21 January, 1995

What a busy time!!! The last weekend of September saw our SSA ExCom and Board of Directors meet here in Albuquerque. The meeting was to coincide with the announcement of the fact that the SSA and the ASC will host the 2008 National Convention. Complicating the issue is that the ASC had not previously been asked to participate in the National Convention; it had just been assumed we would do it. After a few terse words with the Executive Director, I felt it was in our best interests to go ahead and host...so I am to blame. So mark your calendars for the 13^th thru 17^th of February, 2008. (See the letter below from SSA ExComm chair person Diana Black-Nixon.)

Now the reason I attended the SSA Board Meeting (with Pat McKnight, Renny Rozzoni and Robert Mudd) was to see what is being done to keep the SSA viable. For those of you that have been living in a cave…our SSA is in trouble. Federal and State taxes had gone unpaid for a couple of years and large sums of cash appear to be missing. Our CFO has been fired and the Executive Director has resigned. And in the meantime, the society is being run by the staff in Hobbs with oversight from the Board, who are geographically displaced around the US and don’t have real time fingers on the pulse.

(Update on the CFO: He has been arrested by the Hobbs Police as there is over $140,000 of our funds missing. Also the SSA has “borrowed” money from the Soaring Foundation, terms yet to be disclosed, to pay the back taxes and interest. The alternative was for the IRS to come in and take it anyway. For now we are waiting to hear if there will be any penalty. )

The key problems as I see it:

One, it is unclear who is investigating who or what. The SSA needs to keep the membership informed. If you read the threads on the Rec Aviation Soaring website, there already is a bunch of folks who believe the SSA is run by a clique that keep information too close to the vest. The only way to counter this perception effectively is with open and frequent communication.

Two, this is the time that we need someone up front advocating for the membership. Leaving the ED position open is not smart (unless we are so far in debt that we can’t afford one). The ED needs to be reassuring the membership that we are marching forward and putting plans together to stop the hemorrhaging. Programs need to be evaluated and adjusted to meet the needs of our membership.

When asked about the value of the SSA the answers are, to be kind, pretty weak. The official answers are: 1) we are allowed to participate in the SSA Sailplane Group Insurance Plan, 2) we have consideration for a credit account (whatever that means), 3) we can purchase select merchandise at a discount, 4) we receive a “chapter” copy of Soaring Magazine (that’s the one in the club house), 5) we can have 12 sets of mailing labels for free, 6) we get free listing on the SSA website as a Soaring Club, 7) we are encouraged to receive assistance from the SSA office staff, and 8) we receive representation with the FAA and other governmental agencies, though when push comes to shove and this really would be of value there is no help.

I don’t know about you but we have to do something to make this list look more attractive, because we know the SSA does more for us. Maybe we have a self-esteem problem and it is up to us to improve that image or lose the society. So in the words of JFK, we must ask “what we can do for our society.” Please forward your ideas to me or Chip. Together we can build for tomorrow. Now go out and fly and fly safe. “Over and Out!”

2007 Online Contest Version 2.0

Brian Resor

It is the fall/early winter off-season, but several of you have noticed that there is a new OLC webpage this year for 2007. At first you see it and think, “Wow, that looks nice.” Unfortunately things don’t seem so good if you have tried to actually use it.

Some of the following is information taking from the OLC website, commenting on upgrades for 2007:

With the recent growth of the OLC it became necessary to rework the current design of the software used. OLC-Generation 2.0 is a total new system and vastly different from the current OLC Software. The main work for the new OLC 2.0 Software has been done by 5 volunteer programmers who all have their normal jobs in the IT sector. In addition to this we have been able to assure the support of a software engineering bureau which we see as important to give the OLC Software further stability. The OLC 2.0 will soon be a more professional and reliable system, running almost independent from the intervention of the members of the OLC team. The current functionality of the OLC will be the same and the migration to OLC 2.0 will be step by step. Thank you for you patience with any potential problems during this transition.

The OLC Team also is going to implement a login capability in 2007, so be sure to remember your login and passwords. Again, from the OLC website:

'MyOLC': In the future will offer a lot of functions. For instance, every user will be able to allow other defined persons to claim or correct their flights. This might be important for pilots who are used to have one or two persons in the club, doing the OLC claims and necessary corrections for all other pilots of the club. These “assistants” will then be able to claim Your flight while they are logged in with their own password. <<I like this – UI>>
Attention: If you just wish to claim a flight or look into other flights, You don’t need to be logged in. As soon as any new functions are available for MyOLC, we will make announcements.

Some comments on flight claims for 2007:

After transition from OLC 2006 to OLC 2007, the claiming methods did not change, there are still three different methods.

Method 1: The direct claim (choose Tab Gliding, then Tab flight claim, then click the button "direct claim"). The IGC file has to be uploaded manually and some other info have to be inserted in a formula too, finally you must click the OK button to score the flight, the flight will be optimized automatically, once it has been claimed. <<This method actually works well and is very easy – UI>>

Method 2: The prepared claim (OLC file)
Presently the safest method and strongly recommended by the OLC team, prepare Your flight with a soaring software like SeeYou, StrePla or Win pilot and generate an OLC file, store this file at Your computer and upload this file to the OLC server <<I have not had a chance to try this one yet – UI>>

Method 3: Direct claim with any soaring software like SeeYou, StrePla or Win Pilot
There is of course no button on the OLC Website as the soaring programs optimize and upload all required data automatically.
(Warning!! This method does not work yet, as some patches must be developed to meet the new system requirements of OLC Version 2.0. So please use method 2 until further notice.)
Sorry for all that inconveniences, but software is never perfect from the beginning, so we are working hard to make the new system work properly and we thank You for Your patience.

As of the date of this newsletter printing (November 3) Method 3 does indeed work with StrePla. SeeYou developers are still working on an OLC2007 patch, though. I suspect it is coming out very soon. For now, since I know that most of us are SeeYou users, you will have to use the direct claim method (Method 1). I have placed instructions for this simple method on the website at www.abqsoaring.org

Anyway, for now there are several bugs and unfinished aspects of the OLC 2.0 webpage. Be assured that they are working on making it better and sometime soon it will be as functional and useful as ever.

Convention apology

As club President Bob Hudson noted above, he had a few short sharp words with SSA’s now fired Executive Director, making clear the general unhappiness among club members about the way we had been cut out of any discussion or planning for the 2008 convention, which the SSA unilaterally decided should be held in Albuquerque. The first Albuquerque Soaring Club members heard of it was through informal local sources. The official confirmation that it really was to be held here came in a terse sentence or two in Soaring.

Up to the emergency ExCom and board meeting held here in September, there had still been no official word from what has been the incompetents running SSA. This was particularly galling to a club which had run two highly successful conventions in years past in Albuquerque – and worse since it was just taken for granted that we would be providing lots of grunt labor and getting next to no financial reward for the club for doing so.

Well, here is a first step to mend fences. Chairman of the SSA board of directors, C. Dianne Black-Nixon, has written a letter of apology for the lack of any kind of communication with Albuquerque Soaring. We now await some deeds to show that there really will be a change of behavior from the SSA.

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To: Mr. Bob Hudson, President

Albuquerque Soaring Club

RE: Convention 2008 – and the lack of communication

Dear Mr. Hudson:

It was a pleasure meeting you and Linda at the SSA Board of Directors reception in Albuquerque a few weeks ago. I certainly admire the stamina of your club members who sat through the Executive Committee and the Board meetings. We had full agendas to cover and really enjoyed the fact that you all felt comfortable in participating.

I wanted to write to you to apologize for a lack of communication that began some time ago over the desire to have the 2008 convention in Albuquerque. I understand that you and your club members were not consulted on this and this disturbs me greatly. Having the buy in and support of the local chapter is very important in making a convention a success and we just dropped the ball apparently.

It sounded to me, in recent discussions, that you and your fellow chapter members are willing to take up the challenge and to work to help SSA put on a great convention. Gaynell Temple, a Hobbs SSA staff member has the lucky assignment to coordinate conventions. She has a huge amount of experience in doing a lot of the behind the scenes work for conventions so she is knowledgeable in what to do/by when/how to get folks involved. She also has the answers to probably all the questions you and your co-workers will have. I would suggest that you and Gaynell spend some time talking between now and the end of this year so that you can start to plan. I believe Jim Skydell has sent you the preparation document he developed for the Ontario Convention back a couple of years ago and you will likely find that to be a very worthwhile read.

Again, I truly apologize for the lack of communication in advance of the decision to use Albuquerque for the 2008 convention site and I promise that we will work hard to keep you all in the loop during the next several months.

Please feel free to contact me if you have questions – and hopefully I will see you and several others of your Chapter members at the Memphis convention where I am certain you will be able to pick up several pointers on things to keep in mind for 2008.

Kind regards,

C. Dianne Black-Nixon