Open letter to the AOPA

[flyingcheesehead]

PS - Lots of people looking, but I did not find any "selling". I wonder if this would present an enterprise opportunity for someone?

To find an actual "sell" listing you have to expand the search to 100nm, and then you'll get one lone soul in Huntley, IL who's trying to sell a share in his 210.

I did, however, find a few listed as "buy" that already had planes, including one guy who's in the process of building an RV-12.

 

[silver-eagle]

Yeah, but PoA qualifies as a 501(c)(7) social organization I believe... I don't know that AOPA would.

Heh... I just realized I've been on the board of directors of a 501(c)(3), a 501(c)(7), a for-profit S-corp, and a for-profit C-corp. Does that mean I've hit for the cycle?

You should be a rich F*****. Aren't all board members paid like thieves; especially the 501(c)(3)s?

 

[flyingcheesehead]

You should be a rich F*****. Aren't all board members paid like thieves; especially the 501(c)(3)s?

Hah! No. In fact, the 501(c)(3) I was on the board of, the full-time executive director, who did set his own salary, believed so strongly in the organization that he set his salary at $20K/year and simply lived his life in such a way as to require a minimum amount of money so that the money that went to the organization did as much good as possible. He always drove the cheapest car possible (no power windows, no A/C, etc.), bought generic food items, etc. A truly exceptional individual.

I never got money specifically for serving on a board - But sometimes I owned a chunk of the corporation and the board was part of the deal. But I'm still not a "rich F*****" by any stretch of the imagination. Hell, I'm back to being a college student, though I'm not starving this time.

 

[drgwentzel]

Never heard of the Partnership Program. Never got a guilt email.

Gene

I must not read my e-mails because I have never heard of the Partnership Program...

 

[drgwentzel]

I have another similar service AOPA should try for a fee. I just wrote them this letter:

"I just heard about a new service for 10.00 per month for The Partnership Program. It sounds like a fine service.

I'd like to suggest a similar service that maybe the large AOPA membership base might find useful if you could put it together.

How about an "Airport Car Club" database? Membership is free if you provide a car at your airport or any airport. Members would pay a fee who do not provide a car and wish to use the service.

Using any car is free within certain reasonable rules. Members can search a database of airports that have available cars and what and where those cars are. Cars can be reserved online and keys are kept in combination lock boxes attached to the car's driver's side window. Top the car off when you're done and leave the key for the next pilot.

This would be a great service only if enough members provide cars. I will be the first to offer a car in Atlantic City, NJ.

I don't understand what you don't understand. I didn't say I wasn't INTERESTED in the service when it was free. I said I didn't KNOW ABOUT the service when it was free. I only know about it now because AOPA bought it. And I suspect there are a LOT MORE PEOPLE that know about it now, and THAT makes it much more valuable.

 

[John Baker]

All bureaucracies start out with good intentions about providing whatever service the public might need. As the bureaucracy grows, so do their expenses, mainly payroll.

It reaches a point, sooner or later, when the bureaucracy is no longer about the service it claims to provide, but more about sustaining an ever growing need for dollars.

Along with the quest for cash, is the campaign to prove to the public the need to have such a vast organization, and the good it does for them.

AOPA must continue to grow, it must continue to add more members, kinda like a Ponzie scheme. Like a Ponzie scheme, the larger it grows, the fewer are those who actually benifit from it.

It does not matter what the bureaucracy is, or who it belongs to, if it wants to survive, it has to grow. If it grows, it's going to need more money, and more supporters, people must believe in the need for the bureaucracy.

Like most established bureaucracies, in reality, there is little need for them at all, since they have long abandoned their mission and traded it for the survival and perpetuation of itself. They take in vast amounts of money, then dole out crumbs. With every crumb doled out, twice as much, or more, is spent on advertising the crumb in order to create more believers.

John

 

[timwinters]

 

[John Baker]

There is another thing going on that is just now becoming noticeable to the masses, and is probably the biggest threat to all bureaucracies. That thing is our new ability to communicate with one another via the Internet.

Trade organizations are starting to collapse, the one in my industry is almost none existent now, simply because we no longer need a clearing house for our ideas, we bat them around on forums such as this one.

Governments are starting to see the same problem, such as we are now witnessing in the middle east and north Africa. People no longer need a government to build mass support for their various agendas, it can be done in cyberspace.

In time, most organizations such as AOPA will end up succumbing to their Internet counterparts. The thing that sustains AOPA primarily is not what it does for us, but more to fulfill a need of belonging with our peers in our passion for flying.

AOPA has been on top of that need for years, the cards, the hats, even watches and jackets. What will happen if POA starts making such things available to its members?

I did watch as the trade organization in my industry tried to compete with the open forum in my industry by starting its own on line forum. It did not work simply because it was overly rule governed, people could not speak their minds.

John

 

[John Baker]

Heck, I'd like to have a POA hat, I'd buy one. I'd even buy a membership card if it was all fancy like AOPAs.

John