Merging the SBSA & SCPA discussion boards

[Chris G]

Interesting that you could do a post without logged in. I've got it set to restrict it to registered users but maybe I set it wrong.

[Chris G]

Nevermind, I sorted it out. Only registered users could create a new topic, but anyone could respond. Fixed now.

[andy]

I read on Aarons post that sbsa pays the insurance on the local sites. I have been told by local instructors and others that the insurance is covered by USHPA dues. I am mistaken or could someone fill me in on who pays and who they pay.

[secretary]

Chris, I think our community wants our board to be easy and simple to use. Our membership has expressed it’s preference of permitting participation without log in if possible.

As administrators, we often need to act unilaterally to be cost effective, but we also need to balance our impulse when representing the interest of others. We occasionally must exercise restraint and ascertain what our community wants before we act. We agreed we would tolerate some spam, but would reconsider our policy if the spam became excessive. Permitting anonymous replies clearly hasn’t been a problem if you didn’t notice it was enabled. I don’t think our community wants additional restrictions just because the tools are in the box. The configuration wasn’t “set wrong” if it worked for our membership.

As per Article 8 of our SCPA bylaws ( http://scpa.info/bylaws/current/set.htm ), proposing items of substance requires a minimum 2 week notification prior to a membership vote. I would consider changing the login requirements of our discussion board to be an item of substance.

What happened to my anonymous test posting (signed in article as secretary) in reply to your reply to my posting on login functionality? I consider it poor etiquette to delete reasonable postings from a discussion without the author’s consent, and in this case it clearly alters the perception of myself and this thread.

Authority should be matched with responsibility. In this case, moderators should not abuse their authority by altering or deleting on point postings by others. If a moderator does inadvertently alter a posting, then the moderator should make an entry to explain why the alteration occurred and or reconstruct for the record the original posting.

Thank you for your diligent and well intentioned technical support.

[pengoquin]

Andy as I recall the local club, school or whatever, obtain specific site insurance from USHPA. The location to be insured, such as Marshall or Woodrat get approval from USHPA, I believe the local director recomends the action to be taken. The requesting group then pays for the additional insurance, the payment isn't much per site, a couple of hundred per year I think it's pretty much an admin fee. This insurance is to protect the site and supplements your individual USHPA coverage. This extra coverage protects launch and LZ property owners.

[Ramey]

Your USHPA dues cover the damage you might do to third parties. That is why one of the requirements for landing on the beach is that one be a USHPA member. This permits us to tell the city that each pilot coming in there has $1,000,000 insurance against any damage he might do.

Site insurance is a different thing. It protects site owners/administrators from damages they might be subject to in this capacity. As I recall, we in the past have made arrangements with some sites like oat mountain to be sure they are covered in exchange for re-imbursement for the extra expense of adding sites.

It's been some time since I was on the board of directors of the SBSA, but I believe that the general rules still apply.

Robert ramey

[Skippy]

Dear SCPA (and SBSA for that matter),

I'm personally in favour of joining Forums for a variety of reasons:
1) We fly the same friendly skies
2) We share the same thermals
3) We get stoked about flying on the same days
4) We post about the same flights.
5) We are friends
6) More and more pilots are now becoming biwingual (or is it biwingwal?!!)

Basically, we are one flying community, so why not share one forum? I'm not one to promote segregation, to the contrary. I think that joining forums would be a great way to bridge the gap between both clubs. I’m really excited to hear that sharing forums might even be a possibility.

I would therefore personally welcome wholeheartedly the offer to join forums if SCPA is willing to extend us that offer. As for the cost aspect of maintaining the SCPA forum, I think we can easily come up to an agreement. The amount of money involved is small enough that it shouldn't interfere with the decision-making process. I would hate to see us bicker over a few $$ at the expense of pilot relations. Working together is much more important in my opinion.

On a side note, after reading some of the posts, I realize that a number of pilots may not be aware of the expenses covered by SBSA, for the benefit of all local HG and PG pilots, so I’d like to expand on it a bit, if you don’t mind. If local HG and PG pilots ever fly/land at Cieniguitas, East Beach, Training Hill, Wilcox or St Mary’s, and/or even call Debbie on a regular basis, I would encourage them to support SBSA by being a member, even if you already belong to other club(s). SBSA pays in excess of $700 per year for site insurance for all HG and PG pilots for those sites. SBSA also covers the monthly fee and maintenance costs for Debbie. SBSA also paid in excess of $2500 in legal fees recently in our efforts to maintain an LZ at Cieniguitias for all HGs and PGs despite the upcoming developments. Many human hours have also been spent on behalf of all pilots to save Cieniguitas and secure East Beach, which are enjoyed by many of us on a regular basis. This is of course, priceless. We’ve always maintained a laid-back approach to membership, keeping the fees as low as possible (currently only $25/year), and voluntary. Many other club fees are mandatory, and much more expensive (think Kagel, for e.g.). So, I really encourage all local HG and PG pilots to support SBSA, as we all benefit from it.

I look forward to hearing SCPA’s final feedback on the forum topic. I think joining forums will be a great asset to our local flying community.

All the best,
Skippy – SBSA President.