Chair’s Message: Our Austin Convention, Governance and Looking Forward to Next Year

by CJP Chair Mitch Januszewski

The numbers are in and the 2022 CJP Annual Convention in Austin was a success by many measures. Attendance was at near record with 540 attendees. Final numbers are pending, but it looks like we had hit a record for auction proceeds. A big thank you to CJP Staff, the Alberts Team, ShowTec, the Companions Committee, auctioneer Harry Santa-Olalla and the countless others who contributed to the success of our 2022 Convention.

Make sure to save the date for next year’s CJP Annual Convention in Nashville scheduled for October 11-14, 2023.

Governance

The membership voted in two new Board Members, Jonathan Bailey and John Olsta. We welcome them to the Board and look forward to their input in the coming term. Long serving Directors Chick Gregg and Kirk Samuelson have stepped down from the Board. We thank Chick and Kirk for their years of excellent service and invaluable contributions to the Association.

Randy Broiles has assumed the role of Chair Emeritus of the CJP Association and Chair of the Safety & Education Foundation. Randy effectively and thoughtfully led the Association through a two-year term, successfully navigating turbulent world times. We thank Randy for his devoted and tireless service to the organization.

Blake Curd is the incoming Vice Chair of the Association. John Springthorpe has assumed the role of Treasurer, following Chick’s tenure.

Looking Forward to the Next Year

The CJP Board will continue its focus on the following areas:

Safety
Continuing our emphasis on reducing runway excursions, the highest contributor to Citation Jet accidents and incidents, several ongoing programs will be implemented and enhanced. The CJP Safety Committee will continue its support in the development and implementation of CJP-FOQA (Flight Operations Quality Assurance).

During this year’s Annual Convention, the Safety Committee rolled out classroom training for the Safe to Land (sm) initiative. This approach and landing tool provides ongoing measurement and practical gated in-flight decision-making criteria enabling pilots to make the “land” or “go around” decision. The Safety Committee is working with FlightSafety International to develop the next phase of the program, simulator-based scenario training utilizing Safe to Land (sm) procedures. Ultimately, the successful completion of the training will be incorporated into the Gold Standard Safety Award criteria.

Advocacy
The Association will continue to advocate for the benefit of members with OEMs, Suppliers, and the Aviation Insurers. We will continue to engage Insurance Aviation underwriters, present data driven logic, and highlight our safety based SOPs in order to gain recognition (premium reduction, limits increase, and performance rather than age-based insurability criteria) for our membership.

Interaction
Liz, Trent and the Alberts Team continue to finalize regional events for 2023. We all look forward to the camaraderie, opportunity to catch up with old friends and meet new ones, and the concurrent learning opportunities afforded by these events. Check the CJP events website for dates and locations.

CJP Staff, Board, Companion Committee and the Alberts Team are gearing up for the 2023 Annual Convention in Nashville. We also continue to explore and lock in future Convention venues.

Aviation Community Service
We will continue to look for and champion worthwhile opportunities to support and contribute to and through the aviation community. This year’s Special Olympics Airlift was a wonderful demonstration of the heart and generosity of CJP membership. CJP member aircraft made up approximately half of the 128 participants.

In closing, I hope everyone is having a wonderful and safe holiday season ahead of what promises to be a very exciting new year!