Thinking about joining - but...

[Mike Cross]

Neil. Your willingness to incriminate yourself is laudable but as far as I am aware there is no legal requirement on you to do so. If you were stopped on the motorway and were asked "What speed were you doing sir?" and answered "Eighty six miles per hour officer" because the first thing you'd checked when the blues came on was your speedo I doubt you would get the same reaction attributed by Parson Weems to the father of George Washington,

"George," said his father, "do you know who killed that beautiful little cherry tree yonder in the garden? " This was a tough question; and George staggered under it for a moment; but quickly recovered himself: and looking at his father, with the sweet face of youth brightened with the inexpressible charm of all-conquering truth, he bravely cried out, "I can't tell a lie, Pa; you know I can't tell a lie. I did cut it with my hatchet." "Run to my arms, you dearest boy," cried his father in transports, "run to my arms; glad am I, George, that you killed my tree; for you have paid me for it a thousand fold. Such an act of heroism in my son is more worth than a thousand trees, though blossomed with silver, and their fruits of purest gold."

The image of your "sweet face of youth brightened with the inexpressible charm of all-conquering truth" is one I'll now try to expunge from my thoughts if you don't mind.

WRT Keef's earlier explanation of generating anger it's true that they did volunteer and we were very grateful. However having booked a meeting room at White Waltham, laid on lunch, and arranged for free landings for the volunteers none of them put in an appearance on the day which rather left us to eat the lunch and have a discussion among ourselves before returning home. So the idea withered somewhat and never progressed to a face to face meeting. Quite why that should generate anger I'm not sure.

[Keef]

WRT Keef's earlier explanation of generating anger it's true that they did volunteer and we were very grateful. However having booked a meeting room at White Waltham, laid on lunch, and arranged for free landings for the volunteers none of them put in an appearance on the day which rather left us to eat the lunch and have a discussion among ourselves before returning home.

A group of folks had indeed arranged to fly in to White Waltham on the day (6th February 2010), from a variety of distant places, and had every intention of doing so. Unfortunately, the METARs that morning were of the "05008KT 010V080 2500 BR BKN005" variety and all chose to apply common sense. Contrary to popular opinion, I do not have any control over the weather.

We then set up an online channel for the various folks to communicate, and some initial progress was made. Within a few days, it became clear to the team that their "intervention" was not welcome, and several of the key members (who are experts in their various aspects of database design and implementation) took the hint. Fair enough: it saved the volunteers a lot of time and effort. AOPA's loss, I suspect.

[Timothy]

Keef,

Most of AOPA's manpower is voluntary. When the weather is poor, most of us somehow manage to get to meetings.

For example, Pat Malone is famous for riding his motorbike from the depths of Cornwall to White Waltham in filthy weather to, voluntarily, attend MWG meetings.

Others are equally famous for not turning up on the flimsiest excuse, like the dog has eaten my 172.

Somehow the commitment of the former, the ones that actually get there, is more appreciated, and those people exercise greater influence, on outcome.

It might seem strange, but it's just how it is.

[Keef]

Quite possibly, Timothy. This was one occasion (not lots, with flimsy excuses), when several folks decided on the morning in question that a flight to WW in fog with a 500 foot cloudbase was not a good idea. Nobody ate anyone's 172 that day. I certainly had every intention of being there, but I have weather minima for VFR fields, and driving was not a viable option.

I recall from the e-mail exchanges at the time that there were also other reasons why various people (including yourself) did not make it to the meeting.

[Timothy]

I did not attend partially because I had other commitments and partially because I was not committed to the project as it was rolling out.

I had made it very clear in advance that I believed that computing was heading way away from the kind of technology that was being proposed. I still believe that, and am investing hundreds of thousands in my own company into the kind of technology where I (and just about everyone else in the industry) believes the future lies.

That argument did not hold sway in this project, and I was told that the project would be built in 1980s technology whatever my views, so my feeling was that I was not much bothered by whether the wood was bolted or screwed together when I thought the structure should be steel, so lost a sense of commitment.

I think that simply reinforces the point that presence is a measure of commitment.

[alanevans]

AOPA benefits from members and members benefit from AOPA, so I believe, hence recruitment is a good idea. Also, I don't see a credible alternative representation from GA across the board.

If you want to influence AOPA policy, why not talk to the Executive and to the volunteers, such as the Members' Working Group and Instructors' Committee. I know nothing of the details of the story behind Keef, Mike and Timothy's discussion, but a failure x years ago to influence policy and help the common goal, is surely not indicative of failure in the future. We all have the same interests - Mike, you want to encourage more volunteers with expertise, don't you?

There's a good opportunity to expressviews coming up at the AOPA Bonus Day on 10th September. See the aopa web site.

Alan.

[Mike Cross]

Thank you Alan

We absolutely do.

Keef's idea was that his volunteers would deliver something of their own devising whereas we needed something that would integrate with the existing office systems. I was grateful for the offer of assistance but would not have been happy with them expending a lot of time and effort on something that was not going to meet our requirement.

Timothy's suggestion (and he freely admits to being an ideas man rather than an implementer) was that we should go for The Cloud.
Cloud computing has attractions for large organisations with multiple locations because it allows the software infrastructure to be centrally managed rather than having to exist separately at each location. AOPA UK is a small organisation with a single location.

[Timothy]

AOPA UK is a small organisation with a single location.

...which recruits at trade shows and Safety Days and....

.....oh, never mind

[Keef]

Actually, Mike, it wasn't. We never got that far. But never mind.

[Johnyev]

Glad you joined Neil,
I was in the same boat a year ago and decided to join as it is easy to miss the various things that the 'Powers that be' throw at us while we are busy earning a living.
I've only managed to attend one bonus day but I found it most useful.

AOPA (UK) are not perfect (makes them human) but are approachable and do their best at a difficullt job.

I have renewed my membership so that AOPA can continue to stick up for my interests on my behalf.

Worth every penny!!!

John