Mark Baker to step down at AOPA

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Jim K

Jim K

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Mark Baker Stepping Down As AOPA President - AVweb

AOPA President Mark Baker told staff today that he will be leaving his post when a suitable replacement has been found. Baker, who joined the organization more than 10 years ago, said in an internal email to staff obtained by AVweb that he will be staying on until that process plays out. “I have...
www.avweb.com www.avweb.com

TLDR: Baker to leave within 2 years after board finds replacement. Sounds like he's just ready to retire.

Don't have a lot of opinion. I haven't been around long enough to have experienced "the bad old days". He was getting paid a LOT. Not a fan of some stuff recently so I let my membership lapse. ASI was the bright spot of AOPA, but Richard Mcspadden left some big shoes to fill. Will be interesting to see where AOPA goes from here.
 
Will AOPA remain as woke ? It’s why I left my membership lapse. I literally saw their social media specialists today argue about someone’s post regarding Taylor Swift, not sure what they do to promote the general aviation I enjoy. I wish it would improve, the idea of AOPA is a great one! But in my eyes, it feels like they have just lined their pockets.
 
AOPA and, to a lesser extent, EAA both suffer from the same challenge, having to please all the people all the time.

NBAA has the same challenges, only on a smaller scale, as does ABS, RAF and any other advocacy group. The tighter the scope, the higher the likelihood of pleasing all the people all time, but successes on a grand scale become less likely.
 
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Checkout_my_Six said:
define...."as"....lol. If they know the membership they'll know it ain't anything near woke. And there are other alphabet groups to handle that. I think they may have realized that when they dropped the trans dude from the podcast. :eek:
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Yeah, that was ugly. Dude was doing a good job and the membership enjoyed the podcast. The only thing that changed was her appearance, same content, same reporting and they fired her. That's everything that's wrong with AOPA and, to your point, the snowflakes in the aviation community that can't stand the reality of different people being different.
 
New leader same as the old leader. Out of touch with small GA and no desire to change that. Will sit on their giant war chest of cash and do nothing while crowing about all of their lobbying efforts that they can't specifically point to their actual effectiveness. They don't care about anything that doesn't burn Jet A, and anything that isn't inside the DC beltway.
 
Let'sgoflying! said:
I can't find membership numbers for the last 10 years; anyone have?
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Don't know the numbers, but I believe membership has been dropping while dues have been rising and they sit on a large pile of money.

EDIT - looks like @cailloux found the numbers. Looks fairly flat.
 
SoonerAviator said:
New leader same as the old leader. Out of touch with small GA and no desire to change that. Will sit on their giant war chest of cash and do nothing while crowing about all of their lobbying efforts that they can't specifically point to their actual effectiveness. They don't care about anything that doesn't burn Jet A, and anything that isn't inside the DC beltway.
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You know what....I'd advocate the next president "not" be a pilot and more of a politician who is connected with the critters.
 
Meh.

Politics are such that politicians are super easy to buy for not much money depending on how you allocate your funds, you can buy certain keyhole legislation items to suit your goals.

General aviation members are too clean and too forgiving to hire the regular rank and file lobbyist in Washington which is why GA airports continue to be shut down, cumbersome regulations continue to grow, and pilots get giddy about scraps thrown to them like Mosaic. It isn’t always the dollar amount needed to buy a politician - Black Rock and other private equity companies in video have show us how cheap it is to buy congressmen and senators. Our lobbying dollars just aren’t well spent.

$20k for a navcomm and we should be grateful because PMA/TSO provides such wonderful innovation? The better lobbying is done by those hired at places like Boeing where you can oversee your own manufacturing with porpoising aircraft, not report it, and you’re still in business after getting caught.
 
Checkout_my_Six said:
You know what....I'd advocate the next president "not" be a pilot and more of a politician who is connected with the critters.
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I don't care if that person is a pilot or not. I would want someone who actually gets something done and proves their worth. AOPA has very little to hang their hat on anymore. In just the tenure of Baker, they could have been instrumental at dealing with the 100UL stuff, removing any ADS-B requirements, and working on a solution to the certified owner-maintained category. However, we got none of that. Only more airports shut down, more mandates, and now Eagle, lol.
 
SoonerAviator said:
I don't care if that person is a pilot or not. I would want someone who actually gets something done and proves their worth. AOPA has very little to hang their hat on anymore. In just the tenure of Baker, they could have been instrumental at dealing with the 100UL stuff, removing any ADS-B requirements, and working on a solution to the certified owner-maintained category. However, we got none of that. Only more airports shut down, more mandates, and now Eagle, lol.
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I hear you, but at least a pilot has a little personal stake in the issues you mentioned
 
AOPA seems to cater more to kerosene burners than piston GA...which is the vast majority of aircraft owners...but the corporate kerosene burners have more influence. EAA on the other hand helped Dynon come over to the certified market.
 
Racerx said:
AOPA seems to cater more to kerosene burners than piston GA...which is the vast majority of aircraft owners...but the corporate kerosene burners have more influence. EAA on the other hand helped Dynon come over to the certified market.
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No doubt that's where the money is. Guys flying Falcons and Gulfstreams are burning a lot more fuel than what bugsmashers are. I imagine from a pure AOPA membership standpoint, there are more 100LL burners as members than kerosene.
 
To quote Peter Townshend... "Meet the new boss...Same as the old boss" Hopefully, we 'won't get fooled again'.
 
SoonerAviator said:
No doubt that's where the money is. Guys flying Falcons and Gulfstreams are burning a lot more fuel than what bugsmashers are. I imagine from a pure AOPA membership standpoint, there are more 100LL burners as members than kerosene.
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ya but.....there's way more $$$$ in the small kerosene group. :cool:
 
Go fly GA in Europe, then come back here and complain that AOPA doesn’t represent us.

You people are idiots.

But here’s the good news: the job is open. Time for one of you to put your money where your mouth is. Make a recommendation for AOPA President that would satisfy you. Not “someone who. . .,” how about a couple of names?
 
TCABM said:
AOPA and, to a lesser extent, EAA both suffer from the same challenge, having to please all the people all the time.

NBAA has the same challenges, only on a smaller scale, as does ABF, RAF and any other advocacy group. The tighter the scope, the higher the likelihood of pleasing all the people all time, but successes on a grand scale become less likely.
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POA does a great job look how happy we all are!
 
OneCharlieTango said:
Go fly GA in Europe, then come back here and complain that AOPA doesn’t represent us.

You people are idiots.

But here’s the good news: the job is open. Time for one of you to put your money where your mouth is. Make a recommendation for AOPA President that would satisfy you. Not “someone who. . .,” how about a couple of names?
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Poor comparison. We have flown GA here in the US and know what it can be. It isn't getting better, AOPA doesn't seem to be making it better. At the best, maybe they're slowing down the Euro-ification of GA, but they haven't shown themselves to be worth their member dues.
 
OneCharlieTango said:
Go fly GA in Europe, then come back here and complain that AOPA doesn’t represent us.

You people are idiots.

But here’s the good news: the job is open. Time for one of you to put your money where your mouth is. Make a recommendation for AOPA President that would satisfy you. Not “someone who. . .,” how about a couple of names?
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I don’t think AOPA kept us from a EU mentality. I think it’s as simple as we set things up that way and have maintained status quo and that anything in Washington takes years to change! As stated by many, AOPA used to bring that value many of us just no longer see it. If you do by example, please share as I’d love to know the specifics.
 
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OneCharlieTango said:
Go fly GA in Europe, then come back here and complain that AOPA doesn’t represent us.

You people are idiots.

But here’s the good news: the job is open. Time for one of you to put your money where your mouth is. Make a recommendation for AOPA President that would satisfy you. Not “someone who. . .,” how about a couple of names?
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ah, the ol' it-could-be-worse line to deflect from trying to improve the situation.
 
OneCharlieTango said:
Go fly GA in Europe, then come back here and complain that AOPA doesn’t represent us.
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That is absolutely correct, and the only reason people mention Europe is because there is for now still some GA there, and some very poor political representation, and so a basis for comparison. Most of the world has no significant private GA at all, and no representation. ANYBODY who helps preserve what we have in the US should be recognized, and for sure those who try to preserve GA in Europe and the rest of the world are envious of the way GA representation in the US is by comparison not divided, and lobbies successfully as a unit.

I don't think US pilots are idiots, often quite the contrary, but they are often remarkably naive about their good fortune and how it is preserved.
 
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