On Thursday, December 20, 2012 8:57:22 AM UTC-7, Burt Compton - Marfa wrote:
Petition your SSA Directors if you want to return to the annual 3 day SSA Conventions with seminars, sailplanes on display, vendors with gliding goodies, Condor demo booth and more, See the list at www.ssa.org under "Governance." You can e-mail blast the entire list of Directors if you like.



The SSA Directors at the Little Rock Convention in 2010 voted to hold the full convention every two years, against the protests of myself, Bob Wander and Denise Layton at SSA HQ, who reminded us that conventions are actually profitable for the SSA and she has a "Convention Manual" at Hobbs for organizing the event. My understanding is that they went to two years to accommodate the wishes of a few vendors who felt it was a hassle to bring display sailplanes across the USA for a 3 day event, not necessarily the SSA membership. As I recall, the SSA Directors referred to some surveys but most every SSA member I talk to wonders why the convention schedule is now biennial. I travel around the USA attending soaring events and conducting site safety surveys so I talk to many SSA members, probably more than most Directors. I resigned as a SSA Director at Large effective DEC 31, 2012.



No matter what the reason for the biennial conventions, an annual SSA Convention is a wonderful experience, mainly because of the new people you meet face to face (instead of on r.a.s.) and the renewed friendships.



Sadly, a SSA Convention is often the place where you will interact with someone for the last time, especially our older mentors like Dick Johnson, Paul Schweizer, Gus Briegleb, Charlie Spratt, Chris O'Callahan and so many more.



I posted this to r.a.s. on DEC 10:



Through a Soaring Society of America Board vote, it has been decided to have the winter SSA Board Meeting in Houston, Texas on Saturday, February 23, 2013.



The host hotel is the Hyatt North Houston, The toll free number is 800-233-1234.

Please ask for the SSA rate which is $89.00.



The Hyatt North Houston is located north of Sam Houston Parkway at Imperial Valley Drive, about 8 miles southwest of Bush International Airport (IAH)

and provides free shuttle service.



Since there is no SSA Convention (until winter 2014), there will be a dinner followed by a short annual membership meeting and presentation of SSA awards. Dinner reservations required.



I'll be there!



Posters, please note that "biannual" means twice a year. "Biennial" means every two years.

This may be the reason the FAA dropped the term "biennial" from the FAR 61.56 Flight Review rule and added "24 months." It is not a BFR, it is now a FR. In any case I know what you mean.

The change was a concession to the European manufacturers who were finding it very expensive to support an annual convention in the US and the German Aviation Exhibition at Friedrichshafen, which was every other year. After the SSA took the decision, the Friedrichshafen show went annual. However the glider manufacturers did stay away from that show in 2012 after supporting SSA Reno, planning on attending Friedrichshafen in 2013, then returning to the US in 2014. Yes, the conventions are money makers, but the Philadelphia conference was a money loser. The weather was a factor, but the lack of eye candy was a larger factor. SSA members just didn't show in the requisite numbers. Personally, I find the three day format too short to provide a venue for other workshops. I'm a bit surprised at the number of people that just attend for a day or two. I'd typically there for five days and would spend a week. I know it's hard to get away for others, but there is much opportunity lost for additional committee meetings and face to face contacts in my opinion. Newly selected 1st Vice Chair Gerry Molidor (former IAC head) implores upon the SSA leadership about the importance of this type of contact at Air Venture, within the Type Club Coalition, and other venues. It's something we should bring to the SSA conventions also.

To that end, the SSA has had access to other venues and services that could meet some of these goals. However, there has been no rush to adopt webinars and other forms of digital media, apart from a few notable individual efforts. The world has changed the way organizations and people are interacting. To give some idea of the penetration, the SSA office recently sent letters to nearly a third of the membership who have no listed e-mails or whose e-mail addresses have bounced to SSA e-News. The response has been good so far, but a few thousand more would be even better. We'll see how it goes.

Frank Whiteley
SSA Secretary
970-330-2050 7am-10pm MST