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

[ChampChump]

I can't make any comment on Tracey's post above as it was addressed to gentlemen.

I have listened to the radio piece and was extremely disappointed that the final point made was that in the matter at issue it comes down to gender.

[I've been a member for a good while now and never have I ever seen any sign of sexism in the LAA or any of the many members I've met; I think the last time I heard a comment that was dubious anywhere in aviation was in 1987, from a winch driver at a gliding club].

[samrutherford]

Another post without any answers to the perfectly valid questions previously asked.

Just one of these, again:



Did you write the following on your Facebook page? Or will you tell us it was someone else?

(20/11/13, in Nairobi, half way through the Africa trip)

My complete silence since departing Cape Town might have raised a few eyebrows given my more expansive outpourings on the Ocean to Ocean blog when I flew with the Russian crew from Kiev to Cape Town earlier this year in an Antonov 2. I can only say that the physical and psychological demands are so much greater with a solo flight of this nature, added to which there is a huge filming programme running in parallel, that it is as much as I can do to deal with the day to day operations

[Paul Catanach]

I can't make any comment on Tracey's post above as it was addressed to gentlemen.

Don't you worry treacle, we've always known you to be a bird. Bird in a monoplane, incha?





(How was that for misogyny? Too much? I could leave the bum pinch out if you think that was overdoing it?)

[ChampChump]

I suppose the pc response would be that birds have no need of aeroplanes. They all fly better than I do, too. Probably all of us, but I don't want to offend any skygods.

[neilmurg]

There's no need to over think this.
There's a vote on 2 motions, so vote. And then move on.
Governance / rules? Decide that later, and calmly, not in response to this ridiculous furore.
The original award and it being rescinded has happened. We only need to decide on what WILL happen now.

We can't undo the 2014 award or the 2016 vote. The question is, essentially, does Tracey's Africa flight deserve the Woodham Trophy for aviation achievement, or was it a corporate enterprise which wants Awards as part of its PR.

This is the LAA after all, largely people building their own aircraft with all the risks / skills / persistence / endeavour / joy that that involves.

The answer is obvious isn't it?

PLEASE, stop posting 'clever' unclear, jokey posts that skirt around or poke fun at the issues. It's a bit more serious than that. SAY WHAT YOU MEAN AND THINK.

And there's no reason to think that after the AGM that this will be over, it's the gift that keeps on giving. Vote with your conscience and deal with the consequences, personally I'm pissed off about the way I've been talked about, so, bring it on, I know who I am

[samrutherford]

Just had a chance to listen to the radio piece. Not about to dissect it here!

It's really very simple, and has nothing to do with gender but everything to do with behaviour. It is also not personal - it's simply about right and wrong.

Tracey lied about 'solo' during the Africa trip in 2013, she is still lying today in 2018.

Should this behaviour even be accepted, let alone celebrated with awards, medals and trophies? I guess that's the fundamental question that is looking for an answer.

[Peter Gorman]

The prospect of this dreary affair taking up most of the AGM, when we should be addressing matters that advance light aviation, makes me reconsider my intended effort to fly to Sywell on 21 October. I can just send a proxy instead and do something more constructive with my Sunday.

Come to think of it, will this arise again at the 2019 AGM if a certain member is unhappy with the outcome of 2018's AGM? 2020?

I opened the current magazine willing to consider David Mole's proposed Resolution 8 with an open mind, but the texts about the matter published in it made my mind up. The proposals seek to have a re-run of a matter discussed and decided upon at the 2016 AGM in accordance with the rules applicable to that Meeting. No evidence has been presented to show this was an invalid decision.

[Bill McCarthy]

Can we go back a little bit. I was of the belief that the awards committee did not know of the full story regarding the flight in question. However, I see in Hopkins’s input of Wednesday evening (para 5) states that they knew of the GPS aids and of the team effort or am I reading it wrong ?. Did they also know that the flight was dual, most of the way ? I’m ok therefore that the award ought to have been given to the team.

[Jonathan Holland]

PLEASE, SAY WHAT YOU MEAN AND THINK.

I THINK this has all got rather tedious.
I MEAN to say that it’s probably just easier to give her the blasted trophy back so we can all just move on and let the LAA do what they need to do.

She’s clearly never going to give up trying to get the award back, so why waste membership resources in trying to fight her, as she will only be back again next year to fight more. The Board have been made to look rather weak over all of this to be perfectly honest, and I hope they can sit down after the result and formulate a plan to ensure they’re not pushed around again like they have been.

It’s a bad year for the LAA and maybe it’s time to get some more robust and commercial thinking around the big table.

The first thing that they need to do is ban her from being a member and bringing the association into disrepute.

[SteveSlater]

The prospect of this dreary affair taking up most of the AGM, when we should be addressing matters that advance light aviation, makes me reconsider my intended effort to fly to Sywell on 21 October. I can just send a proxy instead and do something more constructive with my Sunday.

Please don't. We've got an excellent speaker in the morning in the form of Phil Dunnington talking about his epic Beech 18 flights, carrying a hot air balloon to launch in places where one has never flown before.

We're hoping to spring a bit of a surprise with a unique member's 'show and tell' opportunity - and finally, if you want to fly in, we'll be covering the cost of a landing fee.

And we will be answering any other questions than the dread motions, in the member's forum at the end of the day.

[Planemike]

PLEASE, SAY WHAT YOU MEAN AND THINK.

I THINK this has all got rather tedious.
I MEAN to say that it’s probably just easier to give her the blasted trophy back so we can all just move on and let the LAA do what they need to do.

In my view the would be weak and morally wrong. T C-T does not deserve the Bill Woodhams Trophy.
Hand it over so the LAA can have an apparently "quiet life"?? This would be seen by many to be rewarding bullying tactics.

She’s clearly never going to give up trying to get the award back, so why waste membership resources in trying to fight her, as she will only be back again next year to fight more.

And who is to say members who take the opposite view, of whom there a quite a few, are just going sit back and accept that decision. My prediction is they wouldn't, so the saga would continue anyway, just down a different path.

The Board have been made to look rather weak over all of this to be perfectly honest, and I hope they can sit down after the result and formulate a plan to ensure they’re not pushed around again like they have been.

It’s a bad year for the LAA and maybe it’s time to get some more robust and commercial thinking around the big table.

It is not all down to money, "commercial thinking". There is the small matter of morality, right versus wrong, truth versus false.

The first thing that they need to do is ban her from being a member and bringing the association into disrepute.

Here I do agree with you. It will be easier to do this if both motions at the AGM are defeated.

[Trevor Harvey]

.... reading threats of votes of no confidence...

Where?

Paul.
Rather curious why you omitted the rest of that sentence, "or otherwise" ?
Ref: your post, top of page 15.
The words "vote of confidence" would imply that some might vote otherwise.
It looks like you are having a pop at me.
Please stop selective nit picking, I don't like it, I don't like it one bit!!
If you have something to say, go to PM and get it said!

Back on track.
"Give her the trophy back and move on"
I think that would be the worst thing we could do, like giving in to a spoilt child to stop them screaming.

[drb]

"A bad year for the LAA"? I don't think so. The organisation does an amazing job supporting a widely varied group of enthusiasts and their aircraft.

This whole saga has taken up a wholly disproportionate amount of time - in itself it surely qualifies as a "feat of endurance". Let's hope that a decisive vote at the AGM can put this matter to bed. Our organisation needs all its energies directed towards its core activities and not on this nugatory farrago.

[Jonathan Holland]

drb

You have misunderstood my comment about it being a bad year for the LAA. They’re excellent as an organisation and doing a fantastic job. It’s juat such a shame that they’re having a bad year having to put up with this childish outburst from someone whose only interest is in herself.

As I said, just let her take it and let’s move on. If we don’t, she has the ability and determination to bring the LAA down unless there is a more robust and intolerant approach to being bullied from the Board.

[Trevor Harvey]

Speechless.
Though the edit helped a bit.