Important update from SSA

5-BG wrote:
Vaughn;
Perhaps your assessment re mag is right for many. Personally, the
main tangible SSA benefit i receive is access to cut rate insurance
through the group plan. In my case this is worth about $500 per year.

FWIW, I get USAIG glider insurance through PIK*West out here in
California, for many years it has nearly always cheaper than the SSA
group plan...

Marc

5-BG wrote:
Perhaps your assessment re mag is right for many. Personally, the main tangible SSA benefit i receive is access to cut rate insurance through the group plan.

First of all, I am not a glider owner. I would be interested to see the stats on glider ownership for the SSA membership. When I was an exclusive glider pilot, I priced both the SSA and other plans. For the last few years that I flew gliders exclusively, renter's insurance through SSA was, in fact, cheaper. But now life is not so simple, I also fly powered, so SSA insurance won't "cut it". I get my renter's insurance through AOPA (good for both powered and gliders), and I would bet money that I am one of many SSA members that does.

by the way, Access to reasonable insurance impacts EVERYONE WHO FLYS.

True enough, but few people take such a selfless view that they would want to pay SSA dues exclusively to help SOMEONE ELSE get cheap insurance.

I suppose that there are members who no longer fly, but i would guess that their numbers are few.

I am not so sure about that. I would be willing to bet that there are many dues-paying SSA members that are not glider-current. Since we no longer have a glider operation in my area, I happen to be one of them at present.

Vaughn




"5-BG" 5-bghatesspam @ fake.com wrote in message ...
Vaughn;
Perhaps your assessment re mag is right for many. Personally, the main tangible SSA benefit i receive is access to cut rate insurance through the group plan. In my case this is worth about $500 per year. I checked. The discussions on safety, the instructor's corner, and classifieds ( in that order) are my reads. But to each his own.. SUSPENSION of the mag for a year may lose some members, but i really do not see any other place to come up with a chunk of money that large. An e-mail newsletter could be a substitute during the reorganization.
IMHO the mag is not viable as a stand alone commercial venture. Since it eats up roughly 50% of dues each year to produce and distribute ( say $30 to $35 per member) that would be the MINIMUM breakeven price for a subscription ASSUMING all members subscribed. not going to happen at that price.
by the way, Access to reasonable insurance impacts EVERYONE WHO FLYS. Not just those of us who own personal planes. Renter's insurance, club insurance and FBO insurance for gliders is a must for everyone. I suppose that there are members who no longer fly, but i would guess that their numbers are few.
"Vaughn Simon" wrote in message news 5-BG wrote:
It is possible to recover from the requirement to come up with $200,000 to $500,000 by eliminating the magazine expenses for about a year and reducing expenditures to the bone.

Actually not. I guarantee you, if the magazine stops going out, the dues will stop coming in. You can't have one without the other. Soaring magazine is the only tangable benefit of membership for most of us members. Take away the magazine and there is not only little reason to continue sending in dues, but you cut off the membership from regular communications with their organization (out of sight, out of mind).

For all of the complaints, I think that Soaring is an amazing magazine (considering the resources of the SSA). If the SSA goes away, I hope at least the magazine remains as a commercial venture.

Vaughn

Problem here Frank......I subscribed many times, and for some reason that no
one can figure out, I never get it. In this case, my director is nice enough
to forward it to me.


Brian
"Frank Whiteley" wrote in message
oups.com...

T o d d P a t t i s t wrote:
wrote:

Text attached below:
Just kidding! You know where to find it.

As an SSA member since 1971 I think it's stupid to limit
this information to the SSA members who actually go to the
SSA website and click on a tiny "important news" icon. I
might never have known about the seriousness of this issue
if not for the original post here. I'm grateful for that
post. Even after I knew the contents of the letter, it took
me some time to find any hint of the problem on the SSA
website.

I've reluctantly decided to honor the SSA's decision about
how they want to handle distributing this information, but I
think it's shortsighted and extremely unfair to new members.
The SSA is in trouble and we need all the friends we can
get. To gain trust, we need to be as open as possible. The
first letter was good start, but it should have been front
and center on the web page. The update letter is even
better. I'd like to see it here.
--
T o d d P a t t i s t - "WH" Ventus C
(Remove DONTSPAMME from address to email reply.)

All SSA members have been invited numerous times to subscribe to SSA
eNews. The letter and update first arrived here by that means. Highly
recommended. The SSA eNews also provides other useful and timely
information. Once subscribed, it takes little effort to stay informed.

Frank Whiteley

Mark

You must know someone, AIG was much higher for my towplane, without going
through SSA group.

Brian
"Marc Ramsey" wrote in message
...
5-BG wrote:
Vaughn;
Perhaps your assessment re mag is right for many. Personally, the main
tangible SSA benefit i receive is access to cut rate insurance through
the group plan. In my case this is worth about $500 per year.

FWIW, I get USAIG glider insurance through PIK*West out here in
California, for many years it has nearly always cheaper than the SSA group
plan...

Marc

Brian,

In a word, Earthlink, if that's the e-mail you used to try and
subscribe. The spam controls for Earthlink require a positive input by
the sender, not something list servers do. I personally find the
Earthlink model a bit annoying, but suppose it's effective. We do our
spam filtering, accept and reject lists, on a SQL server on the user
end. Earthlink and some of the others have also used some rather
spurious RBL services, requring list and server admins to jump through
all sorts of hoops to whitelist non-spamming domains, tailor
reverse-lookup replies for static IP assignments, and so on. Depending
on how the list server works and how challenges and errors are sent to
the list admins, you may have no chance of getting on some lists with
Earthlink due to the challenge/reply door. A Yahoo mail or Google
Gmail account is often a good work around, though you seem to have
found another.

Frank Whiteley

Brian Glick wrote:
Problem here Frank......I subscribed many times, and for some reason that no
one can figure out, I never get it. In this case, my director is nice enough
to forward it to me.


Brian
"Frank Whiteley" wrote in message
oups.com...

T o d d P a t t i s t wrote:
wrote:

Text attached below:
Just kidding! You know where to find it.

As an SSA member since 1971 I think it's stupid to limit
this information to the SSA members who actually go to the
SSA website and click on a tiny "important news" icon. I
might never have known about the seriousness of this issue
if not for the original post here. I'm grateful for that
post. Even after I knew the contents of the letter, it took
me some time to find any hint of the problem on the SSA
website.

I've reluctantly decided to honor the SSA's decision about
how they want to handle distributing this information, but I
think it's shortsighted and extremely unfair to new members.
The SSA is in trouble and we need all the friends we can
get. To gain trust, we need to be as open as possible. The
first letter was good start, but it should have been front
and center on the web page. The update letter is even
better. I'd like to see it here.
--
T o d d P a t t i s t - "WH" Ventus C
(Remove DONTSPAMME from address to email reply.)

All SSA members have been invited numerous times to subscribe to SSA
eNews. The letter and update first arrived here by that means. Highly
recommended. The SSA eNews also provides other useful and timely
information. Once subscribed, it takes little effort to stay informed.

Frank Whiteley