Originally Posted by
jumppilot
Yes, ALPA is a member-driven organization. If people thought they were being charged too much in dues, or wanted to limit the amount of dinner and open bars a previous poster mentioned, we could pass resolutions at our LEC meetings and have them progress to the Executive Council or BOD if needed.
I've been to many ALPA events, some that involve open bars, and feel my money is being well spent. Spending money to keep events fluid, conversation going, and keep people fed is an appropriate allocation of funds, in my view. Especially for the volunteers who work tirelessly on our behalf. Anyone can volunteer and participate. Raise your hand and you're in - I guarantee it.
The biggest threat I see is a potential dues reduction and how that will effect the OCF. We need as much money in that as possible for the inevitable downturn that will happen. The OCF kept ALPA alive post-9/11.
I'm sure the lavish open bar events are a mere drop in the bucket in the wasted money column. Though I do question how much quality work gets done with an open bar - could explain some of the work I've seen produced.
A previous poster suggests that some waste should be expected and accepted. I'd like someone to put a number to what amount of waste we should accept. My number is "zero".
Maybe some transparency wrt ALPA finances would be in order. There's a glossy self-promotion magazine that ALPA sends to me that gets promptly sent to the recycle bin. How about ALPA publishes a quarterly financial report in that overpriced waste of paper on a quarterly basis including salaries and benefits of all of the ALPA employees? I would definitely read that and it would be a good use of member resources.