I took a couple of real gentlemen from Shanwick on a jolly to Washington a few years back, just as RVSM was coming in. My then airline (red, white and a wooly pully) gave them the treatment their position deserved and we all came away having learned something about each others problems with implementing RVSM. These rides are invaluable as are visits to radar/towers etc. The airlines however, see it as dead time but are happy so long as you do it in your own time. But when you have a boss with a qualification in organisational science who couldn't organise the proverbial but thinks he knows better than those who do, then sometimes you just have to go and do it yourself and spread the word.
Keep the communication up and the conflicts down.
On another note. The current spat in Spain and France has a number of pilots seemingly taking it personally. We now have FOs in the UK's orangest fleet flying on subsistence money (just) and there is a lot of concern about them turning up for work stressed about money/job/food etc and not concentrating on the job. Now if controllers in Spain etc are getting stressed about their conditions, be it money/fatigue/conditions then I don't want them not concentrating on my little blip at the wrong time. As an industry we need to resist degradations to conditions across the board because they are harmful on so many levels.
Looking forward to meeting more of you guys out there.