Procedure To Reform USHPA
Posted: Sun Jan 09, 2011 11:21 pmThis paper proposes a procedure for reforming and restructuring USHPA. The task of implementing the procedure, I leave to others. If there is discussion of this paper, I hope it will be conducted by proponents and opponents in a civil manner without personal attacks.
USHPA’s Bylaws require USHPA to hold a special meeting upon the request of 5% of its members. At the meeting a broad range of actions may be taken from removing Directors to dissolving the Association.
At the end of 2010 USHPA membership was 8,910. 5% of 8.910 is 446. A special meeting may require less than 446 members. USHPA, which prohibited clubs from having non-voting members, has non-voting members, the Affiliate/Student class, and they arguably should not be included in the membership total for the purpose of calling a special meeting. It is unknown how many are in the class.
Relevant Sections of USHPA’s Bylaws for holding a special meeting are Art. VIII, Sec 12(c), Art. VI Sec. 4(b) and Art. VI Sec. 3. The California Nonprofit Corporation law is found in Corp. Code Sec. 5000, et seq.
Below are six areas where in my opinion USHPA has failed to act in the best interests of its members. The most serious failure has been in management practices.
1. Directors Not Accountable For Their Actions
Elected representatives from senator to school board member are accountable for how they vote because there is disclosure of how they vote. USHPA Directors are not accountable because USHPA doesn’t disclose how they vote.
2. Gag Rule And Independence Of Local Clubs
At its fall meeting the Directors passed a SOP limiting free speech and allowing USHPA to end the independence of local clubs by giving it the authority to change bylaws and rescind rules it considered “detrimental”. It also required pilots to be its “goodwill ambassadors”. Member indignation forced the Executive Committee to withdraw the SOP.
3. Secrecy Of Accident Reports
At the same meeting the Directors voted to keep accident reports secret by asserting attorney client privilege. It is not unusual to redact names to protect privacy and encourage full reporting but there is no justification for keeping the reports secret accessible only by a few USHPA insiders. Accident reports should be widely circulated to prevent accidents.
4. No Ethical Standards For Directors
USHPA Regional Director Urs Kellenberger accused USHPA member Mark Lilledahl of killing Tom Mayer. Tom died June 6, 2010 doing aerobatics in a glider Mark sold him 6 months previously. Kellenberger told pilots that Mark’s tuning of the glider killed Tom. Kellenberger notified a Canadian pilot to whom Mark had sold a glider in 2008 that Mark’s gliders were “dangerous”.
Everyone is entitled to their opinion on the cause of an accident. However if the opinion is of a particularly offensive nature, made in bad faith and without any factual basis, it is slander per se. Since witnesses to the accident said it was pilot error; viewers of the video said it was pilot error; the glider’s manufacturer said it was pilot error; the meet director told Kellenberger it was pilot error and, presumably, USHPA’s secret accident report said it was pilot error, Mark believed there were sufficient grounds for USHPA to investigate to determine whether Kellenberger made the accusation in bad faith.
USHPA has an ethical conduct standard for Directors, SOP 6.02, but USHPA’s President Rich Hass refused to enforce it notifying Mark that USHPA doesn’t have a “process” for investigating unethical conduct by Directors.
5. USHPA Elections
Despite the difficulty in determining how Directors voted, it appears that Regional Director Dave Wills was responsible or one of the Directors responsible for the Gag Rule. Wills recently “won” reelection as Regional Director by one vote. It is known that USHPA disqualified ballots in some regions. Cal. Corp. Code Sec. 7611 allows appointment of independent election inspectors to conduct elections.
6. Management Practices
In 2005 USHPA’s Planning Committee drafted a "Vision Statement" projecting that USHPA’s dramatic decline in membership would be reversed and in ten years USHPA’s membership would increase from around 10,000 to 20,000. USHPA appointed Martin Beresford, an experienced international management consultant and businessman, to the Committee asking him to analyze the causes of the membership decline and recommend strategies to reverse it. Beresford reviewed USHPA’s operations and concluded there was a huge "growth gap" between the Planning Committee's highly optimistic growth projections and the underlying causes of the decline. Beresford's presentation, "Closing the Growth Gap", is available at http://www.ushga.org/documents/USHGAPre ... uly26A.ppt
Beresford summarized member concerns about the management style and effectiveness of the Board of Directors and the Executive Committee. These concerns included:
1. “Secretiveness, lack of transparency”
2. “Clique ridden, political”
3. “Not accountable to membership”
4. “They don’t tell us how they’re using our money”
5. “Muddling through, directed by those with most clout or most strident”
6. “Poor communication with members”
7. “Internal conflict, self-promotion, self-interest”
Beresford recommended strategies for the Board to improve its clarity, effectiveness, communication and accountability. He also raised concerns about the Board’s allocation of USHPA’s limited resources citing the following Board decisions:
1. The transfer, without consulting the membership, of over $100,000 of USHPA’s funds to the USHPA Foundation, an organization that is unaccountable to USHPA or its members
2. The all cash purchase – also without consulting the members - of a 6,700 sq. ft. building for USHPA’s 5-person HQ staff, diverting $410,000 from more mission-relevant priorities, and creating substantial risk exposure for the Association
3. The secretive write-off of approximately $150,000 of members’ funds as a result of poorly managed development of a database, when readily-available software could have met USHPA’s needs for vastly less
Beresford recommended the Board provide a full accounting of its decisions and transactions, conduct a review of its role and responsibilities and establish procedures to ensure that the Board’s resource allocation decisions were clearly defined, communicated to the members and implemented. The Board rejected the recommendations and Beresford resigned from the Committee.
Dan Brown
USHPA’s Bylaws require USHPA to hold a special meeting upon the request of 5% of its members. At the meeting a broad range of actions may be taken from removing Directors to dissolving the Association.
At the end of 2010 USHPA membership was 8,910. 5% of 8.910 is 446. A special meeting may require less than 446 members. USHPA, which prohibited clubs from having non-voting members, has non-voting members, the Affiliate/Student class, and they arguably should not be included in the membership total for the purpose of calling a special meeting. It is unknown how many are in the class.
Relevant Sections of USHPA’s Bylaws for holding a special meeting are Art. VIII, Sec 12(c), Art. VI Sec. 4(b) and Art. VI Sec. 3. The California Nonprofit Corporation law is found in Corp. Code Sec. 5000, et seq.
Below are six areas where in my opinion USHPA has failed to act in the best interests of its members. The most serious failure has been in management practices.
1. Directors Not Accountable For Their Actions
Elected representatives from senator to school board member are accountable for how they vote because there is disclosure of how they vote. USHPA Directors are not accountable because USHPA doesn’t disclose how they vote.
2. Gag Rule And Independence Of Local Clubs
At its fall meeting the Directors passed a SOP limiting free speech and allowing USHPA to end the independence of local clubs by giving it the authority to change bylaws and rescind rules it considered “detrimental”. It also required pilots to be its “goodwill ambassadors”. Member indignation forced the Executive Committee to withdraw the SOP.
3. Secrecy Of Accident Reports
At the same meeting the Directors voted to keep accident reports secret by asserting attorney client privilege. It is not unusual to redact names to protect privacy and encourage full reporting but there is no justification for keeping the reports secret accessible only by a few USHPA insiders. Accident reports should be widely circulated to prevent accidents.
4. No Ethical Standards For Directors
USHPA Regional Director Urs Kellenberger accused USHPA member Mark Lilledahl of killing Tom Mayer. Tom died June 6, 2010 doing aerobatics in a glider Mark sold him 6 months previously. Kellenberger told pilots that Mark’s tuning of the glider killed Tom. Kellenberger notified a Canadian pilot to whom Mark had sold a glider in 2008 that Mark’s gliders were “dangerous”.
Everyone is entitled to their opinion on the cause of an accident. However if the opinion is of a particularly offensive nature, made in bad faith and without any factual basis, it is slander per se. Since witnesses to the accident said it was pilot error; viewers of the video said it was pilot error; the glider’s manufacturer said it was pilot error; the meet director told Kellenberger it was pilot error and, presumably, USHPA’s secret accident report said it was pilot error, Mark believed there were sufficient grounds for USHPA to investigate to determine whether Kellenberger made the accusation in bad faith.
USHPA has an ethical conduct standard for Directors, SOP 6.02, but USHPA’s President Rich Hass refused to enforce it notifying Mark that USHPA doesn’t have a “process” for investigating unethical conduct by Directors.
5. USHPA Elections
Despite the difficulty in determining how Directors voted, it appears that Regional Director Dave Wills was responsible or one of the Directors responsible for the Gag Rule. Wills recently “won” reelection as Regional Director by one vote. It is known that USHPA disqualified ballots in some regions. Cal. Corp. Code Sec. 7611 allows appointment of independent election inspectors to conduct elections.
6. Management Practices
In 2005 USHPA’s Planning Committee drafted a "Vision Statement" projecting that USHPA’s dramatic decline in membership would be reversed and in ten years USHPA’s membership would increase from around 10,000 to 20,000. USHPA appointed Martin Beresford, an experienced international management consultant and businessman, to the Committee asking him to analyze the causes of the membership decline and recommend strategies to reverse it. Beresford reviewed USHPA’s operations and concluded there was a huge "growth gap" between the Planning Committee's highly optimistic growth projections and the underlying causes of the decline. Beresford's presentation, "Closing the Growth Gap", is available at http://www.ushga.org/documents/USHGAPre ... uly26A.ppt
Beresford summarized member concerns about the management style and effectiveness of the Board of Directors and the Executive Committee. These concerns included:
1. “Secretiveness, lack of transparency”
2. “Clique ridden, political”
3. “Not accountable to membership”
4. “They don’t tell us how they’re using our money”
5. “Muddling through, directed by those with most clout or most strident”
6. “Poor communication with members”
7. “Internal conflict, self-promotion, self-interest”
Beresford recommended strategies for the Board to improve its clarity, effectiveness, communication and accountability. He also raised concerns about the Board’s allocation of USHPA’s limited resources citing the following Board decisions:
1. The transfer, without consulting the membership, of over $100,000 of USHPA’s funds to the USHPA Foundation, an organization that is unaccountable to USHPA or its members
2. The all cash purchase – also without consulting the members - of a 6,700 sq. ft. building for USHPA’s 5-person HQ staff, diverting $410,000 from more mission-relevant priorities, and creating substantial risk exposure for the Association
3. The secretive write-off of approximately $150,000 of members’ funds as a result of poorly managed development of a database, when readily-available software could have met USHPA’s needs for vastly less
Beresford recommended the Board provide a full accounting of its decisions and transactions, conduct a review of its role and responsibilities and establish procedures to ensure that the Board’s resource allocation decisions were clearly defined, communicated to the members and implemented. The Board rejected the recommendations and Beresford resigned from the Committee.
Dan Brown
