On Friday, November 3, 2017 at 7:31:45 AM UTC-4, wrote:
This thread shows the true colors of the SSA. Look at all you children fighting when you could be supportive instead.

The SSA keeps shrinking year after year! Is anyone surprised?

If the SSA was a business, the controlling shareholders would have everyone fired in management. Starting from the top down.

Lost in Sean Fidler's somewhat embarrassing behavior is that he has case. At the meeting in Cordele last summer where new changes to the team selection process were hotly debated, I noted that we had abandoned a preferential voting system in the past: at least one highly ranked pilot allegedly manipulated it to his advantage by persuading his buddies to downscore a certain leading pilot to keep him off the team. I warned that even the appearance of backroom dealings or lack of transparency in the new voting system would likely push us to return to the purely quantitative process we had until recently (and that was thought not to accomplish the objective of selecting the best teams).

The clumsy, poorly handled way the new system was introduced this spring had me shaking my head. How could some of our smart pilots be so tone deaf? Now, barely weeks after the first votes, I'm still shaking my head.

This isn't a tempest in a teapot to the small number who fly competitively. Selection to the U.S. Team is a Very Big Deal to those at the top of the competitive pyramid. I'll repeat what I said in Cordele: even the APPEARANCE of conflicts of interest or backroom deals is unacceptable.

Have we learned nothing?

Chip Bearden