Objection!

[Bo Criss]

Tonight I was nominated for Elings Park Liaison by Scotty Angel - a longstanding and contributing member of the SBSA. The current Park Liaison tried to make it clear that this was not an office that "really could be voted on". ???? As the nominations were read back by the substitute secretary I noticed that indeed Scotty's nomination for me being the Elings Park Liaison was omitted.

I have a few questions.

1. Has the current liaison done a good job this year?

2. Is there a conflict of interest in having a board member be the liaison to the club?

3. Is there a monopoly on the training hill?

4. Does Scotty Angel have the right to nominate officers for the club?

5. Anybody think this is kind of funny? I do.

6. Would I be an appropriate candidate for this office?

7. Would a non owner of a flying business be the best candidate?

I don't know the answer to all these excellent questions, but I'd like to think that the club should get a vote on what occurs at the Training Hill. It seems to me that the Hill has been an awesome resource for the free flight community for over 30 years and it has been through the efforts of many community members that we still have this excellent resource.

I believe that it should be accessible to those who have shown a strong desire to teach, are well seasoned pilots, have demonstrated excellent skills and judgement as an instructor and as a pilot, who are committed to safety, and have participated and contributed back to the Santa Barbara community over the years.

It's November and that means election time is near. I accept Scotty's nomination and will let the voters decide. I'm Bo Criss and I approve this ad!

Food for thought.

Bo Criss
Circling Hawk Paragliding

[oj]

If it's a position that "really can't be voted on" then why are there nominations? Reminds me of the perpetual contract that the local trash company, E.J. Harrison, has with the city of Ventura. It states that when the contract comes up for bid again, they are the only company allowed to submit one.

[Skippy]

Hey Bo,

This position is a position that you get voted in. Your nomination holds, like your nomination for other board positions (I think you were also nominated for one or two more positions).

I was glad to see that we had a great group of enthusiastic people willing to serve on the board next year. A good mix of newer and more experienced pilots, and a good mix of PG and HG pilots. We'll still accept additional nominations at the December meeting, before the vote.

I'll take this opportunity to remind everyone that you need to be a member of SBSA to vote, and also to serve as a board member. Membership is cheap ($20), and is a bargain for all that it covers (site insurance, legal fees for site conservation, Debbie, etc.). I don't know of too many HG/PG clubs that have remained that cheap. :-)

See ya in the air this weekend...
Skippy
SBSA Prez!

[Ramey]

I was a member of the board of directors some ten years ago as well as two years ago.

Ten years ago, the training hill was "managed" by the club. It didn't work out very well, and the then #1 person at the elings park foundation wanted to be able to exert more authority and have their own person person who would be responsable to them for safety and organization issues. The board at the time agreed that this would be a good idea. In fact, I personally drafted the letter, signed by the board, aquising to this arrangemen, So since that time, the manager of the trainng hill is picked by and reports to the elings park board.

So, club elections are totally irrelevant for this post.

I envisioned at the time that the interests of the park - safety, order, income, etc would be represented by their hand picked person - chad bastien. And the interests of our club members - open and convenient access, reasonable fees, etc would be represented by the club leadership through its board of directors.

This is as is should be. To some extent the interests of the club members conflict with those of the elings park foundation. E.G Too open access might raise safety issues. etc. This arrangement allows the manager of the training hill the needed authority to do the job and can maintain the confidence of the park foundation. The board can represent the interests of the members without going into all the problems of managing the hill.

The only fly in the ointment is that the management of the hill, is also running the business there. So to some extent he might be tempted to use his authority to make it un-attractive to other qualified instructors to teach there. This of course might be detramental to interests of club members as perhaps the interests of the park foundation itself. Its the job of the board to see that this doesn't occur. This job has been executed with mixed success.

In part this is due to the fact that chad has done a fantistic job managing the hill. Pretty good access - with no significant accidents over 10 years. That's quite a record!!!. And things run smoothly as well. No complaints from the membership were recieved while I was on the board. That's also quite a record.

So, those are the facts. Make of them what you will.

Robert Ramey