VATUSA1's Response:

*Name removal was requested, and I did so.

I'm really glad that you responded to some very valid questions. Some of them are somewhat biased, but that's the way things go. VATSIM members should be entitled to have all of their questions addressed and if this medium that allows people to get those questions answered, regardless of their source, it has served its purpose. Thank you again.


Here's your response... I said that those were the 4 main ideas that would drive the decision making process. In other words when we adopt or revise a policy, how does the policy affect each of those 4 items?

to address a few other items:
ATD's: - I really am not cutting that position, period. NO ONE has even suggested it.

ZLA - that version represents less than 1/2 of the conversation that was had about that and left out the part that one of the big reasons that high density ARTCCs have had training & cert times go up is due to the loss of peak/off peak. This is being looked at to find some sort of solution to an awful mess. So until we find a solution to that problem, what choice is there?

ZME - Absoultely we violated the GRP. It was not intentional, but we did, and once this was brought to my attention on March 28th, 2009, it was promptly changed. If you are interested what we were doing was splitting up DEL, GND and TWR training into separate parts and certifying guys so they could get online sooner, pretty much what GRP2 will do.

VATUSA2 - No less than 15 people were consulted on that issue, and the consensus was that there was no reason to put another person between the DD and ATDs; the ATDs of VATUSA are de facto Deputy Directors, and are afforded the latitude and authority to act as such.

ZMA - Might want to check the facts on that one. ZMA is, in fact, planning their own event, we are not involved unless they ask us to be.

Rob & the Website - Sorry, Rob did not give me the ideas, he singlehandedly designed the user interface, and did a great job. I did the backend coding, but what you actually see there is all his creation.

Letting people do their jobs: You'll have to ask those around me about how I handle that.

So there ya go. All in writing. Have a great day and look forward to seeing you in the virtual skies or on the scopes. Come see me sometime and talk to me, or send me an email, I'll put my thoughts in writing gladly. There's nothing to hide, no nuclear secrets, and all opinions are welcome, even those who are not happy with the way things are handled. Please do not feel as though it is necessary to be Anonymous on a blog comment, no one is going to hold it against you for having a differing view. I only ask that we treat each other with respect and courtesy.

A cert file entry and what it is.

As a result of my comment in the VATSIM forum where I said:

"Really? Two forums that are more monitored and censored than an Al Quaeda information website and we're going to implement yet another communication tool?

How about we find ONE medium, generate some sound discussion about the direction of VATUSA and actually use it to right this sinking ship?"

Jeff Turner, who is also a Supervisor, on the network, yet hold no authority in any capacity within the forums made an entry into my Cert File alleging "possible connections with a terrorist organization which should be investigated."

What exactly is a Cert File? Well, it's a secret dossier that VATSIM keeps on all its members. You will not be notified if there is an entry put into this file, yet it is what VATSIM uses to keeps tabs on its members behavior. Yes, I know. You never consented to this file being held on you, and this file is never mentioned when you sign up for an account.

To Andrew Podner. Questions from a member

These are questions to the new VATUSA DD, Andrew Podner by a commenter in the blog. Legitimate questions, I believe. Answer should you so choose. I'll post the question, and then the opinion associated with it.

1. Fair and equitable treatment? How? Tell us Andrew.

Tell us how no one has gotten fair and equatable treatment? Your past speaks volumes of how things will go. You look out for yourself. Your backstabbing is known. Now it is on the national level. Your history of telling people what they want to hear is going to catch up with you quickly. You talk out of both sides of your mouth. Even the "good ole boys" who are there at the national level will soon start seeing it. They may be blind right now but what goes around comes around. Now it will be YOU Andrew who is the topic of discussion when you are not around.

2. Maximize staffing? HOW in the world are YOU going to accomplish this?

You did not do it at ZME and you expect everyone to believe you will do it on the national level? More smoke and mirrors Andrew. How are you going to assure there are instructors and mentors at the ARTCC's?? Qualified Staff? First you must be qualified yourself Andrew. Some say you have done a great job with the website. While I do acknowledge when it "crashed" you worked hard to get things back, that is just about it. The site is bland. Robert Prescott has given you the ideas that are there.

3. Increase traffic? How Andrew? Be specific. With the attitudes of some of those, including ZLA, tell us how. Tell us how YOU personally are going to increase anything?

4. This one you will excel in. You can pass the buck and blame the BoG for everything. This won't fly after it becomes obvious that the BoG is not responsible for everything.

(Not sure what the question is in #4) Care to clarify?

From the comments.

In the event some of you missed these comments:

LOVE this. This is what VATSIM SHOULD be about.

Someone up there mentioned "Alex aging before his time", well let me tell you something. Alex was the first person I ever "spoke" to on this network. He took the liberty to exchange upwards of 15 emails with this old hag trying to help me get set up on the network. I'm a retired CPA just looking to have some fun on here, but couldn't figure a damn thing out let alone figure out how to get training to control planes. Alex took the time to explain everything to me in detail and I could tell he had an interest in improving my own experience.

Where is this going, you ask? I'm just some VATSIM rookie that signed up a few weeks ago so I have no dog in this fight, but if he is any indication of how VATSIM operates then kudos to the network. I stumbled upon this damn blog reading through the forums and I can't believe the crap people want to spread over an online network. I want to come on here and kick back. If I wanted to hear this crap I'd go to my daughter's school where she teaches the 4th grade. This is pathetic.

Moral to the story... the VATSIM BoD needs to listen to us new folk who have no agenda and who only come on here to kick my feet up and control some planes, maybe have a beer or ten while I'm at it. If you are wondering why I really care, its because I wanted to join Chicago since I live near the airspace and I took one look at that place and said hell no. The damn deputy director (I think his name is Ron?) there in Chicago wouldn't even answer my damn questions and don't even get me started on what I hav read on the forum topics on here. So I found a niche in another ARTCC.

The VATSIM board of directors or whoever runs the place needs to pay more attention to us. I'm just a good ole country boy that tells it how it is. It sure looks to me like they listen to whoever is gonna grease their palms so to speak.

Thats all I got folks, just thought I'd throw this out there.

I'd like to know who wrote this. Email me.

The politics and ass kissing on the VATSIM VATUSA forum is sickening. I honestly doubt those who are saying Ron stayed on the sidelines in this really believe that. And if they do, they are total morons. Norman Blackburn absolutely makes me sick.

I have read the emails AND text messages he sent Alex telling him STEP BY STEP on what to do to fire Jason. Even telling him not to respond to Jason as to why Alex relieved Jason of his duties. Good ole Stormin' Norman then is the one who renders the "decision" to undo what HE guided Alex in doing. Can you say conflict of interest?? No one cares though. Jason telling Bruce that Alex was gone, Bryan was gone, and David was gone was hilarious. And the 100 dollar incident between David and the rest was the icing on the cake. When I talked to a "Founder" about it on the phone he laughed and said it was $115 not $100. Any ideas where Jason may have gotten this information? Hmmm?? I wonder just how many really know the real story here. Obviously few few from reading the forum. I really don't care if anyone believes what I have said here. Those involved do. From Norm to David to a few others, they know. As I said Alex has the emails and text messages. No one other than a select few outside the loop will ever see them. I am now out of this mess and will get on with my life. This is so sad. I wonder if the leaders of SATCO ever stooped this low?

Bo - while I don't agree with your methods nor delivery, I will admit that you make some good points. I'm not here to agree or disagree with you, but rather to correct some of your information which is incorrect:

1) Jeff Turner did not create the regional director position. It was in place as far back as the Satco days.

2) The scenario where an ATM is removed and takes the website with him is the exception not the rule. I doubt there is any "data" one could refer to for actual percentages - but I'd guess it was <10%. That doesn't make it a good thing, it just doesn't make it a massive issue.

3) While I'll agree that the removal of Marc Sykes had a lot of personal animosity in it which was absolutely disgraceful on the part of vatusa, Marc was anything but a "unifying" force on vatusa. While he had some outstanding vision for ZLA, he failed to see that vatusa must make room for the entire spectrum of "realism". He was only interested in what was good for ZLA - regardless of the negative impacts it had on ZLA's neighboring facilities. While it was an unfortunate situation, his departure resulted in a breath of fresh air for zla, the western region, and vatusa.

Ok, I stand corrected on the RD position. My bad. The rest would be considered opinion, but it's noted.

This Blog and VATSIM

I have decided to put up a location that people on VATSIM can speak out, either named, OR ANONYMOUSLY without fear of retribution, editing, or control from the management members at VATSIM, most notably the Board of Governors. This blog will be lightly moderated, as you have the right and freedom to speak your piece. Bear in mind that you are responsible for what you write.

To be submitted anonymously, you must submit the post to me, with your name, and it will go up without your name on it. I intend to make this a blog that will maintain relevance based on factual events, not based on having an axe to grind.

I maintain that the system at VATSIM is irreparably broken and needs to be overhauled in order to save this wonderful organization. I believe that it is better to die fighting than down on my knees. I have a voice, a right to use it, and a desire to see VATSIM saved from the culture of ambivalence, narcissism, and self-importance.

I hope that you find this blog informative, helpful and useful. Most of all, I hope that with enough un-filtered information from the members of this organization to the Founders, that we can get this organization back on its feet, and back in the right direction.

To submit postings, please click "View my complete profile" and email me the submission. All information will be verified for objectivity and relevance.

The List

The List:

1. The biggest issue plaguing VATSIM is an attitude of ambivalence. From the top to the bottom. Founders, BoG, the divisions and regions. Whether it is the current economic state, or just fatigue from playing the charade for so long, people simply don’t care. There are BoG members who are in positions that REQUIRE online time who haven’t been online in 9 months. Yet, there is no accountability anywhere. As far as VATUSA goes, we have Directors who are never seen. There are ATM’s who hide behind the moniker of “working offline” to shirk the on-line time and accountability that the position demands. There are real people who demand the attention of these leaders. ATM’s that can’t, don’t, and won’t meet minimum online times that they wrote into their policies for months is unacceptable. There are people who don’t even give the common courtesy of a reply to the receipt of a resume sent in for a position opening. Unacceptable, and completely unprofessional. But it is accepted with a reply of ‘I receive a billion emails a day, and I am not able to reply because I am too busy”.

How I’d fix it: Expose the guilty and replace them. Produce, or walk. Pretty simple. Do what’s in the best interest of the organization and resign, if you know that you can’t serve the membership the way that it deserves to be served. Term limits for the BoG in order to reduce burnout, and keep fluid ideas and creativity at the forefront of the organization.

2. It is increasingly obvious that there is a severe lack of teamwork and communication at the highest levels, with fissures being seen in the details within the BoG. Where are these people? They are never seen online, flying or controlling. With all of the talk about bandwidth, how can a BoG member sit and watch the scope for 7 hours as an observer? Can this BoG member not control and supervise at the same time? In reference to VATUSA, there has been a history of administrations treating this hobby as a military organization expecting people to follow a “chain of command” acting like Generals too busy to get their hands in the dirt and actually do some work at the ground level. Not only that, but these people, who have absolutely no idea how the military structure of the chain of command really works, distort this structure to put themselves out of reach of the very people that they were brought in to serve.

How to fix it: See above.

3. Several years ago, Jeff Turner came in to be director of VATUSA. He made VATUSA his personal kingdom, acting simultaneously like an immature child, and a tyrant. He made it his mission to see the downfall of one of the most popular, and increasingly powerful ATM (then Chief) of easily the most powerful and popular ARTCC’s (Los Angeles) on the network. This was all started because Jeff Turner had a personal disagreement with Marc Sykes way of doing business. That in and of itself is irrelevant when assuming a leadership position. Instead of unifying other ARTCC’s around this facility and encouraging these facilities to get in line with the direction of this ARTCC, it was decided that the ATM was too much of a threat and cited bogus reasons for his removal. In talking with NUMEROUS other ATM’s, it was discovered that all of us were, in some form or fashion, duplicating what LA was doing trying to bring the same standards to all of our ARTCC’s. For one reason; because it worked! And it was FUN! Marc Sykes and his staff were more than willing to share everything that he had done with almost every other ARTCC. This was one decision that spun into motion the beginning of the layers upon layers of bogus bureaucracy that we see today in VATUSA. Instead of the Chiefs/ ATM’s reporting directly to VATUSA1 to encourage direct and fluid communication, the Region Director was put into place, citing “Chain of Command” as the reasoning. For no other reason than to act as an intermediary between Jeff, and the ATM’s. For the leader of an organization with thousands of members to be incapable of having 22 people work with him directly showed a tremendous lack of leadership. Understand; as an ATM, we have rosters with 50 to 150 people and we interface with those individuals directly daily. To see the Director of VATUSA put a buffer between 22 individuals with 4 people was simultaneously disheartening, and laughable.

Meanwhile, in the forum, any discussion that turned in a real debate, and there were many, was immediately squashed and locked. Often, there would be a threat of being removed, or suspended for speaking out awaiting in the email inbox. People quit going into the forums, obviously. Pressure for numbers and operations, online hours, and various other irrelevant goings on intensified from Jeff and his staff causing ATM’s and staff members to make an exodus. Of course, the common cause “Lack of time” was cited as the reason, yet everybody could see the writing on the wall. People were expendable because the membership was growing and growing.

Around this time, CTI students started showing up en masse to the network. When vacancies opened for ATM positions, there were a flood of these CTI students applying for ATM positions. These are college students, with busy class loads, a social life, and in one case, a sandy beach in near tropical weather year-round who were applying for these ATM positions. These were also kids who had never held a title of any sort in their life and were nothing short of title and rating mongers. By and large, they had zero experience leading anybody, let alone a roster full of people in a virtual organization. They turned these ARTCC’s into their little fiefdoms and strove for hyper-realism. Yet, these kids had never put on a mic and talked to an aircraft, ever, and in most cases, had never spent more than an hour on the floor of an Air Traffic Control facility. Additionally, they made things so difficult in the training process that, me, as a veteran ATC, found the process of getting qualified in a facility excessively difficult and often tedious. And I did this for a living! I frequently asked why things were being done they way they were, and the response…. You got it… “Because that’s how it’s done in the real world”. I often was left wondering what real world they were talking about because it most certainly wasn’t mine. The firing of Jeff Turner, being replaced with Dennis Whitley only exacerbated this issue. The ATM’s more often than not paper-qual’d their friends, and pals, creating bloated rosters of controllers with no quals. The C1’s and C3’s found the process, which was once fun, and only a hobby increasingly becoming a full-time job to obtain a qual. They left, tired of the antics and posturing of inexperienced ATC wanna-be’s running these ARTCC’s into the ground. When the complaints of many went unheard by the ambivalent folks on high, people grew disenchanted and left.

How to fix: See above. Additionally, work to make this hobby attractive to the hobbyist. 1st. Put the right people into the ATM position. Tighten the requirements for applicants. The position should seek the applicant, not vice versa. The right people are generally out of high school, and college. They have some experience leading people. They can be critical and objective thinkers. 2nd: Standardize the training across the board. Teach the procedures how they need to be taught for each facility, but standardize the nuts and bolts. 3rd: Seek out the C3’s who have invested countless hours into this hobby and see if they’re interested in helping put the wheels back on the bus.

4. The websites in the ARTCC have become the revolving front door of aforementioned fiefdoms for long enough. The website, the most essential and critical component of a virtual organization, has become the bane of every incoming ATM’s existence. When an ATM is removed, for whatever reason, the first thing to go with them is the website, which is detrimental to the rest of the facility. Any continuity that the facility has had gets lost in trying to re-build the front door to the facility. Stop everything! We need to re-build the website. Additionally, for an organization that prides itself on organization, there is no organization, or symmetry in the websites. Why not put all 22 ARTCC’s under the organization, so that people can’t hijack the website on the way out the door? Standardize the websites so that we have a handful of people with access to every ARTCC’s website. This removes the need for an ARTCC webmaster, and allows the ARTCC Staff to have a central contact for all website updates.