A Lot of Work, A Lot of Good

Since taking office in January 2023 as ALPA’s vice president–finance/treasurer, I’ve had the honor of being the chair of the Structure, Services, and Finance Review Committee.

Working together with committee members and ALPA’s professional Finance Department staff, we’ve been able to recommend a number of improvements and upgrades to how ALPA does business—recommendations that became policy after approval by our governing bodies.

To say that we’ve been busy would be an understatement. These recommendations pertained to streamlining, updating, or adjusting the Association’s financial policies and procedures—or, sometimes, simply putting practice into policy—so that ALPA could better support our pilot groups and our members.

It’s been a lot of work by a lot of people, and I believe it’s done a lot of good. Hopefully you’re seeing the effects within your pilot groups as these improvements are implemented. I want to again thank the SSAFR Committee members and the Finance Department staff for all their hard work in bringing these improvements forward.

While we’re still reviewing some of the union’s policies and practices, a large part of the focus of the committee going forward will be taking a hard and detailed look at dues allocations to our contingency funds, master executive councils (MECs), and local executive councils (LECs), as well as the spending limit formula as a whole. The SSAFR Committee is going to do a detailed, thorough review and evaluation of the entirety of the dues structure—and we also have the offer to return dues.

ALPA’s officers feel very strongly about being responsible stewards of our pilots’ dues dollars, and that includes returning their dues when we have an abundance. And, as approved at last year’s BOD, we’ll continue to have a process in place to trigger offers in the future.

That sense of responsibility is also why the Executive Council is waiting until July to determine the final amount of this year’s dues return offer. We’ve all seen the volatility in the economy recently and a lot of uncertainty in the industry. Some of you are seeing that personally.

At ALPA, we always strive to budget responsibly and conservatively, and we also realize the need to be flexible and adapt. So while ALPA is still in a very strong financial position, as our bottom line shows, we’re keeping a close eye on the economic outlook in all areas—including the dues return offer and the upcoming budget process.

Regarding the dues return offer, I want to encourage all members who will be receiving an offer to sign up for direct deposit in preparation if you haven’t already (mydirectdeposit.alpa.org). It not only gets your offer to you as quickly as possible, but it also saves the Association time and effort by reducing the number of paper checks we need to process. Most importantly, it’s also proven much more safe than sending a check through the mail.

A few months ago, I hosted the annual Secretary-Treasurers Conference, along with Capt. Sean Creed, ALPA’s vice president–administration/secretary, and commented at the time that so many of our MEC chairs have previously held the position of MEC secretary-treasurer or MEC treasurer.

Secretary-treasurers hold a wide range of responsibilities within the Association, and they truly get a sense of ALPA as a whole. It’s a great foundation to build on. While I never became an MEC chair, I can attest to the knowledge I acquired while being the JetBlue secretary-treasurer.

Working with the rest of the officer team, I’ve used that foundation of knowledge, and the work we’ve been able to accomplish in the past two years is based in no small part on that background.

The Secretary-Treasurers Conference continues to grow, and this year we had more than 60 MEC and LEC officers in attendance. It’s proven to be a valuable event both for our elected officials and for me. I’m able to get input and feedback on the changes we’re considering and the changes we’ve implemented from the people who are most closely affected by them.

I say it every year, secretary-treasurers are my people. And if it’s indeed true that they provide the foundation for future MEC chairs, I think the future of ALPA will continue to be bright.