ALL MEMBERS ! Please fill out those proxy forms..!!

[Paul Catanach]

Brian, it really was not my intention to slur our members whose genuine efforts are rewarded. As Alan says it was tongue in cheek, I promise to make better use of the smilies in future to convey my intent.

[ChampChump]

I have no doubt that the Bird-in-a-Biplane had a great time flying through Africa on a journey most of us might envy but whatever we might think of T C-T and her influential chums this matter should be settled on the merits of the motion but absent the wording of the motion we cannot yet do that. Perhaps it revolves on semantics.

Exactly. I hope the magazine arrives today and I can see what's proposed.

I had written a long, measured and ever so thoughtful response but when I pressed Preview, I lost it and was directed to my messages. Please assume a paragraph or two of common sense here.....

The surprise and disappointment that this matter has resurfaced, with lawyers, after what seems to be a legal & valid vote is great. I don't know why it is so important to have her name attached, briefly, to this award but I trust that the wisdom of the "old men's association" will prevail.

[Brian Hope]

Marchettiman, Stewart Jackson's details need amending on the website, he is however, not listed as a director on the page that links to the VPs. I will see if I can get it amended asap.

The mag is on schedule to be delivered later this week with the AGM details enclosed. However, the AGM details will also be posted on the website, either today or tomorrow. I hope they answer at least most of the questions you have.

[Trevor Harvey]

I don't see why it should be important to discuss whether or not the Vice President is a member of the board of directors.
If he has the authority to propose a motion that seems to infuriate the rank and file membership who voted this thing out two years ago, then so be it. We are allowed to be disappointed, infuriated, mildly upset or whatever.
Nobody is casting doubt on the rest of the management team as yet, until we are in possession of the facts.
Nor is anyone seriously slagging off any particular group based on their dress code or aircraft type.
So. No names no pack drill, please stop reading between the lines and seeing some nastiness that isn't there!

[jollyrog]

People who seek awards shouldn't receive them. It isn't really the done thing and that's before we debate the merits.

Assuming a turnout of the AGM of around 50 and all voting in favour of reinstatement (unlikely), it would only take 55+ proxy votes to put this to bed.

If every contributor to this thread can galvanise five LAA members and ensure those votes are posted (collect/post them yourselves if you have to), it's job done.

Many of us are in groups where our co-owners are compelled to be LAA members. Use that disadvantage to our advantage.

[Planemike]

The votes of those present at the AGM were 17 for and 57 against the Motion. Proxy votes were 142 for and 8 against. That makes totals of 159 for the Motion and 65 against. 36 of the 'For' proxy votes were left to the discretion of the Chairman, who went with the majority. Not an unreasonable decision in my view.

Brian...... Thank you for providing the figures. This is against a membership of some 8000, correct??

[Chris Martyr]

the VP is not a Board member and the Board certainly had no desire for this issue to be resurrected.

In which case , with deference to the earlier post from Sam Rutherford , may one assume that Herr Gritsch made a minor "slip of tongue" there ?

[Alan Kilbride]

Many of us are in groups where our co-owners are compelled to be LAA members. Use that disadvantage to our advantage.

How can flying in an Aircraft that costs less to run than a set of Golf clubs be a disadvantge if everyone has to be a member for the princely sum of not a bleeding lot?

Galvanising members to coerce them into your way of thinking isn't particularly democratic either, but fill your boots if that's your way forward.

Sorry, but you touched a bone there.

[jollyrog]

How can flying in an Aircraft that costs less to run than a set of Golf clubs be a disadvantge if everyone has to be a member for the princely sum of not a bleeding lot?

Compulsory membership is a tax. The fee for the permit renewal should reflect the work done and the needs of the association to generate equitable income. Larger groups shouldn't have to pay more just because they're larger or not in sole ownership. As a group administrator, it's a right pain at Permit renewal time, ensuring everyone has paid up. There has to be a better way. One full membership with engineering services per aircraft with a raised permit renewal fee would be my preference.

Galvanising members to coerce them into your way of thinking isn't particularly democratic either, but fill your boots if that's your way forward.

That's exactly what TCT and her PR machine will be doing at the AGM to those present and they've already started with that article in The Times.

[Paul Catanach]

One full membership with engineering services per aircraft with a raised permit renewal fee would be my preference.

Ah, but then sole owners like me would have to pay more to supplement your group. So I’m happy with the way it is.

[Tracey Curtis-Taylor]

I am sorry that the 2018 AGM is confronted by a motion about me. It comes at the suggestion of the Chairman. I felt that the process whereby massed proxy votes at the 2016 AGM stripped me of the Woodhams Award on the never explained grounds that I had ‘brought the LAA into disrepute’ was deeply flawed. The Chairman was not prepared to consider the possibility that his actions and those of the Board before, during and after the AGM might have been anything less than exemplary; he issued the challenge.
Since the LAA was notified in September 2018 of a motion asking members to agree that what was done in their name in 2016 was wrong, the PPruNe chat forum has been awash with repetitious and abusive messages from a small group of trolls with an impressive capacity for hatred. They are incensed that the Times dared to publish a feature on the LAA and myself by a journalist specialising in aviation matters. Nasty stuff about me previously run by the Daily Mail and the Sun evidently troubled them less.
This obsessive discussion – slightly moderated in language – has now transferred itself to the LAA forum where some twelve angry men have spent the last two weeks agreeing with each other. Expressions of outrage that the previously expressed democratic will of the membership that I be disgraced would be subverted by the motion sit rather oddly with this message posted on 2 October 2018 about how to defeat it: “If every contributor to this thread can galvanise five LAA members and ensure those votes are posted (collect/post them yourselves if you have to), it's job done. Many of us are in groups where our co-owners are compelled to be LAA members. Use that disadvantage to our advantage”.
I have made a statement on the motion which will, I hope, be seen by all members; but just to correct a few of the bilious fantasies being peddled on this forum:
• I am not a liar, nor in the habit of taking credit for the other people’s achievements.
• I have never solicited an award from the LAA or any other organisation.
• I do not have the backing of a ‘PR machine’ or ‘legal team’, nor do I possess an influential ‘entourage’ of ‘establishment’ figures. ‘Tracey & Co’ are imaginary foes; if the trolls really think they are the proles they utterly deceive themselves.
• I have no agenda to subvert the LAA. The object of Stewart Jackson’s motion is to clear my name of allegations gratuitously made against me and the LAA’s name of being vindictive and misogynistic, and move on.
• The claim made in a message of 20 September that the passing of the motion would be followed by ‘all manner of other undesirable actions being brought to bear’ is arrant nonsense.

[ChampChump]

Thanks for posting.

A question: "The object of Stewart Jackson’s motion is to clear my name of allegations gratuitously made against me and the LAA’s name of being vindictive and misogynistic".

If I am reading that correctly, you are saying that allegations have been made that the LAA is vindictive and misogynistic. By whom?

If I have misunderstood, please correct me. Thanks.

[samrutherford]

"The whole experience has been appalling, but the benefit is that it has given me insight into the prejudice and hostility towards women in aviation from the male establishment.”

“I don’t think for one second that I would have received the treatment I have had from the LAA if I had been a male,”

Tracey Curtis Taylor in The Times, 20 September 2018.

[Paul Catanach]

Excellent, at last we have a first hand response. I hope you (Miss Curtis-Taylor) are here to continue the discourse with your fellow LAA members.

For now I have only two comments on your post above. Am I angry? No, life’s too short for that but I do have a sense of what’s right.

Secondly, “...mysoginistic...”. Champ Chump and Sam have already pointed out where that word first came from in all this but can I ask how you justify that accusation when you trade as Birdinabiplane?

While (I hope) we are communicating perhaps too I could ask The Big One? The question that goes back to the root of all this and might even change a few minds (including mine) about the upcoming vote. You and your supporters have said many times that the trip was never meant to be solo. Why then for so long did you refer to it as such, allow the media to repeat the claim and accept awards that clearly used the word?

For clarity, I am neither being antagnostic or trolling. I am genuinely open to the thought that there is some information that will enable me to change my mind.

Thank you.

[jangiolini]

I am amazed at TCTs post! Trolling is usually done under a false name and hiding in the shadows.... Last time I looked we are open, our names are on display and we are voicing our opinions.... opposite of trolling!!! Misogynists!! I really object to that slur... I have had the privilege of encouraging and assisting 4 women who are now commercial pilots. I fly with them occasionally and take some stick from them for my bad flying habits!!! Incensed, angry you bet I have looked at the evidence and have reached my conclusion and will be using my proxy vote....
John.
(my real name)