I wonder what the daily life/routine is of a "board member"??

They don't come to work every day do they?

What is the scope of their engagement and involvement in the airline?

I am not as optimistic as some here about the new guy. I tend to agree with you. What does he know? What does he bring to the table?

What does he know about our operation (or lack of one)?

The airline has no cohesion and our previous board has just out-sourced everything to the lowest common denominator while cutting every cost imaginable while also unbundeling the entire product while trying to convince us all it's all about the APU and single engine taxi.

We waste a dollar trying to save ten cents.

What we need is operational reliability, dispatch reliability, MX reliability, available crews, and happy employees. All of that translates into a cohesive team and a reliable product. Our customers would dig that, and maybe pay extra for it.

Smizek was not well liked, even by former CAL employees. I think he was universally disliked. He never "rose to the top." His journey was Vincent Elkins law firm via Delta merger scare 1. He worked in legal, got to be the number three man at the airline and then "worked the board" members to gin up support for merger. Bethune left and that put him at the number 2 spot. Kellner didn't support the meger and Smizek did, so that put him at the number one spot after his Coup De Ta forced out Kellner. Prior to the merger the rank and file employee never even heard of Smizek. And, now thankfully, we can erase him from our memory.