Tiki Mashy writes:

To My Fellow USHPA Members,

It is REALLY important that you vote. We are a small group so your vote will
speak volumes.

I’ll start by saying I am NOT in favor of the Governance Proposal and here is
why (this may seem like a long read, but it is vitally important you understand
what you are being asked to decide): This “Governance” issue came to the
forefront just after our insurance crisis. That’s why the insurance crisis
example keeps coming up as a reason for a smaller board. They reason that the
Board was not kept informed of the crisis because it was too large and would
have taken too much time to bring the Board up to speed. So the work was done by
a small group of people.

It is now reasoned that a smaller board is needed to deal with a future crisis.
What future crisis? If anything, the crisis we are facing now started a long
time ago with our declining membership. This is the critical issue that needs to
be addressed – not how the Board should “govern” itself.

Straight to the point, this Governance Proposal wants to concentrate more power
in fewer hands; making less representation for the membership. The USHPA is a
member driven organization. You, as a member, give this Board its power. To put
that leadership in fewer hands would be disastrous. Also, as a member driven
organization it is most important that when members reach out for help, they
have their local USHPA Director there to help with local issues, which gives
them a direct line to their organization. Yes, we need change within the
organization, but this Governance Proposal does nothing for the area of change
that is needed. In some ways it actually restricts growth.

I’ll get cut-off at the knees from some of my fellow Board members for saying
this, but this Governance Proposal is the USHPA Board once again focusing on
themselves, not the membership, not the instructors, not the schools, chapter or
clubs, and certainly not the real critical issue facing hang gliding and
paragliding – lack of growth. Seriously, USHPA needs to quit re-arranging the
deck chairs on the Titanic and address the gaping hole in the side of the ship.
Our boat is sinking and as a member you and I should demand USHPA pay attention.
This Governance Proposal is just another example of USHPA holding themselves
above the membership. It is a distraction that needs to be quashed. The USHPA
needs to get focused:

- Concentrate on growth and promotion. Realize that growth and promotion is
happening at the local level and it is not effective to promote growth at a
national level.

- Make things easy for chapters, schools, clubs, instructors and competition
organizers.

- Engage and harness the talent in the membership, the clubs, and the chapters.

- Grow the membership by strengthening and validating the small instructors and
supporting the schools

This Governance Proposal essentially changes nothing except to put the same
power the Board is already wielding in far fewer hands and giving you, the
member, far less of a voice. USHPA is a non-profit organization. This Governance
Proposal seeks to manage it as a corporation – big mistake.

We don't need diversity programs like there are in large corporations. The
Governance Proposal’s diversity equation disenfranchises the membership at large
and does nothing at all to address our critical issues. One reason, in a
nutshell the diversity equation is highly unsuitable for our organization is; if
a member gets the most national votes but does not fit into the “diversity
equation” that member will not be selected to the Board. Imagine that…the person
the membership deemed will do the best job is counted out because of the
“diversity equation.” Conversely a member who may only get a small number of
votes has a better chance of being elected if they have the needed diversity
make up. Seriously, that’s how it works.

Your smaller board will be made up of the members who checked all the “right
“diversity boxes. There’s even a provision if the equation doesn’t work, than
the other smaller board members get to pick someone – anyone. Wow – member
driven organization? Not under this Proposal.

Hence, under this Governance Proposal this is where your leadership will come
from, the power concentrated in these fewer men and women. That’s a bit scary.
This Governance Proposal isn’t going to help get more members, we need to leave
it and begin the real work. Again we need promotion from within and that comes
from the local level, with just some basic support from USHPA in the form of
insurance, rating programs, representation with the FAA, a magazine, etc. USHPA
as a membership facilitator.

Let’s face facts we’re losing small instructors, schools, chapters, clubs and
members – tell me how this “business as usual” Governance Proposal with its
smaller board is going to change anything. It will in fact do the opposite.
Members will get even more disgusted because they have less representation, the
needs of the individuals/groups/clubs/chapters will not be met, schools and
instructors will grow increasingly fed up with the lack of support and hang
gliding and paragliding will continue to decline until it’s on the bottom with
its legs up.

Sometimes I am disgusted by the lack of foresight of this Board and their
failure to stay focused on the real issues. We need to direct the current Board
along with the members to focus their efforts on building membership by
cultivating our schools and instructors, making things better for them, because
that is where our real growth will come from. It is in those hands that the
future of hang gliding and paragliding lay. Make it better for them and it will
be better for the membership at large.

Passing this Governance Proposal with its diversity agenda, supersized regions
and fewer member representation is a recipe for disaster. Wake up folks, your
organization needs your help, our membership is shrinking and this Governance
Proposal does nothing to address that critical issue.

There is so much talent and knowledge on the current Board that could be better
managed, the committees especially need fixing. Membership involvement could be
better managed. An unconscionable amount of time has been expended on this
Governance Proposal issue (years that the membership has known nothing about)
and for what? It’s not gotten us any closer to solving what’s really broken.

We don’t need a smaller Board, we need to fix what we have, focus on surviving
this downturn and growing the membership. A smaller board is not a recipe for
growth. The Board spends far too much time pulling the train down a broken
track, when we should be fixing the track – not buying a smaller train. One
thing the Board did agree on is that nobody really likes this Governance
Proposal, but because of all the work expended the vote passed to send it to the
membership to decide.

So here we are. I hope we can finally put this to rest and get on with what is
truly crippling this organization. I will be voting “NO” on this Governance
Proposal and if you care about the longevity of our sport, you will stand with
me on the side of growth, instructors, schools, chapters, clubs and organizers.
Call, email me anytime if you would like to discuss this matter, I welcome all
conversations for or against.

Respectfully Submitted,

Tiki Mashy, Regional Director Region 6, 11 and International