chriswelker

I hope everyone remembers that one of the ole' fuckheads,Sherri Butcher ND & SEC, is on the USPA BOD's come election time.Is this the type of leadership we need from our BOD member. They are suppose to be looking out for the sport not killing it.

There goes the neighborhood. These things look like junk. I wouldn't put a dead skunk in one of those boxes. The less you pay for something the more it costs you in the long run. Chris

NASCAR event gets sponsored by Coors Light and Skoal for TV and the event. Does that mean the Viagra car, the Interstate Battery car and the Miller MGD car have to be painted a solid color?Quote Last year SPRINT and RCR(sponsored by AT&T) had an issue. Because the NASCAR series was sponsored by Sprint, Sprint didn't want to allow RCR to run the AT&T sponsorship. RCR threatened suit and RCR continued to run the AT&T car. I would think with all the experience that the USPA has with ANTI TRUST LAWSUITS, that USPA would do the right thing for skydiving and skydivers.

I agree. You should always avoid situations that could turn bad. Me too! ***My personal defense firearm is almost exclusively for defense from unarmed (or not armed with firearms) individuals. If the other guy has a gun, the rules are very different, and basically involve me (and mine) trying to get out of harms way until help arrives.*** My personal defense weapon is EXCLUSIVELY for defense from ARMED ATTACKERS. Ever heard of "confront force with force"? There are many ways to practice but advanced training enhances SURVIVAL. Training needs to be realistic and stressful. You must be able to draw your weapon, fire and hit your target in under 2 seconds.

refer to my earlier post regarding training. If racking the slide is part of the weapon presentation, and it's practiced it would only add half a second or so.Quote Really? Have you ever timed yourself or anyone else doing this?

My situation is vastly different from yours, so I've made the decision to carry with nothing in the chamber. I have two small children who are with me most days (and one who likes to put things in and out of my pockets), and I'm sure that my familiarity/comfort with firearms in general is years behind yours. I figure that carrying with the hammer down on an empty chamber requires only one more step should I actually have to use the weapon, and I'm willing to rely on my ability to predict a dangerous situation to earn me the few seconds it will require to rack the slide.Quote You should carry a BRICK instead, because that is all you really have. I hope for your safety that you are never involved in a gun fight because it will be over in 5 seconds.Maybe the perp will give you a few seconds to tap, rack and fire.

A canopy control course can do wonders to help prevent landing injuries. Common sense works also. You can't fix stupid! Chris

No and No. Chris

Sue them! The USPA is acting in bad faith. You may have an anti-trust case against them. If skyronch can beat the USPA so can you. Chris

What is is actual expense ratio for jftc? If it is really a 60/40 split as Jan Myers claims, then that is out of line no matter what you are raising money for.So what are the real #'s on jftc? Does anyone have the correct answers to these questions? Chris

Lew (Karen Lewis) made the shirts a few years ago for WFFC. I can feel the LOVE! Chris

from skydivekingair.com West Tennessee Skydiving as initiated our "Jump Buddy" Program in which each AFF Graduate Student is assigned their own personal Coach to jump with them, at NO charge, on each and every jump until they receive their "A" License. The Coach will develop the student's skills until all items on the USPA "A" License proficiency card are completed. This is an unprecedented program in the Skydiving industry and provides a value of over $800 to all our students! This is sport promotion. Chris

Just 2 days before the BOD meeting. If you think dues and fees should be raised for everyone except the Group members, let the BOD members know. I don't mind a fee increase just as long as the Group Members pay their fair share, too. Chris

What do you folks think about the plan for USPA to become a tandem/student booking agency? It's on the GM agenda already. They made a presentation at the summer 2008 meeting too. USPA gets a 20% cut of the retail price. The company that wants to provide the backend has set this up for companies in Australia, but they contacted each DZ directly. Their expansion to the US is attempting to use USPA as leverage. Instead of contacting each USPA GM directly, they get USPA to adopt the program and require GM membership in order to participate. Quote Too bad if your a GM DZO/DZM, you sould not be allowed to vote or even discuss the program, because you have a FINANCIAL CONFLICT OF INTEREST in this matter! The USPA Governaance Manual Section 1-2: Structure, Procedures, and Responsibilities. Section 1-2.3 Board of Directors section 4 states: 4. Identifying, reporting, preventing, and ELIMINATING FINANCIAL CONFLICTS OF INTEREST ON THE BOARD. a. A financial conflict of interest occurs when a board member compromises, or APPEARS to compromise, his or her duties in carrying out USPA policy because of an external relationship that directly or indirectly affects the FINANCIAL INTEREST OF THE BOARD MEMBER, ANY FAMILY MEMBER, OR ANY ASSOCIATED ENTITY. b. Board members MAY NOT MAKE OR PARTICIPATE IN THE MAKING OF A DECISION OR VOTE ON ANY MATTER IF THERE EXISTS A FINANCIAL CONFLICT OF INTEREST. c. Intentional and/ or flagrant violations of this policy may be considered grounds for removal from the board in accordance with the constitution and bylaws. So if you are GM DZO or DZM you have a FINANCIAL conflict of interest in this matter. Who actually put this on the agenda? Was it a GM DZO? If it was then it should't be on the agenda. USPA has rules for the BOD to follow, but they choose not to. If you are a GM DZO or DZM you should not be allowed to be on the GM committee because you have a FINANCIAL CONFLICT OF INTEREST. Chris

Does the USPA need to look at trimmings its budget? Yes, but that does not mean they should eliminate programs just to save a dollar or two. As pointed out our dues are cheaper now then ever when accounted for inflation. They are stretching that ever thinning dollar further and further to keep from raising the dues.Quote Are you aware of the fact that there is no consideration to raise the dues on the Group Members? The reason given is "the group members have already paid their dues for the year", WTF? Are you kidding me? Send them a bill for their dues increase how hard is that. The next 2 BOD meetings will cost USPA o total of around 50K.You ok with that? Don't get me wrong. I understand that prices increase stuff goes up.The issue I have with dues increase is that it isn't shared by all and there are a few programs that don't carry their load; however I will probably be paying for them none the less. Chris

What is the long term income from those people? You are looking at it from a 1 year level but if the USPA spent the $30k and it results in 300 members that are around for 4-5 years each that is $60000+ in income from those members. Getting a 2:1 return on the investment in 4 years is generally considered a really good investment. Quote Lets look at the membership numbers since 2000. 2000 34,217 2001 34,322 2002 33,644 2003 30,618 2004 32,057 2005 31,276 2006 30,618 2007 31,264 2008 31,534 Your assumption would be correct if not for the fact that we are losing members just almost as fast as we are adding them.The numbers are what they are.5300 people didn't renew their USPA membership in 2008. That fact should be of concerne to all.We get them through the door but we can't hold on to them. I wonder why. More focus needs to be on the retention of current members. Just like in any business, you spend more to attract a new customer than you do to retain an existing one.This is just one way USPA could cut costs and provide better service. Chris

Just to be clear, I don't think USPA should run a deficit, nor should they aim for surpluses. They also shouldn't "lose" money as in misplace it. They should, however, spend the money on the programs they plan to implement. If they want to pay into a fund for emergencies, that's OK too - as long as the plan is to actually use it in those emergencies, rather than build up investment capital. However, if said emergencies don't come along, I would hope they'd eventually take that surplus and use it to reduce dues instead of increasing their investments.Quote I agree with you that USPA should spend the funds, but they should not over spend. Bill, my point is very simple. If our USPA BOD and HQ exec. Dir. can't make it on the funds we are giving them now, they ain't gonna make it on more. USPA does not have an income problem, it has a spending problem. USPA spent 30k plus on sport promotion last year which netted 270 new members. 270 x $51 equals $13770 gross revenue. USPA lost at least $16230 on this one transaction alone. What do you think about this, Bill? When do we say stop to this type of wasting money? Chris

Uh, yes. They SHOULD lose money. I expect them to take my money and spend it on safety improvements, student training and competition planning. If I want a good investment that makes me money I'll buy into a mutual fund.Quote Bill if you spend more than you take in where does the difference come from.? I have not mentioned anthing about investing or mutual funds so please try your best to stay on topic. You should be setting a better example as a mod. Chris

The following is what USPA said at the end of 2007: USPA membership soared in 2007, with a significant number of new skydivers joining its ranks. USPA ended 2007 with more members (31,264) than the previous year for the first time since 2002. The total number of new members in 2007 was 4,900, reversing a five-year downward trend; it's also the highest number of new members since 2003. Here is what they said last week: First, the numbers. USPA membership ended the year at 31,534, our highest year-end number since 2004. We added 5,570 new members in 2008, the most in a year since 2003. Mr. Scott please stop pissing on our legs and telling us that it is raining. What the numbers really say is we added 270 net members. No wonder the USPA is BROKE. Piss poor management, plain and simple. One more time, PROFIT IS NOT GUESS WORK! Chris

To me, USPA is a service organization. I rate them not on how much money they make but on how much they support skydiving. The competition program helps both me and other skydivers who want to compete or who are working towards competing. Group membership helps keep drop zones open and helps keep uniformity in student training programs and BSR's. That is their value. It's not whether they are good investment vehicles or not.Quote BROKE is BROKE. So if something keeps loosing money year after year your o. k. with that? If you are a service organization you have to make a profit or at least not loose your ass so you can continue to serve your customers. Chris

If the programs like Competition, Group Membership, and Communications don't make money then they don't make sense. Let the people that want comp. around pay for it. I personally don't give a crap about comp., because I don't compete. Same thing goes for the GM program. Parachutists could be cut down to to six issues or just make the thing optional. FYI, for those skydivers that own homes and carry home owners insurance, you might already have personal liability insurance included in your home owners insurance policy. If it wasn't for the fact that I am a rated instructor I would drop my USPA membership because I don't need it to skydive and I do have liability insurance to cover any mishap. Bottom line, USPA is pricing themselves out of the game. Did anyone check out Gearing Up in Parachutists this month? It's no wonder the USPA is BROKE! Mr. Scott says USPA membership ended up at 31,534, our highest years-end number since '04. We added 5570 new members in '08.If my math is correct that means at some point in the year our membership was only 25,964. I am wondering if Mr. Scott went to the ENRON school of accounting.Mr. Scott does not mention how many members did not renew their memberships.Sounds like we have a revolving door with the membership numbers.What was the net increase? if anyone knows how many members we had at the end of '07 then we shall know the exact number.That's how you judge performance. Chris

So USPA gets named in the lawsuit because said DZ is a Group Member?Anyone care to explain once again how the GM program is an asset to USPA? This settelement or judgement could make the whole skyride screw up look like a walk in the park. Chris

GM's agree to follow USPA BSR's and training standards. Non-GM DZ's do not. There is nothing wrong with a non-USPA DZ allowing people to pull at 100 feet, or allowing someone with 2 jumps to do a wingsuit jump.Quote I Have have witnessed more F Uped stuff at GM's DZ's than anywhere else. BTW I used to jump at a non GM DZ where the training and safety standards were much better than most if not all of the GM Dz's. Your statements don't hold much water with me. There is a whole lot wrong with letting people pull at 100 feet and someone with 2 jumps do a wingsuit jump. As a matter of fact it is gross negligence. Just because your DZ is a GM DZ it doesn't make it safe to jump at. Chris

Those things do not have anything to do with the GM program that stuff is all S&T. All the things you mention are our benefits. The GM program is pain and simple a TRADE ORGINIZATION within USPA! PIA is a real trade orginization, so let the GM's join the PIA. Chris

B I N G O we have a winner!! The numbers are as follows BOD's create no revenue and cost the membership approx. every year. Group membership takes in $71,000 per year and costs the membership approx. per year. So where do you think that difference comes from? It comes from the regular membership. That's a difference. We pay for the program and we should have a say in what they do with our dues. Regular USPA members create approx $1,700,000 in revenue and we cost ourselves approx. leaving approx. a Million dollars left to feed the beast. HQ Mgmt PR/Marketing, General ops and info technologies take in approx. $153,000 and cost us approx. . Communications which includes "Parachutists" takes in approx. $550,000 and costs us approx. . $290,000 difference. If you want to look at cutting something(s) this must be looked at. Safety & Training generates approx. $237,000 in revenue with only approx. in expenses. Good job Safety and Training , keep up the good work because the loosing ass GM program needs your revenue to survive. Last and not the least is Competition they take in approx $19,000 in revenue and spend that's only a loss. Pay up or leave . You have a working frame work of the "SYSTEM" now. All of this information is based on the fact that I was a member of the USPA Finance and Budget committee from 2005 til 2006. Chris