On Wednesday, October 26, 2016 at 9:42:00 PM UTC-6, wrote:
This topic has been discussed before but should be revisited. If the gliding community was brought within the umbrella organization of private pilots (ie., AOPA),.............

Horrible idea. Arguably one of the worst ideas to come up on RAS in quite some time. A problem, Perhaps THE problem is that Non-Profits have become big business and AOPA is no exception. From multi million dollar salaries (And severance packages) to tie ins with all manner of consumer goods and services many of these companies are centered around revenue and the little guy member looses. Except of course if you consider a mail box full of junk mail soliciting everything from time shares to Wine of the month a tangible benefit.
Years ago we had a complex airspace issue with the FAA in my area. SSA was helpful, AOPA was not.
There is nothing that AOPA provides that you can not get elsewhere.