ANN Catches Up With AWAM For A Look At Current Industry Issues

We remain amazed, year after year, with the indomitable spirit we see in various segments of the aviation business... and the women of AWAM are some of our favorites. AWAM is open to both men and women and has membership opportunities for students, and corporations. Their membership consists of maintenance technicians, engineers, teachers, scientists, vendors and pilots that support maintenance in one form or another.

The organization's goal is to help women in the aviation maintenance related fields and find ways to network and support each other in this field. AWAM's ties to the Women in Aviation Conference run deep. T

he organizational meeting was held at the WAI conference in 1996, and the founding board members and officers were elected at the Dallas WAI conference the following year. According to the FAA, women account for only 2.13 percent of all non-pilot aviation jobs in the US.

AWAM Vice President, Lynette Ashland, attributes lack of outreach as one of the major reasons more women don't pursue maintenance or other technical fields. To fill that lack, AWAM provides a speaker's network where those who are interested in promoting women in maintenance can engage a speaker or offer their services as one.

Members are also offered free job listings, subscriptions to periodicals, discounts from certain vendors, invitations to AWAM sponsored events, an electronic newsletter, and the online forum and chatroom, which is currently open to the public. Ashland states that AWAM also specializes in assisting female maintenance technicians getting out of the military in finding jobs in civilian aviation.

FMI: www.awam.org, www.aero-tv.net, www.youtube.com/aerotvnetwork, http://twitter.com/AeroNews