On a day to day basis it is likely Martin and Tim. Month to month there is input from the executive committee. Twice a year the BOD meets and makes some policy decisions. But there are important, in fact crucial matters left up to Martin and Tim because basically no one else is taking the time or has the time to provide the strict guidance that the day to day people need if they are going to act in the best interests of the organization as defined by the BOD.

It is this issue of guidance and control that is the main driver behind restructuring the BOD so that it can meet and make decisions on a monthly basis and not leave Martin and Tim to make these decisions on their own.

This is particularly crucial now because of the major failure of the USHPA to address the primary failure of the organization, which is to strongly build the sport of hang gliding through encouragement and subsidization of instructors. The day to day leaders are doing what it is front of them (the insurance crisis) and they have failed to deal with the 40 year long problem of declining hang glider membership.

One question that comes up, are all the issues within the USHPA (including failures of management) provided to all the BOD members? For example were there any failures of IT projects that were not reported in full to all the BOD members. IT project failures happen all the time in organizations.

Do all the BOD members have access to their employees compensation packages?

Is the USHPA properly staffed? Is it run with the barest bones possible or are there positions that could be handled by other personnel?

Is there a platform of principles for prospective directors to endorse, including prioritizing growth and administrative transparency.

While creating our own insurance system was critical did we do it at the expense of the possibility of long term growth?

Is the fact of dual focus (paragliding and hang gliding) keep us from recognizing that we have failed the hang gliding community and allowed us to assess that hang gliding is the problem, not the organization?

Are the real crucial decisions being made by just two people?

Can we create an organization that rewards the outcomes that we want rather than good intentions.

Are Martin and Tim the right people to be guiding the organization?

I'm quite certain that all the USHPA BOD members, USHPA personnel, the RRRG volunteers, and Tim Herr have the best interests of the organizations and membership at heart and that they work hard to do the right thing. The problem is the solutions that they have come up with are killing the sport.

Please use the model of the https://uspa.org/ to see how we should organize ourselves for substantial growth.

Steve Pearson writes:

The director of the USPA explained why their insurance costs are lower, and many other successful initiatives that helped revitalize their sport. Honestly, I was stunned at the level of support that they provide their community but it seems that no one other than Matt and I took anything away from that meeting.

We talked about these issues and many more when USHPA leaders visited Wills Wing. In the letter I shared with Davis and the following comments, I omitted some of the most contentious and egregious issues and examples. I'm not trying to pick a fight, I'm trying to save our sport. We can't do that without more support for instructors and schools which have been decimated by the insurance and bureaucratic changes of the last few years. Many if not most of these changes do nothing to advance safety.

If it wasn't for the success of the USPA in growing their sport I would feel that the decline in hang gliding numbers was just a fact of life. Their success makes it appear as though it is a failure of the USHPA to adequately address the situation and focus like a laser on this issue.

This failure is not a failure of moral character, but represents an opportunity for change. For change to occur the failure must first be noted, accepted, and embraced. There can be no excuses for the failure attributed to outside forces.

Once the USHPA embraces its failure it can make success its goal.

Steve Pearson writes:

Hang gliding has been in decline for 40 years but there has been a precipitous change in the rate of decline since the additional rules and bureaucratic burdens associated with the insurance crisis which effectively decimated the number of small schools and added a monstrous burden to those who remained. There has been no substantive progress or initiatives to prioritize growth or provide relieve for schools and instructors despite innumerable meetings, calls and emails over the last few years. We are on the threshold no recovery RIGHT NOW.