Russ Gelfan <<email>> writes:

We had USHPA's Lisa Tate - President, Paul Montville - Executive Director, Rich Hass - Secretary, and Mark Forbes - Regional Director, at a joint meeting between Cloudbase Hang Gliding Club and NW Paragliding Club on Jan 7^th.

The meeting was not well attended due to major flooding in the area that evening after a week of unusually high snowfall. I can speak for the 40 - 50 pilots who were there. We very much appreciated the presentation and the work USHPA is trying to accomplish. I think everyone who attends or even reads the Oz Report is interested in preservation of our sport.

Most of the meeting was focused on marketing and trying to turn around attrition rates for hang gliding and paragliding. We had discussions about focus on support for instructors at larger and smaller schools. As most of us know, our sport depends on those instructors. They need our support in every way. We talked about sport exposure by the public and what ever it takes to preserve sites that have high public exposure. USHPA polled new students who learned because they 'saw' someone flying, landing or taking off.

Lisa's presentation was great. Paul Montville seems like a great guy. In conversation, he seemed skeptical of flying himself and I think it's important that our executive director commits aviation often. If anyone can get him in the air, I'd give you a buck!