The Perceived Need for Training and Potential Training Topics for Indiana Airport Board Members

Individuals who serve as airport board members in the state of Indiana are not required by law to have any aviation experience or training. This study was completed to determine the perceived need for airport board member training in the state of Indiana and identify potential training topics. Thirty Indiana public-use airport managers and thirty airport board members were surveyed. Twenty-one topic areas were rank ordered by mean value and two additional survey questions were asked to determine if airport board members and airport managers believed that training would be beneficial. A Speman Rank Order Correlation indicated that there is a strong correlation (r, = .9018) among the study participants when rank ordering potential training topics. An Analysis of Variance found that there is no statistically significant difference exist between the two groups when they were asked if training would be beneficial F(l, 2) = 1.59, p < .05. Additionally, all of the suggested training topics were perceived as important and should be included if training were developed. INTRODUCTION According to the Federal Aviation Administration's National Plan of Integrated Airports Systems (NPIAS), as of July 2006, the United States had 19,847 airports. Of those airports, 707 are located in Indiana. Of the 707 airports, approximately 112 are defined by Indiana Administrative Code 105 (IAC 105) as "public-use." These public-use airports are available for any pilot to use for aircraft operations. The remaining 595 Indiana airports are defined by IAC 105 as private-use airports. To legally land an aimaft at a private-use airport, a pilot must receive permission fiom the owner. These 595 airports are outside of the confines of this study. Of the 112 airports listed as public-use, another subset can be defined when considering their ownership. Of these 1 12 public-use airports, 7 1 are owned by the public and known as public-use airports. The remaining 4 1 airports in the system are privately owned and are not included in this study. At each of these 7 1 public-use airports, there is an associated airport board. This airport board is in charge of governing the airport. This study will focus on the individuals who serve on an airport board at a public-use airport. These individuals are known as airport board members. Airport board members currently serve at each of these 71 publicly owned public-use airports. In order to serve on an airport board, these individuals must meet regulatory requirements set forth in Indiana Code 8-22-2 and 8-22-3. "Many different education and training methods exist for airport personal" (Quilty, 2003, p. 12); however, a review of the training offered to airport board members shows that this group of aviation professionals has virtually no training offered to them or required of them. Obviously, the importance of training is understood in the aviation industry, so why is there very little offered to airport board members? Is there no perceived need for airport board member training and thus the lack thereof? This study examines this issue to determine whether airport officials believe there is or is not a need for airport board member training and what subject matter would be most valuable if such training were created. Understandably, the airport board members do not need to have the same level of knowledge of airport JAAER, Fall 2008 Page 29 1 Allen: The Perceived Need for Training and Potential Training Topics for Published by ERAU Scholarly Commons, 2008 Perceived Need for Training operations as airport managers. However, that they need at least a general understanding of the airport environment in order to be effective in their appointed positions makes sense. In addition, there may be other non-aviation related topics that would be beneficial to include if training were developed. Research Questions These questions are the basis for the subset of questions that were asked of the respondents and guided this research: 1. Is there a difference between airport managers and airport board members in regard to their level of agreement with the statement: I perceive there would be a monetary savings for the airport if an airport board member were to receive training? 2. Is there a difference between airport managers and airport board members in regard to their level of agreement with the statement: Airport board members would be more effective in their position if they completed training? 3. What topic areas for airport board member training do airport board members and airport managers consider most important to include in airport board member training? 4. Is there a relationship between the airport managers and airport board members in their rankings of training topics? LIMITATIONS This study was limited to Indiana airport board members, thereby possibly limiting the generalizability of the study. The respondent may not have understood all of the topics that were listed in the survey instrument as possible training topics. It is assumed that the airport managers accurately assessed the level of understanding that an airport board members has on various training topics. It is assumed that the respondents answered the questionnaire honestly. REVIEW OF THE LITERATURE "Determining and analyzing the training needs is the starting point for all training efforts" (Quilty, 2003, p. 6). With that thought in mind, this study set out to determine what training was presently being offered to airport board members and if that training was meeting the airport board member's needs. An extensive internet search was conducted to determine what training is presently available to Indiana airport board members. Two workshops were discovered. The American Association of Airport Executives (AAAE) and the Airport Council International (ACI) host the airport commissioner workshop, and the Aviation Association of Indiana (AAI) has a workshop known as the Airport Board Member Workshop. The AAAEIACI workshop is a two-day training session that is designed to be relevant to any airport board member located in the United States. This training is not specifically designed to meet the needs of Indiana airport board members but is designed to meet the basic needs of any airport board member in the United States. Furthermore, the short nature of this training and its inability to be asynchronous limit the ability of this training to meet the all of the training needs of this unique group of individuals. The Aviation Association of Indiana (AAI) offers workshops, along with many other services, to airport officials working in the state of Indiana. One of its chief functions is lobbying on behalf of airports before the state legislature. Additionally, this association holds meetings where a wide variety of aviation individuals can share ideas and experiences. AAI has three quarterly meetings and one annual conference each year. The AAI offers a one-day workshop for new airport board members during their m u a l conference. The workshop has been specifically designed to educate Indiana airport board members. An airport manager and a Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) engineer moderate the workshop. The airport board members are given a handbook as a future reference document, and it serves as a curricular guide for the instructors during the course. The handbook for this course is broken into nine chapters. Chapters found in the handbook cover the following areas: