Jampi612

Hi, thanks for the reply. So I quoted specifics of Ed's article. However, in regards to staff's salary: a. salaries for full/part-time staff should be considered separately, and should not be a matter of public record. b. If the current budget does not allow for the staff to have a 'descent' living, then explain that and make adjustments, but dont increase the administrative expenses on other ends (i.e. number of BOD meetings and expense reimbursements). c. 22 ND and RD; is a lot. Subsidizing their travels and the staff's travels impact the overall membership cost. the beginning of this post states a possibility of renewal going up to $69. per published by uspa $66 for renewal has been approved. also stated that they are not involving themselves with tunnel skydiving matters. So, not doing that saved $3/renewal? The increase is $11/yr (20%) and will likely not break people. But where is the logic explained? where are the details? the answer should not always be a blind increase in membership cost without adjustments in administrative costs, or at least without a clear justification. will this statement: ""if the board decides" and "we'll provide plenty of notice and full accounting of the decision" follow this statement: "The board voted to raise individual and introductory membership dues, rating fees and Group Member dues effective January 1, 2018, to the following: " ???? i keep minimum information on my profile. email is my communication preference.

Agree. i keep minimum information on my profile. email is my communication preference.

Thanks Gary. We need more of this... i keep minimum information on my profile. email is my communication preference.

"Overhead costs -- postage, printing, travel, employee health care, outside services and the rest" "If the board decides to increase dues, we'll provide plenty of notice and full accounting of the decision" QUESTION: 1. Travel... going from 2 to 3 BOD meetings a years raised the cost by how much? How much are the total travel costs per year (all expense reports taken into account) for the USPA? 10,20,30...% of the total monies intake? 2. What does "if the board decides" and "we'll provide plenty of notice and full accounting of the decision" mean? break down of costs and their respective increases will be shown somewhere? i keep minimum information on my profile. email is my communication preference.

Figure $100-120k /year total for meetings*** (correction to the original posting) i keep minimum information on my profile. email is my communication preference.

22 BoD Members (14RD, 8ND). 3 Meetings a year. At least... $1k per person to mobilize them to the meetings (not counting staff). Figure $100-120k / meeting. Magazine... Probably could safe publishing monies by going electronic. Last election I advocated for showing a breakdown of monies in terms of percentages per dollar spent vs cost of membership. I think this would show where to cut expenses or why to justify such increase. In my simple mind, I dont see where the money is going; and I dont have a choice but to accept blindly the proposal to increase membership renewal fee by 25%? Yes, inflation increases. But so does unnecessary spending. Also... They should add names behind each vote, so that people can see how directors are voting... for the record. i keep minimum information on my profile. email is my communication preference.

Hi Gary, I am glad to see that you started a thread on this issue. I applaud you, as usual, for your continuous outreach to the USPA members. There a few items of interest in the Parachutist which I would like attention on: a. Foreign Member Voting b. Balloting Period c. USPA - Involvement in Indoor Skydiving Foreign Member Voting: USPA wants to take away the option of foreign members to vote for a Regional Director in a Region of Choice. Two statements put in favor for eliminating this right: 1. "... on the premise that only members in a USPA region should be able to vote for that region's director." 2. "In the last election, out of some 6700 foreign members, 583 voted for a regional director" As a resident of NC but with my declared residence in FL, I voted for the Regional Director in FL. Also many skydivers travel the world, work in different dropzones, etc.etc. Which Regional Director should they vote for if not for the RD which they identify their home dropzone with? or better yet, should that not be left up to the individual? after all, they are full members and should have equal rights. Slipery slope here... Foreign members pay anywhere from 13 to 60% more in membership dues (yearly-life). Yet not all rules apply the same? Many ways to look at this.. needless to say I dont see a fair argument behind making this change. Balloting Period Reduction of open voting from Oct1-Nov30 to Oct1-30. "But a two-month period creates a large staff workload, since many members join and expire during each of the months, and the staff needs to verify that each person is a current member when they vote" This sounds like a system failure for which staff is asking for a change instead of addressing the root cause. That or perhaps a clearer explanation on the subject is needed? I dont see how shortening the open voting time frame eliminates the problem, but rather reduces the amount of the problem. Am I calculating this incorrectly? USPA - Involvement in Indoor Skydiving ---------------------------------- taken from: http://www.uspa.org/About-USPA/about-us USPA’s mission is three-fold: *to promote safe skydiving through training, licensing and *instructor qualification programs *to ensure skydiving’s rightful place on airports and in the airspace system *to promote competition and record-setting programs ----------------------------------------- Couple of questions and thoughts to the matter: - How much will it cost to change the mission statement and all the overhead to accomplish this suggestion of regulating or getting involved with indoor skydiving? - How much will my membership go up to accomplish this action? I can see how this is looked at as a revenue source (which can backfired without a proper business case)... However, when the USPA BoD comprises 22 individuals, 14 Regional Dir and 8 Natl Directors conducting 3 meetings a year... My guess is $30-40k per meeting ($100-120k/yr)... perhaps there should be a two sided approached in reducing cost as well as increasing revenue. Not that increasing Profit is the target.... But then what is the real mission behind this move? and has it been really studied to determine it will not increase the members costs... how else will this be funded? As usual Gary... Thanks for your involvement. Regards, JP Vega Note: all quotes above are copied from the published Parachutist Issue 693 (July 2017) - Official publication of the United States Parachute Association. i keep minimum information on my profile. email is my communication preference.

Hi Everyone, I want to thank everyone that took the time and voted for me. I did not win a seat in the USPA Board of National Directors. However, I am very happy with getting over 500 votes. A mark and threshold which I gave myself for running in the next elections. So for the time being... Thank You Everyone that took the time in voting, and of course double thanks for those who voted for me!

http://www.dropzone.com/cgi-bin/forum/gforum.cgi?do=post_reply_write;quote=1;parent_post_id=4761962;quote_username=Jampi612 Hi JWest, There is an open thread on elections. Above find a little of my information and why Im running for a national director spot. Also on that thread many posts on other candidates and candidates themselves making a pitch for your vote. Of course, I look forward to your vote and support; but read a little on the elections. The people elected have influence on skydiving regulations, rules and the image of the sport inot general. To answer your question directly: regular skydivers should vote, because we all care about our sport, we want it to have a good image and grow in participation, and the people elected have a say on how that happens. Regards, Jean-Paul Vega National Director Candidate i keep minimum information on my profile. email is my communication preference.

Hi Judy, and good day. 1. Thanks for the clarification. I did not interpret it as "all being bad," but i figure i be firm but fair and share some of my experiences. 2. Thanks for giving me credit for being nice :) All in all, I believe open discussions like this are good and that members should write open messages to the USPA BoD here in dropzone.com for feedback and dialogues. Thannks for the follow up, and Regards, Jean-Paul Vega USPA National Director Candidate i keep minimum information on my profile. email is my communication preference.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.