From Thursday's MEC Update

Early next week, the MEC Communications Committee will turn on the new, redesigned MEC website. After months of research and input from members of the MEC, committee volunteers and pilots, the redesigned website will serve as a resource for pilots to easily find information on the United Pilot Agreement, Did You Knows, MEC and committee updates and other vital information.

Some of the key features of the new website include:

e-Library: This is a searchable database of MEC documents that will allow you to easily find topic-specific documents. The search engine allows for single word or multiple word searches.

Pilot Data Report Links: Since PDRs are the primary means for pilots to contact the MEC, a PDR link will be on every page of the website.

Streamlined Committee Pages: A directory listing all MEC Committees will help you easily find contacts for each committee. You also will be able to see the most recent committee updates on each of the committee pages.

Local Council Webpages: There will be direct links to each Local Council home page.

Please check your email early next week for an announcement for when the new website will go live.

It's hard to tell if you're trying to gloat or simply point out that Herndon delivered this product over TWO YEARS late. Anyway, hurrah. With a proper search feature available maybe you can find an agenda item that speaks to the MEC website. I'll maintain that had the MEC taken an active role, through a MEC agenda item, that the results would occurred sooner.

After looking through the new site, it appears that the PDR system is still on the old system. Is the plan to operate 2 websites?

I'll give you that the new site is a VAST improvement over the old, the communications team should be proud.

Very nice.

Some folks are never happy. You should make up your mind what it is you want.

Looks like the USAW website. Wonder if it'll have any "Offerings" ??? :D

Being happy and being critical are not mutually exclusive. The fact is, the MEC as a body has done nothing to enhance and modernize the communications platform.

Of all the resolutions we've seen over the years that "direct the chairman to use all available resources" none of them were aimed at improving communication to the pilots. Why not?

In terms of presentation, the new site is absolutely an improvement over the extraordinarily low bar we've lived with for the past decade and the Comm team should be proud to roll this out.

As much of an improvement as this new site is, it still falls well short of what it could be. After the new wears off I think you'll find that all we've gained in this version is a much needed document search.

Long story short you were completely wrong when you predicted, "My money is on Herndon stringing the current MEC along until the end of the term, and then starting from "scratch" with the new guys." Now you move the goal posts to save face, but the web site will continue to improve as content is updated and added. Anyone who knows IT knows that if you waited to launch a replacement web site until every underlying system and all its content was updated completely that you would never launch. Letting perfect be the enemy of the improved is a sure fire recipe for paralysis which you previously criticized.

I bet you have never done any significant union work as you obviously don't have a clue about how a predominantly volunteer organization like ALPA functions. This isn't the Air Force where leaders issue orders that are reinforced and obeyed according to the UCMJ.

That said since your standards are so high and you apparently think it so easy, put up or as you previously promised shut up. Teddy Roosevelt was right and you certainly should jump in the arena and show us all how its done.

I am surprised that national was able to get this rolled out and I'm sure we have the current MC to thank for motivating Herndon. I'll repeat that the new site is an improvement and that the communications committee should be proud. Still, this rollout was promised over 2 years ago and the site is lacking the functionality that's available in the platform.


I think what you're trying to say is "incremental improvement". It's the hallmark of companies like Amazon who believe that that fixes don't have to be perfect, it just needs to be a slight but rapid improvement over what's currently in place. Improvement cycles at Amazon run about 6-8 weeks, if a team can't deliver, the project is shelved. To many shelved projects put small teams under review and can lead to termination.

Now let's look at ALPA. Herndon has dumped 3 inferior products on the pilots (all ALPA MECs get the same tech).

Frontage 98 (1998-2005)
Dot Net Nuke (2005-2017)
and now SiteCore (2017 - )

With the exception of the static html Frontpage platform, both Dot Net Nuke and Sitecore offer free and paid versions. The paid versions offer vastly improved functionality, security, and support. Of course Herndon went with the free versions and then employs a team of programers to re-invent the wheel to code the same functionality that's available off the shelf. ALPA programer pay is about 80% more than the average ALPA represented pilot and considerably more than their peers in the programing industry. Salary information for ALPA is public, check it out.

I've done enough to know that offering perspective and criticism is the domain of any dues paying member. And to be clear, my angst isn't about pilot volunteers, it's our union offering pilots a substandard product while creating and maintaining a lucrative jobs program at our expense. If ALPA IT (Herndon not UAL) was able to deliver a suitable product to the MECs I wouldn't take issue, but that's not the case.

It's not that my standards are so high, it's that ALPA pilots are being charged premium rates for a product that's well below industry standard quality. My solution is to outsource Herndon's IT. For the millions in salary and benefits the pilot's would save there many excellent white label solutions out there that would both save us money and deliver a better product.

I'm sure that might sound like heresy to you, ALPA pilots turning on Herndon's ALPA Unit 1 represented employees. If you've done ALPA work you know there's a point where the association can't represent a pilot. This is no different, we're going on 2 decades of mediocre IT. To wage this fight it'll take an MEC, preferably several, to lead the charge at the BOD.

Back to my earlier challenge to you, find any MEC resolution that deals with IT improvements at the national (or MEC) level. This fight starts with an MEC that's at least aware that there's a problem. Historically speaking, the UAL MEC is not that body.

Who exactly promised that? Please copy where you read that?

Newsflash, ALPA is not the largest e-commerce site (75% market share) in the U.S.

So is it inferior even though it still has plenty of functionality yet to have been tapped into by ALPA and you admit it is a "vast improvement"? Maybe, just maybe, your expectations are a tad bit unrealistic if not ridiculous. Or maybe you are just as wrong as your prediction about the web site launch was.

Just as I suspected.