Regardless of how you feel about the merits of the new policy, one thing is certain, the announcement has been completely bungled. If you are going to announce something you know is going to cause a controversy and is going to be disruptive to some members you need to handle it better.
First, the wording of the written announcement is not as clear as it should be. Some members here, on the Tripoli Facebook group, and on at least one of the club email lists I’m on have interpreted the announcement to mean exactly the OPPOSITE of what it means. They’ve understood it to mean that the use of wireless remote switches are now REQUIRED. It’s because the announcement is poorly written. It starts off by describing wireless remote switches as reducing risk of injury, and it ends with a list of “approved devices”. The middle section talks about a requirement for a mechanical disconnect from power, but it doesn’t come out and clearly say in plain language that wireless remote switches do not provide a mechanical disconnect, so if that’s what you are using, you need to add a mechanical switch or disconnect your battery. I think it’s very easy to see how someone could misinterpret it. It reads like, “Remote switches reduce risk, you are required to have a disconnect, here are your approved devices.”
Next, if you are going to announce something controversial that will impact your members, you need to be ready to defend the decision. Explain your decision process. Why the change? It really hasn’t been justified in a clear way. It still seems like the answer is that there have been no safety incidents, but something we can’t really describe might possibly happen someday. When members ask detailed technical questions about the redundancy built into these devices and possible failure modes, the answers are not seeming to come from the Board or other decision makers — they are coming from other members. That’s ridiculous. Explain and defend your decisions. Don’t leave your members to fight about it!
And the last thing, which is really the most infuriating, is the decision to make the change effective immediately and the cavalier attitude shown to people who hear an announcement on Monday that means they won’t be able to fly on Saturday. It comes off as, “This is a change based on a worry over something that has never happened before, but we need to take action immediately, and if that means our members can’t fly next weekend, TOUGH!” That attitude toward membership is really disappointing.
