Originally Posted by
R_Strowe
Which has kinda been my point all along. Right now Rich Hanson isn't going anywhere, even if he should. At the present time that's a fool's errand.
I would rather see everyone shelve that crusade for now and actually band together, with real solidarity, to go to Congress as well as the FAA and work to get this whole mess fixed. The key I believe is Congress and the agencies; get them on your side and we have a chance. But I've said this before (and will not waver from this), we need to speak as ONE VOICE. PERIOD. Without the negativity. And whether one likes it or not, there really is only one group right know that is set up for that: the AMA. Maybe Flite Test, someday. As well as PMA. But for right now, we need to work with the AMA, and use them as our voice.
Some of us understand that AMA had a heavy hand in writing 336, to include the accompanying Congressional intent document. Like it or not, very little legislation is written only by the staffs / principals. So AMA put in that what they hoped to see. They were smart enough to know that OVERT mandatory membership would not pass, so they put language in there they could later use to IMPLY (at first) that's what Congress meant. At some point, as we see most directly from Stillman's quote above, they started saying the quiet part out loud.
I view Hanson and his protege Budreau as the principal architects of this effort. Hanson for obvious reasons, Budreau since he was Gov Affairs while it was being worked / pushed. They were of course aided by a feckless EC that saw nothing but $$, and didn't contemplate second or third order effects. One thing for sure they didn't contemplate, that is someone actually asking FAA how THEY interpret that section. Never saw that coming did they?
So this started when I mentioned where AMA crossed a clear bright line for me. AAA doesn't try and use law to compel membership. Neither does AOPA, ARRL or other things that look a lot like CBOs. Additionally, because of that weak EC that won't challenge the dynamic duo, we see mismanagement and the obfuscation that were the other major issues for me. So in my mind, as long as Hanson and Budreau are in place, I will continue to highlight the poor leadership, reckless and irresponsible spending, and horrible management that is leading this organization into financial ruin.
By every measure I can gather from their IRS filings, it's clear that time is not on their side. Spending is too high, and the magazines continue doing what they do best ... lose money. Yet no major staff reductions. No firings for lack of performance. And no major slashing of spending. Hence my efforts to keep highlighting these in the hopes that the group of people saying "Enough is enough" will grow -- and the dynamic duo will leave -- hopefully before it's too late. I refuse to be part of "fix things after we get past this issue." We heard that with registration ... speak with one voice now, then fix AMA later. We heard that with 336 under threat ... speak with one voice now, fix AMA later. And we're hearing it yet again on this issue. Forgive me if it's evident that those saying "speak with one voice now and fix AMA later" never ever get around to the fix AMA part.