Jampi612

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Everything posted by Jampi612

  1. 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.
  2. Agree. i keep minimum information on my profile. email is my communication preference.
  3. Thanks Gary. We need more of this... i keep minimum information on my profile. email is my communication preference.
  4. "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.
  5. Figure $100-120k /year total for meetings*** (correction to the original posting) i keep minimum information on my profile. email is my communication preference.
  6. 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.
  7. 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.
  8. 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!
  9. 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.
  10. 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.
  11. 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.
  12. 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.
  13. 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.
  14. 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.
  15. 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.
  16. stayhigh, Hi. Here is a website that can help you with comparison between brokerage firms. http://online-stock-trading-review.toptenreviews.com/ Also, if you get a chance, dont forget to review my candidate bio and additional postings: 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.
  17. 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
  18. 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.
  19. 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.
  20. This is the Best Florida DropZone. Needs no further comments.
  21. -Professionalism: Yes! Yes! Yes! Excellent! -Vibe: I felt welcomed from the beginning to the end. Everyone was very friendly; to a point it makes you feel that you actually know them. The only people that didn't ask if I wanted to jump with them were tandem students...! -Aircraft: Otter - bench seats, no mating needed. seem fast compared to other otters; perhaps I'm being biased because it was an entertaining atmosphere going up.... -Facilities: Indoor carpeted packing area as well as equipment, store, manifest, etc... Extremely organized.... Extremely organized... Extremely organized... -Services: they can only get better if it was free :) -Location: GPS will send you to the main entrance of the Airport, must specify King Air Dr to find the place. If not familiar with the area, you WILL get lost, but ask around everyone in town seems to know the place! Hopefully I didn't forget to mention this place is the best I have been so far... Thanks.
  22. -Professionalism: Manifest (A++) extremely efficient. Coaches at times don't have the best delivery to convey the message (B-). -Vibe: OK. -Aircraft: Otter, clean with floor mating. It has an altimeter by the door (A+) -Facilities: Restaurant is awesome (A). Packing area not the greatest (B-). Landing area between 2 runways not a lot of leeway for holding without crossing one of them on landing patterns (C). -Services: Rental equipment has good variety; load organization / electronic screens / timed sequences of loads (A+) -Location: No real scenery to enjoy while free falling.
  23. Jampi612

    Skydive Sebastian

    Went to fun jump on a weekend. -Professionalism: Manifest lady (Amanda) and coaches (Ian) - very professional and personable (A+). Both individuals any dropzone would like in their roster. However, the videographer was completely unprofessional making jokes of the new tandem students and other fun jumpers (F). -Vibe: Friendly and accommodating (A-). Except for the videographer (F) i would recommend this dropzone to anyone. -Aircraft: Caravan - Slow but steady ride, very comfortable floor mats and spacious interior. The door is a little hard to work with, watch your fingers... (B+) -Facilities: Very complete facilities. Friendly staff at the bar (A). -Services: Fun jumping loads - renting equipment can be a little tedious getting tickets from manifest to give it to a jumpmaster to clear you & your already checked gear before jumping. I can understand once in the whole sequence of jumps in one day, but if the equipment is the same throughout the day repeating the sequence is a waste of jumpmaster's and fun jumpers time (A-). -Location: Great beach/inlet view. Plenty of landing space. (A+)
  24. I finished my AFF Saturday; and so I figured to do some justice to some of the comments that I read here. Again, lets put one thing to bed: I am not an experienced jumper and I have only been at this DZ a total of 5 times; so I don't consider myself a regular either. So here we go... -Professionalism: Here are my observations, 1. Rigger: Yes, I have observed people being ignored; particularly when coming to "small talk" the rigger as he packs parachutes. For this he gets an A+. He is probably the hardest working individual in this DZ. 2. Tandem Instructors: Focused. Very little small talk between them and/or visitors, between jumps and preparations. When is time to go, they focused on one student and 'summarily' ignore everyone in the surroundings except that one student. Sometimes, too serious about their job. For this they get an A-. 3. Videographers: They give you all the fun, take pictures of you and your friends together. In the ground they are your psychologists making you forget about your nervousness. In the sky, they are your smile... Need not to say more, A+ 4. Reservations: This lady has the up-most patience... particularly on my umpteenth call needing to reschedule... A+ 5. Manifest: Personnel gets an A; equipment to ease their job C- bordering on a D. They need to use some type of computer software to sort out the loads and make changes more easily. Recommendation: leaf evaluation software. -Vibe: Friendly, professional, serious and focused. If they are doing something, like packing parachutes, for obvious reasons don't expect to get full attention. -Aircraft: I jumped from 2 king airs, the pink and the purple. the pink gets a B, the purple gets a A+. The purple reached altitude much faster, and it felt completely comfortable ride. the pink rocks a little. although it could have been the day... -Facilities: 1. Mens bathroom; 4 functional toilets, 1 out of service. It be nice to have a fully working bathroom 2. Shading: a temporary tent to survive the florida summer heat would be a major improvement; specially before the summer starts. -Services: Tandem service is great(A). AFF is awesome, they will point your weak points with humor and correct you with patience and without rushing you(A+). But yes, from my observation more versatility for fun jumpers could give it more exposure to the world. Then again, if from a business perspective does not make sense; then stick to what makes the place run steadily. -Location: Great space coast view. Great shuttle runway and assembly building view. Depending on your eyesight, good shuttle launch pad view. Plenty of space to land for students. Best thing I have learned here... "In skydiving slow is fast and fast is sloppy.... "