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State officials meet aviation groups at Chicago conference

AOPA staffer appointed to National Conference of State Legislatures Foundation board of directors

State government officials and representatives from various industries, including AOPA, gathered in Chicago recently for the National Conference of State Legislatures (NCSL) Legislative Summit.
AOPA Government Affairs staff members Jared Esselman, Melissa McCaffrey, Dawn Veatch, and Sean Collins represent aviation at the National Conference of State Legislatures.

NCSL is a bipartisan group focused on providing state legislators with “the tools, information and resources to craft the best solutions to difficult problems,” according to the group’s website. 

AOPA and the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, the National Business Aviation Association, and the Alliance for Aviation Across America created an “Aviation Alley” at the event’s exhibition hall.

“For the first time, the industry spoke with a unified voice in a centralized location at the NCSL Summit to most effectively tell the story of the positive impacts GA has on communities from the 1.1 million American jobs to medical and mercy flights,” said AOPA Director of State Government Affairs Jared Esselman. 

Esselman, who was appointed to the NCSL Foundation board of directors at the summit, said contacts from the conference and his new position will help to further AOPA’s efforts to promote the economic viability of airports, reduce the cost of flying, and reduce unnecessary regulations on pilots. 

The next NCSL Legislative Summit will be in Boston Aug. 6 through 9, 2017.

Joe Kildea
Joe Kildea
AOPA Senior Director of Communications
Joe is a student pilot and his first solo flight was at AOPA’s home airport in Frederick, Maryland. Before joining AOPA in 2015, he worked for numerous political campaigns, news organizations, and the White House Press Office.
Topics: Airport Advocacy, State Legislation, Taxes

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