Draft 2016 Spring SSA Board of Directors’ MeetingGreenville, South CarolinaFebruary 19 and 20, 2016

The meeting was called to order at 9:02 am

Directors present were: Chairman Ken Sorenson, First Vice Chair and Treasurer Phil Umphres, Vice Chair and Secretary Frank Whiteley, Vice Chair Geoff Weck, Vice Chair Richard Maleady, Ann Lafford, Jim Garrison, Lane Bush, John Lubon, Stephen Northcraft, Steve Leonard, Jay McDaniel, Bernald Smith, Gary Rubus, Jay Campbell, and Bill Hill. Also attending were Rich Carlson, John Godfrey, Denise Layton and Kathey Pope.

Welcome and Opening Remarks

1.0 Welcome and opening remarks from Chairman, Ken Sorenson.

A thank you to outgoing chairman Richard Maleady, with the appreciation of the Board expressed.

Chairman Sorenson introduced new Board members; Gary Rubus, Jay Campbell, and Bill Hill.

1.2 Introduction of guests.

The chairman introduced Chris Fleming, Rick Sheppe our IGC delegate, John Good and Pat Costello.

1.3 Chairman Sorenson asked if anyone had changes to their phone number or address to contact the Hobbs office.

2.0 Consent Agenda

2.1 Approval of past minutes (September 12, 2015)2.2 Proposed rules changes (report from John Godfrey)2.3 Approval of Stephen Dee and Ron Ridenour for another SSF three-year term

It was moved to remove 2.2 from the consent agenda. Item 2.1 and 2.3 were moved and approved.

The next item of business was 2.2 from Consent Agenda above. The proposal was to change logging intervals for contests from 4 seconds to 5 seconds. Motion was moved and approved.

3.0 Chairman’s Report (report from Ken Sorenson)

Sorenson advised his ambition was to grow the SSA. He presented a seven point strategy and discussion was held on how to grow the organization. Chairman Sorenson reported he’d started a clubs discussion Google group to enable discussion among clubs and it’s been successful to date. Bill Hill questioned why commercial operators are not included in Google groups and felt they should be. Chairman Sorenson agreed and advised he would add all of them.

4.0 Chief Operating Officer’s Report (report from Denise Layton)

A brief update on the convention was given. Layton also advised she was searching for 2018 convention venues. West is the preferred location. She is looking at Ontario, California but so far they are out of reach for us price wise. She is still searching and will report back.

Chairman Sorenson deviated from the agenda for John Good and Rick Sheppe as they were present.

6.3.1a The next item to come before the Board was a presentation from the Competition Committee Chairman, John Good. He advised the Board they were looking for volunteers for participants with qualifications for the handicap committee.

6.3.3 Next item was a report from the US Team Committee. The Team Committee is recommending substantial changes to team selection. The Chairman advised they were working on the recommendations and would present them to the Executive Committee for approval. Chair Sorenson brought this before the board to make sure the board was okay with the Executive Committee making the decision. After discussion, the topic was table to allow directors to review the only recently received proposal and that it would be revisited during the next day’s board session.

6.1.7 Next Rick Sheppe, the SSA’s IGC delegate asked the Board to give him suggestions during the year prior to the FAI meetings and he would present them on the SSA’s behalf.

5.0 Treasurer’s report. Treasurer Phil Umphres reviewed the financial results for SSA operations for 2015 and reported that SSA had finished 2015 with a positive result before non-cash expenses (depreciation and amortization.) He discussed the various components of SSA’s revenues and expenses and expressed particular concern regarding the on-going and long-term decline in dues revenue because of declining membership. He cautioned that if Chairman Sorenson’s efforts to grow the SSA membership were not successful, then in not too many years SSA would not be able to continue the existing levels of programs and staffing, even taking into account the ability to draw on revenue sources (such as the General Endowment and the Kunda Fund) that are available from the SSA Foundation. He suggested that it was time for the Board of Directors to begin thinking about structural changes to SSA that would be unavoidable if and when dues revenue dropped to the point where operating deficits became unavoidable without significant cost reductions.

Chairman Sorenson introduced Rick Larsen, EAA Vice President of Communities and Member Programs He discussed the new MOU between EAA and SSAsuggesting if both groups worked together they could help each other’s organizations. He thought this would be a good opportunity for each organization’s chapters to work together on projects. He advised all sport aviation organizations were experiencing declines in membership and a declining pilot population. EAA spent 10 years working on lifetime membership as well as three year memberships and auto renewals. Co-branded credit card programs are not producing the revenue like they used to. Like to see more visibility for gliding at Oshkosh. Luca’s aerobatic presentation made him a rock-star.

6.0 Committee Reports

6.1

6.1.2 SSA Foundation to be held first thing next session

6.1.3 Editor Bick explained his role in the creation of Soaring magazine as well as the role of the advisory committee. He asked that each Director reach out and ask people for articles. His biggest concern is having enough articles on hand to publish each month.

6.1.5 SSF Chairman Carlson advised each safety related article published in Soaring was revised by someone on the SSF Board. He advised beginning April 1, 2016 the FAA will stop automatically issuing a pilot certificate. Working on this.

Carlson advised their website had space for all phases of accidents/incidents to be posted to help others avert the same problems.

6.26.2.3 Jay McDaniel asked to be thinking of awards all year, not just when prompted.

6.2.4 Phil Umphres commented that Pat Costello advised we were in good standing with AIG. SSA insurance program running smoothly.

6.3

6.3.1b Rules Committee John Godfrey – Commented on safety. Long held position that there would be no external aid outside of the cockpit. As a result the rules committee signaled that FLARM would be operated in stealth mode in national contests. This followed an example of where this was done at the Harris Hill national contest. This resulted in an uproar from competitors and as a result of this and comments from out west that FLARM in stealth mode doesn’t pass muster, the proposal was dropped. He further shared that there are issues with motorgliders and low start attempts and failed starts and requested SSF help address this. Richard Carlson concurred.

6.3.1c Site Selection - John Lubon advised all contests had been taken care of for 2016. Item of business was approval of Sports Class proposed for Mifflin and Club Class proposed for Hobbs for 2017. Motion made and approved.

6.3.2

Motion beginning the 2016 contest season and subject to the SSA administration determinating that there are no endowment related limitations that the winner of the Hatcher Trophy be determined from the results of the Open, 18m, 15, Standard, and US Club Class national champtionships. Adds Club Class and removes World Class from this trophy.. Motion approved.

Motion beginning with the 2016 contest season and subject to the concurrence of the Mozer Family Trust the determination of the winner of the Mozer Junior Championship be determined from the results of the Open, 18m, 15m, Standard, and US Club Class championships. Motion approved. One opposed.

6.3.3 Presented 2/20

6.3.4 Lane Bush reported the tracking software was working well. Pedja had done some upgrade and the 2016 version should work well. Pedja continues to offer this to SSA at no charge.

The meeting was recessed until 9:00 a.m. on February 20, 2016.

6.1.2 The Board of Directors’ meeting resumed February 20, 2016 at 9:00 a.m. At that time, a meeting of the SSA Foundation was called to order.

The first item of business was approval of minutes from the September 12, 2015 meeting. Motion was made and approved.

The chairman of the Foundation gave a report and introduced a proposal to amend the foundation bylaws:

The proposal is to modify the bylaws to change the way the Annual Distribution Amount is calculated to become a rolling average of the current and prior two years. A 2/3 vote of all the members of the Foundation is required to adopt (10 regional directors plus seven directors at large). Therefore, twelve members must vote to adopt.

Motion: 11.1 ... the Chairman of the Foundation shall determine the AnnualDistributable Amount for the following calendar year by applying theAnnual Distribution Percentage to the average of the fair market values ofthe general endowment assets of the Foundation as of August 31st of thecurrent year and August 31st of the two prior years and shall...

The motion was moved and approved by 15 foundation members.

The next item of business was a proposal to pursue a letter of determination from the IRS.

WHEREAS:The SSA Foundation is organized as an IRC 509(a)(3) organization with the intent of being a Type I Supporting Organization to the SSA (a 501(c)(3) Public Charity) WHEREAS:The SSA Foundation has never received a letter of determination from the IRS making it eligible as an organization eligible to receive tax deductible contributions WHEREAS:In the past donors have, and may in the future make bequests directly to the Foundation with the expectation that their donations will be tax deductible. WHEREAS:The Foundation believes it in its best interest to make all reasonable effort to ensure that donations made in good faith receive the donors’ desired tax treatment RESOLVED:The Trustees are instructed to do the necessary due diligence to determine that, if a Letter of Determination were received from the IRS making the Foundation an organization eligible to receive tax deductible contributions, such determination would not negatively impact the public charity status of the SSA or the current operations of the SSA and SSAF.

FURTHER RESOLVEDThe Trustees are instructed to, given a favorable outcome of the due diligence, do the necessary to seek a Letter of Determination from the IRS for the SSAF.

Motion was made and approved by 15 foundation members.

There being no further business to come before the members of the SSA Foundation, the meeting was adjourned and the regular meeting of the SSA Directors reconvened at 9:15 a.m.

6.4

6.4.2 The report is in the book with nothing further to add.

6.4.3 Bernald Smith gave his report.

6.4.4 Geoff Weck advised there were no volunteers for Sun N Fun this year so SSA would not be represented. He was working with several people for EAA AirVenture and things were progressing.

Geoff discussed the new agreement with EAA and what needed to be done. A separate meeting would be held during the convention to go over a plan, and he will report back to the Board.

Chairman Sorenson advised looking for new chairman of Growth committee and there would be a meeting at 3:00 p.m. after the speaker sessions

6.3.3 Pete Alexander discussed US Team Committee report and suggested changes to selection process Chair Sorenson discussed board and EXCOM suspenses for review and approval of suggested changes to selection process. No change would push any changes into the next selection cycle.

6.5

6.5.1 No reports were filed. Frank Whiteley shared that the Clubs & Chapters Committee fields frequent calls and e-mailed shared by the SSA office.

Two chapters have received 501(c)(3) determinations that were previously unreported.

2-3 other chapters are working on similar determinations

Members of one chapter wanted to ban members with diabetes. Exchanged with and referred chapter leadership to Quay Snyder and Dan Johnson for guidance. Both confirmed even airline pilots fly with diabetes.

Discussed clubs & chapters issues at the Focus on Clubs luncheon.

6.5.2 Discussed lapsed members SSA State Governors have new and lapsed member views so they may reach out as local SSA leadership. Discussed at Governors and Record Keepers breakfast. Still vacancies in Washington, Arkansas, Rhode Island, and others.

Some members are aging out of the sport both as soaring pilots and tow pilots.

6.5.3 Digital media - Facebook. Used a boost for the convention, will see if it works.

Caesar Creek Soaring Club reported good results promoting ‘fall color’ scenic flights.

Leading Edge Soaring Club (formerly Lake Elsinore) reported success with recruiting with Facebook.

6.5.4 J.P. Stewart is new chair of Youth Committee.

Frank Whiteley commented that we have an overlap with Youth and Juniors and would be approaching both ranges with youth opportunities and junior development; racing and instructor development.

6.5.5 COBMs are hard to communicate with. Need to reach out to them to help some improve their website and digital media presence.

Bermuda High Soaring Society sets the standard for customer oriented Facebook posts with both image and narrative that tells a story. Not many flight images.

Sugar Bush Soaring Association emphasizes the local scenery.

Sky Sailing has more soaring images, but little narrative.

Northwest Skysports does several customer rides videos daily/weekly.

6.5.6 US Southwest Soaring Museum making changes since George Applebay’s death.

Geoff Weck commented all affiliates and divisions are supposed to be 100% SSA members. Frank Whiteley will discuss with Kayla to pull a report to make sure they are. Geoff mentioned League of Silent Flight.

7.0 Regional Directors’ Reports

7.1 Ann Lafford everything is going well in her region. Two contests are planned for 2016 and many clubs are having youth camps. Only problem is DPEs, just not enough.

7.2 Jim Garrison one club in his region had disbanded. He also advised DPEs were hard to find.

7.3 Lane Bush advised member, Ron Alexander, hoping to grow a youth training operation. Will advise any updates. Everything else going okay.

7.4 John Lubon advised his region was hosting several youth camps. They are working with youth to run the camps. Good response.

7.5 GeoffWeck advised no problems in his area. Everyone in hibernation now, but will soon be busy during summer.

7.6 Steve Northcraft advised they were having a big glider display at a the Museum of Flight and running the Cloudstreet movie.

7.7 Frank Whiteley advised many operations in his region have been very active with OLC camps.

Gary Rubus commented that there had been foreign visitors to Moriarty and that there is good synergy between Sundance and Albuquerque Soaring Club and that the USAFA cadets had been there for the OLC/XC camps and were a positive addition.

Bill Hill added that the 1-26 Championships will be at Moriarty on a three-year rotation.

7.8 Steve Leonard advised one club in Oklahoma recently purchased a tow plane and their activity has doubled. Working in his area to still show the Cloudstreet video. It was shown on IMAX by Kansas Soaring.

7.9 Jay McDaniel advised his region remained steady.

Five minute break taken at 10:44 a.m. Meeting resumed at 10:53 a.m.

9.0

9.1 Chairman Sorenson discussed his growth initiatives which he is working on. Some won’t happen overnight, but he’s hoping to grow the membership. Like director inputs.

Websites, templates and current content. ABC badges and lack of SSA Instructors, encourage this. Underutilization of e-News. Time and lack of content. CFI-G’s what can SSA do? Incentive or encampments. Template for CFI-G

encampments. Add-on ratings and approach to rated pilots in understanding the sky and

reaching out to them. Items in other magazines. Coordinate SSA advertising and cost of doing so.

OLC camps and mentoring aimed at retention. FAAST seminars with glider presentations (Lane Bush) PASCO offered incentives to move into cross country flying (Daniel) Task flying and cross country camps (Garrison and Lubon) How to find a missing pilot (Rubus)

Don’t make promises we can’t keep.9.2 Director Rubus commented there was a new movie in the works. Not a lot of information on it at this time, but this will be a high quality IMAX film. Chair Sorenson will sign a letter endorsing this project.

9.3 NSM Board Trustee appointment. It was moved and approved to reappoint Dody Wyman as an SSA appointee to this position. Four abstentions.

9.4 SSA merchandise - Layton gave a report to the Board concerning how much money was invested in the merchandise department. Also a list was presented of the bestselling items to the least selling items. After discussion the Board agreed Layton was doing a good job in managing this department and no changes were advised.

9.5 Release of SSA Election Results – Moved and approved to make rules committee, team committee and regional director election results available on the SSA members only side of the web site.

9.6 The 2021 World Air Games will be held in Birmingham, Alabama. Chair Sorenson requested the Directors should start thinking of how much presence the SSA should have. Eric Bick advised this is World Games. Aviation will be a smaller presence than World Air Games.

Motion from Gary Rubus to provide visibility on services and costs and budgeting of the SSA.

Phil Umphres moved to delete all of the preambles except 1 and 3 and renumber 3 as number 2. Approved.

Motion as amended:

1. WHEREAS, the Society provides a services to its membership, clubs, and commercial operatorsthrough a variety of programs that include:InsuranceMagazineWebsiteContest SupportChapter SupportBusiness Member SupportBadge and Record SupportGovernment LiaisonSailplane TrackingMerchandisingConventions

2. WHEREAS, to exercise effective governance and management the Board needs a clear pictureof the real costs of providing all services.

NOW, THEREFORE, the Board resolves to:1. Direct the Budget and Finance Committee to develop and prepare a management analysisassessing all revenues, costs, and budget projections for the following individual programs:MembershipMagazineBadges and RecordsMerchandisingFASTContest SupportConventionWebsiteGlider TrackingGovernment LiaisonChapter SupportBusiness Member SupportGeneral and Administrative not attributed to the above programs

Frank Whiteley commented that it would be useful to include the value of voluntary time as a measure of the value of the efforts of SSA volunteers in committees. This time is not deductible but is useful in reporting when applying for grants or other support. Museum docents are one example of how this voluntary time adds to the value of their programs.

Approved.

Break at 12:03 p.m.

9.7 The next meeting of the Board of directors will be held in Dallas, Texas on September 10, 2016. Moved and approved.

Moved and approved to adjourn with no further business coming before the Board.