[Free]

Just as it looked like donations were drying up at 28k, an anonymous donation of $2000 came in.
Mark Forbes, is that you? ..(satire) because we know Mark would never do that without hero recognition.
Gee, I wonder who?

I think Jim Zeisit, was pressured to make a donation to the Womens' Team in return for the cover-up of all the "misspent" USHGA funds
when he and Mark Forbes nearly bankrupted 'the Corporation, back in the day. He skated out of leadership, turning it over to Tim Herr, the corporate lawyer and Mark Forbes, as they swept the issue under the rug. Those two know where all the bodies are buried because they are the ones that filled in the graves.

The power grab of a few days ago is a continuation of an ongoing cover-up. They have to limit the prying eyes of the members by controlling who might gain access to how the sausage is made.

This is not just my conspiratorial mindset running wild. There was a true, world class finance analytical guy that briefly looked into the corporate books during
the time in question and came up with the conclusion that all was not well in this land of volunteer machinations. Of course he was silenced somehow and he disappeared never to be heard from again. His name was Warren S.. something.. Scribner? Scrivner? I mean this guy was in Who's Who of his field of work. No dummy, he.
I wrote about this on the now defunct USHGA yahoo list years ago. I have some copies on old hard drives and will try to search on yahoo but they make it pretty hard to find things there, or I just am not good at it. Dan Brown, also wrote about it and he went silent. He's a California lawyer, maybe someone knows him?

Mark why don't you come clean and redeem yourself. Tell us it was you instead of Jim Zeisit, that nearly brought down USHGA, once before.
Make another sizeable donation to Tiki, and maybe we will forgive you for being such a ...

[Free]

Three days touch of winter blues. It's been cold. I'm getting old.
Not as inclined to donate the things thought about.

[Bob Kuczewski]

From February 20th, 2019 at 8:21 pm:

Technically, Tiki did vote to expel me. Here's how Doug phrased it in his vote tally of the USHPA Board:

tiki masky ??? region 6 ????? said yes but in a "no" tone

Tiki did ask the right question. I'll paraphrase it here:

We may not like some of the things Bob is doing (like starting the U.S. Hawks, speaking to his City Council, testifying in court), but how does expelling him stop him from doing any of those things?

Then Mark Forbes jumped in and backed her down. She ended up voting to expel me.

I tend to think Doug's assessment was right. Tiki may not have had enough experience on the Board to know how tough it is to stand up to Mark Forbes and Tim Herr. There is a tremendous social pressure to go along with the flow.

I have called Tiki recently to ask about it, and she said she didn't remember her comment. She didn't seem particularly willing to help, but she did agree to take a look at it if I sent her the documentation. Her tone on the phone wasn't really encouraging, and I still haven't followed up yet.

Tiki voted to expel me in the spring of 2015. As I mentioned above, I suspect she was a new Director and didn't know how rotten USHPA's leadership had become. And even as a new Director, she did speak up. I have to give her credit for that. But she let Mark Forbes back her down.

It's 4 years later now, and Tiki has 4 years experience behind her. It's been 4 years that I haven't been able to fly Torrey or Crestline or Sylmar. Tiki has certainly come out like a lion now that she might be one of the Directors to lose her own job. Maybe she's gained the courage of her convictions, or maybe she just likes the title of Director. It's hard to tell at this point.

I have followed up and spoken with Tiki recently. I did follow up with the supporting documents that I promised her months ago.

The next move is Tiki's. I've got my fingers crossed that she'll be as courageous standing up for someone else's right to fly as she has for her own Directorship.

Best wishes Tiki. May the Force be with you.  

[Bob Kuczewski]

I have followed up and spoken with Tiki recently. I did follow up with the supporting documents that I promised her months ago.

The next move is Tiki's. I've got my fingers crossed that she'll be as courageous standing up for someone else's right to fly as she has for her own Directorship.

Best wishes Tiki. May the Force be with you.  

I haven't wanted to make a big deal about it, but Tiki basically stood by her expulsion vote. We had a few phone calls / text communications earlier this year. It appears that she hadn't really done much investigating when she voted back in 2015, so I sent her the documents again. I don't think she read them this time either. She basically said she would stand by her vote without being able to remember or quote a single reason for my expulsion.

Today, Tiki posted this on the Oz Forum:

ATTENTION: MEMBERS AND INTERESTED PARTIES DENIED ACCESS TO USHPA BOARD MEETING
So I had set up a telephone conferencing tonight so all members and interested parties could listen into the first meeting of your post Governance Proposal USHPA Board of Directors.

A week ago I opened this discussion with the BOD, I waited until Sunday before publishing the call-in information in case there was any pushback. Now less then 24 hours before the meeting is to take place I get two objections, from Owen Shoemaker (Region 1) and Randall Shane (Region 1).

They sight SOP 02-10.06 as the reason, why you all cannot be a part of this meeting. That SOP says that everyone (BOD) has to agree to allow members and interested parties to listen in on the meeting. (No big deal, so I thought.) However, If any one person objects, than is cannot be allowed. 

I have spent an ungodly amount of time on this today arguing my point of the importance of transparency and member participation – I thought this would be a no brainer. 

We further argued the definition of “broadcast.” Finally they wanted to bring in the attorney Tim Herr for an opinion. That’s when at 4:50pm. (having started this in the morning) I was done.

I’m sorry folks I threw in the towel. Steve Rodriquez (Bylaw Chairman) and I have spent all day point out their errors. And now they want to turn it over to counsel. Nope, I'm done with this issue. 

As important as I think it is, I am not going to expend USHPA funds on a legal opinion. Is this why our organization is operating in the Red (rhetorical).

So your participation cannot happen, you will not be “allowed” to listen in on a meeting of YOUR Board of Directors, because two of your directors objected.

So the “New Governance” was voted in yet it’s old governing ways are still alive.

Interesting how the two people who are objecting Owen and Randall are new Board Members.

I find myself in agreement with Tiki's positions here, but I can't help but see the poetic justice in the situation. Some of you may remember that I asked to record my own expulsion hearing in 2015 so there would be a record. Felipe invoked that same "USHPA gag rule" to force me to turn it off ... which I did. Tiki was in that Board meeting, and she didn't object - not a peep. I guess it's true that what goes around comes around.

As a final note, it saddens me that heroes are so hard to find in this sport. I try to promote heroism with praise and encouragement (see my hopeful comments about Tiki), and I try to discourage cowardice with private (and sometimes very public) criticisms. I'm not sure if either are of much use. Maybe courage is one of those things that people either have or don't have. But either way, courage is something I appreciate very much when I find it. Thanks to every member of the U.S. Hawks who has stood firmly with us for many years.  

[Bob Kuczewski]

https://www.ushpa.org/page/director-election-results

Director Election Results

The election results are in; here are the USHPA Directors for the 2020-2021 term.
The election closed on October 28 at 5 pm MT. Thank you to everyone who voted in the board of directors election to fulfill the 10% quorum requirement. In total, 18% of members voted and the results are posted here. These directors will take office January 1, 2020, and serve through the end of 2021.

2019 Election Results

1. Jugdeep Aggarwal
2. Steve Pearson
3. Kimberly Phinney
4. Sara Weaver

Congratulations to our new directors, and thank you to all the candidates that ran for the board! We'd also like to sincerely thank our outgoing directors for all their time and work on the board. We encourage anyone interested in working with USHPA to volunteer on committees and to run for the board again.

The full 2020 board will consist of the following directors, plus an additional 2 directors that will be appointed by the new board per the bylaws at their first meeting in January:

• Jugdeep Aggarwal
• Ken Andrews
• Alan Crouse
• Mark Forbes
• Kate Griffin
• Mike Holmes
• Doyle Johnson
• Daniel Lukaszewicz
• Steven Pearson
• Kimberly Phinney
• Randall Shane
• Paul Voight
• Sara Weaver

This was USHPA's first national election, and the first member election that used the diversity algorithm to determine the results. As the board decreases to 15 members in 2020 and 10 members in 2021, the algorithm seeks to ensure that directors continue to represent all regions and wing types, as well as a mix of ages and genders.

Tiki is out. Matt Taber is out. Mark Forbes is still in.

But Steve Pearson is a good sign.

[SamKellner]

,

haven't been keeping up with what caused this but here's recent haps with Tiki

Tiki resigns: "I can no longer stomach the direction this current Board is taking the association - so I'm done."

https://www.facebook.com/groups/8189526 ... 501331196/

[Bob Kuczewski]

Thanks for the link Sam!!

July 27 at 11:21 AM

Tiki_FB.png (26.94 KiB) Viewed 898 times

Effective immediately, I am tendering my resignation as a USHPA Director and resigning from all USHPA Committees. Best of luck to the USHPA in the future.

Tiki_Mashy.png (138.42 KiB) Viewed 895 times

Tiki_FB.png (26.94 KiB) Viewed 898 times

I think I owe the membership an explanation of why I resigned from the USHPA and from all of my committees.

1. This Board showed absolute disrespect and total ingratitude towards Paul Voight, forcing his resignation, a man who has given his all to this organization - so I’m done.
    
2. When a current Director is being paid by the RRRG (and the FFF) and is making policy on behalf the USHPA members - and all the other Directors (with the exception of myself and Steve P) see nothing wrong with this conflict of interest - I’m done.
    
3. When a Director tells a committee chair that they want me out - and has the votes of the majority Directors - ordinarily I wouldn’t be bother by it, but with support from only one other director - I’m done.
    
4. When the integrity of the USHPA Board sinks so low as to allows a deceitful practice of scrapping our website for member information and creating an equally deceptive email address to get votes - I’m done.
    
5. When the Board consistently and recklessly disregards the hard work, long deliberations and commitment of the committees set up specifically to advise them and instead chooses to make policy decisions on the fly - I’m so done. Committees are the bockbone of this organization. This is where all the knowledge, experience, expertise and historical information is derived. You cannot get all this knowledge in 10 directors, particularly since the majority of whom don’t have the knowledge.

I can no longer stomach the direction this current Board is taking the association - so I'm done.

I am now a member and trust Steve P to fight the good fight on my and the members’ behalf. I do wish this association well - in spite of my critique and I do honestly hope it will be successful, for the longevity of free flight, the members, the schools, the instructors and those whose blood, sweat and tears built this organization. I will continue to be a member. I will continue to support hang gliding as best I can from my part of the world here in Texas. What I will no longer do is be a party to decisions that are unfavorable and bad for the membership and free flight.

So whether you care or not - I’m done. And believe me this was NOT an easy decision. I am not a quitter. But I do recognize the membership has installed this Board and I respect their decision.

Thank you all for your support over the years and I will continue to fight the good fight, but like you, as a member. And fingers crossed that Steve Pearson stays onboard.

Free Flight Forever . . . Best of Luck to USHPA.

Tiki_Mashy_FB.png (515.42 KiB) Viewed 898 times

Joe Faust made a nice follow up:

A core injustice was blatant in the refusal to rightly face the Kuczewski challenges; such flow uncorrected rots matters. Thank you for the positive gifts you spread into hang gliding.

Thanks Joe!!! Thanks Sam!!!

                           

[Bob Kuczewski]

I just searched that page again for Joe's post:

A core injustice was blatant in the refusal to rightly face the Kuczewski challenges; such flow uncorrected rots matters. Thank you for the positive gifts you spread into hang gliding.

Now it's gone. Someone obviously wants to cover up their past misdeeds.

[Bob Kuczewski]

I called both Tiki and Paul today to see if they might reconsider their positions on my expulsion (both had voted to expel me in 2015). They were both courteous enough to have a conversation.

Paul basically said that he had no involvement in any more USHPA matters and declined to state a position. We spoke for less than 15 minutes.

Tiki and I spoke for about half an hour. Tiki said that she didn't remember why she voted to expel me, but she said she stands by her decision because it was her decision at that time (even though she can't remember the details now).

It came out from our conversations that Tim Herr had briefed the USHPA Board privately before their decision and convinced them of the importance of expelling me. That's probably why there was virtually no debate or discussion and also why the vote was unanimous. Everything had been predetermined prior to the hearing.

With regard to the conversations, I was mostly struck by their lack of concern for robbing one of their members of nearly a decade of hang gliding and paragliding. When I was a USHPA Director, I always felt it was my duty to ensure that everyone had fair access to our sports. Sadly, neither Tiki nor Paul expressed that sentiment today ... nor back in 2015.

[JoeF]

I just searched that page again for Joe's post:

A core injustice was blatant in the refusal to rightly face the Kuczewski challenges; such flow uncorrected rots matters. Thank you for the positive gifts you spread into hang gliding.

Now it's gone. Someone obviously wants to cover up their past misdeeds.

============================
My posted comment is actually still up showing in the "Comments" list. Here is a present screen clip of the position:

TikiLeaveCommentJoeFaustStillThere.png (144.97 KiB) Viewed 832 times

=====================================
Further there, Mark stepped into the flow:

Joe Faust
A core injustice was blatant in the refusal to rightly face the Kuczewski challenges; such flow uncorrected rots matters. Thank you for the positive gifts you spread into hang gliding.
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Forger Stucky
there are some people who seem to challenge just for the drama and power trip. Playa del Rey, Torrey, USHPA…
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Joe Faust
And some for good order. When cancelled for good-order seeking, the cancellors ultimately lose.
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