EAA Going After AOPA's Market

[airdale]

http://www.avweb.com/news/skywrite/eaa_pelton_pilot_aviation_flying_208642-1.html

Interesting. Looks like Pelton is trying to capitalize on AOPA's/Fuller's problems. Good ol' capitalistic competition. It will be interesting to see where it leads.

I have always thought of EAA as a family business, since Poberezny built it pretty much himself and seems to have earned what he and his family got from it. But now that's apparently changing and it's becoming more like AOPA with hired managers, etc.

Full disclosure: I dropped my AOPA membership in disgust a few monthss ago. I join/rejoin EAA periodically when I go to OSH. Maybe I'll do it this year too.

 

[Jim Logajan]

Pilots are regularly pilloried in the media as being drunks.

Baloney.

 

[Jim Logajan]

I'm not saying it's reality, I'm saying it's what the media likes to hype.

Examples then, please.

 

[Jim Logajan]

http://lmgtfy.com/?q=drunk+pilot

Claim was "Pilots are regularly pilloried", not "the media report stories of drunk piloting much like they report drunk driving."

 

[Jim Logajan]

There should also be a nomination mechanism through which any member can run for the board.

The AOPA bylaws (http://www.aopa.org/info/governance/bylaws.html) say:"These By-Laws may be altered by a majority vote at a duly called meeting of the members, provided that the Board of Trustees shall have had circulated a notice to the entire membership at least ten (10) days in advance, setting forth substantially the proposed change."
The how and when of such meetings:"All meetings of members shall be held at such place and time and for such purposes as the Board of Trustees, with its Chairman voting, shall decide. Meetings of members shall be presided over by the Chairman of the Board of Trustees who may, if there is less than a majority of the membership present in person or by proxy, declare the meeting postponed. Unless the meeting is postponed, any number of members in attendance shall constitute a quorum."
Good luck getting all those requirements to align.

Pie in the sky.

Yes.

One can always try starting an alternate organization. Given the way the AOPA bylaws are crafted and the impossible job of getting the trustees to amend them, it would be easier to start an organization from scratch than try to change AOPA.

 

[Jim Logajan]

Not feasible. AOPA's endowment and revenue from ongoing ops can outlast any start-up.

I suspect the fortunes and future of AOPA are somewhat decoupled from the feasibility of a competitive start-up - even if the competitor is an entity like EAA, which hardly qualifies as a start-up. I see at least three possible outcomes if a real start-up was tried:

1. It succeeds, making AOPA's future success or failure irrelevant to the start-up's goals.
2. It fails to gain enough members to be influential because AOPA changes in ways that mimic whatever competitive advantage the start-up was trying.
3. It fails to gain enough members to be influential because AOPA members are in fact satisfied with the status quo.

In cases 1 and 2, the underlying goals of the start-up are realized regardless of the fate of the start-up.