US Team Committee

US Team Committee

Fall2004 Board Meeting

Activity Report

October 16, 2004

2004 Competition Results
Club Class – Elvirum, Norway Led by Team Captain Susan McCallister, US Team members Tim McCallister, Manfred Franke and Bob Barber competed in the Championships in Norway. Full reporting on the contest was made available daily through the efforts of Susan to keep us up to date, and can be viewed at Unfortunately for the organizers and pilots alike, the contest was a bit of a washout with frequent low pressure systems pulling rain over the contest area, and only five official contest days were recorded. Tim finished 18th, Manfred 31st, and Bob 55th. Committee support for the Team was limited to a total defined benefit of $15,000, leading to substantial expense on the part of the Team members.

2005 Selection
The new Selection Policy approved at the February 2004 Board meeting proved to be reasonably workable, with only minor wording issues requiring clarification by the Committee. Results from the 2004 contest season led to the following selections:

2006 FAI Class Worlds, Sweden – Dick Butler qualified in both 15 Meter and Open, Ray Gimmey in Standard, and Rick Walters in 18 Meter. Dick (in Open) and Rick have committed, as required to maintain selection status, to go to the pre-Worlds Viking Glide next year; as of this writing, Ray has not yet made his intentions known. Current information from contest organizers indicates that five man maximum teams will be permitted with a maximum of two per class. Assuming that does not change, and that Ray accepts his 2004 Standard Class team selection by participating in the pre-Worlds, we will be selecting two additional pilots in 15 Meter, based on performances in next summer’s nationals.

2006 Club Class, Vinon, France – Dave Stevenson qualified for this year’s selection to the Club Class and has indicated that he will be participating in the 2005 pre-Worlds contest as required to maintain selection status.

2006 World Class, Vinon, France– Francois Pin will be accompanying Dave to Vinon this summer as the selectee for the World Class contest which will be held in parallel with the Club Class event.

2005 Junior Championships, Husbands Bosworth, UK – Garrett Willat and Chris Saunders have qualified. Garrett has indicated that he will attend, Chris is still considering participation as of this writing.

2005 Feminine Team, Klix, Germany – At this point we have no female pilots who have expressed an interest in participating in this competition. Inquiries would be welcome.

US Team Web Site
Under the expertise, guidance, and incredible effort of Committee member John Seaborn, the US Team web site just continues to get better and better. It contains a wealth of historical information, current events, contest reporting, Team preparation documentation and Committee governance description. The Team web site is constantly updated and fresh, and John has also conformed it to the new SSA web site “look and feel”. All are commended to spend some time there, it is well worth it. In keeping with the ongoing evolution of the SSA web site, Dennis Wright has agreed to put the US Team links prominently under the Contest button on the “outside” or public access area of the site, which will continue to make it easily available to all.

Team Press Room
The addition of a Team Press Room is designed to help with raising the profile of both the Team and soaring with the media, while providing a resource for the larger soaring community.

Team e-Bulletins
As a way to continue to generate support for US Teams, and keep the larger community informed, John Seaborn has organized a US Team E-News Bulletin and, as of this date, has sent out a total of fifteen editions with current news on Team efforts. This is available to all via sign-up form on the Team web site, and currently goes out to 200 recipients. You are all encouraged to sign up. However, the future of such bulletins is currently under debate within the SSA – new governmental regulations on the restriction of spam seem to have been written rather broadly, exposing the senders of such email messages to questions of whether they are in violation of the law. It is our intent to work with the SSA management to find a solution to this problem; clearly, the recipients who have signed up for this service want it and do not consider it spam.

Team Resource Binder
John Seaborn continues to improve a two year effort in collecting and editing a Team Resource Binder which is made available to pilots and Team Captains representing us at World venues. The set of documents included spans everything from shipping and customs information to team flying to guidelines for writing a pre-Worlds report, and represents the collected wisdom of many years of contest participation. Each Team member who receives and reads through the material is encouraged to critique the content and add relevant material. Over time, it is hoped that this will be the “how-to” bible for Team participation, management, and reporting. Our thanks go to John for making a tremendous effort to make this happened.

Junior Team – Soaring Camps
Under the leadership of Tim Welles, a number of initiatives have been taken by the Committee in an effort to improve Junior participation:

Registration and Email signup: It is difficult to know just how many Juniors we have, and how many are in what stage of their racing development.

Therefore we’ve put on the US Team web site a sign-up form for Juniors at which, as of this date, has attracted just under 130 pilots.

Junior Team Bulletins: With the ultimate goal of building participation in future Junior teams and to give the Juniors a sense of participation, we’ve sent out several Junior Team Bulletins informing them of news, opportunities and events of specific significance to Junior pilots.

Fundraising Activities: Through August some $12,000 has been raised for Junior activities. Garret Willat has been particularly active this summer, having organized two fundraisers at Hobbs contests and the auction of a glider ride on eBay that prompted a significant response, among other activities. The National Soaring Foundation was so impressed with his work that they have committed $4,151in matching funds, for which the Committee is truly grateful.

Moriarty Camp: With Team members Chip Garner and John Seaborn, ably assisted by Billy Hill, a Junior encampment at Moriarty was organized which attracted 9 young pilots for an opportunity to learn from lead-and-follow and DG-505 two place missions. See for a great presentation on the camp. Thanks to the Soaring Society of Boulder for the use of the 505! Garret was again magnificent, doing most of the organizing and raising some $1700 for the effort, with the Committee chipping in $800 to fund the camp. The Sugarbush camp was also able to attract two juniors as participants, who attended tuition-free.

Given the need for, and the popularity of these efforts, Tim is working with the Harris Hill Soaring Club on a possible Junior XC camp to take place preceding the Region 3 contest next July, and has several other Junior encampments under consideration for 2005.

UKJunior Team: Bob Leve, veteran member of several FAI Teams has kindly agreed to captain our Junior Team in Bosworth, UK next summer. Garrett Willat and Chris Saunders may join Bob in a planned encampment at Wurtsboro next spring to prepare. The Committee will have as one of its agenda items this weekend the task of deciding on the level of financial support available to the Team.

XC and Racing Encampments
There is clearly a need to for training on the transition from cross-country soaring to racing. With this in mind, and under the leadership of the Committee, a parallel encampment was organized by Doug Jacobs at Sugarbush, Vermont for pilots with Silver Badge or better who wanted to improve their racing skills. Full details are available in the September edition of Soaring Magazine and on the US Team web site at The camp ran in conjunction with the Region 1 Championships, enabling real time racing experience for the participants, either by lead-and-follow or two place Duo Discus training.

The success of this somewhat experimental venture has encouraged us to consider additional camps for the coming summer.

US Team Committee Elections
Tim Welles term as Committee member is up this year – all elected members are on a rotating three year basis – and a call for nominations has been published on the SSA web site, via email to Directors, on RAS, and in an upcoming issue of Soaring.

Interested parties should contact their Regional Director who is responsible for making the nominations. Tim also plans to run again. Details of the election can be found on the US Team web site at NOMINATIONS ARE DUE BY NOVEMBER 1, and the election will be held electronically via the Aland Adams online web based polling and election site.

Financials and Fundraising
Current Committee cash balances, per the attached financial statement, total $24,400. Investment balances in the Robertson and Woods funds total over $366,000 however, giving us a measure of financial stability assuming acceptable investment returns. Current Foundation policy is to limit annual support from these funds to 5% per year to conserve principal. After collaboration with the SSA CFO and Treasurer, and in keeping with the Committee’s commitment to operate in an accountable and transparent manner, we decided to move all Team financial information to the US Team web pages. Our periodic text reports, financial statements, and special reports on particular events or fundraising initiatives are now on-line and available to all.
NAA Fees Allocated to the Team The Committee has submitted and agenda item for Board consideration regarding the methodology for allocating NAA fees to the Team accounts, available elsewhere in the Board book. We strongly recommend adoption of the Committee’s recommendation to achieve basic fairness on this issue. Your consideration of this proposal is appreciated.

We continue to experience a chronic shortage of funds, which we are managing as well as possible with the defined benefit approach. As of this writing we do not feel able to support pre-World participation, even though it is required for the first year selectee. We will continue with our policy of only partially funding WGC Teams and requiring a substantial financial commitment on the part of the pilots.

Our fundraising activities in 2004, in addition to the Juniors efforts outlined above, included a very successful raffle at the Convention, sales of Team merchandise, fundraisers at all Nationals and most Regionals, etc. While the three year period between the 2003 and 2006 Worlds has given us some breathing room, the continued addition of classes – World, Club, 18 Meter – simply means that there are more pilots and more venues to fund.

At our meetings following the Board meeting, we intend to spend significant time on a 2005 fundraising plan.

Recommendations include a significant donor program, intensification of the two place racing experience pioneered by Karl Striedieck as a fundraising device, and consideration of rekindling a major raffle or sweepstakes program. Details will be made available on the Team site when we have consensus on the plan. We would be very appreciative of any volunteers who may want to work on one or more events.

For the Committee
Doug Jacobs
Chairman

Fall 2004 Board Report Page 1 of 4