New National Flying Organization

Contents 1 Founding Members (in no particular order) 2 Transition Team (TT) 3 Overview 4 Timeline and To Do List 4.1 TO DO, OPEN 4.2 DONE, CLOSED 5 Requirements 5.1 A Separate Voice for Hang Gliding 5.2 Bylaws preliminary proposals 5.3 Pilot Management bylaw proposals 5.4 Waiver and/or third party insurance 5.5 Add your requirement here 6 Proposals for Organizational Structure 6.1 1. Clone of USHPA 6.2 2. Umbrella with sub-orgs 6.3 3. Dedicated Hang Gliding Organization 6.4 4. Add your own proposal here 7 Proposed Names 8 HG? PG? Other? Mix? 8.1 Some other thoughts on distinctions among gliders 9 External links related to topic 10 Recognition of HGAA

Founding Members (in no particular order)

Please insert your name at a random place in this list...

Mark Webber, Bob Kuczewski, David Boggs, Rolla Manning, Joe Faust, Oscar Arias, Blake Glazebrook, Gerry Grossnegger, _______________????, John Wright, Lyle Anderson,Brian McMahon, James Gaar, Anna McCart, Pud from UK Mike, TNflyer, Blake Glazebrook, Airzoneallen, Eddie Paul, This list is not complete. BobK has a robust list.

Transition Team (TT)

John Borton, Jason Boehm, John Wright, Mark Webber, Dan Deweese, Erik Boehm, Dennis Cavagnaro, Brian Ho, Gerry Grossnegger, Holger Selover-Stephan, Richard A. Palmon, Frank Peel, Jeff Bozarth, Jack A. (SG) Limbo status as of August 1, 2010: Scott C. Wise, and Bob Kuczewski. Former members: Ryan Voight and Joe Faust.

Overview

There are many reasons to create a new national flying organization (maybe one reason per pilot). The purpose of this Wiki page is to begin to put together requirements and proposals for actually building such an organization. Read the hanggliding.org topic leading up to this page The TT has been working HERE.

Timeline and To Do List

TO DO, OPEN

• [ ] TT members need to submit and vote up first action items
• [ ] Status of Scott C. Wise as Transition Team member needs to be determined
• [ ] Forums and general membership mechanisms for non-TT HGAA members need to be (re?) established
• [ ] Chair needs to start plucking items off the top of the Action Item Vote Up tool for action or votes
• [ ] Members need to brainstorm
• [ ] Transition cool down period needs to end quickly and a base set of policies and procedures needs to be worked into

DONE, CLOSED

• [x] June 04, 2010 BobK posted a “Call for Leaders and Founders” which founded the movement that formed a choice to have HGAA become.
• [x] Announced founding intent. Sought name. Consensus on name: HGAA, Hang Gliding Association of America
• [x] Closed nominations for Transition Team (TT): June 16, 2010.
• [x] Closed voting and announced transition team at 11:59 PM Friday,June 18, 2010. Seventeen members for TT.
• [x] Interim chair of TT selected and accepted. Scott C. Wise.
• [x] Jul 22, 2010, Scott Wise resigned from TT interim chairmanship.
• [x] Vice interim chair chosen by interim chair: John Borton
• [x] TT interim chair Scott C. Wise unappointed his interim vice chair John Borton.
• [x] First stage on putting forward mission statement ideas.
• [x] Motion to accept in TT: Anadactyl. Joefaust 18:39, 23 June 2010 (UTC) Motion withdrawn after discussion.Joefaust 15:14, 7 July 2010 (UTC)
• [x] Voting method agreed upon: "Range-no-abstain" method will be used until HGAA changes method. Considerable discussion was started on voting methods, an interesting adventure.
• [x] July __, 2010, voting for new TT interim chairman. Nomination period occurred. Voting occurred. Result: ______________
• [x] How will TT vote on matters? First stage choosing is occurring. June 22, 2010.
• [x] Work toward vision and mission statements. Stage 2 is being prepared. June 22, 2010.
• [x] Settle on first draft of by-laws at 11:59 PM Sunday, July 4, 2010. This matter is being given extended time to achieve.
• [x] Mascot?
• [x] Decide on HGAA to be focused on just frame-controlled hang gliders (or more to string-controlled paragliders?)?
• [x] Decide whether or not and what kind of insurance for third-party will be entertained by HGAA.
• [x] Will HGAA involved in the HGTM that is being formed in wiki space?
• [x] Voting on July 28 and 29, 2010, for a TT interim chairman. Forum seems to be locked except for the tight voting-for-interim-chair thread. Four candidates are on ballot, but one of the candidates had priorly taken his name off the candidates list; thus voting is occurring with his name still on the ballot (how that will affect the validity of the voting may be discussed.) KK is leading the current voting process.
• [x] John Wright elected Chairman by narrow margin over John Borton. Votes of Bob Kuczewski and Scott C. Wise, combined, still short of second place, rendering possible vote split protest moot.
• [x] John Wright places three day limit on discussion of past events and negative comments of other members, calls for brainstorming session and a focus on work and forward progress, not "drama."
• [x] "SG", board admin and HGAA Ops Officer, creates Action Item Vote Up tool and implements at the time of John's election
• [x] ScottW and BobK banned from board of HGAA. Date: ______. URL:______
• [x] JoeF resigns on August 1, 2010, from TT and HGAA.

Requirements

These are the things that people feel we must have:

A Separate Voice for Hang Gliding

• Whatever organization we create, it must have a separate voice for hang gliding so that the unique interests of that sport are NEVER dominated by sheer numbers of other people who may join the organization.

Bylaws preliminary proposals

• We would like to see the organization's day-by-day operations run by someone who is actually a hang glider pilot.

Pilot Management bylaw proposals

• Have robust forms that support self-assessment, self-restraint, and self-rating in addition to standard rating system.
• Robust formation of skill checklists made available to any hang glider pilot. Continual refinement of these checklists via wikis. Hundreds of specialized skills would receive such attention.
• Pilots would each have one hang glider pilot wiki where others could post opinions about the pilot's flying skills without any personal attacks.
• Pilots would post their sequential flight log in a wiki.
• Controlled sites will autonomously screen and permit use of their sites; this would be wholly separate from the national organization.

Waiver and/or third party insurance

• Strong waiver saves money. Perhaps third-party insurance is not necessary.
• Insurance might still be required for some sites/landowners based on existing precedents

Add your requirement here

Proposals for Organizational Structure

This section is for posting proposals for how the new organization should work. As a template for anyone wanting to add their own, I've included one for what would essentially be a clone of USHPA:

1. Clone of USHPA

One simple approach would be to duplicate the existing USHPA structure but with different people. So the organization would include both hang gliding and paragliding. All the representatives and resources of the organization would be shared across both sports with no delineation other than those required for ratings. It would include a shared magazine and a current fee of $75. It would be overseen by Regional Directors and an Executive Committee. The actual office would be run by a hired manager (who may or may not be a pilot of any kind).

2. Umbrella with sub-orgs

The idea here is to have a master umbrella org, where we pool resources for insurance and have a common face to government agencies, etc

Under this umbrella org, would be unique orgs with their own identities, which could include hang gliding, paragliding, microlights, PPG, speed wings, trikes, whatever...

• With sub-orgs, no one loses their identity.
• Once you set one up, you have a cookie cutter to create new ones efficiently
• Every sub-org gets its OWN online community and versions of everything
• Could drive insurance rates very low by ending up having a pool much larger than just the hg/pg pool we have today.

3. Dedicated Hang Gliding Organization

• Simpler to start.
• Mission is clear.
• May be less costly.
• Avoids the difficulty of being related ... but not "too" related.
• Furthermore, if hang gliding is our core goal, then we might be able to reach it sooner by focusing on that specifically.
• May allow other wings with limited benefit memberships (insurance only memberships, for example)

4. Add your own proposal here

Proposed Names

• HGAA Hang Gliding Association of America Founders voted this name to initiate the new organization. A web domain has been reserved for eventual use: www.HGAA.org

Proposed and not chosen:

• AHGA American Hang Gliding Association
• HGAUSA Hang Gliding Association USA (hgausa.org - already donated to the organization)
• FSA Footlaunch Soaring Association fsa.aero
• USA Ultralight Soaring Association, domain: usa.aero
• USHGA United States Hang Gliding Association (previous name of USHPA - may be a legal battle)
• USFLA United States Foot Launch Association
• FLAPA Foot Launched/Landed Aircraft Pilot's Assciation
• NAHGA North American Hang Gliding Association
• American Delta Wing Pilots' Association
• American Aero Wing Pilots' Association
• United Hang Glider Clubs of America ----> A tribal kind of idea...

HG? PG? Other? Mix?

This will be a very important issue. Should the new organization be (a) hang gliding only, (b) wing neutral, (c) hang gliding focus with varying support for other wings, or (d) parent organization with semi-autonomous children?

• (a) Hang Gliding (frame-controlled):
  • Benefits:
    • Strong identity of new organization
    • Single focus (magazine, insurance, ...)
  • Drawbacks:
    • Smaller population to draw from for insurance, lobbying, ...
• (b) Wing neutral:
  • Benefits:
    • Larger potential population for insurance
  • Drawbacks:
    • Same as USHPA
    • Wing with most votes rules
• (c) Hang Gliding Focus with varying support for other wings. For example, pilots of other wings may be welcome to join to share lower cost insurance but get non-voting memberships.
  • Benefits:
    • Relatively strong identity of new organization
    • Mostly single focus
    • Slightly larger insurance pool (it's not clear how many PG pilots would join under these conditions)
  • Drawbacks:
    • Somewhat of a compromise gaining partial benefits of the other two extremes, but partial problems as well
• (d) Parent Organization with semi-autonomous children
  • Benefits:
    • Full acceptance of all wing types
    • Each wing type has its own specific sub-organization
    • Shared resources at the top
  • Drawbacks:
    • Distribution of funding between wing types
    • Which resources are shared and which remain separate?

Obviously, the organization can change between these over its lifetime (as USHPA has done). So maybe the first question is which is easiest to get started?

Some other thoughts on distinctions among gliders

• Control via tethered pilot pressing rigid airframe (e.g., most common: triangle control frame TCF) "frame-controlled"
• Control via pulling strings only to a limp or variously stiffened flying canopy: current PG and future variously stiffened canopies. This distinction differs some from the FAI definition of PG. FAI necessarily lags or chooses to be incomplete for its purposes. (PGs, speed-gliding string-controlled canopies, governable gliding parachutes, Paramontante, ...)
• There is yet a chance that huge stiffening and inflating of PGs may take place; the move for such would come from the users' market response.
• There is a distinct hang glider manufacturers association and a distinct paraglider manufacturers association.
• See how these two entities feel; visit one and then the other; each has a leading bridge link to each other:
  • • http://WorldHangGlidingAssociation.org WHGA "frame control"
    • http://WorldParaGlidingAssociation.org WPGA "string control"

External links related to topic

• Hang Gliding Association USA Put into options by owner for new org. Ownership would be fully transferred to new non-profit org at open voting.
• Hang Glider Magazine Offered by owner into options for new org upon open voting by new non-profit org from this flow. Proviso: If name and related domain goes to disuse, then a revert to present owner.
• Toward sub-orgs in hang gliding

Recognition of HGAA

• To forward the HGAA, a Transition Team (TT) has been formed in June 2010; the HGAA TT will work to July 4, 2010, and beyond.
• To celebrate the founding of HGAA, a wiki article was started: GEG
• In TT, HGAUSA.com and HGAUSA.org have set up bridge e-mails for people to use to post historical and furthering comments or ask questions: HGAA@HangGliderHistory.com and HGAA@HGAUSA.com and HGAA@HGAUSA.org Personal response to questions will be given.
• LIFT, June 2010, e-zine recognizes HGAA.
• Mark Forbes recognizes the HGAA project is underway; he announced that a success could be a win-win.
• Offered to HGAA is HangGliderMagazine trademark and domain (tradename reverts to JpF if name is no longer chosen).

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