Slow down here all of you, I can tell you from personally knowing some of
the board members, as well as 1 EXCOM member, that their work is hard,
timeless and comes with no pay. The board is spread all over the country,
and needs competent people they can trust to run their daily affairs. It
sounds to me like scrapping SSA and staring over will bring you the same BOD
management with people all over the country and in all areas of soaring
trying to have their own agenda as the agenda of all. Simply put, this is
politics at it's worst, and seems to be what happens in Washington. Pleasing
all of the members ALL of the time is just not something that can be
accomplished. The current SSA board is well aware of all that is wrong, and
all that needs fixed. They also are aware that the current lack of checks
and balances in regard to financial matters has failed them miserably.
Clearly we need good HONEST people in places that control the money at SSA.
It is also not fair or correct to point to a BOD of our own members as being
the reason for missing money that they clearly have nothing to gain by
embezzling. Why would they embezzle from themselves? It is also very clear
that some of the old guard needs swept out the door and replaced by people
that are not afraid to make the tough choices, and forget about what their
particular clubs have to gain. Everyone needs to look at the big picture and
vote for what is right for ALL of SSA and not what benefits their own little
click of "buddies". Unfortunately, congress has the same problem, that is
why we are currently trillions in debt with no end in sight. Sadly, this is
not a new problem, nor one that just SSA suffers from. Take a look in the
mirror next time and see if you would be able to manage all the pressures
that are put on these people. If you answer "yes" to that, then put your
name on the ballet for director next time and have at it. It may not be as
easy as it looks!!!

Brian Glick

wrote in message
oups.com...
The SSA may not survive this incident that is either the result of
gross negligence or outright embezzlement. $300,000 is missing from
the accounts of the SSA. This scandal began three years ago. It is
clear that that the CFO and ED are directly responsible for this and
the board of the SSA also screwed up.

The SSA does not deserve to survive and the trail to the missing funds
should be followed right to the person or persons who made off with
them.


alice wrote:
John Dezzutti wrote:
There is no question about it, the news is not good.

The idea of a CFO as an internal check on the ED made
sense to prevent a reoccurance of the problems that
led to the departure of the previous ED. Unfortunately
(with the benefit of hind sight) it allowed the opportunity
for a bigger problem. So now the CFO has resigned and
the process will run it's course and we will see what
happens to him. Who cares? I am more concerned about
what happens to the orgaization.

Apparently the ED was aware of the problem but did
not address it in a timely manner. Again with the benefit
of hindsight it should have been brought to the Executive
Committee sooner. Now what? We have a large financial
liability that threatens the organization. We can not
fix it by losing both key players on the staff as well
as the resignations of the members of the Executive
Committee.

Cooler heads need to take a step back and determine
what lead to the problem and how to address it and
how to move on. Grinding around in zero sink at low
altitude until the weather cycles is better than making
going off half cocked and landing out. Now is the time
for our elected unpaid volunters to work on the problem
and come up with a solution. The rest of us need to
figure out what we can do to help them and the organization
that fosters and promotes the sport we all enjoy.

I strongly urge all the members of the Executive Committee
to continue to do the thankless job of working for
our organization! We need them to navigate us out of
this mess!

John,
I couldnt disagree with you more.I think the SSA should be allowed to
just implode under its current liabilities and go away.In the mean
time, a new national organisation could be started without all the
inherent problems of the SSA.
Let me give you a little backround. I was a member of an EAA chapter
that went through a similar ordeal. After months of trying to fix the
problem, the members brought in EAA national to (You guessed it), kick
out ALL of the officers and start over with new elections.They
esentially started a new EAA chapter . This would be the best thing for
the sport of soaring in the US because you have to consider who is the
most guilty here, The person who committed the fraud, or the people who
stood by and watched.This was the same issue with my EAA chapter and it
is why the national people felt it was best to start over.If a new
organization were to take over, they could fix alot of the inherent
flaws the SSA has.And to make sure they dont replicate the SSA,s dismal
record,checks and balances could be put in place (Like a complete ban
of any of the current SSA officers, management and staff).When you
think about it John, this probably would be best thing that could
happen to the sport.
A.