Roman Vitanza for APSEA Vice President
Contract negotiations start January 1. APSEA should enter that process with informed members, reliable communications, and the infrastructure of an organization ready to be taken seriously.
Before Day One
Members should not hear from association leadership for the first time in the middle of negotiations. Four things need to exist before January — not get assembled while bargaining is underway.
A maintained, accurate list of who we represent and how to reach them. Without it, every other communication effort is guesswork.
Official messages should arrive from an address members recognize on sight — not from whichever personal inbox happened to send it.
One place that is always current, always reachable, and answers the questions members ask most. It does not need to be elaborate. It needs to work.
A schedule members can count on, established early enough that it is already routine by the time it matters most.
Infrastructure built under pressure is infrastructure built badly.
Priorities
Five commitments, in the order they need to happen.
Priority One
A real member contact database, a dedicated email domain, a simple website, and a recurring update cadence so nobody hears from leadership for the first time in the middle of negotiations. This groundwork needs to exist before January, not get built while the clock is running.
The takeaway Build it before bargaining begins.
Priority Two
I work contract administration on the APA/AA CBA side. I know how to read dense agreement language and turn it into plain, accurate terms. As VP, that means a membership that understands what’s actually on the table during negotiations, not a game of telephone.
Priority Three
A priorities survey before proposals get finalized, so our negotiating committee walks in with a real mandate. A plain-language FAQ for anyone who hasn’t been through a bargaining cycle before.
Priority Four
A fixed cadence, clear lines on what’s confidential versus shareable, and one point of contact.
“No update this week” is still an update, and it beats silence every time.
Bargaining rules will always limit what can be shared. Predictability is what members can be given regardless — and it is what keeps speculation from filling the gap.
Priority Five
Most pilots interact with APSEA-represented staff constantly and couldn’t tell you the association exists. Most of the broader community has never heard of us at all.
I want a real public-facing presence: a website that explains who we represent and what we do, regular visibility with APA membership so pilots know who’s behind the work they rely on, and a presence in the wider labor and aviation community so APSEA is recognized as organized and serious, not overlooked.
The argument
An association nobody’s heard of has a harder time recruiting engaged members, building leverage at the table, or getting taken seriously by the company.
Communications are not newsletters and social posts. They are organizational infrastructure — the mechanism by which an association knows its own members, proves it represents them, and demonstrates that it can act as one body.
This is groundwork that pays off well past this election cycle.
Members reliably receive accurate information.
Informed members participate, respond, and show up.
An association that speaks for its members can prove it.
Credibility is what the other side of the table has to account for.
Why I’m running
I work contract administration on the APA/AA collective bargaining agreement side.
That work is the daily practice of reading complex agreement language, determining what it actually requires, and explaining it accurately to people who need to act on it. It is less about opinion and more about precision: what the contract says, what it does not say, and where the difference matters.
It is the same skill APSEA needs during a negotiation cycle — the ability to take dense proposal language and give members a clear, honest account of what is on the table, without overstating progress and without leaving people to guess.
I am running because that capability should be paired with communications infrastructure that actually reaches people. Accurate information nobody receives is not much better than no information at all.
Biography to come. This space is reserved for background, service history, and anything else worth knowing before you vote.
The standard
Infrastructure should be ready before it is urgently needed.
Members deserve plain-language explanations of complicated issues.
Communication should happen on a predictable schedule.
Members should know where to ask questions and where reliable information comes from.
The commitment
This campaign is about building durable organizational capacity — a database that stays current, a domain members recognize, a site that stays accurate, and a schedule people can rely on. Those things outlast any single negotiation, and they outlast this election.
If that is the association you want going into bargaining, I’d like your support.
Questions about the campaign, something you want raised before negotiations, or an offer to help — all of it lands in the same place.