Pete Greed

Powerin So...what needs to change if we the members cannot be trusted to vote in a competent board? Voter apathy is a fact of life, I believe, and we have to compensate for this somehow. Many non-profit boards (including one I am a member of) are ditching the idea of regional representation and concentrating hard on getting people with skills to volunteer. This is not as democratic....but I believe pure democracy has not served RAAus well. It is ironic that when we did finally vote in some people with skills, they didn't last long. This really is the crux of the matter. We need a skill-based board in governance, not management (management is employed by the board) and there are many board training opportunities available to make this happen. However, the elected board does not own the organisation - it governs it on behalf of its membership. How that membership contributes to the boards agenda, and tests the boards decisions, is clearly the missing link at present. This is about establishing a new governance process - I believe we must utilise the regional club network and be proactive in canvassing, and promoting, what is already beginning to take shape. Pete

What an amazing thread this is - a mixture of governance debate intertwined with operations and management issues, all going everywhere.... A bloody dogs breakfast. It's the very thing that goes wrong when membership does not respect or hold its leadership to account. So many opinions and good ideas that never get refined into useful policy. We are all responsible for this mess for not being proactive in demanding accountability from our board/committee and its management. Sure that has been difficult, as many of us have experienced, but lets be positive and work with what we have. A proper strategic plan will provide a platform for restructure and ensure that the talent already on-board can continue to contribute. The experience, expertise and talent of our members (including board/committee members) will always be there but how can it be harnessed for the good of the movement? CASA will also still be there, believe it or not! Governance direction and clear strategic thinking is what a general meeting should be demanding. Get that right and the operational stuff will follow. The old footy club style of management committee, enjoyed in the past by so many, is, I am sorry, dead in the water Pete

Redefining the role of the Board, and that of management, has to be facilitated by outside professional assistance. This is not something that can be done internally and the Board, on behalf of its members, must be in control of the process. Get an expert in to work with all of us. It's what good businesses do all of the time. The other choice is hire a another CEO with the same PD and an expectation that he/she, will somehow read the mind of the board, its members and CASA to deliver on an agenda which they will have to pull out of their bum. Have no fear the operation will bump along while a restructure takes effect. There are good staff in place, but where is the strategic plan and the systems that will see it implemented? Pete

Sorry Shags but under Incorporations law (and Company Law), it is the Board/Committee that is responsible. It is they who will be sued, if the organisation can be proven to be in breach of its legal responsibilities. For example under the new rules of incorporation in Victoria the elected Secretary of an incorporated association is now responsible for submitting an annual audited financial report....once the job of the public officer, but applicable to all "voluntary" clubs and associations. But you are right in that management should be providing quality advice in an organisation the size of RAAus. However in reality the buck does stop with the Board/Committee and paid staff only act at the direction of the Board/Committee. If this is not the case it needs to be addressed at a governance level before anything else. Of course where government contracts are concerned the waters are further muddied by the necessary relationships between paid management positions and the bureaucracies.... in the case of RAAus, CASA. For audited government contracts, where the government provides $'s for funded positions, the separation of, and allegiance to, the Board/Committee can at times be problematic....the cause of serious tension, if not attended too. Pete

At our AGM yesterday our Club stated its intention to make a submission to the RAAus Board. The concerns that prompted this decision were essentially based on issues of governance, management and the communication of governance and operational information to membership. While the current operational issues are troubling, we believe that unless the deficiencies of governance and strategic planning are addressed, It will be difficult, if not impossible, for the organisation to move forward. I have written to the Board, as an individual member, suggesting a course of action and the name of a consultancy firm with national experience and credibility working with the community based sector. A copy of the letter was also sent to our Victorian State representative, Rod Birrell. I believe that what is required at this time is a level headed approach to getting our governance and management systems right and the rest will follow. Tackling the big operation issues without this in place would be counter-productive. If something is wrong......it doesn't mean everything is. Cheers Pete

There is work in the background to call a general meeting. However this needs careful preparation and acess to appropriate documentation in order to properly form the proposed agenda. Going in half cocked with a censure motion on the Board is not the way to do this. We need to set the framework for sustainable management during this period. Anyone wishing to offer considered suggestions to this end should contact Don Ramsay. In the meantime, members and clubs should write to the Board expressing their views in a professional manner. It is our intention to call a special general meeting when we have considered the basis of calling the meeting and the proposed agenda. The number one concern is to ensure that our RAAus Committee/Board has the appropriate skill set, and training, to successfully govern (not manage) the organisation. Anything less will see the governance vacuum occupied by management, or worse still, by government bureaucrats who audit our government (CASA) contracts. As a Director of a community based organisation I recently experienced a government contract audit breach where a number of Board Directors, myself included, had failed to do a specific training course in "cultural awareness". The power of public service bureaucracies, our acceptance of political correctness and a readiness to seek legal redress are all contributing to a welfare mentality in Australia that is strangling the life out of community enterprise. It is also discouraging the very people who have an enormous capacity to enrich community life. If we are to change RAAus for the better it must be done in a considered and professional way. We need to apply the same specialist technical assistance to the Committee/Board in its development (and the subsequent development of a strategic plan) - in the same way that management has responded to the CASA audit deficiencies. Our small recreational flying club will be writing to the RAAus Committee/Board seeking a new consultative process for members/clubs in shaping the future of recreational aviation. Lets face it "this is not rocket science" Pete.

Clearly there are issues of both governance and management that RAAus needs to addressed. The current issue of audit compliance with CASA is separate. RAAus Members (the stake-holders of recreational aviation) must come together to resolve these problems internally and not shift that responsibility to the government/CASA. To go down that path would be a disaster. Surely there is enough skill and experience, within our membership, to assist the RAAus Committee/Board reshape it's organisational structure and revisit the strategic plan which must immediately address the key planning areas of member consultation and communication. How can we develop a mature relationship with CASA under a revamped governance/management structure? Lets look towards a constructive solution, rather than finding someone to blame for a movement that has grown beyond most peoples expectations, and in such a short time. Pete

RAA's membership contains an amazing talent pool of skilled and experienced people and I am convinced that a number of the good people would be prepared to donate their time and out-of pocket costs to assist RAA to get out of this hole, and get back on the path to righteousness ........ if it were handled well by a new leadership. But while-ever RAA has this public service, holy-er than thou Executive, management clique, cover their ars*, pump up their ego's, manage the membership ethos, good people will just stay doing their own thing, keep their head down and just try to go flying (which has just about come to an end for some). Some twelve months ago our small regional, recreational flying club wrote to the RAAus Board seeking clarification on RAAus "Club" membership. We did not receive a reply. As an ex CEO and Chair/Board member of State and National community-based associations/companies, I found this of real concern. To me it pointed to three main problems: How does the governance committee/board of RAAus test its strategic thinking against the aspirations of members (its job)? And how does that strategic thinking translate to the actions of RAAus management (their job)? And thirdly, how do you marry this to a third party to which the organisation is, by choice, contracted and compliant (CASA)? A couple of observations: As Geoff has pointed out, the membership talent pool of skilled and experienced people resides across regional Australia. They are usually contained in the the network of Clubs and Associations that make up the recreational aviation movement nation-wide. This informal network needs to be formally consulted when the future of RAAus is discussed. Management cannot have two masters. Many sectors (especially the community-based) involved in the delivery of government contracts, are now up against the most aggressive bureaucracies in the history of Australian government. Many community-based Boards run the risk of becoming rubber stamps, and management - pseudo government workers. What to do? Well there is a saying that seems to fit: "Power is never given, it is always taken". Cheers, Pete

Last weekend I had the privilege of watching a student pilot go solo. The experience was a source of great pleasure, not only for the pilot concerned and his instructor, but for the gaggle of experienced pilots gathered around at the time. I’m sure all present would have relived, in some small way, that feeling of departing and returning to earth using nothing but your own resources; the sublime moment your foot touches the ground on disembarking the aircraft, and that walk “in the long grass” back to a world that will never be the same again. In a short conversation with the new pilot he mused that he had thought that he may be getting close to going solo and had questioned his instructor as to whether or not, he, the instructor, was still inputting into flying the aircraft. It was a classically revealing comment that sums up the very essence of experiential learning; that personal, seamless transfer of a skill from one to another, without an academic or bureaucrat in sight. Now I’m sure that has your attention! This bugger is going to bash academics and bureaucrats! And for all you self-made folk who left school at form three listen up and take note. In a world increasingly controlled by regulation, your input into the way your own part of the world is governed is going to be critical. Devolve your responsibilities at your own, your children’s and your communities’ peril. Or as a friend of mine has been apt to say: “Communities crumble when good people do nothing.” The process of engagement is of course a political one and it is at this point many Australians become disinterested unless booze (preferably red wine) is introduced as a way of denying any sensible conclusions. Clayton’s consultations and community apathy are surely the secret weapons of those who purport or aspire to run the machinery of governance, or more simply put, the management of our Clubs, Associations, Corporations, Councils and Government. In recent times there has been quite a bit said about the governance and management of our very own Recreational Aviation Australia (RA-Aus). As we are aware, the invitation by CASA for the Ultralight/Recreational aviation sector to self administer (under their guidance) was taken up, and now is incorporated into a close working relationship. At a recent AGM, directors were elected to the Board of RA-Aus as the people who will shape, on behalf of the RA-Aus membership, the future of a rapidly expanding recreational aviation sector. The question is: How prepared and equipped is RA-Aus, as an organisation, to fulfill both governance and management roles to the satisfaction of not just CASA, but to the 10,000 odd flyers who make up the heart and soul of the recreational flying movement? How will a balance be achieved as to what value we, as Australian citizens, place on the freedom of our flying aspirations, against the need to manage regulation? One thing is for sure - without governance - i.e. aspiration and strategic thinking being clearly articulated and acted upon, regulation by others is about all we have left. With any national organisation, regional communications are crucial in the formulation of a strategic plan. Without effective regional sounding boards that reflect the views of membership, the only alternative advice for board members, apart from their own personal knowledge and experience, is that of management and the contracted relationships with other organisations or government. (Which in the case of RA-Aus, is CASA) At the start of this article I mentioned the importance of experiential learning in the “learning to fly” process. Non-institutional experiential learning can incorporate and accommodate all learning experiences and is resident within regional communities as a reflection of our social and cultural worth. To ignore that resource suggests a degree of arrogance on behalf of regulators, and supports an increasingly worrying trend to the way that business is being done in so many aspects of Australian life. (The Murray Darling Basin Plan is but one of the current political shams.) So in conclusion, the informal network of recreational flying organisations made up of RA-Aus members across Australia is a formidable source of knowledge, experience, talent and practical expertise which, in my view, should be formally tapped. This could be achieved by rewriting the RA-Aus Club/Corporate membership agreement which is currently inconsistent. An invitation to a regional network of Clubs to comment on and contribute to the RA-Aus agenda would greatly strengthen the Board’s ability to govern strategically and for management to manage. Currently that balance would appear to be compromised. It would also provide an avenue for CASA to further test its agenda in the field of regulation – something we must all accept, but not without due consultation relevant to our recreational aviation sector.

Hi All: I have been a member and visitor to the site for some time now but never posted a comment or response. My return to aviation, like quite a few members, was via GA to recreational flying. That happened in my sixties and continues now into my seventies. The vehicle for this pleasure trip is an SP Jabiru which I built in 2001 upon retirement. What a great source of ongoing enjoyment recreational flying is! My working life started in the hospitality industry and moved to Adult Education for the last thirty years. Community education, and governance systems for the community based sector, has been an interest, and a passion, during that time. I have also been privileged to have sat on a number of boards of National community based organisations over those years. It is therefore with some interest that I have followed the governance debate over the preceding months. I am also pleased that this forum will continue and that the opportunity for voices to be heard will continue, which will be good for the future of Recreation Aviation in Australia.