Hi Jim,

Being on many boards of many different organizations, some local and some nationwide, I think that some of your comments are valid. I know we can not expect an elected (that is, by default, part time) MAAC Board to have enough time to be able to do all that is needed. Also, it is a thankless job, no matter what they do, someone will always find fault and will have "a better way" but, they themselves, will never step up to the plate.

However, ( don't you hate it when someone throws a "however" or "but" in ), it would be nice if MAAC sent the "new" club executive an intoductory letter regarding MAAC, this would explain the structure of MAAC and the expectation of the club's executive to MAAC. Right now, when you get elected onto the exectutive of a flying club, you have no guidelines or ideas what is expected from you - no matter what you read, or where you look. From personal experience, I have no idea where I stand in the MAAC matrix, nor what MAAC would like from me - like I said, I have had absolutely no communication from MAAC, that is, unless I had initiated it (jacket badge excepted).

You are right in that MAAC can not be expected to communicate with each member, nor should it be necessary. However, (there it is again! ) MAAC could stuff an information letter in with the renewal card, this could have a chart or overview of how the organization is structured, or a web address where the information could be found. Currently there is not even a even list of expectations, or guidelines, of what is expected of members, or club executives listed on their web site. Example something like the following could be posted: "After a club elects their new executive, the persons and positions, should be registered with MAAC within 30 days", or "For MAAC approved events, and flying fields, they must be preregistered with MAAC" (just a guess on these) etc.

I suspect that MAAC does not have to currently approve clubs, and that only the members of the club belong to MAAC, but just the same, I'm sure most club presidents would willingly support MAAC, and share information, if they knew what would be expected of them, and how they could support MAAC.

I think MAAC would help themselves a lot by educating the membership as to what is expected from the membership, and what the membership can expect from MAAC, basically how they "fit" into the MAAC structure. By doing this, they would have a better understanding of the MAAC organization. I'm sure there must be documentaion of this information somewhere - we just have to make it accessible.

I promised myself I would not get into MAAC politics, and just observe, I have enough to do working with my own organization. However (see, I did it again! ) I thought I'd throw my two cents out. This is just my point of view, hope I did not offend anyone.

Fly4Fun,

Wayne Miller