The 109th Executive Board meeting of the Air Line Pilots Association, Int’l, concluded yesterday with the Association’s 37 master executive council (MEC) chairmen endorsing a comprehensive restructuring of the Association’s financial resources and services.

The Executive Board acted on six recommendations from ALPA’s Executive Council based on a comprehensive report by ALPA’s Special Committee for Finance, Structure, and Services (SCFFS), which was created in 2010 to examine how the organization could better utilize its resources to provide the most effective services for members. This direction came directly from ALPA’s Board of Directors strategic plan.

The Executive Board unanimously approved the Executive Council’s recommendations to simplify ALPA’s financial policies and provide greater efficiencies in the use of members’ dues dollars, including:

• simplifying the allocation of dues by reducing the allocation to four accounts while preserving funding levels: MECs, Local Executive Councils (LECs), the Operating Contingency Fund (OCF), and the Administrative & Support Account (A&S or National Account);

• improving MEC and LEC expense controls and creating a Resource and Planning Team to increase coordination with MECs on planning, resource, and funding issues prior to and during contract negotiations;

• enhancing funding of, and oversight of expenditures from, the Association’s Operating Contingency Fund (OCF); and

• placing greater emphasis on the importance of long-term funding of strategic priorities such as the Major Contingency Fund (MCF) and Kitty Hawk Insurance Company.

The Executive Board also approved the Executive Council’s recommendation to eliminate the Special MEC Reserve Account (SMRA), transfer SMRA funds to the respective MEC’s account, and establish new policies for dues refunds from MECs. This is subject to approval from ALPA’s Board of Directors.

Also during the meeting, all MEC chairmen provided a brief update on their pilot groups. The Board authorized $2 million from the MCF to the Comair pilot group and $500,000 to the CommutAir pilot group to support their ongoing contract negotiations and heard updates from four delegate committees on the status of the Association’s strategic plan.

ALPA’s point person on flight and duty time, Capt. Don Wykoff (Delta), chairman of the Time/Duty Time (FT/DT) Committee , briefed attendees on the status of the long-delayed FAA FT/DT rule, which remains bottled up in Washington, D.C. Wykoff, also the new president of the International Federation of Air Line Pilots’ Associations (IFALPA), debunked several myths and misinformation being perpetuated by opponents of the proposed new rule and reviewed ALPA’s full-court press to get science-based fatigue rules into law.

Pilot volunteers have made more than 250 visits to Capitol Hill, and two online Calls to Action generated almost 20,000 messages to Congress and the White House during the past few months.

Watch video footage of the four ALPA national officer reports.

Read coverage from Day One of the 109th regular meeting of the ALPA Executive Board.