https://www.ushpa.org/member/governance-proposal-2018

At the fall 2018 board meeting, the USHPA board of directors voted
14-7 to send the governance proposal on for a full membership vote. The proposal
aims to reduce the size of USHPA's board of directors from 26 regionally elected
members to 10 nationally elected members from 5 regions, with an emphasis on
diversity in wing type, age, and gender.

The membership vote will occur this winter. We will post updates here and on
USHPA's social media accounts, as well as via e-mail and the magazine. We
encourage you to vote and influence the future of USHPA's governance structure!

Proposing a new structure for USHPA's governance

By James Bradley, chair of the Strategic Planning Committee

The Strategic Planning Committee has been examining how the USHPA structure is
working. The 26-member board of directors served a valuable purpose when most of
the committee work happened in the two days before each board meeting: It gave
each new committee proposal a wide audience of experienced pilots and
instructors, before it was voted on. Many poorly considered submissions were
stopped or amended during this review.

While it was convenient to have the committees, which have been composed mostly
of board members, meet immediately before the board meetings, this format
contributed to the perception that USHPA’s management acted without regard for
what USHPA’s members think.

Now things are different. As USHPA moves to communicate better and to be
transparent in its operations, committee proposals must be posted to the
membership for comment at least 30 days before they are voted on. Anyone can
point out a flaw in reasoning or suggest a better idea. The board, too, can
weigh in. After the comment period, the committee has a chance to incorporate
the feedback into its proposal before presenting it to the board.

At the spring board meeting earlier this year in Golden, Colorado, the room was
newly quiet much of the day, because the committee work had been more fully
considered in advance. As the membership becomes more aware of the opportunity
to comment and be heard, even less review will be needed before the board signs
off on most committee proposals. The wide audience is still happening, just in a
different and better way. It has become a waste of money and especially of
volunteer time to fly so many people to a room twice a year, simply to rubber
stamp well-prepared committee work.

Another problem with the current structure became apparent during the insurance
crisis. There was no way for the 26-member board to manage the fast-moving
situation. It fell to the four-member Executive Committee to do it, along with
the Executive Director and a small band of volunteers. It was understandably
frustrating for the board members to be told after the fact about what was
happening and then be expected to sign off on it. It was necessary, and it made
sense; the EC could get together often on conference calls, and the 26-member
board couldn’t possibly, not to mention the challenges of the large group making
decisions. Some board members found this irritating enough that they began
communicating negatively about USHPA’s management, in person and on social
media, at a time when a unified presentation of the challenges, decisions and
reasons might really have helped. (What was actually going on was a group of
volunteers were working hard to solve our insurance problem. Nothing uglier than
that.) In this way our current structure contributed directly to the rift we are
now needing to heal, between USHPA’s management and some of its members. Perhaps
you are one of them.

With these challenges in mind, last fall the board asked my committee, the
Strategic Planning Committee, to develop a proposal for a 7-member board of
directors (which has since been revised to 10), with a transition plan for how
to make the change. Included had to be good answers for how we would do what the
regional directors have been doing in their home regions, how we would maintain
regional representation on the committees that need it (for instance, Towing and
Safety & Training), and how might we keep some of what has always been good
about the big board meetings, which is the in-person time that happens, the
conversations over breakfast, the chance to corner the president in the hall
with a question, and so on.

This is the kind of project that can never please everyone. You may not like it.
The idea is to try to step back from whether you like it or I like it, and
instead try to think about what would most help USHPA serve its mission, which
is to ensure the future of free flight. This includes being able to function
well in our next crisis, and to make the best possible use of our volunteers’
time and energy, all of the time.

Volunteer energy is precious; we need to be making the most of it. Our board
members, committee chairs and committee members are all volunteers. For USHPA to
be the best that it can be, we need to provide them with a more effective
framework to work in.

The proposed new structure has a much smaller board that is elected nationally
rather than regionally. It strengthens the committees, with committee members
selected from the entire pilot community rather than from the board. It has a
revised meetings plan, including an annual in-person board meeting that is
webcast to all of USHPA’s members. It has a separate annual committee meeting
that all committees are invited to attend, with travel reimbursement, to get a
large group together again. It includes first drafts of two new ideas, one a
program to help our chapters and the other an ambassador program to appeal to
young people. We think both of these are things to get started on and then
adjust as we see how they go, rather than over think at the beginning. It has a
sketch of a new communications plan, built around a new staff person with the
title of Communications Manager (who was recently hired).

At the spring meeting in March, the board discussed our draft. A motion was made
to proceed to a membership vote on the bylaws changes required to implement that
version. The vote was a tie, with a couple of abstentions, so the motion did not
pass. Next, a majority of the board voted to incorporate into the proposal a
couple more ideas that had come up in the discussion, and to put the new draft
out to the membership for comments and feedback. This was completed over the
summer and received 176 member responses (120 members in favor of the proposal,
and 56 opposed).

Based on member feedback, the proposal was revised once again. It now calls for
a 10-member, nationally elected board representing 5 newly defined regions.
Besides aiming for geographic diversity, the new board also emphasizes diversity
in wing type, age, and gender. The board of directors discussed the latest
version of the proposal at the fall board meeting, made a few edits, and voted
14-7 to send the proposal on for a full membership vote. The vote will occur
this winter, and we hope that you'll participate and help determine the future
of USHPA's governance structure.