Sylmar Hang Gliding Association

The purpose of this post is to hopefully encourage discussion as the time for board nominations approaches. The people on the board do a lot of hard work that most members are not willing to do. Many of the efforts of these people go unsung. Among other things, year in and year out, Dan Barley competently files our tax returns, makes sure the insurance is up to date and occassionally fertilizes the lawn. Katherine Yardley as treasurer makes sure all the bills get paid and works with Dan in her role on the board and then goes out and sets world records in the Owens Valley. Kate Freemantle dilligently records our board meetings while juggling wind surfing, and a very demanding career. Lynn McLaughlin though not formally on the board often works with Katherine and Kate to get events done and maintain communications with community leaders and she doesn't even live in the area.

They deserve a great deal of thanks as do the other people that are not part of the board but help out when needed, like Jim Thompson, Hiro Matsunaga and Jesse Benson who worked tirelessly on the Gazebo. These people are the true heroes of the SHGA. Thank them when you see them.

FYI I have edited this post from it's original content. I realized that the content was not really fair to the people on the board who regardless if I agree with them 100% are nevertheless trying to do what they believe is right.

I hear a lot of complaints about the board not doing enough. I am on the board and I complain. I hear a lot of complaints that point out how difficult it is to find a member willing to help the board.

We need to find a way to stop pointing fingers and solve the problem. I think this is the real issue. We need to find a way for the board to get help from the membership, for the board to hear what the membership wants and to increase participation in the board.

We need to change what we can to increase participation. What I have heard is that many of you don't want to or don't have the ability to drive out on a Thursday night and spend 4 hours talking.

Okay, lets move the board meetings to Saturday. If the meetings are too long, lets find a way to make them shorter. It has been difficult to fill the activities director. Perhaps that post is too demanding and needs to be a committee?

Do you have any ideas on how to increase board participation? The people on the board cannot continue to be the same people over and over again. If for nothing else at some point they will get old and die. Shouldn't we start building a new set of volunteers to guide the club for the next generation?

What is the mission of the SHGA, or will there even be a next generation and is all this a waste of time? I guarantee that unless we get new people on the board the SHGA will fade and die.

This Thursday the board discusses nominations. Will the hat be filled with the same names?

Joseph raises interesting points.

BOD members: In my experience, what happens is that the BOD members work hard. They get tired. They drop off. Nobody wants to take over. The same old people (with a few exceptions) get talked into doing it one more time. (Ask Ken. Ask Larry.)

Getting things done: I've seen it both ways. There was a BOD a few years back that didn't talk about stuff. They just did it. It was terrible. They didn't talk about it enough. They made poor decisions repeatedly, and didn't do it cost-effectively either. Perhaps the recent BODs have gone too far the other way. There is a balance that needs to be met. Some items can "just be done". (Cleaning/mowing/cutting the weeds every Spring, road cleanup days, etc.) Other items really need a lot of talk (CUP for example.) Some fall in-between: Changing the ramp, for example. That one SOUNDS like you could just do it, if you could get the workers. But we've done that before. Sometimes it is fine. Sometimes the airflow becomes worse. And it affects all of us. I'm NOT for debating things into the ground. As any graduate student learns when doing a Masters Thesis or PhD Dissertations: "Better is the enemy of done." But too little discussion is bad too. I suspect we are too far to the "talk too much" end of the spectrum right now, but am not sure, having been off the BOD for a while.

Both of the above: The real issue that I see is that there isn't enough participation by the membership. The BOD constantly does things themselves instead of finding someone to do it. Why? Because they have learned that only the same (very few) people actually want to help. It becomes easier for them to do the work than to get members to do it. There is an old rule about small clubs, volunteer organizations etc: 90% of the work is done by 10% of the people. I've not seen anything in the SHGA to change my opinion about that. And it doesn't help that the membership is declining.

OK, I'm stepping down from my soapbox.

Thanks for the ideas, Joseph.

I agree with your post George, it is important to have balance.

Most importantly now is to broaden participation. The SHGS needs volunteers to work on the board. If there are things that are preventing that, post them here.

Joseph,

I am a very new member to the Sylmar Club, I have no idea about the politics as they exist, but I do understand, to a certain degree your desire to step up the participation. Being a newbie my comments may be moot, but I’ll throw them out there incase there is some fresh or rehashed ideas of potential value. Rarely, in these types of groups you will find the management responsibility equally shared by the constituents. The management responsibilities are typically accomplished by those who are not bogged down by other commitments, such as family and work schedules. I personally have faced this exact problem in my Condo community.

I suffer from being a proactive person and being a problem solver, even if it is not my problem. I sit on three committees for my Condo BOD, I give up many hours of my personal time and I sit on all three committees because, if I don't nobody else will. I am concerned about my community, the health and vitality of it, as it impacts me, my vitality and the wellbeing of the people who I have to directly interact with. Thankfully, my schedule allows me to go to meetings and learn about the problems in my community. If I as a member of the community do not know about the problems facing my community, how can I be proactive about them?

Complacent or uninformed people will never be prompted to take action. Exposure to problems is a great way to try to get people involved and this could be communicated to the user group by holding special meetings in the LZ, at a time where you can capture the largest audience. The pilot forum is also a great tool, but nothing can quite replace face time. As you mentioned the BOD meetings are on Thursday evenings, the Sylmar club has the problem of a geographically diverse member demographic, I for example live in San Diego, and would never be able to make to a BOD meeting on a Thursday. What about someone living in Long Beach, or the OC? LA rush hour traffic is discouragement enough on a weeknight! Maybe try experimenting with the meeting days and times. For example, on Saturday mornings or late afternoons, there seems to be a lot of members hanging around, get them there at 9:30 a.m. or 4:30 p.m, or better yet poll for member availability and their willingness to participate. Is webcasting the BOD meeting possible?

All some things to chew on… I do think you are taking the right course on raising awareness!

One of the biggest lessons I have learned in serving my community, is change will not happen overnight, but with patience and persistence you will be able to better stay on course.

Heather Janda

Thank you very much for the post Glide Junkie. It is good to see someone new participating. The ideas and suggestions are great.

Whatever comes out of this we all should just be thankful that there are good people on the board and that we have a board at all. Not sure if I would be one of the "good" people on the board being that I am stirring up trouble.

Hopefully others will take up your message, but either way it will be calmer in the future.

Joseph, I think your concern is quite possibly the seminal issue going forward for the club. Basically, how do we get the club business done with participation waning? To me the answer is: Streamline the business and improve the participation

Streamline: (less sacrifice)
1) Weekend meetings would help a lot. I would prefer after flying. People are already there, so it's not a special trip which makes people living or working farther away more able to attend and serve.

2) Restrict Board involment in projects to evaluating, defining and approval. Eliminate The Board actually doing the projects.

3) Set deadlines for action. Procrastination is always the default position, it's only human.

Participation: This is really the key.
1) Projects need to be easy to pick from a list, get approval and execute without the board getting in the way too much. I have not seen many botched projects lately so maybe George is right about us going too far on the careful side.
2) Can we break down projects into small steps that members can handle easily enough to feel comfortable starting.
3) Post the tasks on line and hard copy in the LZ. I often find myself there for hours with nothing to do. I just need a road map, and the tools to work.

I think many would help more if it was clear what needs done and we felt confident that it was ok to just do it.

The Board needs to find a way to only manage projects, not do the work. It's the only way to make the job reasonable enough to get normal people to serve. We can't depend on super human devotion by a few.

Mostly, we the members need to pitch in people! I'm sorry I haven't done more. I will.

Having served on the Board for several years under what I consider to be some of the best leadership the Club has had, I will say this: you do not have to be on the Board to contribute to the Club. It just takes identifying a need, dedication and personal energy. (And it helps to have other members to team up with too.)

It is unfortunate that the Board seems to get bogged down in "politics" but having seen the Club from the "inside" I believe the vetting that is done in that forum is part of a necessary process to uncover the most reasonable solution to an issue.

It is a shame more members don't attend the Board meetings on a regular basis and see for themselves what hard work governing our Club is.

lw

Actually, the first paragraph of the SHGA by-laws provides that:

"The purpose of the Sylmar Hang Gliding Association (SHGA) is to preserve the sport of hang gliding especially in the Sylmar Area, to support the goals and aims of the United States Hang Gliding Association (USHGA), and to promote hang gliding through education and community involvement."

We should amend the Bylaws to update the reference to the "USHGA," and I think it needs a comma after the word "gliding" in the second line. And I don't see why "Area" is capitalized.

Your picky-picky president of vice.