2010 Annual Meeting Initial Recap

Our Annual Meeting took place this weekend in Arlington, Virginia. It was a great success.  I learned new things from the presentations and met new people – therefore very worthwhile for me personally! I tried my hand at videotaping the programs for posting on YouTube at some point soon – I hope they turn out well, as the content was very good!

Gail offered this summary via email this morning:

We had over 100 people.  About five were Founding Members, some old and dear friends and new members too. When we have a meeting we also hear from members and promote NADA/F. We all represent a shared commitment for aviation safety and security.  

We have fewer new members, which is good news, but recent crashes are more likely to be regional/commuter flights, and very preventable. 

We will welcome four new board members representing US1549 (Miracle on the Hudson), CO3407, (the Buffalo crash) and Alaska 261.  

On the one hand we are still pursuing required child seats for children under two, although we now have new opportunities to get the mandate through.  I remind myself that League of Women Voters worked for 40 years to get women the right to vote.  Surely safe seats for babies on airplanes should not take longer. 

For “new” news we look forward to working with Kenyon International! 

On Saturday, we gave out several awards recognizing people whose efforts parallel our organization’s.  I will have to touch on the lunch awards in a different post. However, because I have this photo available, let me congratulate again our evening winners!  The Awards Dinner took place in the 15th floor dining room of the Doubletree Hotel.  The weather was wonderful, so the DC views from the patio were easily enjoyed!
  • NTSB Chair, Deborah Hersman, received the Aviation Safety Award for 2009 (since we didn’t have our Annual Meeting last year). She was endorsed by the Fahey family, who especially appreciated her accessibility and support in the Comair Flight 5191 crash investigation.  She also gave a terrific speech on her goals for the Board in the coming year.
  • Jan Brown, a retired United Airlines flight attendant, received the Aviation Safety Award for 2010. She was a surviving flight attendant on United Flight 232, July 19, 1989, when a child died because he was not in a child seat. She has worked harder than anyone for over 20 years to promote required seats in flight for children under the age of two. 
  • Christine Negroni received the Journalism Award for 2010.  She is an aviation journalist, whose work appears in The New York Times, and author of Deadly Departure: Why the Experts Failed to Prevent the TWA Flight 800 Disaster and How It Could Happen Again. She also hosts an informative blog called Flying Lessons.
 

Jan Brown, Deborah Hersman, Matt Ziemkiewicz, Christine Negroni

NADA/F President, Matt Ziemkiewicz, with our Award Winners.
Photo: Kyle Gustafson

Tags: Blog by Jillian Gustafson
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