On Monday 9/26/16 the coordinating committee met in a closed meeting for the purposes of establishing goals and electing a chair.
In attendance were John Mitchell, Reuben Firmin, Paul Jett, Phil VanWiltenberg, and Kent L. Hibben.
The meeting began with a recounting of facts as known, since not all were in attendance at the prior meeting. We then moved on to discuss ideas about ways the group could focus effort, and proceeded to formalize the following goals:
1) Seek an equitable distribution of aircraft passing over the region. This encompasses a range of activity, including research & collection of data, engagement with political representatives, and community outreach.
2) Learn from other communities and their experiences to guide our approach. The introduction of NextGen has been protested by communities near seemingly most airports that have implemented it. Palo Alto, Phoenix, Baltimore, Brooklyn, San Diego, Boston, Chicago and others each have active community led groups, sometimes involving city governance and/or including litigation among their methods, who are protesting to the FAA about the rollout.
3) Formalize our coalition. This was our first meeting as a committee; we seek to partner with other regional groups who are also focusing on Reagan aircraft noise.
Finally, we elected Kent L. Hibben as chair of the committee. An open followup meeting will take place within the next several weeks.
