SSA August Soaring Magazine

[Udo Rumpf]

Anything interesting in it for the month of August?
It appears my issue did not get to me this month. It happens at least once a year.
Udo

[Vaughn]

It might be a bit soon to give up on the Postal Service, I got mine yesterday.

Vaughn


"Udo Rumpf" > wrote in message . ..
Anything interesting in it for the month of August?
It appears my issue did not get to me this month. It happens at least once a year.
Udo

[F.L. Whiteley]

hmmm, I got my September copy yesterday
"Vaughn" > wrote in message ...
It might be a bit soon to give up on the Postal Service, I got mine yesterday.

Vaughn


"Udo Rumpf" > wrote in message . ..
Anything interesting in it for the month of August?
It appears my issue did not get to me this month. It happens at least once a year.
Udo

[F.L. Whiteley]

Just a note from SSA Club Committee discussion on this. The promotion and growth committee shared with us that if you are renewing your membership via your chapter and the chapter is late, you may have been 'dropped' from the roles, albeit temporarily. If this is the case, the SSA office has to hand process the mailing of your Soaring (at much higher expense of office staff time and higher mailing rates BTW). Chapter diligence in processing annual renewals is important to keeping member complaints to the SSA office down, getting your Soaring on time, and keeping your SSA insurance plan in compliance, if applicable.

This may not apply in your case Vaughn, but in many cases, it falls directly in the chapter's lap. There is a chapter/member benefit for renewing as a chapter, but a 60-day lead time by treasurers is highly recommended as a 'best practice'. My club treasurer says it's a chore, but not overly difficult. We have one or two that renew via CAP, rather than the club, for example. Each group does have a few members whose status may be indeterminate, that's why the lead time is important. Trying to accomplish this during the renewal month is problematic. Due diligence on the part of chapter boards will yield the best results. Electing a competent 'treasurer for life' also has benefits.

Some suggestions have been made to possibly enable chapter access to records, but this is only in very elementary stages. Chapter affiliation has not been linked with member data.

Frank Whiteley
"Vaughn" > wrote in message ...
It might be a bit soon to give up on the Postal Service, I got mine yesterday.

Vaughn


"Udo Rumpf" > wrote in message . ..
Anything interesting in it for the month of August?
It appears my issue did not get to me this month. It happens at least once a year.
Udo

[Jim Phoenix]

What is the "member" portion of teh "chapter/member" benefit? A discount?

Jim
"F.L. Whiteley" > wrote in message ...
Just a note from SSA Club Committee discussion on this. The promotion and growth committee shared with us that if you are renewing your membership via your chapter and the chapter is late, you may have been 'dropped' from the roles, albeit temporarily. If this is the case, the SSA office has to hand process the mailing of your Soaring (at much higher expense of office staff time and higher mailing rates BTW). Chapter diligence in processing annual renewals is important to keeping member complaints to the SSA office down, getting your Soaring on time, and keeping your SSA insurance plan in compliance, if applicable.

This may not apply in your case Vaughn, but in many cases, it falls directly in the chapter's lap. There is a chapter/member benefit for renewing as a chapter, but a 60-day lead time by treasurers is highly recommended as a 'best practice'. My club treasurer says it's a chore, but not overly difficult. We have one or two that renew via CAP, rather than the club, for example. Each group does have a few members whose status may be indeterminate, that's why the lead time is important. Trying to accomplish this during the renewal month is problematic. Due diligence on the part of chapter boards will yield the best results. Electing a competent 'treasurer for life' also has benefits.

Some suggestions have been made to possibly enable chapter access to records, but this is only in very elementary stages. Chapter affiliation has not been linked with member data.

Frank Whiteley
"Vaughn" > wrote in message ...
It might be a bit soon to give up on the Postal Service, I got mine yesterday.

Vaughn


"Udo Rumpf" > wrote in message . ..
Anything interesting in it for the month of August?
It appears my issue did not get to me this month. It happens at least once a year.
Udo

[Vaughn]

Hmmm, obviously I did not properly read the original post, it was the September issue that I received yesterday. I guess my mind is mostly on that hurricane that has me boresighted.

Vaughn
"F.L. Whiteley" > wrote in message ...
hmmm, I got my September copy yesterday
"Vaughn" > wrote in message ...
It might be a bit soon to give up on the Postal Service, I got mine yesterday.

Vaughn


"Udo Rumpf" > wrote in message . ..
Anything interesting in it for the month of August?
It appears my issue did not get to me this month. It happens at least once a year.
Udo

[F.L. Whiteley]

Jim,

Some chapters do indeed pass the chapter renewal/recruitment spiff back as a member discount, I was surprised to find. My club puts it into the general fund. That's a local decision, but worth noting in the larger scheme of things. The SSA club committee is looking to identify some 'best practices' for clubs with regard to planning, organizing, training, operating, financing, and growing, hopefully. There will be a club track on Friday at the 2005 SSA convention. Among the 160-odd clubs in the US, there are widely varying approaches to how these things get done, if at all. Perhaps it's possible to quit re-inventing some of the wheels.

I thought it was worth mentioning that if a few chapters were tardy in renewing, it could cost the SSA office several hundred dollars or more in effort and direct expense to appease the affected members (See Dennis' comments about glider pilots in Sept Soaring). I'm not sure whether the tardy chapters also then get their spiff, I expect they do. It's been brought to our attention that it's been a problem, so a little coaching might be all that's needed. Mark Keene, chair of the club committee, uses an extensive list of e-mails to forward communications to club contacts. We've set up a yahoo group for SSA clubs and directly invited this extensive list to join. Participation is currently about 40% of the direct e-mail list. We're trying NOT to over-use or over-burden these contacts with noise. Goodness knows, folks serving on their club boards get enough already, but we'll be happy to beg, borrow, or steal from those who've hacked some of the recurring issues.

Frank Whiteley
"Jim Phoenix" > wrote in message ...
What is the "member" portion of teh "chapter/member" benefit? A discount?

Jim
"F.L. Whiteley" > wrote in message ...
Just a note from SSA Club Committee discussion on this. The promotion and growth committee shared with us that if you are renewing your membership via your chapter and the chapter is late, you may have been 'dropped' from the roles, albeit temporarily. If this is the case, the SSA office has to hand process the mailing of your Soaring (at much higher expense of office staff time and higher mailing rates BTW). Chapter diligence in processing annual renewals is important to keeping member complaints to the SSA office down, getting your Soaring on time, and keeping your SSA insurance plan in compliance, if applicable.

This may not apply in your case Vaughn, but in many cases, it falls directly in the chapter's lap. There is a chapter/member benefit for renewing as a chapter, but a 60-day lead time by treasurers is highly recommended as a 'best practice'. My club treasurer says it's a chore, but not overly difficult. We have one or two that renew via CAP, rather than the club, for example. Each group does have a few members whose status may be indeterminate, that's why the lead time is important. Trying to accomplish this during the renewal month is problematic. Due diligence on the part of chapter boards will yield the best results. Electing a competent 'treasurer for life' also has benefits.

Some suggestions have been made to possibly enable chapter access to records, but this is only in very elementary stages. Chapter affiliation has not been linked with member data.

Frank Whiteley
"Vaughn" > wrote in message ...
It might be a bit soon to give up on the Postal Service, I got mine yesterday.

Vaughn


"Udo Rumpf" > wrote in message . ..
Anything interesting in it for the month of August?
It appears my issue did not get to me this month. It happens at least once a year.
Udo