Darren Pleasance’s letter to AOPA Board led to his departure

I suspect the section on p. 2 under "Board" is the leading driver. The redacted part under "Talent" might play a large part too, if it impugned a board-favored staffer.
 
dans2992 said:
That’s a very solid and reasonable letter.

Makes the board look even worse. If these guys (the board) object to this sort of leadership - they need to go.
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Exactly what I said as I read it. This is a very reasonable and overall positive letter. I had no real expectations or feelings about him, but reading this makes me thing he was/is 100% the right person for the job.
 
If I was working at a place that had a CEO this excellently stating keys to achieving the growth, reach and relevance, I would be proud to be a team member.

Unfortunately he rightly asks the Broad to get off their a**es and do some useful work which led to his firing.
 
mark.staggs said:
Oh, he also politely asked the board to stop wasting staffers' time. If what he said is true, he had a valid point.

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While I can't comment on the accuracy of that for AOPA, I can say the idea hits home with me big time. I'm pretty famous in my organization for calculating the cost, in person days, of meetings. I just got out of a one hour meeting with 20 people. So 2.5 person days worth of time. None of us are getting rich, but we all have real jobs and real benefits, so in our org the fully loaded cost for this meeting is in the neighborhood of $3000-4000.

This meeting happens to be one that I think is justifiable, but calculating the monetary cost is a simple tool to use as part of making that determination. I applaud him for doing the same at AOPA.

Edit: Someone messaged to point out that my example was just the meeting time. Yes, that was intentional. My example meeting had essentially no prep time because it used materials already developed for other purposes. The AOPA example was almost entirely prep time. I totally agree both need to be included.
 
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Another email sent to the Board.

Masterful statement of achievement and goals by the fired CEO.

Apparently it was too much to ask the Board of Trustees to get off their collective fat asses and do something useful instead of sitting around smoking cigars and drinking Scotch whilst telling each other how wonderful we are.
 
Like others have said, I had a strongly positive response to reading this letter. I tried to find something to be unhappy with, and the best I could come up with was this line (last page, under "Strategic Imperative 3"):
Shift resources from print to digital using Al and new content models.
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If the intended translation was "fire some of the writers and publish AI slop instead", I can't get behind that. Still, I don't love what the magazines are right now, so I'm at least on board with doing something to try to improve them.
 
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I think it’s telling that almost all priorities and accomplishments revolve around membership and revenue, or internal processes. No mention of legislative accomplishments or (except for the High School program) services to the aviation community. One could logically conclude that the primary mission of AOPA is to get more people to join AOPA.
 
Clearly AOPA's board doesn't believe in "embrace the red" and instead chooses to fire the messenger and "pour the red".
 
This really jumped out at me too. Plenty of metrics around their org, zero regarding advocacy or outcomes for GA. Either way, I cancelled my auto renewal.

(can't seem to insert the quote from @AlleyCat67)
 
AlleyCat67 said:
I think it’s telling that almost all priorities and accomplishments revolve around membership and revenue, or internal processes. No mention of legislative accomplishments or (except for the High School program) services to the aviation community. One could logically conclude that the primary mission of AOPA is to get more people to join AOPA.
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That’s a fair point, but might be a matter of triage priority. Making the organization healthy again might need to come before legislative actions.
 
AlleyCat67 said:
I think it’s telling that almost all priorities and accomplishments revolve around membership and revenue, or internal processes. No mention of legislative accomplishments or (except for the High School program) services to the aviation community. One could logically conclude that the primary mission of AOPA is to get more people to join AOPA.
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No bucks, no Buck Rogers. So yeah, of course it is.

And I don't think they've had any legislative accomplishments in a while.
Hengelo said:
This really jumped out at me too. Plenty of metrics around their org, zero regarding advocacy or outcomes for GA.
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Umm... You must not have made it to "Strategic Imperative 4: Secure the Future of General Aviation" and all the sub-items thereof?
 
AlleyCat67 said:
I think it’s telling that almost all priorities and accomplishments revolve around membership and revenue, or internal processes. No mention of legislative accomplishments or (except for the High School program) services to the aviation community. One could logically conclude that the primary mission of AOPA is to get more people to join AOPA.
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Hengelo said:
This really jumped out at me too. Plenty of metrics around their org, zero regarding advocacy or outcomes for GA. Either way, I cancelled my auto renewal.
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Isn't it possible that Pleasance felt like AOPA was dying / losing relevance, and to improve its effectiveness in its advocacy role, he needed to get the house in order first? Effective organizations can be more effective when they have more resources. A good CEO should always be working towards building a stronger organization with more resources.
 
Jim_R said:
Isn't it possible that Pleasance felt like AOPA was dying / losing relevance, and to improve its effectiveness in its advocacy role, he needed to get the house in order first? Effective organizations can be more effective when they have more resources. A good CEO should always be working towards building a stronger organization with more resources.
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I think that's it. It sounds like they'd been really hemorrhaging members even more than they were prior to his tenure. I suspect he was given an initiative to shore up that attrition, and this was in part a presentation of how he did against those goals he was handed.
 
Thanks for bringing this to everyone's attention. This is very disturbing. I've been an AOPA member for 35 years. The AOPA dues is double that of EAA, but I get a lot out of EAA. I was never really clear what I was getting out of AOPA, but I wanted to give them the benefit of the doubt, especially things they may be working on in advocacy matters. This recent news gives me a lot to think about. The cost of membership is not the issue - it is nothing compared to the cost of flying - but I don't want to be contributing to enrichening an entitled out-of-touch board. I am inclined to cancel my membership and re-evaluate later.
 
MountainDude said:
I believe this is the actual reason.
AOPA is simply an organization that pretends to help GA, while enriching their staff with high salaries.

avbrief.com

Letter To Board Led To Pleasance's Departure: Sources - AvBrief.com

Included call for more membership and staff engagement by Trustees.
avbrief.com avbrief.com
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I wouldn't say it is all staff; most staff are paid below market rates. I'm with you when it comes to some executives.

I think the bigger problem is that Darren put average GA pilots ahead of the Board's turboprop and jet friends/interests.
 
X3 Skier said:
Another email sent to the Board.

Masterful statement of achievement and goals by the fired CEO.

Apparently it was too much to ask the Board of Trustees to get off their collective fat asses and do something useful instead of sitting around smoking cigars and drinking Scotch whilst telling each other how wonderful we are.
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Sounds like another organization we used to work for! :lol:
 
MauleSkinner said:
I find it ironic that he was fired for not spending enough time in Frederick after asking the board members to spend more time in Frederick.
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Also, the previous AOPA president, Mark Baker, was notoriously never in Frederick, maybe 1-3 days a month. He used the AOPA Citation M2 to ferry between his Minnesota home and his Florida Keys home.
 
I had cancelled my membership shortly after I heard about the news. Today I contacted them via the chat, and verified there are no outstanding proxies attached to me. The agent was very helpful and really felt my frustration with AOPA and this move.
 
MountainDude said:
I believe this is the actual reason.
AOPA is simply an organization that pretends to help GA, while enriching their staff with high salaries.

avbrief.com

Letter To Board Led To Pleasance's Departure: Sources - AvBrief.com

Included call for more membership and staff engagement by Trustees.
avbrief.com avbrief.com
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This issue has exposed a problem with the organization’s structure and governance documents. AOPA members should be able to make a proposal to the by-laws to modify how the Board of Trustees is selected and to better control the time limits of service as trustees. As it stands, the membership has very little control of the organization and its direction. While this structure has served well over the years because of good goals and leadership, it may be time to rethink how the organization best reflect its members and GA as a whole.
 
lasdude said:
Also, the previous AOPA president, Mark Baker, was notoriously never in Frederick, maybe 1-3 days a month. He used the AOPA Citation M2 to ferry between his Minnesota home and his Florida Keys home.
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Great use of dues money. Add in the crisis team they just hired. If I was a member I would be furious my dues money was used here.

So glad I left this trainwreck years ago. My Senator is a pilot and watches legislation carefully on how it impacts aviation.

Mark Baker raised loads of money - that's why the Board didn't care if he was in Frederick. Different for Darren.
 
IPS-Legacy said:
The answer lies not in quitting the organization, but rather to strengthen it through the proper means.
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And that means would be? The corrupt board is sitting on an insurmountable number of proxies. Cutting off their funds (members resigning) hits them harder than any internal grass roots effort will ever do.

Oddly, when I had issues with the EAA a few years back, I got an email from Pelton as well as phone calls from Connie Bowlin (WOA president) and Michael Goulian (IAC president) who sit on the board. The Vintage group even publishes the contact info of their entire board. The EAA board currently is rather down to earth. I knew a couple of those guys as well.
 
flyingron said:
And that means would be? The corrupt board is sitting on an insurmountable number of proxies. Cutting off their funds (members resigning) hits them harder than any internal grass roots effort will ever do.

Oddly, when I had issues with the EAA a few years back, I got an email from Pelton as well as phone calls from Connie Bowlin (WOA president) and Michael Goulian (IAC president) who sit on the board. The Vintage group even publishes the contact info of their entire board. The EAA board currently is rather down to earth. I knew a couple of those guys as well.
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A properly drafted amendment to the bylaws which would have to be addressed if brought by a large contingency of the membership. This would have to be 85-95% to be really effective. At a minimum, 30% is a possibility. That would provide enough feedback to the board that the membership is not happy with their leadership and wants a change.
Dropping your membership only allows the board to continue without a check and balance and with fewer members to battle. The dues don’t have to be adjusted because most of the board members need the money-it’s extra income for most of them.
 
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You'll never get 30%. I suspect not more than 10% of people vote on anything. If you get enough people to vote with their wallets, the thing collapses under its own weight.
 
flyingron said:
You'll never get 30%. I suspect not more than 10% of people vote on anything. If you get enough people to vote with their wallets, the thing collapses under its own weight.
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How hard would it be to notify and allow members to vote via email?
 
I was going to write that It's hard to be sure of something only seeing one side of it, just this letter, but we really do have two sides.

On one side we have this letter. It reads like a professional end of year summary of his achievements, challenges, goals and requests. It reminds me a little bit of something an outfit I worked with used to do called a SWOT report, strengths/weakness/opportunities/threats. Anyway, in that report he seems sincere in owning what he believes to be the challenges in communications with the board, which I'd be willing to bet wasn't for his lack of trying; he's giving the team the recognition for the successes; he's setting goals for the future; he's looking to improve communications AND transparency; and he's asking for minor improvements in a tactful way from the board. It reads like a letter written by a leader.

On the other side we have the press release, which doesn't even seem to make sense.

If the goal was to not shake things up and continue with status quo by letting Pleasance go, they missed.
 
Racerx said:
How hard would it be to notify and allow members to vote via email?
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Just like the proxy votes on stock holdings, this shouldn’t be difficult. It would probably require a bylaw change, though.
 
flyingron said:
You'll never get 30%. I suspect not more than 10% of people vote on anything. If you get enough people to vote with their wallets, the thing collapses under its own weight.
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It sounds like you would like to start an alternate organization. I applaud that. However, the lobbying and political networks that AOPA has set up are already strongly in place. Disrupting that would be quite difficult and take a lot of time. It’s not a good idea to throw the baby out with the bathwater, so to speak. In my opinion, it might be better to refine the organization rather than to rebuild it. The starting point is quite possibly getting membership to send in editorials to the publications. They might not be printed, but they should grab the attention of the Board in some way. Maybe a better way is to email the Board individually and as a whole. If enough members raise their voices directly, there is a possibility of proper attention given. The threat of membership losses by the volume of emails might be enough to grab the attention of the Board. Again, though, the number is significant here. It has to be a noticeably large percentage of membership. The Board is not paying attention to commentary on YouTube or message boards like this. They absolutely need to hear directly from the general membership.
 
I always thought, just a feeling, no actual basis, that the plane give a ways and scholarships are rigged. For a while it seemed like the planes went to buddys of people from the aopa and the sob story’s that it took to win a scholarship where pretty unbelievable.
 
Aviatorbrew said:
I always thought, just a feeling, no actual basis, that the plane give a ways and scholarships are rigged. For a while it seemed like the planes went to buddys of people from the aopa and the sob story’s that it took to win a scholarship where pretty unbelievable.
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If the giveaways are rigged, you'd think they'd give them to people who at least seemed excited to win. Seems like most of the videos of awarding the prize, the winner had the look of "what am I going to do with this thing?" On their face.
 
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