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January 1996

By Boyd Munro

Senior Vice President

DON'T TAKE YOUR MARBLES AND GO AWAY

AOPA is performance-based. If your Committee is not performing, kick us out. Use your vote to elect someone who can perform.Your Committee members do not ask to be judged on who they are, how hard they work, or what results they have achieved in the past. We seek only to be judged on our current results. If you don't like the results, you have the remedy in the ballot box - but you can only use it if you're a financial member.

Some people are saying that AOPA will be destroyed by the fee increase. There was even one chap using AOPA's Internet
facilities to urge that members leave AOPA and join a more expensive, less effective organisation that doesn't even have a
presence on the Internet! This chap was bellyaching about the fee increase but didn't even bother to lodge a proxy, much less
attend the meeting, even though he lives in Sydney. Show these people just how wrong they are - show that we're prepared to pay
money to stop CASA forcing us out of the sky with higher costs and illogical restrictions.

There are those who complain that more time should have been allowed for members to consider the fee increase. But don't forget
that CASA is making new regulations all the time (the average is 8 per week). Time is not on our side. Even so, anyone who
wanted more time could have turned up at the meeting and moved that it be adjourned (for a month or a year or whatever) to allow
more time. The decision about whether or not to allow more time was entirely that of the members as a whole. I happen to believe
that the vast majority of our members just want AOPA to get right on with the job of asserting our right to fly in the skies of our
own country.

Remember, the fees will come back down to $40 in 1997 unless you, the members, vote for a different amount. That's what a
performance-based organisation is all about. If the Committee wants more money for 1997, it will have to come and ask you for it -
and you'll decide on the basis of the results achieved in 1996.

AERO CLUB AFFILIATION

It's wonderful to see so many Aero Clubs affiliating with AOPA, thus empowering AOPA to represent them politically. I'd like to
pay special tribute to the Wynyard Aero Club, which not only affiliated with AOPA but sent a cheque for $540 as a donation to our
Fighting fund. Why $540? Because the Club has 54 members. I'm really touched by this great generosity. On top of it, the Club is
urging its members to join AOPA. The fact that Aero Clubs are affiliating with AOPA paves the way for a removal of the avgas
levy.

1995 WAS A GOOD YEAR

As 1995 draws to a close, I'd like to say thank you to our members. I have come to know more interesting people in 1995 than in
any previous year of my life. And I feel a great sense of satisfaction that I have done some good for my fellow aviators. There has
been a transformation in our morale, and there's a growing realisation that we get the government we deserve - if we don't make
our voice heard by those who govern, it will inevitably be ignored and we'll be trodden on. Thanks for being such a wonderful
team.

CONSULTATION, CASA STYLE.
CHAIRMAN TEARS UP OUR MEMBER'S LETTER IN HIS FACE!.

If you are a judge, you must be absolutely resolute that when trying a case you consider only the evidence presented in Court, and
then decide the case according to the law regardless of any clamour there might be outside the courtroom.

If people start writing to you about a case, it's not only right but necessary that you should ignore their letters. If they visit you, you
should turn them away without listening to what they have to say. If they telephone you, you should hang up. The proper
administration of justice demands no less.

But if you are the Chairman of an organisation, exactly the reverse behaviour is called for. If the Chairman of BHP started
ignoring BHP's constituency (employees, customers, and those affected by its actions) BHP would not last long. Any organisation
which does not listen to its constituency will very quickly find itself in trouble. Therefore a wise Chairman listens when his
constituents talk. He may not do a single thing that the constituents ask, but he will always listen to what they are asking and take
the trouble to understand why they are asking it.

A lot of our members wrote to the Chairman of CASA in December, expressing concern about whether CASA was genuinely
consulting those affected by its ELT ruling. Each letter was individually written and therefore entirely different. Some of those
letters were returned unopened. Others were returned with a heavy black line through them. One member, unable to get through
by fax, personally took his letter to the Chairman, who tore it up in front of him. Another member telephoned, and the Chairman of
CASA announced that he was the Chief Judge of the Industrial Court, and then hung up.

It must be very difficult for someone to wear two hats which call on him to behave entirely differently according to the hat he's
wearing at that moment. That much was apparent to the Minister when he selected a Chief Justice to be the Chairman of CASA.
How did the Minister satisfy himself that Justice Fisher could cope with this role-switching?

If a single word describes the problem between CASA and its constituency, it is COMMUNICATION. As long as CASA refuses
to communicate honestly, openly and rationally it will not gain the respect of its constituency. Where are the communicators on
CASA's board?

"AOPA COMMUNICATOR" CONTEST

Where are AOPA's communicators? You can earn an AOPA COMMUNICATOR certificate, plus a chance to win one of four
free renewals for 1996.

AOPA will give an AOPA COMMUNICATOR certificate to each member who produces a responsive, individually-signed letter
from one or more of the four non-executive Board members of CASA. The letter must make a genuine, reasoned response to the
question of why CASA will not allow us to choose a portable ELT instead of a fixed one if we believe a portable to be more
appropriate. The letter does not have to agree with AOPA's position.