FLASH: SSA Revises Rules Committee Elections and Pilot Opinion Polls

Effective immediately, SSA are revising the voting process used to
elect Rules Committee members and to survey pilots on upcoming
rules-related comps issues.

Presently pilots on SSA's seeding list avail themselves of online
Internet survey forms for voting purposes each year. In order to do so,
each pilot inputs his/her name and SSA member number to verify
eligibility.

[N.B.: The current election/opinion poll is open until October 14 at
http://206.168.3.4/survey/surveys.php ]

Commencing next week, there will be a new wrinkle in this online survey
process. Pilots will be required to enter their credit card
information. This is to facilitate transitioning from the previous "one
pilot/one vote" concept in favour of "one dollar/one vote."

To wit, pilots will be charged $10 to vote in either the Rules
Committee election or the Pilot Opinion Poll. Further, each pilot will
have the option of authorizing an additional charge; each incremental
dollar will add one vote to that pilot's selection(s).

In keeping with the spirit of the independent glider pilot who made
this sport great, there will be no maximum limit on these additional
amounts. If a pilot has a particularly strong opinion about this
candidate or that issue (e.g., finish gate vs. finish cylinder), he/she
can influence voting to the tune of 50, 100, even 1,000 votes, at a
rate of one dollar per vote. SSA plan to accept all major credit cards
plus PayPal.

It is expected that some will decry this change, whining that moneyed
interests already hold too much sway in the political and legislative
arenas. But other, more forward-thinking individuals are likely to
embrace the transparency and implicit common sense of this brilliant
proposal. After all, gliding is an expensive sport. Those few who
participate at comps are thought to be more well off than the average
club pilot. And those at the top of the competitive pyramid typically
hesitate not at all to invest in a new glider every three to five
years, not to mention upgrading flight computers, navigation software,
ELTs, and the like on a nearly annual basis. Why, then, having invested
substantially larger sums in gliding, should they not have a
disproportionate voice in how the sport is governed on the playing
field?

Still, this is America, the world's oldest democracy. If other,
less-economically privileged comps pilots have equally strong views,
why should they have to gnash their teeth in frustration and lobby,
with infuriatingly feeble results, to alter the views of certain
blinkered Rules Committee cronies? Why not allow these individuals to
marshal their funds as a group and submit them directly thru the voting
process--the results of which the Committee shall be required to abide
by--rather than indulge in a pathetic letter-writing or
get-out-the-vote campaign?

Apart from the clarity and fairness of the new system, which links the
representation and governance of comps pilots directly with those most
financially able to play the game, the other principle attraction is
that the proceeds will accrue directly to the U.S. Team Fund coffers!
If the electoral process in the U.S.A. at large were to follow suit,
diverting the hundreds of millions, if not billions, of dollars that
flow to the media each Presidential and Congressional election season
into other worthy channels, doubtless this country could win the war on
poverty, pay off the national debt, and have enough left over to
purchase a PW5 for every secondary school in the land.

There are, as yet, no plans to introduce "one dollar/one vote" to SSA's
annual board of directors' elections as hardly any SSA members
participate now, even in the few contested elections.

SoarPoint
)

SoarPoint wrote:
Effective immediately, SSA are revising the voting process used to
elect Rules Committee members and to survey pilots on upcoming
rules-related comps issues.
etc.
Isn't it a little early for an April Fool joke?