Crush Depth:
Good to see then that the meeting invitation has been extended to all members....so they are obviously trying to ramroad the regulation through...because as aircraft owners themselves, I am sure they must really enjoy helping CASA implement regulation that makes their own lives harder...
I have a number of good friends on the board and as they are quite clearly the victims of skullduggery in this whole arrangement I will be lobbying to get them as many votes as possible at the upcoming AGM.
So lets get you over with first because there is a bigger issue here.
Taking the last matter first, the "skullduggery" victim is Mr. R-S, as the Supreme Court has decided.
I have been a member of enough clubs and societies to have seen any number of "Kitchen Cabinets", Cabals of all sorts, Dictators and would be dictators, axe grinders,, psycopaths and downright loonies and I have sadly participated in their execution on more than one occasion, so I think I know a smattering of their tricks.
To put that another way, I think I have a fair idea of what has occurred just be reading between the lines if there is some truth in them, so don't try that "victim" BS here.
Secondly, Ah Yes! "The meeting" if I have my facts straight, this was supposed to be for a select invited group, but now is open to "All members". That strongly suggests to me that a certain amount of backside covering is going on and that members interest has been piqued to say the least, but what would I know?
What I do know is that you cannot and better not call it a "meeting" implying that it is a meeting of members with the power to make a resolution, vote of confidence, expression of support for something or someone or anything else. All you can have is an information session that takes no action whatsoever unless you fulfil the requirements of your constitution and the Corporate law about notifying all members, tabling of motions, etc.
The intent I've occasionally seen in the conduct of such meetings, called in haste and attended by a minor portion of the membership, is to use the outcome at a latter date to intimidate the rest of the membership through such assertions as "That was explained at the meeting"/ "didn't you attend the meeting? If you had you would know,blah,blah". In other words suggesting that the meeing was the definitive decision point for action - which it cannot be. In other words, part of an attempt to railroad the membership.
In other words, call it an information session, distribute an attendance list to all members along with whatever Q & A, presentation transcripts you have, or better still, don't hold it at all until there are discussion drafts sent to everyone, but even then , it can only be a Q & A session. Railroading is not a good tactic.
As for the motives of the Board, I cannot comment, except to say I have seen "clubs within clubs" before with the strangest of ideas.
But now the big issue: Exactly what does CASA think its doing? Is CASA aware of the likely attitude of the average member of AWAL to it's proposals? If that attitude is likely to be negative, how did it think it was going to convince the Board of AWAL to engage with it and possibly support it? What is the safety case for changing the rules - apart from the obvious one that if all flight is prohibited, accidents will not occur.
The only "safe" thing for CASA to do now is not to engage with AWAL in private or to wait till there is a new Board after a meeting, as well as fully disclose their proposed regulations and the associated safety case.