The Light Aircraft Association forum is now starting to address the TCT charade which led them to give her the Bill Woodham Navigation Trophy.
Brian Hope is one of only three members who decide the awards and he has posted this.
Provide you are a current member you are perfectly at liberty to attend the AGM (22 October at Sywell) and either ask an informal question in the post AGM chat, or propose a motion to be dealt with during the actual AGM business. The latter must be notified a minimum 42 days in advance of the meeting, so that is on or before 11 September. Motions must be presented in accordance with the Articles of the Association which can be found under the Who we aree tab on the home page.
Why does our commitee feel this award cannot be withdrawn?
At no time have I heard that the committee feel this award cannot be withdrawn. The awards committee, of which I am a member, decided to let things stand because despite the fact that it came to light that a passenger was carried, it still ranked as a meritorious flight. Yes we can nit-pick about solo navigation but these days navigation is mainly a question of turning on your GPS, so the 'skilled navigation' side of long distance flying is very much a moot point.
Have the commitee considered this on an official basis or has it been done in a chat over the office water cooler?
The Awards Committee tend not to meet at Chequers, Camp David or even Turweston. It is just three of us that live in disparate parts of the country and communicate by phone and email. We have all been around the Association for a long time and thus tend to know what goes on, so we can add names to our potential recipients lists for LAA, RAeC and FAI awards. We also ask amongst the Struts, Clubs and in the magazine now and again for members to nominate people who they feel are worthy of consideration.
From the lists we establish those we feel are worthy of putting forward and citations are written and presented to whichever organisation the award is being presented by. For LAA awards we decide ourselves who should win the awards.
I read a couple of emails on this thread accusing the committee of not carrying out due diligence, and now perhaps we are closing ranks. This isn't MI5, it's three volunteers trying to do their best to see that LAA members get due recognition, and that is based on the evidence we have at the time.
Do the membership, many of whom have no idea what has been done with their subs, get a say? Would they be happy with the decision?
Members can write in about this or any other issue and the Association does its very best to respond, and Steve has done so more than once on this matter. Like most organisations, LAA members vote for a major committee - in our case the Board - and they then do their best to provide members with what they want, often via internally appointed smaller committees taking on certain tasks. Members can certainly complain to the Board that the awards committee is a waste of space or is not doing its job properly and I suppose in extremis, if the Board agree they can 'let us go'. Unfortunately we have never had a surfeit of volunteers to sit on committees, so the end result, unless those who want change step up to the plate themselves, will probably be that the awards system dies a death and simply doesn't happen any more.
As far as members' subs go, we are unpaid volunteers who, as mentioned earlier, work from home. Cost - zilch.
Rgds, Brian.
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View topic - Tracey Curtis-Taylor | Light Aircraft Association
Can I suggest if you are an LAA member you propose a motion?
Motions must be presented in accordance with the Articles of the Association which can be found under the Who we Are tab on the home page.
It appears the award can be withdrawn.