Open Letter to the US Competition Pilot Community and SSA membership

October 21, 2004

Dear Friends;

As many of you may know, the SSA is represented to the FAI/IGC only
through our "national aero club", the NAA (National Aeronautic
Association) in Washington, which represents all US air sports.
Unfortunately, the NAA plays no active role to assist us in any way,
and requires substantial annual dues payments while providing no added
value. This has been a long-standing issue of contention with the SSA
Board.

Based on a decades-old compromise among all air sports, including
gliding, the NAA dues structure consists of 1) a minimum flat amount
per member organization, 2) a per member charge, and 3) fees based on
participation in FAI sanctioned international gliding meets. These
last charges are substantial - $1,600 per "venue" (i.e. contest) and
$130 per pilot entered. Like the rest of its dues structure, the NAA
does nothing in connection with FAI contests which would warrant such
fees on any explainable economic basis; they merely represent a toll
charge by the NAA. These charges are substantial, particularly with
the increase in competitive classes at the world level. Between
Poland and Nitra, the charges exceeded $7,000 in 2003. For the 2005
and 2006 seasons, the charges will total close to $8,000.

Historically, the SSA has absorbed these charges, but during a Board
meeting in September, 2003, passed a general resolution that all
sub-groups – US Team, Soaring Safety Foundation, SSA Foundation, etc.
be charged back for any hard costs incurred by the SSA associated with
their activities. Based on this guidance, staff in Hobbs understood
the NAA dues allocation to FAI contests to be "hard costs" and charged
them to the US Team funds, even those incurred earlier in 2003, i.e.
prior to the Board vote. A similar charge for the Norway Club Class
contest was made this year.

Because these are sizeable costs relative to funds available to the US
Team, and will end up being paid by participating Team pilots under
our "defined benefit" funding plan, the US Team Chairman argued before
the Board that they not be charged to the Team. The basis of the
argument was 1) that the charges had no economic justification, that
2) the former Executive Director of the NAA acknowledged these charges
to have no such basis and were no more than a compromise between air
sports groups to come up with a number for NAA dues, that 3) they were
therefore more properly born by the membership at large, that 4) such
misguided charges would make fundraising very difficult since donors
did not want to waste their money on the NAA, and 5) in any case, no
charges retroactive to the Board's September 2003 vote should be made.
Others felt that since the charges were only incurred if Teams were
sent to contests, they should properly be billed to the Team under the
Board's policy. The motion prompted considerable discussion, and was
defeated by a very narrow margin. A major factor in Directors'
thinking was clearly the financial position of the SSA, aggravated by
the need for repairs to the Hobbs building. Had several directors
known to be sympathetic to the Team's position been in attendance, the
vote might have gone the other way narrowly. So it goes.

The US Team Committee met shortly thereafter and decided on several
actions. First, in the interest of our commitment to transparency,
was to communicate with members of the competition community about
this issue and its outcome. Second, was to ask the Rules Committee to
support an increase in the sanction fee for contests of some $20 per
pilot to share this load more equitably. Third was to work with the
SSA Board and its current initiative to change the relationship with
the FAI and reduce fees from the NAA, particularly those related to
contest venues.

We will continue to keep you informed of our progress. For more
infomation please see the US Team web site at
http://www.ssa.org/UsTeam/

For the US Team Committee

Doug Jacobs

Chairman