How do you get RA-Aus board members to respond?

[dodo]

You are a member of many talents dodo, as would you also be inside volunteering too?If so, I'll come over to watch, and bring a box of matches.

 

(And thanks again for your recent volunteering efforts in the office)

I would see it as a shift change - one day I surround the office on my own, and the next day I will be inside, cowering (or laughing at) the threatening mob of one peasant.

 

dodo

 

 

[facthunter]

Phew. Pity about all that. Now you have done it. Kaz (Told us about your qualifications) Very impressive. ( I mean it). however. Gavin feels aggrieved. I don't know what to say. People on this forum are not the enemy Gavin. They are concerned and rightly so. You replaced a good bloke in Ed Smith, so I think you have an obligation to come to grips with this and get on with it. Nev

 

 

[Guest Andys@coffs]

A correction requires that the new information is correct. I will say no more on the matter.

And equally a correction is only required if the original information was in error....

 

Which roughly translated suggests that corrections do need to be made.......by you

 

To suggest that we got the "legislation wrong" when I pointed you at our own organisational website where that informatuion pressumable came from or was vetted by the board at some stage is a rather "bold statement" on your behalf.

 

Clearly you dont agree that you were wrong? Care to share why you feel that Kaz, among others were in error, I need to understand your logic I have trouble following it naturally.

 

Gavin, we hear time and time again that "we circulate lies" about the board, yet up until now, hopefully, I have never been told exactly what it is that we are saying that are lies.

 

Can you give any examples of where we are wrong? I have always tried to be careful in what I post to make it clear where I have doubt as to whether something is a fact that can be proven by me that I make it clear its an opinion and may be wrong, so heres a chance to identify anything that has been said in recent times that is an outright lie? I will correct it if you identify, and do so in the way that you suggest.

 

Andy

 

 

[Kiwi]

One of the most accurate posts I have seen in a long time (by cficare) has just been removed by the moderator (I bet he/she didn't want to).

 

Just wanted to let you know that I "liked" it.

 

 

Kiwi.

 

 

[ahlocks]

There still has to be some limits. (and CiFi is legendary for the expertise he has of finding them. )

 

 

[dodo]

Bugger. I missed it.

 

Will someone repost it? (You'll get in twouble!!!!!!!!)

 

dodo

 

 

[facthunter]

You just gave me a great belly laugh locks I better stop giving you the kiss of death. Nev.

 

 

[Powerin]

Gavin,

 

Really, all we want from our RAAus representatives is honesty and integrity. Yes, you are volunteers, but, as has been pointed out, legally the buck stops with you. You make mistakes, so be it, acknowledge them, correct them and get on with the job.

 

Unfortunately, your posts here have so far followed the prime directives of the Politician's Book of Spin 101.

 

Blame the previous incumbents.

 

Attack is the best form of defence.

 

I didn't know you were a freemason. I don't really care. Please credit your members with more intelligence than to be influenced by unsubstantiated rumours.

 

Just tell it like it is. A cursory glance through these many threads on the subject shows the amazing breadth of intelligence and experience that RAAus members have in areas such as aviation (both civil and military), law, accountancy, IT and vast experience on Boards both for-profit and not-for-profit. I bet most of this experience is yours for the asking. Eat some humble pie and ask. I, for one, would admire you and the other Board members for it.

 

 

[Pete Greed]

Powerin: "Just tell it like it is. A cursory glance through these many threads on the subject shows the amazing breadth of intelligence and experience that RAAus members have in areas such as aviation (both civil and military), law, accountancy, IT and vast experience on Boards both for-profit and not-for-profit. I bet most of this experience is yours for the asking. Eat some humble pie and ask. I, for one, would admire you and the other Board members for it".

 

I guess the question is - how do we make that "intelligence and experience" available to the board? We have plenty of examples of naming the things that are wrong with our organisation, but less so describing practical solutions. The sort of exchange above is counter productive in the context of a way forward, after all the current board is solely responsible for resolving the significant and current problems associated with RAAus governance and management - yet many of the posts are about solving operational issues.

 

Pete

 

 

[Powerin]

Powerin: "Just tell it like it is. A cursory glance through these many threads on the subject shows the amazing breadth of intelligence and experience that RAAus members have in areas such as aviation (both civil and military), law, accountancy, IT and vast experience on Boards both for-profit and not-for-profit. I bet most of this experience is yours for the asking. Eat some humble pie and ask. I, for one, would admire you and the other Board members for it". I guess the question is - how do we make that "intelligence and experience" available to the board? We have plenty of examples of naming the things that are wrong with our organisation, but less so describing practical solutions. The sort of exchange above is counter productive in the context of a way forward, after all the current board is solely responsible for resolving the significant and current problems associated with RAAus governance and management - yet many of the posts are about solving operational issues.

 

Pete

I thought "eating humble pie and ask" might be a good start. It's hard to propose solutions when we aren't told what the problems are, or their extent.

Sometimes in life we all need to eat some humble pie, even if we are right and without fault, just to calm the waters and advance the situation.

 

 

[sain]

wow, this thread got feisty over the weekend.

 

I still havn't received a response from any of the board members I emailed, however the release of the audited financial report last week has answered my questions. Turns out the board members I emailed could have responded with "No, your not correct and we'll be releasing information on that in a couple of days". Because they didn't bother I'm left with the impression that they a) don't care about RA-Aus or b) can't work a computer. Either way, they wont be getting my vote again (actually only one of them did before, but what are you going to do.)

 

Personally my biggest problem with the board and president is the poor communication. Members are hanging out here because they love RA-Aus and love flying. Many have concerns that could have been alleviated by simple, accurate and truthful communication, which the Secretary, President and the board should have facilitated.

 

I imagine many members, like me, are feeling very frustrated at the moment. For the board members who have taken the effort to come on here and post about whats going on - Thank you, your doing better than the board members from my state. Despite what you guys may perceive as attacks, we do appreciate your efforts to keep RA-Aus members informed about whats going on, and we appreciate the fact that you guys are reading the forum posts, which will no doubt help keep the board informed about the things RA-Aus members are concerned about (and for that matter, the views of GA and Commercial operators who have concerns about RA-Aus).

 

These forums could be a fantastic tool that the board could use....

 

And on the "free mason conspiracy" - who cares! Its like being worried about RA-Aus being run by old caucasian males...

 

 

[facthunter]

Whaddya mean OLD? I resemble that remark. The next correspondence you receive will be from my lawyer, Kaz ..Discrimination on the basis of excess of birthdays. I'm taking umbrage ... Is nothing sacred?. Nev

 

 

[sain]

Whaddya mean OLD? I resemble that remark. The next correspondence you receive will be from my lawyer, Kaz ..Discrimination on the basis of excess of birthdays. I'm taking umbrage ... Is nothing sacred?. Nev

Nope, nothing is sacred. Its pretty clear to me that the RA-Aus membership has a significant proportion of people in its makeup who would fall into the Quinquagenarian, Sexagenarian and Septuagenarian categories (mostly because they've had sufficient time to build up the loot and free time to enjoy the hobby). There are probably a whole bunch more who wish they fell into the Sexagenarian category, but thats just because they are blokes and stopped reading the word after the first three letters.

Its actually you old buggers who are discriminating against us poor, hard working middle-aged types, and the sooner you realise it and provide appropriate compensation in the form of subsidies for aircraft rental etc the less it'll cost you when the revolution comes.

 

 

[turboplanner]

It's OK FH, his avatar indicates he flies a Gazelle.

 

 

[David Isaac]

My God ... what an extraordinary threatening outburst ...

 

If I can't play the game my way I will take my marbles and go home.

 

Another self sacrificing suicidal comment ... timely I guess so one can justify in ones' own mind why one doesn't WANT TO communicate on this 'evil' forum.

 

Extraordinary ... prepared to hold positions of representation but real cute and precious if any suggestion of impropriety is made. So they all run and hide and compound the problem and then wonder why we are so pissed off with them.

 

Perhaps if we look at the long periods of endemic stuff ups, I mean how could any reasonable person support a pay rise (allegedly the 2nd in six months) for the person who has presided over the biggest stuff ups in RA Aus history. Any reasonable person could be forgiven for thinking something inappropriate is going on right ....?

 

As I have said before ... and this applies to all of us, especially me....

 

"I am never always right and I'm never always wrong.

 

Mostly I get it right and sometimes I get it wrong ...."

 

If I get it wrong, and you can convince me, but be gentle or I will take my marbles and go home LOL, I will be the first to apologise and withdraw my comments. After all it is simply not possible to see all issues from all others perspectives ... we are simply not that gifted. The strength of a team is always in the members differences, not their similarities.

 

The diversity of opinion makes these discussions interesting, informative and eye opening ...

 

 

[facthunter]

I hope everybody realises that my entire comment was supposed to be funny. Nev

 

 

[Captain]

I hope everybody realises that my entire comment was supposed to be funny. Nev

Nev,

 

I tittered, but others may be considering threatening legal action. You have done well.

 

Regards Geoff

 

 

[BPN]

I hope everybody realises that my entire comment was supposed to be funny. Nev

FH , I for one thought it very funny. It's pretty crook when it gets to the stage that some cannot distinguish between the serious and good humor . BPN

 

 

[drifterdriver]

Evening All,

 

The following though long, may prove to be an interesting read. It is the correspondence between myself and a member who did not realise that I was no longer on the board of RAAus. I have their permission to do as I see fit with the contents and it has also been received today by all board members. Please forgive the "extreme" comment, particularly you CFIcare. I also cannot vouch for the authenticity of any of the comments other than my own and naturally all my own comments should be prefaced with "in my humble opinion" or "all care and no responsibilty" etc etc.

 

Regards,

 

Nick

 

Hi Nick,

 

Thanks for your email and excellent comments. I understand that you are no longer a board member and I am writing to you in your capacity as an ordinary member. The only point I would disagree with you on is the courtesy to officially inform the members via email. I would have said the necessity to officially inform the members via email.

 

Like you I was astounded that I did not receive an email about delays with registration renewals in the month prior to my due date. Not only was my renewal not posted, they had no intention of informing me of the situation until it was too late (registration expired). To make matters worse, the email I did eventually get can best be described as mumbo-jumbo unintelligible nonsense. Not only that, it contained an critical error. Who writes this crap? You have read the email. It is still attached. If it was my job to write it, then it would have looked something like this............

 

DUE TO THE CASA AUDIT, PROCESSING AND MAILING OF YOUR AIRCRAFT REGISTRATION RENEWAL HAS BEEN DELAYED. YOUR REGISTRATION EXPIRED ON 8/12/2012. DO NOT OPERATE YOUR AIRCRAFT UNTIL THE REGISTRATION IS PROCESSED AS IT WILL BE ILLEGAL TO DO SO. PLEASE MAKE A REGISTRATION RENEWAL PAYMENT OF $65.00 TO THE OFFICE AND SUPPLY YOUR UPDATED HOURS SO THAT WE CAN PROCESS YOUR RENEWAL AS SOON AS POSSIBLE.

 

Yesterday (16 December) I finally received information from a reliable source (not the office!) stating that RA-Aus had it’s authority to issue all renewals for Xxxxxxxx. The file on each aircraft affected was then subject to an audit. This audit was looking for missing paperwork, in particular photographs showing the attachment of labels, rego numbers etc. My file was put into the MISSING PAPERWORK pile because it did not contain a photograph of the max take off weight placard. COA 95.10 does not require this placard and when I challenged this the requirement was withdrawn. When I first registered the aircraft I submitted a complete set of photographs showing every single detail requested. Nothing was missing. In other words there was never any reason for my renewal to be delayed.

 

I am pretty upset about this whole business. My registration expired on 8 December. I did not find out about it until 13 December. What if I had flown my aircraft on 9, 10, 11 or 12 December? Well I went to the CASA web site to find out the penalty for operating an unregistered aircraft. Here is the text from a CASA press release.

 

Owners and operators of ultralight aircraft are being warned they can face tough penalties for flying without a pilot licence or aircraft registration. The warning follows a number of recent cases of people found to be flying ultralights without appropriate authorisations. Flying without a licence and flying an unregistered aircraft can attract penalties of up to two years imprisonment for each offence.

 

You can view the full article here. http://www.casa.gov.au/scripts/nc.dll?WCMS:STANDARD::pc=PC_93418

 

It seems to me that RA-Aus put me in a situation where I could have been charged with an extremely serious offence and possibly sentenced to a 2 year jail term! Now I expect that RA-Aus will say that the onus in on me to know my registration expiry date. My answer to that is I have been receiving both membership and aircraft registration renewal reminders one month in advance from AUF/RA-Aus for many years so there has never been any need whatsoever to remember an exact date from year to year. Lets take another example. I have owned motor vehicles in Queensland for 40 years. Queensland Transport has been sending me a registration renewal notice one month in advance for every one of those 40 years without fail. They certainly don’t expect me to remember the exact date each year. Does CASA know that RA-Aus has been deliberately putting pilots in danger of flying unregistered aircraft due to the fact that they could not be bothered communicating a serious problem to their members?

 

I would be surprised if there was even one member of RA-Aus who did not have an email address. We live in the digital Internet instant communication age. Group (member) emails can be sent quickly and at zero cost but they won’t use it because they cannot or will not communicate even in an emergency situation.

 

I have always been concerned about poor communication to members from AUF/RA-Aus. I live in a rural area where I have little contact with other RA_Aus members so I don’t get information on the “grapevine”. The magazine in next to useless because by the time it gets to us the information is hopelessly out of date. The old web site was never used to post timely information to members. The seems at last to be some attempt to communicate current issues on the new web site, but the information provides little detail. I am currently subscribing to recreationalflying.com because I can get more information on what is going on in RA-Aus there than I can through official channels. This is a pretty sad situation. By the way I am quite capable of identifying any extreme views that may be posted there and allocating the appropriate amount of importance to them.

 

On a more positive note, I received a phone call from Dean Tompkins (Assistant Technical Manager) after he read my email. Dean took my hours and credit card payment over the phone and then submitted my renewal to the Technical Consultant for approval. We had an excellent conversation and Dean took care of the problem quickly and efficiently.

 

I have been gradually becoming aware of the numerous systemic problems you refer to and I worry about the future of the organisation. How long can it continue to operate in such a dysfunctional state? Should you choose to seek re-election to the board in future, you will definitely have my vote.

 

Regards,

 

Robert.

 

From: APA Info

 

Sent: Friday, December 14, 2012 9:44 AM

 

To:

 

Subject: Re: Fw: Registration Requirements 10-xxxx

 

Dear Robert,

 

I am no longer on the board of RAAus so my comments are only as an ordinary member and are not intended to reflect the views of the majority of the board. Personally I find it astounding that the board of RAAus have not had the courtesy to officially inform the members via email of the fact that a sizable proportion of the fleet (up to a quarter by some estimates) are affected by this grounding. I am in total agreement with the comments in your email and I have publicly stated this view. I feel that an ambiguous notice on the RAAus website is totally inadequate and the members have a right to know what is happening within their organisation. I chose not to seek re-election to the board as I felt that numerous systemic problems that faced the organisation were not being addressed and that the majority of the board were unwilling to act upon these concerns. Observing what has happened of late I feel that my concerns were not ungrounded.

 

If you seek further information may I suggest that you consider viewing the following link. Whilst some of the opinions expressed at this forum may be unsubstantiated or somewhat extreme, it at least may provide you with a rough understanding of some of the issues involved.

 

http://www.recreationalflying.com/forums/governing-bodies.93/

 

A special general meeting has also been called so as to provide the members with an opportunity to have their concerns addressed by the board. Should you be interested but unable to attend I can arrange to have a proxy form sent to you.

 

Regards

 

Nick Sigley

 

Ordinary Member 3140

 

From: [email protected]

 

Sent: Wednesday, December 12, 2012 3:44 PM

 

To:

 

Subject: Registration Requirements 10-xxxx

 

Dear Robert,

 

During a recent CASA audit of aircraft files, we have found that aircraft number does not have the following required document(s) on file:

 

- Photographs of Maximum take-off weight placards (Refer to Warning Notices in the RA-Aus Technical Manual). Must be signed & dated on the back or electronically date stamped.

 

- Updated hours and landings

 

Your Registration Renewal will not be processed until all the required documents and payment have been received into the office.

 

If you have any queries about this matter, please don’t hesitate to contact our Technical Manager by email at [email protected] or phone on 02 6280 4700

 

Kind Regards

 

Kelly

 

 

[turboplanner]

Interesting wouldn't be a word I'd use Nick.

 

 

[drifterdriver]

Well every other word I chose came up with stars.

 

 

[turboplanner]

Did you include the words laughing stock around the world?

 

 

[drifterdriver]

Nah, didn't think of that. I might have to employ you as my proof reader Turbo.

 

Nick

 

 

[robinsm]

Deleted by robinsm. Information found in Raa Aus manual. My mistake.

 

 

[drifterdriver]

Well it'd be nice if in the members time of need that they were supplied a sticker with all the necessary text printed and a blank spot to fill in the MTOW that could be filled in by the owner. Otherwise I understand that dymo tape is fine or you can go to a sign writer and have one made up. I got some made up years ago and they lasted well.