We just approved the final proofs for the June issue; here is a sneak peek of what you will see in just a few weeks . . .

• Historical profile of Leslie Irvin
• A beginner’s guide to 4-way formation skydiving (first in a series)
• Guinness Book of World Records: Tandem record (most tandems in a day)
• Core exercises to combat back pain from skydiving
• Intro to wingsuiting

We hope you enjoy!

Loyal USPA blog readers may have noticed the lack of recent posts lately. We’re not abandoning the blog, and we certainly have no lack of news! We have recently spread our online wings to include Twitter and Facebook, and are still on MySpace and LinkedIn. Those sites, especially Twitter and Facebook, have been more conducive to the kinds of news we’ve had lately – short, quick updates not really worthy of too many words–140 or less, in fact (that’s the maximum number of characters a Twitter update, or “tweet” can be).

It has been great for things like letting people know the SIM pdf is now updated with bookmarks (www.uspa.org/Portals/0/Downloads/Man_SIM_2009-2010.pdf), that there is a new job opening at USPA (www.uspa.org/aboutuspa/employment.aspx) or that Safety Day reports are online (www.uspa.org/USPAMembers/Safety/SafetyDay/2009Reports.aspx).

Those sites also get more activity and response than the blog has, so we’ll spend a little more time there. We will still be blogging when there is a major story that requires a little more behind-the-scenes, personal explanation, or if inspiration strikes! Let us know if you want to read about anything in particular, too – either comment here, or use the “Why” post (skydiveuspa.wordpress.com/2008/09/04/why/) as a forum to ask your questions about why USPA does some of the things it does.

Here are all the places you can now find USPA online:

Twitter: http://twitter.com/skydiveUSPA
Facebook: http://www.new.facebook.com/pages/US-Parachute-Association/55722708148
MySpace: http://www.myspace.com/_USPA
LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/groups?gid=41846
YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/user/SkydiveUSPA

In my previous Dues & Fees Increase post, I listed the one-year renewal for PRO ratings to be $15 and two-year as $35. It was a misprint and should have read that it’s $15 for a renewal without a card or $35 for a renewal with a card. We also posted a full list of prices (including rates for our members living overseas) on the USPA news page.

By now you may have heard (or read our February 8th news post) what will be extensively reported in the April issue of Parachutist—USPA has raised dues as well as license and ratings fees, effective April 1st. I can guess your initial reaction; no one likes to pay more for anything. And you can bet that the issue was extensively debated at the February board meeting. But the board was faced with the reality that dues and fee increases had to happen. Here’s why. USPA ended 2008 spending just over $500,000 more than it took in. Part of the reason was the stock market. USPA has a rainy day fund of over $1.5 million invested, and most years we’re able to count as revenue the interest earned as well as the increased value of the stocks. But not last year. Add to that the rise in cost of providing basic services. Importantly, 2008 was the fourth year in a row of red ink, so the decision was made to come up with a balanced 2009 budget that doesn’t depend on investments.

But USPA wouldn’t ask you to pay more before we cut expenses first, which we started doing mid-2008. Largely through attrition we’ve reduced staff to 14 full-timers, down from the high of 24 in 1999. We’ve also trimmed other areas so that proposed expenses for 2009 are $161,000 less than what was budgeted in 2008. Not only that, 2009’s proposed expenses are also less than what we spent in 2007 and 2006. Still, we needed to find new sources of revenue in order to come up with a balanced budget for 2009. So, individual member renewal dues were raised by six dollars to $55. First-year member dues were increased by $14 to $65, largely to help recover the cost of PR efforts to attain new skydivers. License fees were increased by $10 and ratings fees and the rating renewal fee were also raised by $10. Group Member dues paid by DZs were increased by 25%. Here are the new rates:

New membership–$65 (paid only one time, ever)
Renewing membership–$55
License fee–$30
New coach rating–$35
New instructor rating–$50
Rating renewal–$30 (for one or multiple ratings)
New PRO rating–$65
PRO rating renewal–$15/35 (no card/new or replacement card*)

New Group Member Dues
Category 1–$250
Category 2–$375
Category 3–$750

Renewal Group Member Dues
Category 1–$125
Category 2–$250
Category 3–$500

* edited 3/31 to change “PRO rating renewal–$15/35 (one-year/two-year)” to “PRO rating renewal–$15/35 (no card/new or replacement card*)”

One of the pleasures of my job is to meet and talk with some of our sport’s luminaries and pioneers. I enjoy history, and I particularly enjoy the history of our sport. So maybe you can imagine how privileged I felt last week when I presented USPA’s Lifetime Achievement Award to Jacques-André Istel, the father of modern skydiving in the U.S. See, Jacques, who had immigrated here from France as a boy and had begun parachuting here in 1950, saw on a visit to France in 1955 that French skydivers had learned techniques of controlled freefall. Until he learned and brought those techniques back to the U.S., parachuting in this country was simply flailing between exit and deployment—no arch, no control, no turns, and no stable deployments. There was no skydiving here until Jacques advanced it. He also coined the term, by the way. But he didn’t stop there. Jacques became a vocal advocate for public acceptance of skydiving as a sport, not a daredevil activity. Here’s an excerpt from an August 1957 issue of Time magazine:

” ‘You just let go of the plane and suddenly you’ve changed elements. You start to drop but you don’t feel anything—only a marvelous sense of control. It’s like being immersed in light water. Then you bring your right arm up and you make a turn, just as simple as that. It’s an incredible sensation.’

Thus runs the evangelical message of Jacques-André Istel, 28, a black-browed ex-Wall Streeter and dedicated prophet of parachuting in the U.S. His gospel: jumping….out of an airplane can be a safe, exhilarating sport, not a devil-daring performance…”

That’s not all he did either. Jacques advanced parachute competition, too, by forming the first U.S. team to compete at the 3rd World Meet in Moscow. With that, parachuting and then skydiving competition began to flourish here as well, with Jacques introducing our collegiate competition as well.

For these reasons, and many more, I was humbled yet proud to be joined last week in Felicity, California, (where Jacques is not only the founder, but the mayor) by board members Larry Hill and Scott Smith, previous Lifetime Achievement Award recipient Pat Morehead, previous USPA Gold Medal of Meritorious Service recipient Ted Strong, and many, many skydiving friends, in presenting Jacques-Andre Istel with his own engraved and mounted silver bowl. Like a true Frenchman and skydiver, Jacques used the bowl to toast his admirers…

Jacques-André Istel holds the USPA Lifetime Achievement Award surrounded by (from left) Pat Morehead, Larry Hill, Ed Scott, and Scott Smith.

Posted in members, USPA ]]> http://skydiveuspa.wordpress.com/2009/02/19/jacques-andre-istel-presented-with-the-uspa-lifetime-achievement-award/feed/ 4 Ed Jacques-André Istel holds the USPA Lifetime Achievement Award surrounded by (from left) Pat Morehead, Larry Hill, Ed Scott, and Scott Smith. http://skydiveuspa.wordpress.com/2009/02/08/bod-meetings-wrapping-up/ http://skydiveuspa.wordpress.com/2009/02/08/bod-meetings-wrapping-up/#comments Sun, 08 Feb 2009 17:59:33 +0000 Lara Kjeldsen http://skydiveuspa.wordpress.com/2009/02/08/bod-meetings-wrapping-up/ ]]>

The board is finishing up meetings now. Some highlights include the election of new officers (your new pres is Jay Stokes), elimination of skysurfing from nationals, discussion of electronic voting for the next board meeting, and more that is a little difficult to type on an iPhone.

Keep an eye on the USPA website for the full, official minutes, and Parachutist for the article.

Next up is the DZO Conference which gets started this evening with registration and formal events tomorrow. We also start setting up our symposium booth tomorrow for exhibits tomorrow night. There is still a lot left, so if you can get to Reno, it would be well worth your time.

That might sound like an oxymoron, but the new USPA Board of Directors is doing some great work here in Reno. There is fun and mayhem going on outside the board rooms (some sort of Chinese dragon/drumming team sounds like they are really living it up) but the board and some dedicated interested people are inside talking about things like election processes, how to best deal with disciplinary actions and other tough issues.

The Regional Directors are meeting now – these people are your first contact into USPA. Get to know them if you don’t already. They all list contact information on the USPA website, and some have separate forums, mailing lists or websites of their own for their regions. When they get home, ask them what happened at the BOD meetings, or try shooting them an e-mail or phone call now if you see something on the agendas that you want to know about. (They are quite busy this weekend though, so no guarantees on how quickly they’ll get back to you within the next 48 hours).

But not for long…we’re getting ready, along with a horde of skydiving manufacturers, USPA board members, riggers and more, to bring the controlled chaos to Reno.

First, there’s the USPA Board of Directors’ meetings. You only have a few days to read over the agendas and let your regional and/or national directors know what you think and how you want them to act before they start deliberating, casting votes and generally kicking it into high gear.

Next comes the USPA DZO Conference. This is for drop zone owners and operators to get together and learn just about everything related to providing jumpers with fun, safe and quality places to jump. Even if your home DZO isn’t attending, they’ll be able to get the recap and more information after the event. Tell them to watch their e-mail for the e-newsletter DZO Streamline with all the details.

Finally, PIA seminars and symposium. We’ll have a game for show attendees to play, but even if you can’t make it to the show, you can play along at home. Starting Monday, Feb. 9 – the first day of Symposium – we’ll have different quizzes every day on the USPA Pursuit page.

If you will be in Reno, please stop by! We’re in booths 106/108, in the first aisle (subject to change, check PIA’s website for the latest info):

2009 PIA Symposium booth layout (click to enlarge)

No, we’re not going gambling, or to shoot anyone like Johnny Cash sang about. Coming up very soon is a lot of activity in Reno, though – USPA’s Board of Directors’ meeting*, Parachute Industry Association Board meetings, PIA Symposium and Seminars, and, being skydivers, some cold refreshments after all those. Needless to say, if you’re anywhere near the area, you should come check it out.

Here’s the official schedule:
Feb. 5-8: PIA meetings
Feb. 6-8: USPA Board of Directors’ meetings
Feb. 8: National Skydiving Museum meeting
Feb. 9: USPA DZO Conference
Feb. 8: Symposium Pre-Registration open – afternoon
Feb. 9: Exhibit Hall open – evening
Feb. 10-12: Registration – all day, Seminars – all day, Exhibition Hall – evening
Feb. 13: Seminars – all day, Banquet and awards – evening

USPA BOD meetings are open to all USPA members in good standing. Please go and participate. It might seem intimidating, with a bunch of people you don’t know using terms you’ve never heard in a formal setting that seems oddly un-skydiver-like. In reality, those skygods you’ve heard and read about are just jumpers like you, only they’ve stepped up to take a tough role in leading our sport. Those funny words and procedures are all part of Robert’s Rules of Order, a way to have a controlled meeting in which everyone is allowed to participate equally.

Getting Board meeting materials ready for the trip to Reno

Meeting agendas are published on the USPA website, so read over them. If you have questions or opinions regarding anything on the agenda, contact your Regional Director or a National Director. If you think something should be on an agenda that is not, bring that up as well. Your Directors are there to represent you, but you have to let them know what you think.

Board of Directors’ Meeting Resources:
All meeting agendas and meeting information
BOD contact information
Robert’s Rules of Order

When the meeting’s over, official minutes will be published on the USPA website as well, both under the USPA Members > Downloads and About USPA > Board of Directors sections. You can come back regularly to check, or subscribe to the RSS feed and be notified when new minutes are posted.

Lastly, there’s the Symposium, which is basically a skydiving trade show. This is fun, and not to be missed if you have a chance. Skydiving companies all have booths with different themes, and their sole purpose is to meet the people who buy their products. (Psst, that’s you!) If you’ve ever wondered just how Bill Booth thought of the SkyHook, ask him.

USPA will have a booth, so stop by to chat with us, ask questions or just meet us. We’ll try to post a schedule of who will be in the booth at what times. Let us know if there’s anything you want us to bring or have prepared for you. It shouldn’t be hard to find us – just follow your nose (trust me, it’ll make sense when you’re there)

PIA also sponsors seminars on topics ranging from “Military Javelin & Operational Reserve Packing Demo” to “Dual Canopy & Entanglement Emergency Procedures” and “Wingsuits on the DZ – What You Need to Know”. USPA’s Jim Crouch will present “2007 – 2008 Fatality Report” on Wednesday at 11am, then again Thursday at 4pm. Visit the PIA website for more information on PIA meetings, seminars and symposium, and see you in Reno!

*edit to add: The next General Membership Meeting will be held in conjunction with the USPA summer board meeting in Dallas, July 10-12. The board meeting will be at the Crowne Plaza Dallas in Addison, Texas.

Another board election is complete and the members of the 2009-2010 board have been announced. Congratulations to the 18 returning board members and the four new ones. With 3,503 ballots received, this most recent election garnered almost 1,000 more ballots than the 2006 election. (Of the total, just over 200 ballots were invalidated for the usual reasons—lack of signature, expired membership, or electronic receipt. We’ll assess how to make the instructions clearer on future ballots.)

A bit about our process: each ballot is date stamped upon receipt, validated, batched in an envelope of 50 and locked away. Beginning December 20, each ballot and each batch are separately counted by two different people. The two batch tallies must match; if not, the entire batch is counted again and the discrepancy is found. Then the batch tallies are combined on a summary page where the final count comes together. The final report includes counts for all candidates that were listed on the ballot. Viable write-in candidacies are also tallied and reported, except the few votes for George Bush, Mickey Mouse, Yo Mama, and the several voters who wrote in their own names. Altogether, the process consumes 125 hours of staff time, or a full week for three people.

Even more impressive than the increased voter participation was the increased candidate participation. This election’s 38 candidates set a modern day record going all the way back to 1990. (It may actually be the record; I got tired of researching it.) One year there were just 24 candidates for the 22 slots, two years there were 26 candidates, and the average number of candidates over the previous nine elections was only 30.6. We need to acknowledge all of this election’s candidates for caring about skydiving and USPA enough to step up and offer their time and their talent. Thank you for your effort. Your sport and your USPA are better for it.