I am honored and excited to take over as president of the WBA, a flight safety organization that I feel has improved tremendously since its inception. I would like to thank Rob, Albert and Nick for their hard work and tireless efforts to make the WBA a world-class organization. The results of their labors are numerous, but to highlight; the WBA has been recognized by ICAO, EASA, and numerous CAA’s worldwide, regional committees have been established, and numerous agreements have been committed. Those of us who have had leadership roles understand how difficult it is to organize and execute successful meetings, and the meetings in Mexico City, Amsterdam, and Warsaw are examples of success through hard work.
I would like to thank the Polish Military and CAA Poland for hosting our most successful general meeting to date. Beata Grabowska and Michal Skaju were instrumental in making the meeting a success. Thank you.
I would also like to thank our generous sponsors in Poland, without them the WBA would cease to exist.
As Interim president I would also like to thank all who participated in the meeting. I understand some were not pleased with the election process, but it was in accordance with the agreed upon WBA Statutes and By-laws. I plan to finalize the election on the website over the next few months, and until then recognize myself, and the board in an interim status until the election is finalized.
Going forward I pledge to make the WBA a more transparent organization by focusing on our re-designed website as a communication tool for you our members. So priority number one is to launch the new website to make it more user friendly and communication centric, especially on the members side. Priority two will be to make the by-laws/Statutes straight forward and understood by all members.
I feel we need to continually remind ourselves as members of the WBA, that we are a Flight Safety organization, dedicated to making aviation safer globally. We have good people as members who do great things on a daily basis to further aviation safety. I hope to highlight this over the next few years and share the efforts of our members.
Thank you to all for your dedication to aviation safety, as a pilot I truly appreciate what you do.
Gary Cooke, Interim President
World Birdstrike Association