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Well that was quick AOPA leadership...something amiss?

Justin Schmidt

By Justin Schmidt
in Miscellaneous Aviation Talk

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  • Justin Schmidt changed the title to Well that was quick AOPA leadership...something amiss?
Andy95W Grand Master

Andy95W

Posted
Posted

Current word is that he wanted to work from home in Bend, OR but the board wanted him in Frederick, MD.

Long distance relationships never work.

Hank Grand Master

Hank

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8 minutes ago, Andy95W said:

Current word is that he wanted to work from home in Bend, OR but the board wanted him in Frederick, MD.

Long distance relationships never work.

What's a few thousand miles between friends?

Screenshot_20260205_093558_Maps.jpg.034b585eee9b05f8dd8f674f97a22189.jpg

  • Haha 2
Greg Ellis Mentor

Greg Ellis

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Curious, I know he is a pilot and has his own airplane (A Piper Meridian I think).  Wonder if he wanted AOPA to pay for his travel expenses in his own airplane and they wouldn't do it.  If they wanted him in Maryland all the time, that would get expensive.

  • Like 1
Rick Junkin Veteran

Rick Junkin

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I worked from home managing/supporting activities at sites on both the east and west coasts as well as all across the country. 14-16+ hour days were the norm, with 0530 meetings on the east coast and occasional 1800 meetings on the west coast. Not my idea of a good sustainable schedule. Unfortunately delegation wasn't an option. But the biggest negative factor was the lack of in-person leadership and availability for my teams. So I also travelled a lot to try to fill that void. It helped, but was exhausting. I lasted 4 years.

It's not surprising that AOPA wants a resident president. I'm guessing the long-distance agreement was a part of the contract with Darren with a periodic assessment clause, and the board and Darren determined it wasn't working the way they had hoped.

  • Like 1
FlyingDude Mentor

FlyingDude

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The big question is, was he going to work face to face with people in MD, or was he going to sit at a desk taking Zoom calls and wearing noise canceling headphones to concentrate over the office cacaphony?

 

MB65E Grand Master

MB65E

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He is really a neat guy.  I had lunch with him, and helped him with is Meridian one day. I was looking forward to better changes for AOPA. Guess not!

I wish him the best and care even less about AOPA now. 
 

-Matt

  • Like 3
MikeOH Grand Master

MikeOH

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Yeah, it's looking more and more that I made the right decision a couple of years ago to dump my AOPA membership after 45 years.  EAA gets my money, now.

  • Like 1
Rick Junkin Veteran

Rick Junkin

Posted
Posted
On 2/5/2026 at 11:19 AM, Rick Junkin said:

It's not surprising that AOPA wants a resident president. I'm guessing the long-distance agreement was a part of the contract with Darren with a periodic assessment clause, and the board and Darren determined it wasn't working the way they had hoped.

As is usually the case in such matters, it appears there is more to this story than we've been led to believe. Darren's wife made a social media post that pretty clearly indicated this wasn't a mutually agreed parting of ways. It was a board directive. Darren had bought a house in Maryland where he presumably stayed while working at AOPA headquarters, and travelled back to Bend OR two weekends a month. That puts a hole in the resident story released by the board. There is something else afoot and we will probably never know what it is.

Russ Niles reports there is a movement building among the AOPA membership to vote in a new board member that more directly represents the light GA folks. All Many of the current board members are monied jet owners. Darren is closer to being "one of us" and made a visible effort to get out and talk to the membership so he could better represent our concerns. Perhaps there is where the real rub is. But I'm guessing.

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Schllc Grand Master

Schllc

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“AOPA’s pay and benefits make jobs there some of the most sought after in aviation”
This is exactly what I was talking about, and that article is edifying. 
All board members are wealthy jet owners.  
The little dirty and unwashed piston owners are beneath our incredibly connected and influential organization. 
They are just there warming seats and collecting a paycheck.

Im willing to bet when the AOPA started people were volunteering and if paid, it was modest. They were there for a purpose.  
I went through this when I became president of a local group representing a sector of industry. There was zero pay so I assumed the work was the reward. I believed we needed someone advocating for us at the local and state governments. Turns out all they wanted to do was throw mixers and parties, and didn’t want to do anything controversial, or that would draw attention.  I couldn’t believe what I was seeing, a group created and charted as advocates and disrupters, had become an effete group of windsocks. I pushed as hard as I could for the year and when my time was up I resigned from the organization and never looked back. 
AOPA cannot be reformed. When there is 70,000,000 in the bank people will fight to the death for the status quo. 

  • Like 2
MikeOH Grand Master

MikeOH

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5 hours ago, Schllc said:

When there is 70,000,000 in the bank people will fight to the death for the status quo. 

BINGO!

Based on the limited info available, I strongly suspect that your scenario is EXACTLY what happened here: Pleasance naively came in to affect meaningful change and ran into a brick wall of conformity/status-quo...he was canned for rocking the boat!

GeeBee Grand Master

GeeBee

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Their difficulty will be finding someone who will take the position given the board's current mindset. 

The board hired this guy, then turned sour on him which means their judgement is in question.

The board should resign to clear the decks for everyone and everything.

  • Like 1
Rick Junkin Veteran

Rick Junkin

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I'm curious to know how many AOPA members we have on Mooneyspace. I'm exploring ways to organize a meaningful response campaign to the AOPA Board of Trustees. If you're interested please send me a PM.

I've already responded directly to Jim Hauslein's dismissive "Open letter to members" on the AOPA website and have maintained contact with AOPA's Donor Relations Manager. I'd like to do more than just trade communications. One avenue I want to pursue is reclaiming the proxies the Board has amassed. This takes individual member action so may be a long shot but still worth taking a run at.

The email address for Jim Hauslein, chairman of the board of trustees, is jim@hauslein.com

  • Like 1
Rick Junkin Veteran

Rick Junkin

Posted
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41 minutes ago, kortopates said:

Folks can also sign this petition to re-instate Darren and give the board your comments.

https://actionnetwork.org/petitions/reinstate-darren-pleasance-as-ceo-of-aopa?source=direct_link

i know there is better way to post a link but not figuring it out from my phone with Tapatalk


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Thanks @kortopates, I posted this link on AOPA's Facebook page too. Let's see how long it lasts there.

toto Grand Master

toto

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1 hour ago, Rick Junkin said:

One avenue I want to pursue is reclaiming the proxies the Board has amassed. This takes individual member action so may be a long shot but still worth taking a run at.

I’m generally curious why people sign these proxy agreements if they aren’t familiar with the board and don’t have any reason to think that the board will represent their interests.

AOPA doesn’t seem to have a restrictive quorum requirement in their bylaws. They take votes from anyone who is present at the meeting, and the board casts the proxy votes. Killing the proxies at the very least gives some opportunity for members to attend the meeting and cast a meaningful vote. So that’s all good from my perspective. But I’m not super clear on why all the proxies were executed in the first place. 

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