Our Union is continually faced with new legislative challenges and this year is no
exception. NATCA in Washington provides us with a tremendous opportunity to spend
time on the Hill, educating our elected officials on the vital work that we do.
NATCA in Washington 2017 promises to be our best ever! We are continuing to improve
this event each year. Regardless if you are a veteran attendee or a first - timer, we are
confident that you will come away impressed. We hope you are able to attend and make
our collective voice heard on Capitol Hill.
We know that getting leave is always a challenge. W e understand these challenges .
However, if you are planning to attend but are still trying to work out leave, we
encourage you to register. It is much easier to drop a room from our room block than it is
to try and pick one up at the last minute.
MEMBER FOCUS OF THE WEEK
Alan Stensland (Region X - Engineer Southern Region, ESO) is one of the five winners of
this year's second a nnual NATCA National Professionalism Awards. NATCA will
recognize his great work on March 21 at Communicating For Safety. He is the co - winner
for the Eastern Service Area.
Those who know Stensland, an FAA Engineer and Field Incident Response Lead, fondly
refer to him as " Hurricane Alan " because he has worked during every hurricane from
Andrew in 1992 to Matthew in 2016. He began his career with the FAA in 1984 as an En
Route Resident Engineer. During Hurricane Andrew, he performed collateral duty as the
initial regional program manager for Environmental and Occupational Safety and Health,
also working to start the current EOSH Program. Prior to this, there were not processes
or procedures for FAA Field Incident Response. Stensland proposed a system and w as
"challenged" to proceed and make it work. The state - of - the - art Incident Command
System (ICS) was used as the basis of the proposed system.
One of Stensland ' s colleagues said, "I have been involved with hurricane responses for
a long time. W hen we first started, it was a handful of smart, well - meaning engineers
that would travel into harm's way to investigate the hurricane's effect on our facilities.
Many times the employees traveled with backpacks and little else. Communication was
poor, foo d and water and lodging may not be available, so the teams traveled with their
own provisions, much like going on a camping trip. When Alan became involved, he
brought organization and planning into the process which eventually lead to the all -
important fu nding. This is one of the reasons why we affectionately call him ' Hurricane
Alan. ' "
To read more, p lease click here.
NATCA 30
th
ANNIVERSARY (1987 - 2017) : Our Year - Long Celebration
Last Week's Feature: Wrapping Up Our Look Back at the 1980s.
This week, we mark the end of our NATCA30 coverage for the 1980s and prepare to
delve into the 1990s era histor y of our great Union. The story of NATCA began long
before the Union's 1987 election and Federal Labor Relations Authority certification. It
began with Jo hn F. Thornton , a gifted and influential leader whose passion for
representing the interests of the nation's air traffic controllers began with the
