red wrote: ↑Thu Jun 28, 2018 9:51 am
Katy wrote: ↑Thu Jun 28, 2018 12:33 am
Hello, I'm a new (headed into 3rd year) H2 pilot. . . . I have tried to read the proposal, have asked local pilots, have checked in with these forums, read the USHPA magazine articles ... but I still do not have good grasp on pros/cons other than immediately getting a personal, usually emotional opinion one way or the other. ... as someone who flies in an area with few and far between sites and pilots .. I'm not even sure what this means or if it would make a difference to my area. How would you all suggest I learn more? Is there a handy flow chart?? Thanks very much all! - Katy
(this is my brave first post, be gentle!)
Katy,
Welcome to the pilot's evening campfire. Pull up a seat, and be among friends. We are mostly an easy-going flock.
It might be worthwhile to look at who is getting "emotional" and in which direction, on this issue. For some time now, USHPA has not been known for clarity, or listening to its' members. Some say we need to fix this mess, and some say we need to let it die and just start over. Now that the insurance issue has put real money into the operation, there are those who will want a piece of the action. Things will probably get messy, and flowcharts won't help. Transparency would probably help at the organizational level, but USHPA has not been good at that, lately.
As one example, they do not record who votes for what now, when any changes are made. They say it would slow down the meetings. I said (right here! ) to record the votes on video; that would not slow down anything. USHPA immediately outlawed the use of video recordings at the meetings.
I would like to know who came up with this proposed change of the bylaws, and why. Wish me luck.
Hi Red, welcome Katy!
I’d like to help you understand how and why this proposal came up (and why I oppose it): For many years, even decades, our BOD meetings would get bogged down trying to re-write revisions to the SOP's. What would happen is that an SOP revision would be proposed by a committee, Safety & Training for instance, but when the draft SOP came up for approval during General Session, someone would have an idea how to improve the revision or have an issue with one element of the draft, and the entire BOD would then participate in debating the changes and trying to word-craft the entire thing! With 26 people each wanting to voice their own opinion, you can imagine what an inefficient and chaotic waste of time it would become.
Everyone agreed that this needed to change so we tried a few different solutions, eventually settling on our current policy that has IMHO fixed it! Our current process requires a 30-day public review and comment period for any SOP revisions. This means that a draft SOP cannot be revised at the last minute or during the BOD meeting; it is either approved, killed, or sent back to committee. It also has the benefit of increasing transparency as members can more easily review proposed SOP changes and have an influence on the final product.
This still leaves the issue of a 26 member BOD being overly cumbersome when an emergency issue needs to be dealt with, like when Lloyds declined to renew our insurance and all our Chapter flying sites were facing shut down.
Because our old policy had an expiration date, some decisions required an immediate response to beat the deadline. It is not realistic to get 26 people working together on a conference call so the 4 member Executive Committee wound up making some very important decisions. This is exactly the type of situation where a smaller BOD would have been better, and is what the proponents of this proposed bylaws revision point to. My argument against this proposal is that these emergency situations happen so rarely, it's not worth screwing up the entire organization.
Red, in regard to recording how Directors vote, you wrote “USHPA immediately outlawed the use of video recordings at the meetings.” . I am not aware of any USHPA action that outlawed the use of video recordings at BOD meetings. Would you please point to where you believe this took place or is codified? Thanks.
In any case, I am in full support of live webcasting the BOD meetings so our fellow members can see in real time what goes on and who votes for what. I for one was quite surprised when I attended my first BOD meeting and saw who/what USHPA actually is: HG and PG pilots just like myself, doing their personal best to keep flying happening in the U.S. The BOD looked just like one of my local club meetings, only bigger, the same guys and gals that I’d see on the hill and later sit around the campfire with BS’ing about our flights. My sincere wish is that everyone will get a chance to see for themselves who/what the infamous USHPA really is, perhaps debunk some conspiracy theories and maybe even choose to take part in the organization.
I hope this helps, please (Everyone!) let me know what else is on your mind.
Cheers!