Did they have anything to say?

I also turned my autorenew off and right now they are not earning me back.
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See my post #38.

The early part of my conversation with Luke went something like this (paraphrased):

Me: Luke, during your presentation you mentioned that GA needs a strong AOPA.​
Luke: Yes, very important.​
Me: I agree, and to make AOPA strong I think we need a membership that feels a sense of ownership in the organization.​
Luke: Absolutely. I agree 100%.​
Me: Well, if we want that sense of ownership, the members must have a practical way of voting, either online or by mail. You can't possibly accommodate 200,000 members at an in-person meeting.​
Luke: That's something we can consider. We've had some discussions about it.​
Me: Can you make a committment to making it happen?​
Luke: <mentions of legal and financial difficulties and risks without specifics, then...> Are you aware of any large organizations that do this?​
Me: The NRA. Also, many major corporations are doing online voting using ProxyVote.com. There may be some legal hurdles and challenges, but it's certainly not impossible.​
Luke: Well, we can look at it, but it won't happen anytime soon.​
Me: Given that it won't be without difficulties, can you at least make a committment to work on those issues and set a goal to enable a practical form of membership voting.​
Luke: We'll look into it.​
Me: But no committment?​
Luke: All I can say is that we'll look into it.​

Luke then expressed some concerns about eligibility for voting, and issues that may arise from people joining just to vote. I suggested that voting membership could be limited to those who had been members for at least three years, just like the proposed bylaws change regarding eligibility for the Board. Again, Luke responded with non-committal statements.

By this point, Jill Baker had joined the conversation and asked me about ProxyVote.com. I told her I provided a link in my survey response and in emails to the board. She seemed interested and asked a few questions, so I will follow up with an email to her next week when they're all back home.

Bottom line, though, is that the Board remains unwilling to facilitate practical membership voting. Frankly, even if Luke were willing to take the AOPA in that direction (and I got no sense that he is), I doubt the other Trustees will go along. Most of the Board is entrenched in their positions, unresponsive to the members, and disengaged from any meaningful role in the organization.

I will note that, despite all the ongoing controversy, Luke and Charles were the only Board members present today. Clearly, most of the Board simply doesn't give a damn.
 
It's clear the board is isolating themselves into a cliche. Leadership of the elite, by the elite, for the elite.
 
bflynn said:
It's clear the board is isolating themselves into a cliche. Leadership of the elite, by the elite, for the elite.
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At least with Luke and Charles, I didn't get any sense of elitism, but I also didn't get any sense that they're willing or able to drive meaningful change. I suspect Pleasance was a change agent, and that may be why he was shown the door.
 
eman1200 said:
what's going on now????
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Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
Finally going over tonight. Got some parts to buy tomorrow as I'm right in the middle of my annual condition inspection and found some minor stuff that needs attention.
 
Half Fast said:
There were hands up for questions, but they only called on three people who had benign inquiries. I got the feeling they were running out the clock, and careful about who they called. I decided private conversations would be better, as I was looking for back and forth dialog instead of pat answers. I spent a while talking separately with Luke Wippler, Charles Lynch, Jill Baker, Katie Pribyl, Stacey Heaton, and a couple of others.
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Pre determined "random" people who were in no way asked beforehand to ask boring questions?
 
AOPA leadership is a small club, and we aren’t in it
 
One year, it’s a bit of a hike for me, but I hope to do it one year. Have fun all
 
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