AOPA Australia announced this week that it would be setting up a calendar of town-hall meetings in each state to engage with the membership over pressing issues.
AOPA CEO Ben Morgan made the announcement last night during an online video session, saying the meetings would give members a chance to engage with AOPA at a higher level.
"[the meeting program] is going to be an opportunity for pilots, aircraft owners and aviation businesses across the industry to participate in a live meeting process in which you will be able to not only ask questions, you'll be able to register to speak to a particular issue that you might be passionate about in the aviation industry that you believe needs a focus of advocacy and some awareness or some action being taken," he said.
"And this is a much larger plan for AOPA to try to open up the doors somewhat and let people see what's going on underneath the hood with respect to our national advocacy agenda, so that you all have a much better idea of the work that we're doing Monday through to Friday on behalf of you all in general aviation."
AOPA has not yet released a schedule of dates and locations, but Morgan said that he expected that to happen next week.
The idea of town-hall meetings arose from the AOPA Australia Annual General Meeting held at Bankstown on 26 October, in which new board members were appointed to replace retiring members.
Shawn Kelly retained the presidency with Marc de Stoop as vice president. Significantly, secretary Dominic James resigned from the position, which has been take on by new board member Lorraine MacGillivray. The new AOPA board is:
- Shawn Kelly – President
- Marc De Stoop – Vice President
- Paul Rushton (new) – Treasurer
- Lorraine MacGillivray (new) – Secretary
- John Maitland – Legal Director
- Ross Harrison – Director
- Gerard Kitt – Director
- Ken Cannane – Aircraft Maintenance Director
- Dominic James – Director
- Mike Smith – United States Director
- Clinton McKenzie (new) – Director
- Marc Siburn (new) – Director
- Ben Morgan – CEO
Retiring from the board were Dr Sean Runacres, Dr David Hooke and SAAA president Tony White.
The financial papers presented to the AGM showed another operating loss of $18,263, but the organisation still has a retained surplus of $87,539.
Much of the loss can be attributed to a dwindling membership base, which has been reported at only 1300 compared with the 2098 on the books at the end of 2020. The income from membership was reported as $98,392, 43% down on the returns from 2020.