Baffling Departure of CEO

[mikehallam]

Saw our muted notes of the recent exit of the LAA CEO has not gone unnoticed next door !

I for one as a shareholder, am concerned to read this from one of their moderators & would like to know the truth of what happened.

mike hallam.

"5 years is a long time in politics (with apologies to the late Harold Wilson)
"...done properly, it was self-evident that a merger makes absolute sense. We overlap more than any other two recreational aviation organisations, we duplicate effort and expenditure and we have 800 members in common"
Keith Negal September 2008

As the LAA ship continues to drift without a skipper at the helm, is it time for one of the BMAA grandees, (or another enterprising individual) to seize the moment and engineer a reverse takeover, ahem, merger to create a unified organisation with increased influence as well as the benefits that KN alluded to above?

[Brian Hope]

Mike, I can assure you that "the LAA ship" certainly does not "continue to drift without a skipper". Since Richard Dunevein-Gordon's decision to leave was taken, former LAA CEO, Graham Newby, has been at the helm and will remain so until a new CEO has been appointed and is in place.

It was clear from the previous discussions about a merger with BMAA that there were some areas where we share very common interests and attitudes, and some where we are farther apart. Whilst those talks were curtailed, the two associations work very well together on a number of levels, certainly I am unaware of anything other than goodwill between all on both sides. Whether that means another venture down the road of unification takes place at some point in the future I do not know, to my knowledge no such suggestion is currently on the table.

[Chris Martyr]

Hi Mike, Hasn't the Chinese whispering always taken place when them of the upper echelons depart.

I had been a PFA member for quite a few years before I realised that Peter Underhill had two lots of followers - them that loved him and them that didn't. I believe there were also mutterings when Anthony Preston went . Did he fall or was he pushed . As for Debbie Hookins' short reign , I remember talking to a certain gent up north and being told "the bloody loony left's taken over".
Same thing with Peter Harvey , he seemed alright to me , but almost from day one there seemed to be a rat-pack on to him .
So , I guess it's always gone on . I did see something on another forum where Mr Dunevein-Gordon was placed before a kangaroo court and given a virtual trial . They even managed to elect their very own new CEO.........AAAh forums,,,don't you just love 'em ,
As far as us rank and file members are concerned ? Well we'll probably never know , but if we don't , will that affect the quality of our lives ? It certainly won't mine.

Regarding a BMAA merger , I am personally quite happy with the status quo as it is , especially when one looks at all the contentious issues there are these days from the Euro-Meddlers and the lobbying point of view , surely the more different organisations there are fighting our corner the better.
A Councillor friend of mine was saying how a petition with a hundred names on only counts as one entity, whilst a hundred letters of protest is counted as a hundred entities.
So, I have no problem at all with the BMAA as an organisation , we have co-existed with mutual respect for many years and hopefully will continue to do so. But I'm a status quo fan and feel there could be a lot of head banging if it was done any other way. [god,,that was awful wasn't it]

[Jeremy Liber]

Mike

So, a chap resigns from his job; happens in all walks of life, everywhere, everyday and for an infinite variety of reasons.
You're obviously agitating for something, consider some sort of dark motives are at work behind the scenes, malevolent forces working against some poor defenceless soul, blah...

David Dale resigned the other week, nice chap who'd been working hard for PFA/LAA for a number of years; why didn't you agaitate on his resignation?

To paraphrase a recent posting 'I for one, as a shareholder, am concerned to read of your concerns & would like to know the truth of why you are suggesting something untoward has gone on'.

Regards

Jeremy

[mikehallam]

Chris,

Thanks. Put like that it's obviously a pattern I'd not observed closely enough and perhaps is just so much water under the bridge !

mike.

[Chris Martyr]

Quite right Hallam,,,,,know your place my man !!

Anyway , I'm still voting for Francis Rossi as CEO

And Rick Parfitt as his Assistant

[Ian Melville]

Chris, you prefer the status quo

[Chris Martyr]

OK,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,NEXT ! ! !

[Alan Kilbride]

It is getting sillier and sillier.

I thought Phil Hall was a new dawn for the LAA. He is bright, pleasant and forward thinking. I suppose they are the attributes that brought about his departure.
I know Brian is there to defend and in some ways act as a sounding board for the hierarchy, but surely the board needs look at itself and instead of blaming all the ills on the world on the thousands of members, the 10 or so on the Wizards council might think that maybe they need to look inwards?
We are going with IMC and Night flying, more kits, more complex aircraft, 4 seats and fast, more orphaned aircraft, etc. That's great, but the majority of volunteers are as old as Methusela, who as quoted on the other forum 1/2 pint of bitter drinkers. We who fly old tomato boxes covered in an old bedsheet powered by a lawn mower engine, must be beyond our useful life. Give us a corner to sit in, so that we can babble on about the good old days and let the younger generation create their own good old days for the future. Or there won't be one.
We need young, vibrant and forward thinking people in the Association.
As the CAA devolve so much to the LAA and indeed trust us to run engineering mods, permits etc, we can't be all bad. I am sure we bring a lot to the table with EASA too, but where do we want to be in 10 years time?

Alan

[mikehallam]

Having re-read Chris' earlier run down of departed executives, I've become more sanguine, as it's probably par for the course.

After all the LAA machinery appears to run quite well (in its co-related cells). Perhaps once any new CEO has deployed his skills to satisfy himself it's in GWO, he can happily move on upwards by returning to the world of commerce.

Certainly for an ambitious younger man of quality it shouldn't be an unexpected occurrence.

As for the BMAA spectre, since two or so years ago they have cleaned out their forum trolls & become more respectable. In any case they retain at the their centre excellent & educated, qualified staff who are a credit. Judging from recent forum threads they are leaning more to connections to their even lighter aviation brethren.

mike hallam.

[Frank Parker]

Having been out of the UK for the last forty years, I was wondering what PFA did not do that made it necessary to create the BMAA. There appears to be so much in common that separate organizations appear not to be needed. I am not a BMAA member, but I did drop them an e-mail asking this same question, but did not have the courtesy of a reply, not good!

[Chris Martyr]

Kids eh Frank, who needs 'em ! Unfortunately, not replying to letters/e-mails is pretty commonplace these days . Just remember who you are
Whilst I fully acknowledge that it was I who resurrected this thread , the basic fact is that nobody really knows why Peter Harvey, Richard Duneivin-Gordon or The Pipster made their respective decisions to move on to pastures new , and is it our business ?
Does it affect our flying, our membership of the LAA , or anything else ?
From where I am sitting, the LAA's state of health looks pretty bloody good actually. I know that there's been a couple of threads elsewhere , but the general feeling seemed to be pretty good I thought, even though you'll always find the odd blokes looking for a scrap.
This 70 year old organisation looks after everything from wooden boxes with VW's bolted to the front [like mine] as well as pragmatically guiding the interests of people who want to deck out their machines with glass cockpits , who want to go off and mix it with heavily regulated, certified machinery built in Toulouse or Seattle. So don't go telling me the LAA isn't moving with the times.
As for the 'old fart' argument , I'm sick to death of it ! As long as people are medically fit to fly and the membership isn't dwindling [which it isn't] then is it a real problem , or a perceived problem.
The young people not interested in aeroplanes today are probably no different than back in the 1930's, 40's, 50's or any other time. Once their kids have fled the nest, mortgage paid, then they could come looking to rekindle their interest . The new generation of paying LAA'ers start in their 40's .

So will Phil Halls LAA activities curtail because of a career change ? I'm sure they won't. Has he left a good impression that someone else will want to follow in ? Definitely , yes.

[Frank Parker]

When I think about how PFA was struggling forty years ago, and now look at the remarkable organization that has inherited the mantle, we obviously have had the benefit of some very talented individuals in the driving seat over the years! Long may it continue!