Hello All You Forum Writers!

The purpose of the forum site is to provide a place for people to "share" ideas, opinions, etc. And, like any of us in Aviation - we are PASSIONATE people. But, let's put a word of caution out there.

While it is very reasonable to be passionate, if we are to have a true exchange then we must follow a couple of rules - reason and civility. When we write, we must use reason in our comments (not virulence or character assasination) and we must be CIVIL in our comments. We are a "professional" association and we must and should act like professionals when we engage in discourse.

Will we agree on everything? Not very likely - and that is not a bad thing. Unfortunately, of late in this country, discourse has become such that anyone who disagrees with someone's stronly held position is then a heretic of some sort and needs to be "shouted down" - we are seeing this in our politics and it is, quite frankly, somewhat scary. Our democracy is based on reasoned discourse and majority rule, and that is what sets us apart from the countries where there are assasinations and car bombings every day. So, one condition of any professional forum is that we will have to agree - up front - to disagree on some issues, no matter how passionately we hold them.

As far as SAFE is concerned, SAFE is driven by its members - not by any particular dogma or single goal other than being responsive to its members. As the Sport Pilot discourse (some of it pretty "rough") indicates, there is a lot of discussion going on on the topic of Sport Instructors - as there is in the flying community as a whole. It is clear that there are stronly held positions on both sides, but our goal is to reason this through and try to find ways to promote aviation - not one side or the other. And, we are all governed by the FAA and their rules, but before we can affect a change, we must make sure that any case that is presented is well thought out and strong. One of the ways to do that is through open discourse - but it must be fact based, well reasoned, civil, and we must agree to disagree at times (a recurring theme).

When the forum process was initiated, there was talk about having a "moderator" for the forum - which might not be a bad idea. But, there is one concern - that this would be a "separating" function, seen by those not in agreement with a particular topic as "censoring" the conversation - even though the moderators job would be to "keep the fight clean". But, do we really NEED that? If we are true professionals, can we not do this ourselves? Some of the comments in the Sport Instructor chain would indicated that some of us may have a problem with that concept. Remember - Reason - Not Rant.

So, since I don't want to make this into either a sermon or a diatribe, lets keep a couple things in mind:

1) To keep the Forum going and effective - Keep it Civil, Factual, and Reasoned.

2) Accept the fact that a particular view held by the individual may, or may not, be held widely by others, and that is not a bad thing in and of itself.

3) We are all professionals - lets act like professionals in our discourse.

4) Others not agreeing with you is NOT a reflection of what SAFE stands for, nor should it affect your decision about joining the organization. Is there anywhere else that frank and open discourse can or is going on like SAFE? I think not - and is it not a GOOD thing that SAFE has that open forum?

In the interest of fair and open disclosure, I am one of the founders of SAFE and a member of the Board. As a result of that, I take all of this pretty seriously - and we all should. Keep the discourse going, but when doing so, don't let your passionate feelings get in the way of what can be our REAL strength:

Reasoned Discourse and Problem Solving - in order to be as supportive as possible of ALL Aviation Education.

We are not just FI's of any stripe (SP, A, I, or othwerwise), we are Aviation Educators - with "some" of us being "flight". If we don't work together for the betterment of Aviation Education, flight or otherwise, then we will not accomplish anything - including well reasoned change at the FAA. They are often difficult to move (like the proverbial barge in the river), but they are receptive to well thought out issues and proposals - sometimes. Let THAT be our goal - not the knocking down or rolling over of each other.

'Nuff said. Have a SAFE day!

Alan