Deeper, I am sorry you feel this way. Maybe you should follow the contributions now appearing on bladeslapper where a robust for and against discussion has been underway since February.
As the second last President of the HAA, before the association collapsed due to lack of funds and rapidly falling membership, I can assure you no past members of that executive is involved in the new AHIA. In any case, most of the final committee were not helicopter people, so they are probably not interested now their source of casual employment has been removed.
My role as the convenor, is to start gathering the matters of administration together, so others can participate formally when the AHIA is functioning. (These are very early days).
The AHIA will not be registered until the end of July, an informal steering committee will continue promoting the AHIA and seeking industry feelings on what the final constitution should look like. The first AGM will formally elect office bearer several months later. Also, we will have been offered an opportunity to have our “official launch” at the Avalon Airshow 2013.
With respect, I must disagree with your comments about being a one man band. About 100 people have emailed me offering their assistance - and even international corporations. I have been to dozens of meetings, chatting with people, including CASA. Many are contacted daily seeking advice on particular topics.
The final hurdle “I” have to cross – to become “we” is the nomination of divisions, which is not yet complete. Once the divisions are accepted by everyone, then people waiting to help more can be listed in a division (National Office matters) and also everyone will asked to nominate which regional branch they would like to be registered within – usually where they work, so the social and funs activities can be sorted. These branch representatives can then listed.
Until then, in order to preserve the privacy of individuals, corporations and government bodies looking at what we can do together I have reassured them their offer to help is private - to avoid personal sledging that eventually starts up as per your post Deeper. Once we are registered, I can announce the steering group list.
As to the financial management of the last HAA executive during the two final years, I cannot comment as this executive this is still subject to potential defamatory legal proceedings by a third party. No AGM was conducted correctly, financial statements were never made public by an independent auditor (ASIC & ATO requirements). Several government and banking organisations launched their own investigations. The old executive was totally cleared of allegations made at that time. As to the funds – where did they go? – We will never know. It is all history.
Deeper if you want a free regular newsletter with updates on the progress of the AHIA, then please send us your email. As you appear to have serious reservations about a retiree doing something for his the industry, to replay past kindness, then you are most welcome to take over the often thankless task of getting an association up and running.
Your call?