The highly successful UK Junior XC program vs. USA's nonexistantJunior XC program. Why?

Dude - lead, follow or get out of the way. Whining is counter-productive - it sucks energy out of everyone who's put actual effort into doing something, as well as those who might.

Talk is cheap - on the 'net it's really cheap.

9B

I'm not part of the SSA leadership. Isn't that what they do, dude?

What are there objectives?

Where are the progress reports?

What are the goals?

Dude?

On Wednesday, October 21, 2015 at 7:25:34 AM UTC-5, Sean Fidler wrote:
I'm not part of the SSA leadership. Isn't that what they do, dude?

What are there objectives?

Where are the progress reports?

What are the goals?

Dude?

You remind me of Trump, dude

I'm not part of the SSA leadership. Isn't that what they do, dude?

What are [their] objectives?

Where are the progress reports?

What are the goals?

Dude?

You remind me of Trump, dude


Chortle!

Bob W.

On Wednesday, October 21, 2015 at 5:25:34 AM UTC-7, Sean Fidler wrote:
I'm not part of the SSA leadership. Isn't that what they do, dude?

What are there objectives?

Where are the progress reports?

What are the goals?

Dude?

Without nit-picking the finer points of having objectives vs goals...

You can run for leadership and work to put all those things in place and inspire volunteers to mange them. That would be "lead".

You can volunteer to support the current structure for junior soaring and be part of the system to execute whatever goals leadership decides on - but not have a vote on direction yourself. That would be "follow". If you had some real energy for it, leadership might even endorse a well thought-out proposal for you and others you enlist to help you to execute some new ideas. That would be super cool.

The last option I hope is self-evident.

I'm not saying the current state is ideal or that there is nothing that can be done better, but calling volunteers out for not doing things that a) may not even be priorities (vs the hundreds of other challenges the SSA faces) or even supportable with the current (mostly volunteer) resourcing, and, b) you yourself aren't even willing to put effort into, is a bit beyond the pale.

There have been some useful thoughts and comments here, but little different will happen unless people step in and put their time and energy into it. The SSA can endorse their efforts but the work needs to come from the membership.

That is a bunch of crap.

What exactly does the SSA staff and officials do, if not growing the membership?

Anyone? List it please.

*opens fridge...yep, same food as when i looked five minutes ago....*

On Wednesday, October 21, 2015 at 1:01:38 PM UTC-7, Sean Fidler wrote:
That is a bunch of crap.

What exactly does the SSA staff and officials do, if not growing the membership?

Anyone? List it please.

Hey Sean,

I looked it up. The SSA has a Growth and Retention Committee. Guess who appears on the list?

You!

http://www.ssa.org/GrowthDevelopment?show=11

(you need to be logged in to view it)

Here's how they describe how Development, Growth and Retention works.

"The mission of the Soaring Society of America is to Foster and Promote the Sport of Soaring. As a volunteer organization we rely in large part on our members to help fulfill this important task. Please take a moment to consider how you can help.

In this section you will find programs and resources to help grow the sport of Soaring. For more information contact the Growth and Retention Committee."

I'm not sure if the list is current, but presumably it was correct at one time. I'm sure people would be curious to know what your goals, objectives, key initiatives, metrics for success and progress against those metrics are/were.

List, please. ;-)

For other SSA priorities a stroll though the website gives you at least some sense for what it does. I'm not saying I think everything is perfect - far from it. I've heard the stories and some of the history is pretty bad. But it only gets better if people step up.

These are pretty challenging issues - unfortunately they won't get solved on r.a.s.

9B

On Wednesday, 21 October 2015 14:01:38 UTC-6, Sean Fidler wrote:
That is a bunch of crap.

What exactly does the SSA staff and officials do, if not growing the membership?

Anyone? List it please.

If you are truly interested in what is and has happened you should review documents that were prepared for September 2015 BOD meeting at http://www.ssa.org/Bluebooks

Herb,

Why thank you! As Mr. Trump is leading every National poll (has been for many months), thanks for the rather impressive complement. If you had related me to Hillary Clinton the champion of "#untrustworthy" and an obvious liar and fraud, I would be shaken for sure. Of course, I would never support either of these fools. Moving on...

What have I contributed lately? I have offered to run a week long US Junior Nationals Contest next season (2 weeks before SGP USA while many of top international pilots will be on hand training). I am also hosting the first 2016 Sailplane Grand Prix USA. Both events will be held next summer. These are both fairly huge commitments in time, money and effort which I am more than happy to sacrifice as they are both important and highly relevant.

Why is Sailplane Grand Prix 2016 relevant.? Look at the response! Despite a massive conflict with other US contests, we have been able to generate a staggering response for the 2016 SGP USA, easily selling out nearly a full year before the competition begins in late July 2016. This includes 7 international pilots from Europe and Australia plus a HUGE Canadian response. In fact, SGP USA has attracted more top international talent than the USA has seen in decades (other than a World Championships). Developing and running either of these events is a huge undertaking. Especially the SGP USA with the requirement of attracting major corporate sponsors, a significant budget, significant entertainment challenges, live web broadcasts and commentating for the tracking system, major media interest (CNN, Eurosport to name a few) and, of course, real sailplane racing for these amazing sailplane pilots. What a great backdrop this could be for a 1st US Junior Nationals. "....crickets..." Anyway...

We have no "club" in Ionia. My wife and I are carrying 95% of the load. We literally will do everything necessary to get the job done and hope to have some support along the way. This has been the same program in Ionia for many years. The gang is aging out and out of gas. We are happy to do it.

SGP USA website: www.sgp.aero/usa2016

Meanwhile, the SSA has offered us zero support for either of these events. I could argue, exceedingly well, that the SSA support is actually "negative." What a missed opportunity on both counts. Much more on this later.

If offering to develop and deliver these fantastic competitions is not meaningful action for A) spurring on US Junior Soaring growth development and B) expanding US & International REAL Sailplane Racing, I have no idea what is. What else should I be doing for you?

What has the SSA done to develop youth soaring? What's the plan? Who's driving? Is it working? How is the SSAs performance measured? Who is accountable? What are the SSA "senior?" leaders key objectives? What are their functions, goals and responsabilities? What progress is being made towards these objectives? Where does youth soaring rank in their list of priorities? More crickets...

Why does the USA seem to underperform in so many areas while a small countries like Britain or Australia (as large and spread out as the USA claims to be, if not MORE) seem to excel?

I know these are challenging questions. But they need to be asked, often and endlessly until the but begins to turn again. we simply cannot afford to flail around like this any longer. Can we?

We need some strong, new, disciplined leadership & management and FAR less good old boys...

Sean
7T