Wednesday, August 25, 2010

Proposed change to the Constitution - Another opinion

Dear Rag and Tubers,
 
I have asked J ohn Mc if I could write a second opinion on the issue of the constitutional change.   When the Constitution was written, it was by amateurs who
Neglected to put everything IN the constitution to reflect what they actually did in the representative distribution.  They decided that all states should have at least one rep (this is what they didn’t put in the constitution), then
Additional reps were allocated according to member population. 25 years ago when this happened, QLD had the lion’s share of members, so they got the lions share of reps.  25 years later, Vic and NSW and QLD have approx the
Same membership, but QLD has 4, and Vic has 2.  MEMBERS asked the Board why we hadn’t engaged in electoral re-distribution which is a fact of life.  So this proposal was put forward from the committee as a response to members and
As a response to the intent of the original writers of the constitution.  J ohn’s proposal, is  a bit of a red herring, I feel (sorry J M).  That’s not what is on the table.  He is arguing we could keep it unfair and unequal because he  wants something different. Let’s deal with what is on the table.  J ohn can get another committee and try to get up his proposal – (which is a bit mean since Tasmania , WA, NT and SA will never get a rep on the Board in his system- and the reps from those states and a number of others will howl it down).  So I encourage you to Vote in favour of the proposed change.
Cheers, Carol Richards, NSW member  (Thanks J ohn for doing this)


Above is  an opinion by Carol Richards, our hard working Board Member from NSW. If there are other opinions I will also publish them. It is very healthy to have all sorts of different opinions. But as this is my Blog I reserve the right to make comment.

1. Two members only asked the Board why a redistribution was not done. One was Max Brown, who did a lot of work on our Constitution. His original proposal was much closer to our stated aim of "one vote one value" and would include Tasmania into Victoria and NT in with SA. This second proposal surprises me knowing Max's knowledge of the Constitution.

2. I have never proposed any change to the voting. I do not have any future proposal. My only issue is, this change, in my opinion, is NOT Constitutional. It does not aim for a one vote one value representation.

3. If the membership wants a State Based system (and that has merit) then they should vote to repeal the "one vote one value" clause and replace it with a State based clause. All associations live or die by their Constitutions. To bastardize the stated clauses in the Constitution to appease special interests is a recipe for disaster. 

4. My understanding of our Constitution, is it is based on the standard non profit sporting constitution given to us by the ACT Government, and modified by some very knowledgeable members. I would see it as not entirely Amateur.


5. If there are other opinions please email me and I will publish them here.



John McKeown

Tuesday, August 24, 2010

Proposed Change to Constitution

Hi All.

Coming up in September you will be asked to vote on a change to the Constitution. Please consider how you will vote and the ramifications of your vote. You, the members, are the association, it is you who decide the direction of the association, so whatever you decide please vote.

Now for my view.

The Constitution is very specific on this matter and I quote the relevant section below.

13. Election of Board Members.
(i) The Board shall be elected by the membership on a one Member - one vote system."

 
That statement is very specific yet there are members of the executive and others who are muddying the waters by claiming the vote needs to also be State based and want a gerrymander voting system.

Like Nick Sigley, I am also uncertain as to how the membership numbers were arrived at as were published in the magazine, however the August 2010 figures are approx. Queensland 2444, NSW, 2415, Vic. 2185, SA 1079, WA. 622 , Tas. 277. NT. 148,  ACT 138. The total membership, including international members is approx. 9337. Currently ACT and NSW are combined for representation purposes giving NSW 2553 members.  NQ and SQ are  separated for representation purposes, and these figures can't be obtained, but an upper estimate could be around 300 members in NQ.

I fully agree there needs to be a redistribution. But not this one. How can anyone really claim to be following a "one vote, one value" voting system where the new system will have the member from Tasmania representing only 277 members, NT 148 members, and NQ approx 300. While SQ will be 1200 approx, SA 1079 approx, Vic 728 approx, NSW 800 approx. and WA 622 approx.

My personal view is VOTE NO

Any change must be close to a one vote one value redistribution as per the Constitution. A redistribution needs to be redone on a one vote one value, without some powerful members pushing the "State" based model. NQ should also be abolished and SQ should perhaps include parts of northern NSW. The representation model should be based on a post code model to give as equal voting as possible.

However the members decide. So please vote. A change to the constitution with a 5% to 7%  vote is a farce. I implore you again to vote.I personally witnessed the last change to the Constitution at the AGM 3 years ago with 7 raised hands, and no provision for postal votes.

John McKeown




Saturday, February 27, 2010

Vigilance

Hi all,

A couple of points have come up from the February Board Meeting that need Vigilance by our members.

ADSB - This is back on the agenda. The upper air program has been implemented with an operational date of 2013. There is extremely strong pressure from the airlines to the authorities to implement ADSB now into the lower airspace. This will affect ALL of us. We must be very vigilant.


Airport Trigger Points. - Also from the airlines and CASA as a "safety issue". There are moves to have trigger points related to RPT movements into small airports. What this means is that when a certain airport has an RPT movement or volume ratio that reaches the "Trigger" point, that airport and the airspace around it, will be declared Class D airspace. This trigger point is rumored to be very low. This will exclude all our members who do not have a PPL license from the airport and the airspace around it. Once again we need vigilance from the membership.


ELT'S - There has been some concern about the mandatory requirement to carry 406 ELT'S from this March. I questioned Jim Coyne from CASA about this and his reply was that the CAO (Civil Aviation Order) mandating this requirement still has not been issued, and that after it is issued the standard twelve months grace period for compliance will apply. So in simple terms there is no mandatory requirement to carry 406 ELT's this year.
Note.
Be aware that it is now illegal to activate the old 121.5 MHz units.


Rego. Stickers. - There is also some confusion about this requirement. Last year the board agreed to the requirement to have registration stickers. The reason for this is it had been found that there were many reported cases of unregistered aircraft flying. In most cases these were unintentional, but placed the owner at great risk not only from the regulator, but also from ligation should there be an accident or incident. In fact in recent years there were cases of aircraft judged to win prizes at Natfly, that were later disqualified because they were found to be unintentionally unregistered. It is hoped that the sticker will be a reminder to those, who for one reason or other, have forgotten to re-register their aircraft, and to provide a peer pressure means to encourage those who want to "free load" on our association to re-register.

There was no intention to have an AN, and this will be removed. The requirement is to have a sticker that is visible from outside the aircraft only. You can put the sticker wherever you choose, but it would be preferable to be on the left hand side of the aircraft. This is intended to be in its flying condition, so if an aircraft has covers at night that is OK.


John McK

Wednesday, February 3, 2010

Duct Tape

Hi All

I actually bought the video of this incident at Oshkosh.

When I posted this on the blog site the photos became cropped and I don't know how to fix it.

To see the full photo, right click on the photo and select "view image" - sorry.







Best duct tape story ever


During a private "fly-in" fishing excursion in the Alaskan wilderness, the chartered pilot and fishermen left a cooler and bait in the plane. And a bear smelled it. This is what he did to the plane.




The pilot used his radio and had another pilot bring him 2 new tires, 3 cases of duct tape, and a supply of sheet plastic. He patched the plane together and FLEW IT HOME!


Duct Tape? Never Leave Home Without It

Wednesday, January 27, 2010

RA-Aus AGM

To All RA-Aus members in Southern Queensland,

I am trying to gain support from the membership to hold our AGM at Natfly each year rather than before the the September Board Meeting.

I have only been a Board member for a little over two years but in that short time I am appalled by the poor attendance of members at our AGM. A handful of members (apart from staff and the Board) is a good turnout. The last AGM had only 3 "external" members present.

To me this is totally unacceptable but understandable.

The AGM is held on a Friday afternoon, in Canberra, in September. Who, apart from Canberra residents with flexible working hours could attend?

By having the AGM at Natfly it would allow a far greater member participation.

Far more members would be be present to hear and read the reports that are presented, and more importantly, make comment, and have input into the running of the Association.

The Board Meeting and Executive elections should continue to be in September. This way, if the Executive promises some outcome to the membership at Natfly, it still has at least 5 months or so to deliver. Under the current system, the President or Executive may promise some outcome at the AGM, and a few hours later (after the elections) they are no longer on the Executive.

Please give me your thoughts.

John McKeown

Tuesday, January 19, 2010

New Executive Director / CEO for RA-Aus

The RA-Aus Executive chose, and the Board, as a whole, approved a new ED/CEO for the Association. Lee Ungerman resigned for family reasons and has moved to Queensland and will have a new position as Northern Ops Manager.

The new CEO is Robbie Costmeyer. Robbie has a Military and Aviation technical background. He has also managed operational aspects of semi-privatization of the Government Aircraft Factory and has been the CEO of MS Society.