That's a nice response, Bob and it also makes me notice that you weren't included in the string of emails that went back and forth on this topic.
Its good to know that SPA has "contacts" within the APA and has successfully managed to portray it as if there was no issue with the currently proposed management plan. As if that was the reason for SPA's unawareness, the luck of the day was on SPA's side, this time. I greatly regret having informed SPA about this document, it lead to a heated email exchange, burned bridges that will not be rebuilt and portrayed in a painful manner just how extreme the talking down to people and top down iron fist management is on display within the association.
In essence, SPA perceives this forum, me and any person or group that is not comprised of 100% SPA members and any effort coming from those people
as a screaming horde of idiots. Suffice to say, SPA had no idea that there even was such a document, hence changes to seaplane access could have easily been made and chances are, there wouldn't have been a single comment, other than what was organized on the grassroots level. What is wrong with making Mrs. Regan aware of the fact that seaplane pilots, amongst other users
carefully monitor these decision making processes? Someone explain that to me, please. Would Mr. McCaughey have called Mrs. Regan too, if its wasn't for someone making the association aware of this master plan? I sincerely doubt it.
SPA's own NY field director had no idea of the APA plan or that this document even existed.The one and ONLY thing regulators in this country can count on is that the pilot associations will spend more time and effort fighting non members to the bone than they will spend doing what they were supposed and paid to do. 5 years from now, the Adirondacks will be history to motorized users. The time to build these relationships has long passed, it is long overdue to start talking with APA. Mrs. Regan and APA should know damn well that we would like to talk with them when the time comes to make decisions. The fact that 375,000 boat users lost Lows Lake too is a weak excuse, the boaters in NY
were and are just as unorganized and terribly underrepresented as any of our "300" seaplane pilots.
I rest my case and will let the secret underground CIA style contacts within SPA do their "professional" work.
SPA can then later, when the Adirondacks do in fact get closed to seaplanes as planned, refer to our emails and state that we brought their attention to us. Really, they would have just forgotten about seaplanes altogether, if it wasn't for these idiots who wrote these unprofessional, non SPA approved letters. Mark my words, it will happen.
Making it look as if letters that are not "coordinated or permitted by SPA" are counterproductive to healthy relationships with regulators is exactly what McManus repeatedly stated, basically every time he was told that he wasn't aware of things. There was one SPA letter, a few days before the end of the comment period, when Lows Lake went down for good.
Later we were told that SPA had to pick its fights and that the inaction was somehow tactical. I fear this all has more to do with the Associations monopoly and turf wars, not so much with honesty and truth. Maybe some will read
Brad Parkers communication on this topic, maybe he has more "credibility" than I have. The behavior on display is known as clouding. The goal is to make the situation so hazy, unclear and hard to comprehend that most people will look for a leader to do the work.
Dependency is fostered. In a hobby association, that's an act of institutionalized idiocy, point blank, but probably the only way to maintain power and control.
In essence, people are told that they have to be SPA members if they wish to be active in any sort of advocacy work, otherwise they will end up
getting blamed for the associations repeated and common inaction and failure. I kindly remind folks about
Alan Resnicke, who was one of these regulators attempting to reach out to the seaplane community. He came to me after his emails and inquiries regarding New Mexico had been ignored by Seaplane Pilots Association, for close to half a year. Now the state of New Mexico is one of SPA's advocacy successes.
Since my personal impression is that the value of SPA members is determined by the amount of money they donate to SPA, I must continue to decline membership. I am not one of those who can simply jet to FL for a membership meeting to slurp some Oysters and I am not one of those who can drop $1200 as a little donation during a membership meeting, together with 49 others, who all did the same. All I could ever bring to SPA would be to become one of the many who read the magazine, vote by proxy and have a decal on my truck. Hence I obviously cannot act on advocacy topics, serve on so-called "Focus Groups", nor can I communicate any sort of topic in any way shape or form with SPA in the future. Someone else will have to volunteer for this kind of stuff looking forward. Its has become literally unhealthy for me, I am not "in the trenches" certainly not entrenched in this exclusive group of special people.
Great job in making us and me in particular (again) look like idiots for ringing the alarm bell on this. Well noted. McManus had some talent with that, too.
I've tried for 5 years to get and maintain a working relationship with SPA on advocacy topics. Common sense would dictate that even people who do not belong to SPA for this or that reason wish to support ongoing advocacy topics. Now I learn that this just simply can't be done, because: Well, we've never done anything like that before. Its been a one way street for 5 years, I have yet to receive a single invitation to any of the esteemed "focus groups" and I come to realize that doing an idiotic act of reaching out repeatedly, doesn't make the act any less idiotic, it just makes it all the more senseless.
Ho... Ho... Ho... Hold out on you?