Impotant Update from the SSA

I would agree that a whole new team needs to clean house.

One place to start is to take a close look at the budget. Here are some
samples:

$14,000 / yr for "Electronic Communications"
$16,800 / yr for "Equipment Rental"
$16,750 / yr for "Computer Maintenance"
$17,000 / yr for "Telecommunications"
$17,500 / yr for "Utilities"
$32,000 / yr for "Travel"
$21,500 / yr for "Building Maintenance & Grounds"
etc.....

How big of an organization is this? I would suspect that there is a lot of
economizing that could be done if someone started paying attention.

Mike Schumann

"alice" wrote in message
oups.com...
John Dezzutti wrote:
There is no question about it, the news is not good.

The idea of a CFO as an internal check on the ED made
sense to prevent a reoccurance of the problems that
led to the departure of the previous ED. Unfortunately
(with the benefit of hind sight) it allowed the opportunity
for a bigger problem. So now the CFO has resigned and
the process will run it's course and we will see what
happens to him. Who cares? I am more concerned about
what happens to the orgaization.

Apparently the ED was aware of the problem but did
not address it in a timely manner. Again with the benefit
of hindsight it should have been brought to the Executive
Committee sooner. Now what? We have a large financial
liability that threatens the organization. We can not
fix it by losing both key players on the staff as well
as the resignations of the members of the Executive
Committee.

Cooler heads need to take a step back and determine
what lead to the problem and how to address it and
how to move on. Grinding around in zero sink at low
altitude until the weather cycles is better than making
going off half cocked and landing out. Now is the time
for our elected unpaid volunters to work on the problem
and come up with a solution. The rest of us need to
figure out what we can do to help them and the organization
that fosters and promotes the sport we all enjoy.

I strongly urge all the members of the Executive Committee
to continue to do the thankless job of working for
our organization! We need them to navigate us out of
this mess!

John,
I couldnt disagree with you more.I think the SSA should be allowed to
just implode under its current liabilities and go away.In the mean
time, a new national organisation could be started without all the
inherent problems of the SSA.
Let me give you a little backround. I was a member of an EAA chapter
that went through a similar ordeal. After months of trying to fix the
problem, the members brought in EAA national to (You guessed it), kick
out ALL of the officers and start over with new elections.They
esentially started a new EAA chapter . This would be the best thing for
the sport of soaring in the US because you have to consider who is the
most guilty here, The person who committed the fraud, or the people who
stood by and watched.This was the same issue with my EAA chapter and it
is why the national people felt it was best to start over.If a new
organization were to take over, they could fix alot of the inherent
flaws the SSA has.And to make sure they dont replicate the SSA,s dismal
record,checks and balances could be put in place (Like a complete ban
of any of the current SSA officers, management and staff).When you
think about it John, this probably would be best thing that could
happen to the sport.
A.

Mike Schumann wrote:
I would agree that a whole new team needs to clean house.

One place to start is to take a close look at the budget. Here are some
samples:

$14,000 / yr for "Electronic Communications"
$16,800 / yr for "Equipment Rental"
$16,750 / yr for "Computer Maintenance"
$17,000 / yr for "Telecommunications"
$17,500 / yr for "Utilities"
$32,000 / yr for "Travel"
$21,500 / yr for "Building Maintenance & Grounds"
etc.....

How big of an organization is this? I would suspect that there is a lot of
economizing that could be done if someone started paying attention.

You can tell that just by looking at a budget? OK, what is the proper
amount for travel? For building maintenance & grounds? Or just pick an
easy one and tell us...

--
Note: email address new as of 9/4/2006
Change "netto" to "net" to email me directly

Eric Greenwell - Washington State, USA

"Transponders in Sailplanes" on the Soaring Safety Foundation website
www.soaringsafety.org/prevention/articles.html

"A Guide to Self-launching Sailplane Operation" at www.motorglider.org

I don't know. No where on the SSA web site is there any indication of how
many employees the SSA has.

What I do know is that I have a business with 3 locations and 15 employees.
My annual telecommunications budget, including all of my phone lines, phone
systems, long distance, and cell phone service, is less than half of the SSA
budget. I don't know what "electronic communications" is, but my total
Internet budget, including DSL lines to all of my locations, web hosting and
e-mail hosting is less than $2,000 per year. My computer hardware budget
averages less than $2,000, including the cost of a couple of replacement
laptops in the last few months (which cost me $399 each).

I suspect that there are significant opportunities for savings, but without
knowing more details, that's just speculation on my part.

Mike Schumann

"Eric Greenwell" wrote in message
news:d3sMg.254$c22.217@trnddc07...
Mike Schumann wrote:
I would agree that a whole new team needs to clean house.

One place to start is to take a close look at the budget. Here are some
samples:

$14,000 / yr for "Electronic Communications"
$16,800 / yr for "Equipment Rental"
$16,750 / yr for "Computer Maintenance"
$17,000 / yr for "Telecommunications"
$17,500 / yr for "Utilities"
$32,000 / yr for "Travel"
$21,500 / yr for "Building Maintenance & Grounds"
etc.....

How big of an organization is this? I would suspect that there is a lot
of economizing that could be done if someone started paying attention.

You can tell that just by looking at a budget? OK, what is the proper
amount for travel? For building maintenance & grounds? Or just pick an
easy one and tell us...

--
Note: email address new as of 9/4/2006
Change "netto" to "net" to email me directly

Eric Greenwell - Washington State, USA

"Transponders in Sailplanes" on the Soaring Safety Foundation website
www.soaringsafety.org/prevention/articles.html

"A Guide to Self-launching Sailplane Operation" at www.motorglider.org