With more than half of our 2016 season now in the rearview mirror, much of the North American air show community is turning its attention to the 2017 air show season. Event organizers are thinking about which performers and vendors to invite. Pilots and support service providers are identifying the shows at which they would like to appear. And everybody is making plans to attend the 2016 ICAS Convention taking place December 5-8 at Paris Las Vegas.
As you begin that planning, ICAS would like to encourage you to hire only ICAS members for your next event…for a number of reasons.
- Commitment. You want to hire performers and vendors who are as serious about the air show business as you are. Membership in ICAS is one clear indication of that. It tells you that the individual or organization you are considering understands the shared sense of community that we have in the air show business and that their involvement is more than a hobby or casual undertaking. ICAS membership also indicates that your pilots and contractors are in the business for the long haul.
- Shared responsibility. The reputation of our entire industry depends on our mutual commitment to doing the right thing. From safety and ethics to professionalism and reliability, membership in ICAS indicates an understanding that we are all in this together and that the perception of our industry is based on how we each behave and conduct our business individually.
- Mutual support. Membership in ICAS also demonstrates that an individual or organization recognizes that we can achieve more together than we can as individuals. When ICAS and the industry committed significant resources to overcoming the challenges and deprivations of sequestration, the organization was drawing on the resources of the entire membership. When the FAA or Transport Canada proposes regulations or new rules that hurt any one segment of the air show community, ICAS responds as though the entire industry is impacted. Our capacity to do that depends on your membership. And, conversely, non-members do not contribute to those efforts in any substantive way.
- Accountability. When you make a conscious decision to join a professional organization like ICAS, you also make a decision to abide by the standards and norms of that organization. ICAS membership is both an explicit and implicit commitment to become a member of the air show community and abide by the rules – both written and unwritten – that help to keep our community safe, organized, professional and functioning.
If you’re an ICAS member, you should hire ICAS members for your air show. It’s the right thing to do…for you, for them and for our entire industry.
