Gentlemen:

You are all making reference in your comments regarding SOARING
magazine, in one way or the other, to "The SSA."

I'd respectfully point out to you all that "The SSA" does not produce a
magazine. People, in this case Denise Layton, (managing editor), Steve
Hines (art director) and a volunteer staff of your peers (contributing
editors) produce the magazine. And being people, they have the same
feelings you all (presumably) do. They surely take Ray's "buyfriend"
comment in jest. Others they surely do not.

It's very easy to be critical of "The SSA," or "SOARING magazine"
because they have no voices, and cannot respond. Nor can they afford
you some insight into exactly what it's like putting out five issues of
the magazine, and at least one issue of Technical Soaring at the same
time as planning and executing a national convention, to say nothing of
running a 12,600 member organization (all for your benefit).

"The SSA" and "SOARING magazine" have no voices, but I do. And again,
respectfully, I know what I am talking about. I have spent at least 60
hour weeks for over a year as a volunteer for the SSA, serving on the
Board, ExComm, and creating a convention that I hope each of you will
attend and enjoy.

In so doing, I have worked closely with all of the Hobbs staff. In
particular, I helped Denise Layton create the convention program, which
is nearly as large as an issue of SOARING magazine. Denise did this at
the same time she put out 5 issues of SOARING, and at least one issue of
Technical Soaring. And Steve Hines has been very helpful with graphic
design for the convention. He was busy creating those five SOARING
issues, while Denise did the program herself.

Just how hard does this woman work for "The SSA?" She will be angry
with me for sharing this, but I think it's high time "The SSA" had a
voice, and you started to listen to it:

"At this point I barely remember my own name, and I now have bigger and
better problems then that. Problems with the March magazine. I have not
had a single day off (including weekends) since Christmas, have only
gone to lunch maybe three times in the last three weeks, and killed
myself working on the convention and the magazine. I have come in early
every morning, left late every night. I can't take the nastiness on RAS
any more."

Is SOARING magazine perfect? Far from it. Is it significantly better in
recent times? I, for one, think so. And everyone involved is working
hard to make it better, all the time. While there is some significant
confusion about exactly who might be responsible for those missing
captions in Mr. Rezor's article, in the future, please do your best to
"go easy" on people when mistakes are made. These people can only do 4
or 5 things at once, and ultimately, everything they do (imperfect as
they may be) is for you.

I hope all of you will attend the convention.

Jim Skydell Region 12