US Hawks Hang Gliding Association

Call for Nominations
2014 Regional Director Elections

USHPA is soliciting nominations for regional directors, for the 2015-2016 term of office. The currently-serving directors are listed below, and each of them is a candidate for re-election. They are already on the ballot; you don't need to nominate them again. We are interested in having other members bring their skills and experience to the board, so if you'd like to run for office, you're welcome to put your name down as a candidate.

The easiest way to do this is to complete the online nomination form.

If you're nominating someone else, please check with them first to make sure they're interested, and willing to run for the position and accept the responsibility.

The current regional directors whose terms end this year are:

Reg 1: Rich Hass
Reg 2: Jugdeep Aggarwal
Reg 3: Dan DeWeese
Reg 4: Bill Belcourt
Reg 5: no election this year
Reg 6: no election this year
Reg 7: Paul Olson
Reg 8: Michael Holmes
Reg 9: Felipe Amunategui
Reg 10: Steve Kroop
Reg 11: no election this year
Reg 12: Paul Voight

Regional directors serve two year terms, so in regions where there is only one director there's an election every other year.

The election starts in November and runs until mid-December. To meet magazine deadlines for candidate statements, we need to have nominations in by mid-August, and candidate statements by early September.

If you have questions about the job of regional director, the responsibilities that go with it, or the election in general, feel free to send me email.

Mark G. Forbes
USHPA Elections Committee Chairman
elections@ushpa.aero

My name is Bob Kuczewski, and I am running for Regional Director because I want to return control of USHPA to the pilots.

Let me start by saying that I was very happy that Dan DeWeese was elected in 2012. I had great hopes that he would use his directorship to bring about the reforms that we need in USHPA. And over these past 2 years I contacted Dan many times urging him to work on those reforms. I urged Dan to stand up for open voting by the USHPA board. I urged Dan to support all of our Chapters fairly. I urged Dan to be a pilot's advocate for members in his region.

Sadly, Dan has failed every time. At first I attributed Dan's reluctance to his desire to get himself "established" with the other board members. I was OK with that. During my own directorship, I had "charged ahead" and it certainly offended the USHPA "establishment". So if Dan had a better approach, I was happy to see him try it. But two years have passed and Dan has accomplished even less than I did regarding the many reforms needed at USHPA.

USHPA is supposed to be our national pilot's club. Does it feel like it's your club? Does USHPA have a forum where you can voice your opinions and share your ideas with other members at a national level? Why not? Does USHPA provide a venue where you can openly question your Directors and expect a response? Why not? Does USHPA even let you know how your own Directors vote? Why not? The answer is that USHPA has become an "insiders club". There's a core group of Directors (like Rich Hass and Mark Forbes) who run the organization. They herd the other Directors like so many "sheeple". They use a combination of parliamentary procedure and good old peer pressure to keep the other Directors in line. And if that fails, they dip into USHPA's "goody bag" to offer up things like committee chairmanships and awards. It's a broken system.

It would be nice if Dan's "go along to get along" style had borne fruit for our members, but it hasn't. Going along with USHPA's insiders just produces more of the same. If you want a Director who's not afraid to challenge the USHPA establishment, then mark your ballot for Bob Kuczewski. If I am elected, I want it to be a clear mandate for open voting, fair support of Chapters, and fair support of members. Please cast your ballot accordingly.

For more information on my other positions (National Pilots Forum, Fair Processes, HG/PG Committees, Open EC Meetings, Open Board Meetings, etc), please contact me by phone or by email or visit:

    http://ushawks.org/USHPA2014

Thanks for your time,
Bob Kuczewski
H4/P4, Aeronautical Engineer, Private Pilot, Former Director
Phone: 858-204-7499
Email: bob@ushawks.org

Dan,

When I saw your name on the ballot 2 years ago, I had high hopes. That was an election that I was happy to lose. But in your two years, what have you accomplished other than maintaining the status quo?

We still - to this day - don't have a record of how our Directors vote on the USHPA Board. The Torrey Pines Soaring Council remains totally unbalanced with 3 representatives for RC pilots, 2 representatives for sailplanes (who haven't flown one flight in 5 years), and only 2 representatives for the sports of hang gliding and paragliding combined (effectively 2 for PG and none for HG). Robin Marien still claims he can charge outside tandem pilots whatever he wants to fly at Torrey, and you've ignored the Torrey Hawks request to purchase site insurance so we could make Torrey just a little bit more like other clubs including Crestline and Sylmar

I wish I could write how happy and proud I was to have had you as our Regional Director for 2 years, but the record just doesn't support that. Please let me know if I've missed anything because I'd love to post a more upbeat response to your departure as our Director.

A little history ...

In 2005 David Jebb issued a P5 (Master) rating to Pete Michelmore. In 2008, I ran against David Jebb and Pete Michelmore put his name on the ballot as well. There's certainly nothing wrong with that.

But Pete Michelmore didn't really want to run against his buddy David Jebb. He just wanted the opportunity to endorse him and then drop out of the race. Here's Pete Michelmore's statement emailed by USHPA to all Region 3 members on September 29th, 2008 (check your email records if you want proof):

USHPA wrote:= = = =Statement by Pete Michelmore= = = =

I would like to endorse Dave Jebb as Regional Director for Region 3 again this year.

Dave has done an outstanding job for the members of Region 3 over the years and I feel is the best candidate for the job. I have known Dave for over 15 years now, and he is not only an exceptionally nice person, is fair, and trustworthy. His character is as flawless as his friendship to his fellow pilots. Dave is truly a born leader, and I'm proud to have him lead Region 3 as USHPA Director again this year.

Pete Michelmore
USHPA Master Tandem Instructor / Examiner Gravity Hawaii
44-116 Kauinohea Pl.
Kaneohe, HI. 96744
(808) 753-1027
http://www.gravityhawaii.com

I don't know Pete Michelmore, but his use of his own candidacy to endorse David Jebb tells me all I need to know.

SamKellner wrote:What do you say, Eagle? Just another brown noser, right!