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President's Perspective
Look at the example of two years ago, when USPA was facing an unprecedented insurance crisis that jeopardized all of our insurance programs. You, the membership, rose to the occasion. You practically eliminated all demo insurance claims, which were costing your organization tens of thousands of dollars. But that’s not all. Even our third-party liability claims have dropped significantly. That can be attributed to increased peer scrutiny, better training and supervision or maybe even the members themselves becoming more conservative in their own decision-making. In any case, the results are quite impressive. But there is more that each of us can do to assist our organization. As a membership organization, our greatest strength is our membership numbers, which for the past few years have slipped slightly. But if the reaction to the insurance crisis is any indicator, we members can help turn that trend around. I ask you all to assist your organization in several ways to reverse that trend. First, bring people to skydiving. Whether a family member, friend or acquaintance, they’ve all heard you try to describe the new-found freedom you have discovered in the air. Many have said they will try skydiving someday. Pave their way by encouraging and accompanying them. Tell them “someday” happens next Saturday. Then, line up their friends and family and go with them. Second, interact with those students and novices you see at the DZ, and encourage them to keep coming back to continue with their training programs. Don’t you remember how it felt to be the newbie, trying hard to figure out this whole skydiving thing? Remember how it felt to hear a word of encouragement from a regular skydiver? Leave the training to the coaches and instructors, but you don’t need to hold a rating to be a mentor. Third, keep your membership current, even during periods of inactivity. The jobs USPA performs every day affect all types of skydivers in small, often unannounced ways to make it easier for you to open your gear bag each weekend and use what’s inside. Our relatively small but necessary association relies on larger numbers when speaking to government, insurance companies, suppliers and Parachutist advertisers from outside the industry (whose support of the magazine translates into money for USPA programs). Finally, let’s each do our part to not lose members through mistakes and misjudgment. Let’s encourage each other to be better prepared to handle the unforeseen complications of any skydive. While they may be unforeseen, they shouldn’t be unanticipated. And you can mentor by example, passing on your encouragement and your hard-won experience. Perhaps you will play a part in keeping the incident numbers down and the membership numbers up. And along the way, encourage those who aren’t to become full-fledged USPA members. In that way, you are serving as a steward of USPA, ensuring that your association has the numbers and the resources it needs to continue serving skydivers. If each of us sets a goal of recruiting ten new members over the next 12 months, imagine the possibilities … |
Steward. The word describes individuals involved in an organization and tasked with the responsibility of its maintenance and financial stability. USPA’s stewards are your elected board of directors, the headquarters staff, the Group Member drop zones—and the general membership at large. What, you ask? How can we, the general members, be stewards of our organization?