A trial period for the web based lead generation program was approved by the BOD. Perhaps we will get a fuller description of this program in the future.

The competition committee voted to add an additional period up to 90 days (or maybe a little less) before the beginning of a Worlds (for example) that counts when determining your NTSS rank for the National team. The idea here is to have the "freshest" team go to the Worlds.

The funny thing is that we tried this before, not too long ago and it turned into a disaster. Not only didn't it about any changes in the team composition, it restricted pilots' abilities to plan for travel to the upcoming meets (which will no doubt be taking place in Europe during the height of the tourist season). Further there were difficulties with double counting (as there will be with this system. We (the USHPA Competition Committee at the time) undid that mistake and went back to the previous system/dates.

I also do not like it when the rules of the game are changed in the middle of the game, and this is what this decision has done (as it applies to the selection for the 2009 national team which began January 2007). Quite unfair. If they wanted to make this change (ill advised as far as I'm concerned) then they should have applied it to the national team whose NTSS points start counting two and half months from now.

David Glover and Liz Sharp say that this change is not supposed to apply to the US National team going to the 2009 Worlds, but rather to the team (if any) going to the 2010 pre-Worlds and beyond. At the moment the wording in the minutes is unclear on this issue, and it is not clear to me how you change the wording to reflect what they say is supposed to happen. But I do appreciate the fact that they have the intent of not applying this to the 2009 National team.

Another funny part is that this was championed by David Glover (and Glen Volk). David just happened to be at the BOD meeting (as he says because Mike Haley assured him that as per tradition he could vote at the competition committee meeting), and as he was there he could put this proposal before the competition committee. It is doubtful that this proposal would have even been brought up if David hadn't been at the meeting and been so excited about it.

This is often what happens at USHPA BOD meetings. Ninety percent of success is just showing up (a slightly changed version of the quote from Woody Allen).

In addition, one participant writes:

Nice party for CJ leaving as the editor of the Hang Gliding and Paragliding Magazine.

The staff was recognized for doing a good job with Rick as acting executive director (ED) and there was scarcely a mention of Jayne’s departure.

No ownership by the executive committee (EC) for driving her away.

Zero introspection about why she left (i.e., no plan to prevent this from happening again).

Way too much non-profit emphasis in the search for new ED.

President talked everyone out of having any Honorary Directors

As you have reported, competition committee and full BOD ignored the competition pilots.

Lots of talk about the strategic plan but very little real work for growth. No discussion of our current membership numbers or the failure to generate the ten percent growth projected by the strategic plan.

I am pretty certain that the Florida Ridge, Highland and Dustin will eventually turn in bids but their bids were not received by the deadline.

There were four bids for paragliding comps that were all accepted

There appears to be a nine percent drop in instructor renewals assumedly resulting from the mandatory insurance

There was a half day director training session on Wednesday with about half the directors attending. I don’t think any of the directors that attended were very impressed. |

Directors were admonished by President Lisa Tate for having “meetings-after-the-meetings”. Which I assumed was directed at those of us who are unhappy with the direction of the association

EC knew of CJ's retirement six months ago but only recently announced it. This was learned in one of the “meetings-after-the-meetings”. This means a six month low pressure transition opportunity was lost.

Wally Anderson and Bill Armstrong both received paraglider instructor of the year in general session, overriding the award committee, after Dave Jebb cried foul over the process that gave it to Wally.

David Jebb had been lobbying for support for his instructor before the BOD meeting asking people who had no idea who the person was to endorse him.

It would sure be nice to have a chart that showed just how well the USHPA is doing compared to their growth goals. I've printed previous versions of just such a chart, but it is too discouraging to publish a new version which would no doubt show the membership going in the opposite direction and the strategic plan going no where useful.

Dustin turned in his bid a day late. Highland and the Florida Ridge are perennially late with their bids. This doesn't seem to matter.

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