About the Governance of the Soaring Society of America

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I was taking a look at the most recent meeting minutes and came across this paragraph.

"Director Maleady addressed, as Treasurer, that he has no idea how the Youth/Junior Committee is spending, how they’re raising money, and ended using a $5,000 donation from the museum in putting on a camp. We were not aware of it. Director Schrader offered that CEO Layton was aware of it. Director Maleady said they were aware after the fact and that the museum wanted to give the money to the club and not the SSA because they feared the SSA would misuse the money. The plan was that some of the money would be used to reimburse the pilots that flew with juniors. Director Maleady also mentioned that Director Whiteley approves expenditures. Director Whiteley interjected that he had nothing to do with the junior camps and contest financials. This discussion taken off line."

In the spirit of transparency, can you please explain the results of the discussion that was “taken off lineâ€�?Â*Can you please explain how the Youth/Junior Committee is spending money? Also, can you explain why the museum “feared that the SSA would misuse the moneyâ€�?

Rhonda Clerkin

On Saturday, May 4, 2019 at 12:05:04 PM UTC-4, wrote:
I was taking a look at the most recent meeting minutes and came across this paragraph.

"Director Maleady addressed, as Treasurer, that he has no idea how the Youth/Junior Committee is spending, how they’re raising money, and ended using a $5,000 donation from the museum in putting on a camp. We were not aware of it. Director Schrader offered that CEO Layton was aware of it.. Director Maleady said they were aware after the fact and that the museum wanted to give the money to the club and not the SSA because they feared the SSA would misuse the money. The plan was that some of the money would be used to reimburse the pilots that flew with juniors. Director Maleady also mentioned that Director Whiteley approves expenditures. Director Whiteley interjected that he had nothing to do with the junior camps and contest financials. This discussion taken off line."

In the spirit of transparency, can you please explain the results of the discussion that was “taken off lineâ€�?Â*Can you please explain how the Youth/Junior Committee is spending money? Also, can you explain why the museum “feared that the SSA would misuse the moneyâ€�?

Rhonda Clerkin

Hi Rhonda,

Excellent and fair question - I can certainly see how reading that in an isolated context would leave a lot of questions open. Unfortunately, I was not at the board meeting so I cannot speak to the events in the report but can help clarify a few factual elements.

- In order to further encourage soaring among those under 26 and build a strong foundation for the future of the sport, the SSA's Youth/Junior Committee began organizing a yearly contest to bring together young pilots and provide mentoring opportunities. Both anecdotal accounts and empirical data (going back to similar camps hosted as far back as 2005), show that the retention rates among these pilots are extremely high. In fact, not only do a large majority of these pilots continue soaring into adulthood (even with kids, changes in jobs or careers, and growing families), but many have given back to the sport in ways that are almost unimaginable – some becoming CFI-G and/or DPE, others have become commercial operators, professional pilots, aerospace engineers, or leaders in their local glider clubs, and a majority of former Junior campers continue to fly cross-country or participate in regional and national soaring contests to this day (a handful winning one or more national championships and/or having been selected to the U.S.. Team, either as a Junior, or the Women’s Team, or to the U.S. Team).

- Recognizing that even with the SSA's junior rebates, the cost and difficulty of participation (hotels, gliders availability, hull insurance costs, food, transport) is still a significant barrier to entry for many (especially the younger juniors), the committee choose to establish a two-seat class (where juniors fly with experienced mentors in gliders provided by the organization) and a traditional, racing single-seat class that’s recognized by the SSA as a sanctioned regional contest (awarding ranking points to the entrants).

- To further lower the barrier, the contest would provide resources beyond what is expected at a traditional regional contest (i.e., pooling housing and food costs), and the organizing committee found generous sponsors who further subsidized the costs to the juniors (for example the Rick Walters Scholarship Fund and the National Soaring Museum).

- These camps have been very successful. Since 2016, 54 Juniors have participated in the four events that were hosted at Texas Soaring Association, Harris Hill, Sandhill Soaring Club, and Williams Soaring Center. They included many firsts - contest, task completion, landouts, regional wins, etc.

- Director Whiteley authorizes disbursements in the management of the flight training scholarships and not for the event - this is what likely lead to the confusion in the board meeting. To avoid any conflicts of interest in the organizing committee, expenses and documentation of such for the event are submitted directly to the SSA office for approval and disbursement and the accounting is managed through normal SSA processes.

- The comment "because they feared the SSA would misuse the money" is missing critical context. There was a concern in initial discussions that the donation may just go into a general donation bucket that could be used for the SSA's general operating expenses and not go 100% to the junior event. After clarification that the donation would go into a restricted account for the 2018 junior camp/contest expenses only (and any leftover monies would remain with JYC to fund future junior camps), the NSM chose to make it's $5,000 donation directly to the SSA and no further concerns were raised after that clarification."

I hope that helps - please don't hesitate to reach out if you have any other questions.

Best,
JP Stewart
Youth/Junior Committee Co-Chair

Rhonda,

My apologies. This was brought to my attention earlier this week and this is the first chance I’ve had to respond in earnest.

I’m not sure why exactly but Richard Maleady, who was appointed Treasurer in January of 2018, wasn’t aware the SSA’s Junior/Youth Committee (“JYC�) had been soliciting donor funding (with approval from ExCom and the Board since early 2017), to help fund Junior Camp Contests and supplement any funding that had been coming from the Contest Committee's Junior Rebate Program. I should note, the newly created Development and Fundraising Committee was aware of JYC’s fundraising activities too, as I also sit on that committee, and at least two others who attend ExCom were involved in some capacity or another with the setup and testing of donor portals that were launched on the SSA and U.S. Junior Soaring websites in February 2018. In any event, my best guess is Richard probably wasn’t familiar because they were relatively new initiatives that preceded him and things were running smoothly, and they continue to do so today. See the end of this promotional video commissioned by the SSA at JYC and the Growth & Retention Committee’s request: https://youtu.be/RZEIUC0YiPM

As for what was said during the meeting, I attempted to correct the record, and as memory recalls Richard still didn't have an accurate understanding of what transpired so in order to move the meeting along it was agreed that Richard and I would move the conversation off-line so I had a chance to bring him up to speed. Off-line we discussed that JYC had solicited donations from individuals and from the National Soaring Museum (“NSM�), to fund the 2018 Junior Camp Contest and future camps, and that such donations largely helped subsidize the camp such that JYC didn't take a draw from the Contest Committee's Junior Rebate Program in 2018. There were concerns at NSM that if a donation was made to the SSA that it might not be used as earmarked for JYC but rather might be used for general operation expenses. This was resolved between Denise Layton and I, and we agreed that the donation be made to the SSA's JYC and earmarked to fund the camp as intended. As a Director, and with Denise's approval, I gave assurances through JP Stewart to Kevin Christener of the NSM that such would be the case and that the funds would be utilized by JYC to fund the 2018 camp, and any leftover monies would be held by JYC to fund future Junior Camp Contests. Director Maleady and I agreed that in the future I (or somebody else from JYC), keep him apprised of our activities.

I hope this answers your questions relating to oversight and sheds some light on Richard’s comments. As reported his comments would have led me to have had some questions about what transpired too.

With that said, I’m a strong proponent of JYC and U.S. Junior Soaring. I firmly believe the SSA/Costello/Purduski/Stoffel Youth Flight Training Scholarships (a separate program from the Junior Camp Contest), the Junior Camp Contest, and other JYC initiatives are an integral component of growing the sport. Essentially, we’re developing the future leaders of this sport.

Sincerely,

Chris Schrader, SSA Director Region 6

Committee Assignments:
Growth & Retention (former Chairperson)
Clubs & Chapters
Junior/Youth
Development & Fundraising

JP & Chris—

Thank you for your clarifying replies. I am not questioning the good that you do for the sport and getting youth involved.

But I do think there is a larger problem -- that the right hand doesn’t know what the left hand is doing – that is indicated in those meeting minutes. I think this is where we got into trouble as an organization 10-15 years ago. Everyone was just doing their own thing, and no one was keeping the big picture in focus. I think the SSA is lacking an overall strategic leadership. All of the individual parts are important, but if there is no collaboration, what is the purpose of the SSA?

For example, did you know that we (business members of the SSA) in conjunction with the EAA are providing free introductory ground school classes (a $100 value) for anyone that has taken a Young Eagles flight? The SSA wasn’t interested in talking to us about this because we are a for-profit company. Just in 2019 we have had 28 youth sign up and take the first phase of online ground school with us.

I think we have a larger problem than just getting more young people to fly gliders.

Rhonda Clerkin
www.GLIDERBOOKS.com