by Brendan V » Mon Jul 21, 2008 8:12 am
I was involved in setting up the spotters ID card in Melbourne a couple of years ago. That group was only 25-30 people and the requirements for setting up that small group were pretty high. The only reason that the ID was eventually given the go ahead was the long standing relationship that the group had with the airport. Knowing the amount of hours that were put in by various people just to get 25-30 ID's would rule out applying the same sort of scheme nationally.
While the feds were pretty supportive of the scheme, they at no time wanted to actually be involved in the issuing of such cards. This all had to be done by the airport. To get a scheme like this happening for this board, would involve considerable time and expense to have the admin of the board attend meetings with airport officials in each and every state where the card is to be recognized. As running of this board relies on donations, it would mean the cost of these meeting being covered by users of the board, something I'm sure not a lot of people out there are willing to fork out $$$ for.
The other main thing that schemes like this require (the one previously in Melbourne and the one in Perth) is that there is a contact for the authorities to reach in case they have an issue with the way that these cards are being used or the people that are using them. Being able to work through whatever issues the authorities are having usually relies on the contact person knowing the airport and the people involved in the incident. This wouldn't be possible under a "jetspotter organized" scheme given that we have never met the majority of users on this board and that there are those out there that aren't using their real names on the board.
In reality, the only way schemes like this work, is when they are organized by local spotting groups who have direct contact with local airport authorities. If anyone is passionate about setting up a spotters card, then they should get in contact with their local group and offer to help them set up such scheme.