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normiss

USPA elections

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So, I'm wondering about voting strategy...

I don't vote for people I don't know personally, because I don't want to find out later that it was a mistake. I stick with what I know.

That leaves me with 5 directors for whom I'll vote, out of 8 that I'm allowed. Then there are two candidates whom I do NOT want to see elected.

So, what's the best way to help ensure that my two undesirables do NOT get elected? Should I just stick with the five I know? Or should I go ahead and vote for another three to get to my maximum of eight? Would picking a full eight, excluding my undesirables, help to defeat the undesirables?

Just wondering...

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I'm most concerned about the latest round of new guys that just fit right in the good ole boys system there.
It had a LOT to do with how Mr. Winstock's incident was NOT dealt with.

I cannot support someone with that type of repeated behavior being National Director. It simply makes zero sense to me.
I'm more wishing I could find a good non GM DZ close by.
;)

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normiss

It had a LOT to do with how Mr. Winstock's incident was NOT dealt with. I cannot support someone with that type of repeated behavior being National Director.



Agreed. Nor the person who was responsible for doing something about him, and did nothing. That's two out, in my mind.

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Hi Everyone.

My Name is Jean-Paul Vega. Relatively unknown, low number of jumps, no sponsorship or affiliation to any particular dropzone or company. I am a plain fun jumping skydiver with no agenda other than to do good for the sport. Hopefully you got a chance to read my bio.

I am running primarily on the fact that I will not cost the membership a penny. I want to participate and contribute to the skydiving community as a way to give back. Here are two links where you can either facebook friend me:

https://www.facebook.com/juanparacaidas.victoriano

or connect with me via linkedin:

https://www.linkedin.com/pub/jean-paul-vega/88/623/854

I have a solid academic and professional background working in the Energy Industry from the Engineering perspective. I have managed and lead groups of engineers as well as technicians with more and less experience than me. We pride ourselves in making sound decisions based on not only logic but data & analysis, after peer reviewing issues and items. Subsequently reporting on this decisions to internal and external customers.

There are many techniques and strategies that can make a difference in our sport.

Transparency -

We as members pay a $65 (new) or $55 (renewing) fee. I believe the USPA ought to break this number down and itemize it to determine what percentage split goes to the different categories. For example $5 to support BoD Members travel and expense reimbursement, $2 printing cost, etc. Not only does this help transparency and increase trust from our members, but it also helps in itemizing to target areas of cost reductions.

Statistics & Reporting -

In the next year I would like to propose to have a standard for reporting accidents. I currently belong to the American Society of Testing & Materials Committees E30 (Forensic Sciences) and ASTM E58 (Forensic Engineering). These committees establish standards for testing, data gathering, investigations among other things. Analogous to the different scopes covered by the NTSB, the skydiving community should have a set of standards on material testing directly related to parachute manufacturing, as well as accident reporting. These standards, for your peace of mind, are not legal binding documents, but are standards used as procedural guidelines. The information can be subsequently used to present to the membership for education and establishing safety priorities, talks, presentations during, for example, safety day.

These are a few items that I have in mind. I hope to get your attention and not bore you with details in this post, and that you follow me in facebook and/or linkedin. Ultimately, voting for me for National Director.

Sincerely,

Jean-Paul Vega
National Director Candidate
i keep minimum information on my profile. email is my communication preference.

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Hi Socrates.

I do not agree with the strategy to vote only for those that "you know."

I call on everyone to read about the candidates and research more on them, their views, posts and so on. Thereby making full use of your/their vote as member(s).

Personally, I would appreciate any questions, inquiries and/or posts thrown in my direction in order to make people more comfortable with voting for me.

http://www.dropzone.com/cgi-bin/forum/gforum.cgi?post=4761962#4761962

Sincerely,

Jean-Paul Vega
National Director Candidate
i keep minimum information on my profile. email is my communication preference.

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Hi Normiss,

I would love to have your support and vote. Read more about me here:

http://www.dropzone.com/cgi-bin/forum/gforum.cgi?post=4761962#4761962

As well as, please, dont hesitate to ask any questions.

Sincerely,

Jean-Paul Vega
National Director Candidate

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Rich Winstock is not the only board member that I have questions on. Since September 17, 2015 I have been talking with a couple of national directors at USPA to try to solve a problem we have here in Michigan. It seems that our regional director Randy Allison, who is also VP of USPA doesn't require an in date USPA card with ratings to do AFF. In addition how hard is it to look at the membership database and see that a person who had their instructor rating expire on August 31 of 2009 is not able to do AFF Instructor jumps at his DZ in 2015. In addition this persons USPA membership had expired June 30, 2015 per the database check September 17, 2015.

After almost a month of no progress other than USPA looking at the AFF-I for possible disciplinary action, nothing has happened. I have reached out to the one national director I had originally brought it up to, and he said he is no longer able to talk me about this problem. I have not heard from anyone else at USPA that may be working on this.

I have Facebook video from August 23, 2015 of this person doing AFF at Midwest Freefall. I also have 4 other videos of this same instructor doing AFF at Midwest Freefall in early September 2015.

I am just wondering is this another case of like Rich Winstock, the president is protecting her boys. Sherry Butcher refused Rich's resignation after his "accident" on safety day 2014. He slipped right through as Randy seems to be doing with using non-rated people. I have seen several other similarities between Randy and Rich in the past. The biggest one would be that both had innocent bystanders at their DZ (actually the one at Randy's DZ was on the road), get paid $50,000.00 by USPA's insurance for getting hit by a swooper.

I got involved in this whole fiasco because I was told this AFF-I was coming to jump at a DZ where I fly. I had heard in the past that this instructor was no longer rated. I called someone to check USPA's membership database, it took less than a couple minutes to find out when everything had expired.

I am not out to crucify someone. I am just asking why the board cannot hold themselves to the same standards they have put in writing for us to follow. I feel anyone in their position should hold themselves beyond reproach.

Todd Ames

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Someone you mentioned above directly told me that he doesn't care for the new BSR, although he is a examiner, who are in charge of creating new instructors. Also this person happens to be in charge of general safety, yet, he told me directly that he doesn't care for safety at all, he doesn't care how people get hurt or die.

He basically thinks that the rule doesn't apply to anyone higher up within the organization, and the voters, (I assume only about 5% of USPA members actually vote), are dumb enough to vote for their skygod. The dumb sell out voters(fun jumpers), frankly doesn't give a flying fck. All the they want is a DZ that can go to on the weekends, and jump couple times and get drunk or high.

I'll bet all those fun jumpers will protest when the jump ticket price goes up, and yet no one know what the membership due really does, how it is spent, and who gets the money. You gotta be an idiot to believe that all these people work for free, getting paid only for travel costs and lodging.

Indeed, there are lots of questionable characters within the organization.

When November comes, I'll find out if I'll start jumping again. I'm not paying a cent to USPA, if things stays the same. I could careless about making another jump, I have 6000+ of them.

Voters need to wake the fck up.
Bernie Sanders for President 2016

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Socrates

So, I'm wondering about voting strategy...

I don't vote for people I don't know personally, because I don't want to find out later that it was a mistake. I stick with what I know.

That leaves me with 5 directors for whom I'll vote, out of 8 that I'm allowed. Then there are two candidates whom I do NOT want to see elected.

So, what's the best way to help ensure that my two undesirables do NOT get elected? Should I just stick with the five I know? Or should I go ahead and vote for another three to get to my maximum of eight? Would picking a full eight, excluding my undesirables, help to defeat the undesirables?

Just wondering...



My recommendation is just to vote for the ones you definitely want to get elected. It is nice to see someone else understands that the ballot is for up to eight selections, not that the voter must choose eight. That being said, I also won't just recommend you ONLY vote for those people you know. There are some who you may be convinced also to include in your voting. You may not know that candidate personally, but perhaps through the statement provided for the ballot, or other comments or history you've come across (like here on DZ.com), you are convinced he or she would make a good director. In that case, at least consider voting for that person, too. Basically, please just keep an open mind. Kudos for doing some homework on the candidates.
See the upside, and always wear your parachute! -- Christopher Titus

Shut Up & Jump!

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Socrates


So, what's the best way to help ensure that my two undesirables do NOT get elected?
Just wondering...



The best way is to spread the word through social media. Blast them on Facebook, Twitter, Dz.com. Whatever it takes to spread the word.
Bernie Sanders for President 2016

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Read everything you had to say Jean-Paul :) Lets hope others vote for the best candidates and not who has the most jump numbers or who is the coolest DZO that doesn't care of your a responsible human that can be trusted with the lives of others :) You earned my vote.

MAKE EVERY DAY COUNT
Life is Short and we never know how long we are going to have. We must live life to the fullest EVERY DAY. Everything we do should have a greater purpose.

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Agreed - this "good 'ol boys network" needs to go. I've experienced similar situations with Mr. Allison - from not allowing the S & T A (me) to file a FACTUAL incident report in fear of litigation, writing bad checks, to closing up the business and hiding assets to avoid paying out on lawsuits (won by me).

There is currently similar type of action going on with Mr. Allison and other parties. At some time, don't you think he'd look in the mirror of these repeated situations and realize the problem is HIM?

Mr. Allison looks out for himself and NOT the interest of jumpers, spectators, nor the USPA.

I urge everyone to make phone calls and learn more before voting.

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I just hope that everyone votes for candidates who DO NOT have ANY association with Cary Quattrocchi and any of his fake websites and business names! (Rushcube, Spot Reservation, Sportations etc)
We need to get the ones out who have been associated with him and his scams!!

Now back to your regularly scheduled program already in progress! :D

Refuse to Lose!!!
Failure is NOT an option!
1800skyrideripoff.com
Nashvilleskydiving.org

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catfishhunter

Read everything you had to say Jean-Paul :) Lets hope others vote for the best candidates and not who has the most jump numbers or who is the coolest DZO that doesn't care of your a responsible human that can be trusted with the lives of others :) You earned my vote.



Hi "catfishhunter."

I appreciate the comment and the time you took to read my statements. I hope to get the support of all the readers and that people are open to a new objective approach.

Thanks again. And if I win, I look forward to having these discussions here in dropzone.com during the three year term.

Regards,

Jean-Paul Vega
USPA National Director Candidate
i keep minimum information on my profile. email is my communication preference.

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Voting Information for the Reader:

I see some discussions about voter turn out. here is a website that I used to figure approximately how many votes the top 8 National Director Candidates need to win the election:

http://www.parachutehistory.com/skydive/uspa/elections/eleccandidates.html

Here a quick summary (2002 information):

Votes:

Total Voter TurnOut: (10.8%); 3695 out of 34322 Members voted.
Regional Voters: (8.4%); 2898 out of 34322 Members voted.

The ratio of Regional Directors vs. National Directors voting turn out: 78.4% (RD/ND).

The largest major number of votes by regions for regional directors in respective order.

564 Western
507 Southeast
270 Gulf
227 Mid-Atlantic
221 Central
202 Eastern
170 Mountain
164 Northwest
135 Pacific
126 Mideastern
107 Northeast
94 Southern
68 Southwest
43 North Central

Regardless of results in the ongoing elections, the USPA in the future should work with all Dropzones to get more people to vote and be involve in the process. If there is only a ~10% voter turn out again, that is stagnation and not growth.

This is a measure of success which should go in the evaluation matrix of each of the directors elected for the next 3 years.

Regards,

Jean-Paul Vega
USPA National Director Candidate
i keep minimum information on my profile. email is my communication preference.

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WatchYourStep

The last election had 4905 voters for the regional candidates.



Hi and thanks for information. Is there a reference website we can use or statistics available that can be reviewed?

Regards ,

Jean-Paul Vega
USPA National Director Candidate
i keep minimum information on my profile. email is my communication preference.

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WatchYourStep


Outstanding! Thanks Jeremy. And good luck in the elections!

Regards,

Jean-Paul Vega
USPA National Director Candidate
i keep minimum information on my profile. email is my communication preference.

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Here is why you shouldn't vote for Rich Winstock or Shauna Finley. Boy the truth hurts.

Please check Marko Markovich public figure page on Facebook to see the original message Winstock sent online regarding USPA's rules.

:)
10,000 jumps, with a log for every single jump. Unlike some USPA National Directors with 14,750 Fake jumps with the flying skills to prove they are fake jumps....

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Hello Judy, and Everyone,

if i may reply here to your post on "USPA Elections 2" forum which has been locked now.

A quick story for Everyone to gauge... In the previous elections I contemplated running for Regional Director in the Southeast. At the time, in order to educate myself I reached out to Mr. Noonan (via email). Mr. Noonan proceeded to give me a very elaborate and objective explanation on how USPA business was done and the scope of the Board of Directors. I did a little more research, and decided to postpone getting into the ballot at that time.
Fast forward to 2015, I once again reached out to Mr. Noonan and expressed my desired to run in the current elections as RD- Southeast. Mr. Noonan once again answered my inquiry and offered to have a phone call. He spent over 30 minutes of his time discussing current USPA business on that call.
After this, out of respect for the incumbent in the Southeast Region, I reached out to him (Mr. Berchtold), and asked him if he was going to run again. He said he would, but invited me to run against him in the elections.
Both Mr. Berchtold & Mr. Noonan invited me to join the BoD Meeting this past July 2015. I decided to go, in the same manner that I will be going to every meeting in the future if I get elected: On my own dime. The difference will be that I will request all the reimbursement for my travel and participation be allocated to the National Team Funds.

BoD Meeting - July 2015
During the time that I was there, only Mr. Berchtold, Mr. Peek, Mr. Smith and Mr. Noonan directly reached out to me and welcomed me to the meeting. Mr. Noonan took it to the next level and started involving me in the discussions during some of the sessions, introducing me to others (specifically Mr. Stokes), and at the end recognizing me (as well as other visitors) in our participation.
During voting on the issues, time after time I heard both Mr. Berchtold and Mr. Noonan repeat "with name," meaning they wanted to have their names attached to their votes. I agree with this process, and I think it should be a standard.

Out of respect for his way of handling business, I decided not to run against Mr. Berchtold in the Southeast. And I hope, if I am lucky to win a National Director spot, that Mr. Noonan is there as well and that I can complement his passion for the sport. He has been nothing but a true gentlemen.

Thanks for reading, and Regards,

Jean-Paul Vega
National Director Candidate
i keep minimum information on my profile. email is my communication preference.

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Jean-Paul

I am not saying they are all bad, because I know they are not. We just don't have enough good ones to make the changes that I would like to see happen.

Good luck in the elections.

Judy
Be kinder than necessary because everyone you meet is fighting some kind of battle.

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Quote



I am not out to crucify someone. I am just asking why the board cannot hold themselves to the same standards they have put in writing for us to follow. I feel anyone in their position should hold themselves beyond reproach.

Todd Ames



FWIW, I don't know that it's possible for the board to hold themselves to the standard they expect from us, nor what we expect of them.

One candidate in this year's election, was shown to be flying in a beanbag chair ferrying to a demo.
Another, fabricated emails that were used to eviscerate another candidate in this year's elections. When the fabrication was discovered, it "didn't matter, because no one wants that guy elected anyway."
Yet another posted confidential material on Facebook, where an instructor was crucified long before a USPA Safety/Training committee conversation could take place.
We've seen BOD members stoned in committee meeting, we've seen BOD members drunk at meetings, we've seen BOD members participate in covering up competition cheats, we've seen BOD members give ratings for sexual favors. There is at least one sitting board member whose admitted they truly don't give a shit about skydiving, but they sure appreciate the free airfare to this or that place.

Over the years, I'm sure nothing surprises anyone.

Just remember that the BOD members are like everything else, a cross section of life and real people. A few board members are brilliant. A couple are dumber than a goldfish. Some are intent on building power, while others just want to do the best job they can. If I didn't think my mountain regional director was a super guy, I'd have run against him not because I want the job, but because someone who has passion for the sport tempered with experience should be sitting in that seat. Since he's a good man with a lot of background, I voted for him.

Regardless of what anyone thinks...the job the board members do is a dirty, pain in the ass job. I've not been on this board, but have attended most USPA BOD meetings since 2006. "Fun" is not a word I'd use to describe any of it.

Reading Judy's words on Tom and Albert doesn't surprise me. I've been around when Tom Noonan is having one of those 30 minute calls with constituents. And the same goes for several other BOD members. I'm stunned at the amount of personal time some of these people dedicate to their constituents, all for a plane ticket and hotel room twice a year, to an event where they get to listen to people bitch, moan, and complain about how bad their USPA board is.

Hats off to those people that serve (even the couple that are dumber than a goldfish) for taking the time out to do a thankless job.

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Ummmm...that wasn't me that was Jean-Paul being nice (about Tom and Albert)...I complained about the executive committee as a whole. Just wanted to clarify and give credit where credit is due.

Judy
Be kinder than necessary because everyone you meet is fighting some kind of battle.

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DSE

One candidate in this year's election, was shown to be flying in a beanbag chair ferrying to a demo.
Another, fabricated emails that were used to eviscerate another candidate in this year's elections. When the fabrication was discovered, it "didn't matter, because no one wants that guy elected anyway."
Yet another posted confidential material on Facebook, where an instructor was crucified long before a USPA Safety/Training committee conversation could take place.
We've seen BOD members stoned in committee meeting, we've seen BOD members drunk at meetings, we've seen BOD members participate in covering up competition cheats, we've seen BOD members give ratings for sexual favors. There is at least one sitting board member whose admitted they truly don't give a shit about skydiving, but they sure appreciate the free airfare to this or that place.



Those are some pretty lofty accusations. Could you attach some names to the ambiguous references?

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