Mark wrote:
Most of the gliding people I talked to at the time would have been
happy to have a CASA licence. Most of them had never even heard of
the CASA discussion papers. If they had there might have been
individual responses at odds with the GFA official position. Can't
have that, can we?
Given the revolutionary nature of the proposal it was clearly a case
to inform the members and ask them if they wanted this. Instead they
were kept in the dark and the GFA exec and RAAus went outside the
CASA public comment procedure and went directly to the Minister.
Now that CASA will charge to file PPL medicals we are being asked to
complain about this. It could have been made irrelevant.
The sort of occurrence you are referring to here is exactly why it is
very important to have an open and democratic GFA, committed to
informing its members and finding out what they want. In the past (and
still today I fear, though things have improved), the GFA
board/executive have acted in what they saw as the best interests of
gliding in Australia without spending too much effort in checking back
with the membership to see if the directions proposed were what the
members at large wanted to see happen. To be fair, we, the members, were
complicit in this as we allowed this state of affairs to happen: what we
wanted to do was 'just go gliding'!
It is my belief that the GFA is the member's organisation and that the
members, as of right, should have full access to all the information
that is used by the board and the executive to make their decisions
(with some *very* rare exceptions such as when an individual's privacy
is at issue, there are legal constraints or some such).
That information should be available to the membership *before* the
board/executive makes a decision so that they can comment on it and give
direction if they so desire, either in person or through their regional
representative.
I can see no reason for *not* making all information (with very rare
exceptions) available to members as soon as the board/exec has access to
it. Posting information on the web is very easy and whilst not every GFA
member has access at home, all members can readily gain access (eg
through their library, Internet cafe or whatever).
I will continue to push hard on this issue from within the board - as
will Gliding Queensland as one of the regional organisations that makes
up the GFA. If you feel that more openness and inclusiveness in the
management of the GFA is needed, make sure you tell your regional
representative so that they can work towards this goal too.
--
Robert Hart [EMAIL PROTECTED]
+61 (0)438 385 533 http://www.hart.wattle.id.au
_______________________________________________
Aus-soaring mailing list
[email protected]
To check or change subscription details, visit:
http://lists.internode.on.net/mailman/listinfo/aus-soaring
