Originally Posted by Adlerdriver

I spent almost 3 years on the MEC and I take issue with this typical, ignorant characterization of that body. I took the job reluctantly in the hopes that I could give back since I had never taken the time to contribute to ALPA. Now, as an empty nester, I had run out of excuses and answered the request of several colleagues to throw my name in the hat.
I had no motivation to eat at Ruth's Chris or smoke expensive cigars (although I have done both on my own dime).
What i got was at least 2-4 hours of unpaid work per day making phone calls and answering emails. I eventually had to promise my wife that I would quit by 13:00L at the expense of my marriage. During Covid I could count on at least one if not two 1-2 hour on-line MEC meetings per week. Again, unpaid. What I did get paid for was 4 either online or in-person 5-day MEC meetings per year - once a quarter. That consisted of paid travel to and from MEM for meetings Mon-Fri and paid travel home (in theory). If I could make jumpseats work to save ALPA money, I did. If I could use my MEM car I shared with another pilot, I did rather than expense a rental car to ALPA. Since I eat every day regardless of what I'm doing, I didn't claim per-diem (even though I could) while I was in MEM for the MEC meetings. We usually had a working lunch and one "team" dinner during the week with a PUB event for dinner and a MEM consolidated LEC meeting covering lunch one of the days.
I say, "in theory" because if you drop a 12-day trip for 6 days of ALPA work, you owe 6-days of AFB. We didn't have 6-day trips in our bid pack, so it turned into a huge cluster trying to find a short AFB trip to pay back ALPA. On at least two occasions it was easier to just work a normal trip de-conflicted from the MEC meeting and then do the MEC work for free. Eventually I decided to bid reserve lines to pac-man off R-days for MEC work but as a commuter, reserve wasn't always the best option. Either way, it was a sacrifice.
The bottom line, Mr. fly2ski, is that there's no way anyone does the job of an MEC rep for personal gain. There's none available. It sucks - and people like you make it worse. I know everyone personally on the MEC at this time and you and other's character assassination behind the anonymity of APC is an easy pu$$y move. You (or others) don't like the job they did, fine. Recall them, or be patient and I'll bet many will step down. Why the F would they want to deal with the likes of you. But, to come on a public forum and disparage their efforts beyond simple disagreement in perspective is uncalled for.