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Dear Chapter:
Recently we sent a statement to all of USHPA’s Regional Directors in an effort to get them to review their decisions regarding recent changes to SOP 06-01. These recent changes by the Board almost cost us Yosemite this year; if we had not had a very generous governing board in this chapter, it would have. Our Treasurer actually resigned just to save the site. This does not seem like a major issue until you realize this particular Treasurer has been instrumental in keeping this site open for the past 22 years. He is a past master pilot, a past Chapter President, past Regional Director, and past President of USHPA (serving 8 years). This pilot had a landing accident in Yosemite in 2011 and has not been able to fly since. He let his USHPA membership lapse until such a time as he feels that he can safely return to the sport. This lapse in membership is what has caused the problem. With USHPA’s new changes Chapters are now required to ensure that all officers are USHPA members. Rather than lose the site this officer stepped down.
This is only one incident but by no means the only one. USHPA’s own definition of a Chapter in SOP 06-01.01 states: “Chapters are member controlled organizations affiliated with the USHPA in order to encourage a close relationship between the USHPA and hang gliding and paragliding clubs or organizations (“Clubs”) throughout the country. This close relationship helps maximize the distribution of safety information and news, and to promote the growth of the sport.” It further states: “Chapters are autonomous organizations which are financially independent from the USHPA and are self-governing. In return, USHPA provides benefits to the Chapters.” If so, then it only follows that as member controlled, autonomous, self-governing organizations, we should be in control of who we accept as members, who we allow to direct and govern our sites, and the regulations and rules necessary to maintain and support our chapters/clubs/sites.
I suggest that Chapters/Clubs should not be controlled by USHPA, but instead USHPA would not exist were it not for the work of those involved with the chapter/clubs/sites. As we do with our Club, there are landowners who have never been pilots that are club members with invested interests in what we do as an organization. These new regulations prevent them from having any governance over their own property, should they decide to serve as an officer. Our landowners have been extremely supportive for over 30 years.
There is a very large aging population in our sport, as this process progresses, we will see more and more retired pilots. If we let these new regulations stand, we are telling these pilots thanks for the years, but get out of the way we no longer value your expertise, experience, or input. I suggest that these are valuable assets to our clubs/ chapters/ sites and should not be forced out or into lesser positions. It is demeaning and degrading. Whether they are still flying or not does not mean that they no longer have an interest, care or concern regarding the future of our sport or flying sites.
Please take the time to review the newly implemented changes SOP 06-01, evaluate how these new regulations affect your Chapter and the repercussions that they may have on your organization long term.
Please help us by sending a copy of our letter or your own letter to your Regional Directors right away. Let them know what your thoughts are on these new regulations. They are your voice in our organization, let them hear us. They are meeting this next week, please do this right now!
Thank you for your time,
Connie Work – President of the Yosemite Hang Gliding Association
The message contained this letter to the USHPA Board:
Historically, the USHPA’s Board of Director’s have made decisions that have put them at odds with member wishes and those decisions have had to be revisited. That is the situation with the most recent changes to SOP -06-01, Chapters.
The SOP 06.01 introduction states:
“Chapters are member controlled organizations affiliated with the USHPA and hang gliding and paragliding clubs or organizations (“Clubs”) throughout the country. This close relationship helps maximize the distribution of safety information and news, and to promote the growth of the sport.
Chapters are autonomous organizations which are financially independent from the USHPA and are self-governing. To achieve Chapter status, Clubs must conform to guidelines set by the USHPA Board of Directors. In return, USHPA provides benefits to Chapters.
The above statement is reasonable and accurate. Unfortunately the recent changes to the requirements to become a Chapter or maintain existing Chapter status violates the concept of “autonomous organizations” and potentially threatens the existence of some well established sites.
The issue is membership. To be a member of the USHPA, an individual must pay a membership fee and sign a waiver giving up some legal rights. The waiver is important to maintain Third Party Liability Insurance necessary to many of the sites the Chapters manage. If the Insurance Company had its way, every citizen in North America would sign this waiver, but that, of course, is not practical. Pilots sign the waiver because they recognize that without site insurance many flying sites would not exist. But there are many non-pilots who have an interest in the management of some flying sites and as such maintain some connection to the Chapters managing the flying site. Some of those people are:
- Private landowners who allow the use of their lands for hang gliding and paragliding activities
- Local Civic leaders in the case where those flying sites are on public lands.
- Retired pilots who don’t fly anymore, but still have an interest in site management.
- Key individuals who provide a service to the Chapter (such as legal or accounting services).
To require these individuals to pay a fee or sign a waiver giving up legal rights as a reward for their donating their time and/or property to keep a flying site open is certainly not reasonable and we do not do it (yet?.). But the latest revisions to Chapter Requirements are indirectly doing just that. Specifically:
- The requirements for the percentage of USHPA members in a Chapter has changed from 50% to at least 70%. While this isn’t a problem for larger Chapters, it is potentially problematic for smaller chapters. As an example, if the Chapter has 5 members, they now must make sure 4 of them are USHPA members as opposed to 3. This may not sound like much, but I know of at least one Chapter that has to deal with this issue. Personally, I think the requirement of 50% is sufficient to ensure pilots are managing their particular site.
- Of greater concern is the fact that the new SOP requires 100% of the Chapter’s Officers to be members. This is a very big deal and this policy could have cost us at least one major flying site. When the President of the Yosemite Hang Gliding Assn. went to renew Chapter status, she was told by the office that they could not process the paperwork because the Association’s Treasure was not an active USHPA member. That individual is a retired pilot who has been taking care of the Chapter’s financial processes for the last 22 years. That individual chose to retire as Treasure and the Club will have to deal with that at their annual meeting. Had he not chosen that path, the organization’s Chapter status would not have been renewed, no site insurance certificate issued and the top flying site in our National Park System as well as one of the premier flying sites in the world would have gone away. Given the political climate in our Federal Bureaucracy, the site would have likely been gone forever.
The bottom line is this – USHPA should be doing everything it can to give Chapters tools to manage and maintain their flying sites. Getting in the business of telling Chapters how to manage their sites, whether directly or indirectly should be avoided. Further if by USHPA’s definition and guideline the Chapters are “member controlled”, “autonomous organizations” which are “self-governing”, then what is USHPA doing setting Chapter/Club policy?
We urge you to reconsider these changes and revert back to the previous guidelines. We understand that our insurance carrier is driving some of these changes, but we cannot let our insurance carriers set policy for our organization or the tail wags the dog. Soon they will be asking us not to fly competitions, or where there are more than five pilots, all in the interest of reducing risk. Every USHPA pilot is aware of the risks and hazards of our sport, which is why they are willing to sign the waiver, but this is going over the line.
Sincerely,
Russ Locke – Past USHPA President
Connie Work – President of Yosemite Hang Gliding Association
Connie is right on target. In fact, I also know of other Chapters who may not renew this year because of USHPA's new requirements. Let's stand behind Connie on this!!
