Hi folks
Well, last weekend was the GFA AGM/ABM and Gliding Seminar. I attended
as Gliding Queensland Board representative and the following is a quick
outline which I will expand on at the next GQ meeting.
Saturday 6 September
*GFA AGM*
Nothing to report really - as the membership doesn't get to vote on the
GFA officers under the current constitution the meeting was completely
focussed on dotting the i's and crossing the t's for the annual return
to the corporations authority under which the GFA is incorporated.
Gliding Seminar
There was much interesting content here, including two presentations on
simulators currently being built in Adelaide, using the Condor software
at their core. Both of these simulators are some distance from
completion but they were interesting as a technology demonstration. We
were also treated to a close up of a ASW20 tri-jet conversion - the
fuselage complete with three mounted jet engines was on display.
Australia has had its most successful year in international competitions
for over 15 years - with our team placing 6th in the world and our first
podium finish in ages by Peter Temple. The Luesse and Rietti teams gave
an interesting presentation on how they achieved this - and what we
might do in the future to improve on this performance. For those who
doubt the value of international success, one of the side effects of the
success was significant media coverage (print, tv and radio) which will
have helped the profile of our sport at all levels.
We were also treated to a talk on the Perlan project. This is the
project to soar the stratospheric wave to 100,000ft. Backed by Steve
Fosset, they have proven that it is possible to do this - gaining the
absolute gliding altitude record of over 50,000ft in the process -
before Steve's death last year. Perlan is now designing and constructing
a special purpose glider with the aim of increasing the altitude record
to 90,000ft - but following Steve's death is now looking for a new
backer. So - if you have a spare US$1.5 million around you could join
this project and follow on from Steve!
In the evening, the awards dinner speaker was Gavin Wills from Omarama,
who gave us an interesting historical perspective of finding and soaring
the mountain wave in NZ.
All the presentations were videoed - but I don't know if/how these are
going to be available.
SAGA is to be congratulated on a very interesting and informative
program. I understand that the 2009 AGM/ABM and seminar will be held in
Sydney.
Sunday 7 September
Annual Board Meeting
This is a special Board meeting at which the Board gets to elect the
officers of the GFA as per the GFA Articles of Association. However,
there was no election as the positions of President, Treasurer and Vice
President received only a single nomination each (the current
incumbents) - so they were duly re-elected.
The rest of the meeting was a normal Board meeting. Here are my brief
notes on the key issues as I saw them for Qld.
/*Please note that these do NOT constitute official minutes (these will
be posted to the GFA web site) and I may have misunderstood or
mis-recorded things - if you have any questions, please contact me!*/
1.
I raised the issue of the change from instructing/coaching to
integrated training. After discussion, the Board noted that this
project was taking some time and requested that the steering group
meet as soon as possible to move this forward. I think they will
be meeting in October.
2.
Membership -- we need to chase up what has happened to the
Griffiths University members as they don't seem that to be
included in the Qld membership statistics. Short term memberships
are /not/ included in the figures, which show a slight decrease in
Qld over the last twelve months - so it is possible that the 50 or
so Griffiths Uni members are all short term (3 month or less) members.
3.
Responsibility for the Radio officer has been merged with the
Airfields and Airspace Officer for most (non-technical) issues.
4.
The current Annual Financial Report will be put up on the web
site. In future years, the AFR will be put up on the web site as
soon as it is released from the auditors. The delay in getting
this out this year was due to a combination of circumstances - the
new auditors and the absence of the GFA president overseas.
5.
There is a proposal to use some of the GFA reserves to fund some
special projects for 2009/10 (up to $50,000 deficit agreed in
principal -- I noted the GQ direction that a draw down of our
reserves would require regional discussion). The final decision
has not been made but is going to be discussed. The exec is
working on these proposals further and fully detailed proposals
will come to the Feb Board meeting for consideration.
6. The recent changes to the introductory membership (abolition of
the student rate and increase in cost to $20) were raised by SAGA.
After some discussion, the SAGA representative requested that this
issue be returned to SAGA for further consideration.
7.
Taylor glider -- financial help is still being sought for the
construction of three replicas. So far, most of the regions have
not responded (either positively or negatively) to the request for
financial assistance. There is growing interest outside the
gliding movement in this important piece of Australian aviation
history, with interest being shown in permanently displaying one
of the replicas (if built) at one of the Sydney
museums.
8. Gliding Queensland raised the issue of "executive in confidence"
documents that were noted in the last Executive minutes but not
distributed to the Board, who have the legal responsibility for
all aspects of the GFA. It was pointed out that in order to carry
out its responsibility, the Board must be able to see fully all
issues addressed by the executive. This was accepted and in future
all "executive in confidence" documents will be forwarded to the
Board along with the minutes. The particular issue in the June
Executive dealt with some commercial in confidence matters and the
Board has now been fully briefed on these.
All of the above issues will be up for discussion at the next meeting of
GQ - but I suggest that we wait for the Board minutes to come out so
that we are not reliant on my brief and possibly inaccurate notes taken
during the meeting.
--
Robert Hart [EMAIL PROTECTED]
+61 (0)438 385 533 http://www.hart.wattle.id.au
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