This article presents email correspondence between a member of MAAC and the President of the Association. In it you will find:-
- An alternative course of action is proposed – to speed up the process of getting MAAC members back in the air as quickly as possible
- The president responds with a tirade and tells the correspondent to stop writing to him. (Note: the correspondent has written 14 emails to the president over the past two years, on 10 different subjects. All of these have contained what were intended to be constructive suggestions for consideration.) Not all members of MAAC make the effort to try to help improve MAAC, but this one does.
- The correspondent then provides a response (despite the admonition not to).
It should be noted that this correspondence took place very shortly after three Zone Directors and the Interim Executive Director had resigned; it was an effort at providing a more secure path forward. Since then another ZD has resigned.
On March 18, 2023 a member wrote this email to Mike Anderson, the President of MAAC:-
Hello Mike,
I understand that you are recovering from some abdominal surgery. If it is similar to mine (I have had it done twice – right side many years ago, left side more recently) I know that it is uncomfortable for a while, and I sympathize.
Coupling that with the developments at MAAC and you must be feeling quite overwhelmed. Again, I really do sympathize. My fear is that the confluence of these events might be causing you to reflect upon your own position within MAAC. If so, it would be very understandable. You might not believe this, but I am writing to urge you not to take a step that could put MAAC into an even more precarious position than it is already in. There is considerable disruption, there may be more to come, which is all the more reason that you should not, at this time, add to the confusion. There are now some members without representation and some whose representation is very ‘wet behind the ears’. A certain continuity is needed, but I would not extend that thought to the whole matter of getting MAAC members back into the air again.
The solution to the current problems facing you (and MAAC) does not lie with trumped-up accusations against ex-zone directors. You must know by now that you and this Board have been grossly misled.
I think that it would make a lot of sense to remove the responsibility for conducting site surveys from the SAG and to put the onus onto the clubs to perform their own site surveys and, where necessary, apply for the required authorization to fly from whomever controls the airspace. That would let the onus for getting back into the air fall upon those with the greatest motivation to get it done – and it would apply very many more ‘hands to the pump’ to get the job done quickly. It would also allow some of those clubs in controlled airspace to get their authorizations done more expeditiously.
Another irritation that could very quickly and easily be removed is to lift the ban on flying any non-RPAS aircraft. There was never any valid reason for applying that ban – removing it now, as flying season approaches across a lot of the country, would calm a lot of tempers. Transport Canada have consistently and clearly stated that non-RPAS aircraft activity will not affect their attitude towards RPAS infractions.
I hope that these suggestions might provide some help going forward.
Signed by a leader member of MAAC and endorsed by another leader member.
A prompt reply was received from the President, as follows:-
Every time you guys write to me and assert that I, the Executive, or the Board, have been misled, bamboozled or otherwise led astray is insulting. It implies my team, and I are so feeble-minded that we can’t think critically or logically.
We are on the right track, and we have the right plan in action. We will stay the course. There will be disruption and confusion in the short term. This whole audit and fix program should have started in 2019, so now we have to jam a year’s worth of work into a few months. Some members will leave MAAC, and some clubs will not survive, but MAAC will survive.
Please stop writing to me.
Mike Anderson
The original correspondent then replied, as seen below:-
Good morning again Mike.
As you can see, I have chosen not to honour your request that I stop writing to you. I am a member in good standing of the Federally-registered Not-For-Profit Corporation of which you have been elected president by the Board of said Corporation. I shall write to you, even though it doesn’t please you, as should every member of this Corporation who has thoughts to convey.
To address the contents of your email:-
I am sorry that you feel insulted – that was not my intention. You have, however, been misled – if you find it insulting to have that pointed out, so that you may correct the situation, I’m afraid that is – seriously – not my problem. President Truman is famous for the saying “If you can’t stand the heat, you should stay out of the kitchen!”. Though he attributed the origin of this to a learned friend, its pertinence remains. You then go on to claim that what I wrote
“..implies my team, and I are so feeble-minded that we can’t think critically or logically”.
I find it quite extraordinary that you would be so defensive as to find my comments and suggestions to be an attack on your intellect or thinking processes. I do, however, find that reaction to be indicative of the attitude that has been exhibited before, and not only by you – that all wisdom lies within a small group of diverse elected people, and that no ordinary member has any valuable contribution to make to the discussion.
Your next statement underlines what I have just pointed out.
“We are on the right track, and we have the right plan in action. We will stay the course.”
You are so determined that you are right that, despite all evidence to the contrary, you will not entertain any alternative. It is a very dangerous thing when the process of becoming elected instills in the persons charged with leadership roles a belief in their own omnipotence. The Board of Directors of any organization has ultimate responsibility to make wise decisions – that does not mean that they are endowed with infinite knowledge, experience, or wisdom. It means that, in order to do the decision-making properly they should seek ideas and wisdom from as wide a catchment area as is feasible. Their own interests and prejudices should not be part of it.
You admit that this process should have happened nearly four years ago – yet you have charged the same group who neglected their duty over those four years, and handled the creation of a ‘grandfather’ list incompetently, leading to our current situation, with fixing what they broke. If there is a crisis of urgency now it is entirely your doing. There are others with degrees of responsibility but that same president Truman had a sign on his desk, which read “The buck stops here”. He knew where the ultimate responsibility landed.
Finally, I find it appalling that you, as the leader of this association, will calmly acknowledge that the events occurring under your watch will cause members to leave, and some clubs to go under, and you do not even offer anything in the way of efforts to prevent those most unwelcome occurrences. One has to wonder just how unwelcome you find those matters to be. “MAAC will survive” yes, but what kind of MAAC will it be? Is it your intent to drive out all opposition to your ways of doing things, and have a MAAC that is what you want?
Signed by a leader member of MAAC.
We believe that this correspondence is direct evidence of the poor leadership that MAAC is suffering from. The President of MAAC does not see value in any of the suggestions made to him – he is convinced that he is on the right course – despite the resignations of five senior people on the team.
It is notable that the initial proposal that was sent to the President in this correspondence suggested that one easy way to lower the temperature would be for MAAC to eliminate the ban on flying non-RPAS aircraft throughout Canada. These were never a part of the CARs legislation and, despite implications to the opposite from the lone zone director on the Transport Canada and NavCan AGs, Transport Canada have made it clear, in writing, on at least two occasions, that these aircraft are not, and will not be, the subject of any of their legislation. Nevertheless, MAAC, on this one person’s advice, insists on preventing those aircraft from flying. That suggestion would have been very simple to accommodate, could not possibly have caused any harm to MAAC, and would have helped out some of MAAC’s members immediately. It was not even addressed. Why not? We can suggest that the reason for MAAC not taking this step is that the zone director in charge of this file is determined to force those categories into the RPAS mold, even though Transport Canada has repeatedly said that it has no interest in legislating them.