Sqwak 7700, you are entitled to your opinion and so are the rest of the people in here.
If you think you can get a better outcome to this by negotiating directly with NR or TT, be my guest. Lets see how far you will get.
If in the future, you think you will be able to improve your individual contract by dealing directly with them...leave the AOA and good luck.
By the way I'm not in the committee, but I would expect you to at least nominate yourself for the next one, that way you can push your agenda through the proper channels. Also if you bothered to go to the AOA forums online and at one of the meetings, you would be better educated on what is actually going on and on what the AOA is actually supporting and recommending.