Soaring Society of America

Soaring Society of America
Minutes of the Executive Committee
Telephone Conference Meeting
May 26, 2009

Meeting was called to order at 8:00 p.m. EST by Chairman Umphres.
Attending: Chairman Umphres, Vice Chairmen Tyler and Dezzutti, Secretary Brickner, Treasurer Pixton, CAO Layton. Counsel Dean Carswell.
Approval of Minutes:
Board meeting minutes of 4/14/09 and 4/28/09 were circulated. Pixton moved, Brickner second to approve, motion carried.
Treasurer’s Report:
April saw $139,000 in operating revenue. Largest transaction was deposit on Hilton Cup account. SSA retains administrative fee for processing per the MOU for Hilton Cup. Accounting services were ~$10,000 for audit, which is underway. Membership and contributions are under YTD estimates a little.
Expenses are over budget some on this period for digitizing the magazine and sailplane directory. Postage expense under budget due to distribution numbers. Reviewed balances in accounts. Complemented staff on cost controls.
Old Business:
Review Action Items – Brickner.

Little Rock Convention – Layton

Publicity oversight? Working with Paget and Promotions Committee. Inviting Balloon Federation and USHGPA. Pixton will send contact information to Layton/Umphres for direct contact to USHGPA Executive Director. Umphres will copy Layton on the invitation to USHGPA.
Layton working on speakers, contacting now. Three tracks going, by adding the OSTIV technical track. Layton has Keynote speaker suggestions and will report back by next meeting. Preston Birch was suggested to Layton by Pixton.
3. 2012 World Gliding Championship update – Tyler

Linda Murray has progress under control, drafting fundraising to Byers, Mozers, funding ground launch efforts. Tasking efforts, refining Business plan for Uvalde. Next ExComm meeting needs a timeline published to ExComm. Action Item required. Tyler sees working with Uvalde citizens as biggest issue.
E-news status --Layton, Dezzutti
Last week began distribution to entire membership on push program. Only four members opted out. Next issue needs a clear opt-out button. Discussed the schedule of publication. Consensus was to allow flexible schedule and volume based on timeliness and content. Layton volunteers staff to edit and publish. Currently falls under Tarrant’s responsibility.
Umphres tasks Layton to write a mission statement for E-News, to include linking policy, free publication schedule, and staff assignment; do work in Word publishing format and Coyne to convert into Constant Contact format.

New Business:

1. Formal approval of reappointment of Eric Mozer and Rick Sheppe to the International Gliding Commission – Umphres

Brickner moved for reappointment, Pixton second. Motion carries.

Replacement for Dennis Fisher as Region 6 Director – Umphres Fisher also left nominating committee duties. After referencing Bylaws, the Board will elect a replacement at the September meeting.

3. Elections planning for Fall Board meeting -- Umphres

Nominations committee: Serving were Fisher –Dezzutti - Easton. Suggested were Bob Jackson, Frank Whiteley, Dean Carswell and Mike Koerner. Umphres will be Chair. Open seats in Regions 6 and 7 have four names for candidates there. Need 7 directors-at-large plus officers.
SSF - Gene Hammond and Stephen Dee expire the end of this year. Carswell or Umphres to talk to CArlson about needs in SSF.
SSAF - Pete Brown and John Daly expire the end of this year
World Distance Award – Pixton
Eisenbeiss approached to ask for resolution on expenses submitted for 4-5 years of this program. Policy from our web site was researched. $415 in reconstructed income on the program. No receipts for back years. Settle and close this item was consensus. Report back at next meeting on resolution.
Membership Tracking – Pixton
How does the tracker ‘count’ folks for our scale of growth or loss? Business BM, and Bus Full, Bu Fam, described by Brickner for human head count. Pixton keeps refining reporting for next meeting. Copeland to send data for last year to Pixton. Action item.

Pegasus status – Umphres
FAA letter on life limits arrived. We can only recommend owners to respond to FAA directly. France has no data for supporting life limits. Umphres got one email from Pegasus owner in Region 2. Complimentary through Dianne. Northcraft will write an item/history for magazine report.

6. Publishing Donation -- Layton

David Robertson formerly of Arizona, now in Michigan would like to help with electronic publishing Soaring and the Sailplane Directory onto a CD-ROM or DVD.
Layton reports staff efforts and all digitized files on hand already. Cross-check with Easton, make these projects compatible. Umphres notes the New Yorker Magazine is available on a little portable hard drive playing card size on USB drive. Check with Easton and Titian Scholtemeyer.
Need update from Doug and Titian on the two on-line projects. Web architechture work needed prior to data importing. Titian and Dean Carswell are working on content insertion. Layton is scanning better images for the Sailplane Directoy. Mid-year report to members by Umphres to be published. Action item.
Other competent business: None offered.
Next meeting will be Tuesday July 14, 2009. Umphres thanks all for attendance through the duration.
Dezzutti moves, Tyler seconds to adjourn. Adjourned at 9:45 pm EDT.

Submitted,
C. Brickner
Secretary