Bye, professional clubs... Hello Think Tanks!

The professional clubs (Cercle métiers) were groups within ENAC Alumni which were created shortly after the transformation of our association into ENAC Alumni. Prior to the inception of today's ENAC Alumni, there were different alumni organizations for the various degree programs of ENAC. In 2012, ENAC Alumni brought all of these initiatives under the same roof with one common association for the whole broader alumni community. In this context, the Cercle métiers were a mean to reach out to members from the different disciplines that were now called to join the association. Also, they served as forums for aviation professionals looking for a place to network between members of the same technical community or degrees.

However, we heard from the same members that these groups were no longer meeting their needs and expectations. While they did help with the initial outreach effort and facilitated the integration of new members within the newly consolidated association, many of the cercles became dormant over the years. Different factors can explain this trend. First, they were creating silos by profession or discipline rather than bringing together members working in the same field but with different job descriptions. Then, they were failing to deliver new programs and services in line with the goals of the association and the expectations of our members. Also, as our membership is very diverse, we ended up having a large amount of Cercles that were no longer providing an efficient and meaningful organization of our community.

This is why ENAC Alumni has worked on developing new programs to reorganize our community. This includes a dramatic expansion of our chapters, as well as initiatives such as The State of the Air. In 2019, the inception of the Airport Think Tank opened a new era of groups centered on issues across disciplines and broad aviation communities with clear purpose and objectives. This think tank has conducted several webinars, task force projects, and research initiatives such as The Future of Airports: A Vision of 2040 and 2070 that have brought hundreds of participants together and caught the attention of the global aviation community. Think tanks are the future of our activities aiming to educate and raise awareness about current and future issues, tackle and address them with our members and non-alumni contributors, and contribute to the advancement of civil aviation worldwide.

As we are phasing out the Cercle métiers, you are invited to join our chapters and think tanks. As of today, ENAC Alumni has 4 think tanks:

• Airports
• Aviation Policies
• Flight Operations
• Space

Are you interested in contributing to these think tanks or in developing new ones? Please send us an email at contact@alumni.enac.fr.