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To All Members  -3- 

Headquarters requests that you devote serious thought to the matter of selecting those who will serve as your leaders during the next year and at the 1942 Convention. Choose members who are loyal and conscientious; who realize that the welfare of the majority comes before the welfare of the individual, and understand how indispensable unity is at all times. They must be levelheaded, straight thinkers, and not afraid to stand up for what is best for all those they represent, the Association, and the air line piloting profession generally. 

Another very important angle to keep in mind when selecting a Chairman is that when he acts locally he is in the capacity of the chairman of the Local Executive Council, and when he acts on problems of national significance such as attending conventions and so forth, he is a Director of the Association. The Chairman should be an outstanding leader and above all, absolutely loyal to his profession and the Air Line Pilots Association. In short, if care is not exercised in picking Chairmen it will weaken the entire organization because, collectively, the Chairmen of all the local councils are the highest deliberating authority in the Association.

It goes without saying that the longer we operate the more experience we accumulate in the field or organization work. We have now been organized for nearly ten years and when we started we had no experience whatever. One of the outstanding things that experience has taught us is the absolute necessity of being careful whom we elect as Chairmen. The Chairmen are A.L.P.A.'s Board of Directors. The organization setup of the Association is the absolute essence of democracy. In order to make a democracy work, leaders must realize that it is not only a matter of leading, but it is also a matter of having the ability to cooperate with others while so doing. Not often, but in certain instances during our ten years of existence, the pilots have been prone to elect the wrong kind of a Chairman. In such instances they elected the ones who could talk loudest and do the greatest amount of drum-beating, their excuse being that this denoted interest. No doubt, in most instances, it does, but there is more to leadership than loud talking and drum beating, and before each and every pilot votes on the Councilmen and Chairman, especially the Chairmen, they should consider well their qualifications.

In the first place, he should have a certain amount of ability to lead, Second, he must be reasonably courteous and diplomatic, and above all, his tendencies must be of a day-to-day steady variety. In other words, a jumpy leader is worse than none at all. It goes without saying that a democracy will live just as long as sound, reasonable, courteous, hard-working, and co-operative leadership exists. If this no longer exists, a democracy can no longer exist and that applies to A.L.P.A.

I point out these things to you because your organization is a vital factor in the protection of your working conditions and incomes, which are vital not only to you but to your loved ones.

Transcription Notes:
Unsure whether the author spelled "cooperate" in the third paragraph as "co-operate," since the dash connects the next line. He writes "co-operative" in the fifth paragraph with a clear dash, so it is possible he applied the same spelling pattern earlier.