I have been following this discussion with
interest and some good ideas have been advanced,
however I have seen no discussion of the two most
important items. Who will do the work and how
will it be financed. I have been a member of LSF
since 1972 and joined the old East Coast Soaring
Society about the same time. I have observed the
troubles encountered by both
organizations. Perhaps a little history will
help some of the younger generation understand my concerns.
LSF was founded in 1969 by a lCalifornia group
after an earlier attempt had failed. It was a
volunteer group that had no dues or funding
source other than a request for postage stamps
and entry fees from an LSF tournament. LSF
rapidly expanded to a world wide organization
that soon led to burnout of the founding
group. In 1973, control of the LSF was passed to
Dan Pruss and others around Chicago IL. Things
struggled along until Dans death in 1986 and the
LSF also almost died shortly after.
Bob Steel rescued the records and, with Mike
Stump, Cal Posthuma and a few other dedicated
Midwest LSF members, revived the LSF. They also
revived the LSF tournament in 1992 to finance the
LSF. The last LSF tournament was held at Muncie
in 1994. Mike Stump worked out an agreement with
AMA to run the Soaring events at the AMA Nats
starting in 1995 and share income from the entry
fees. LSF finally had finally solved the funding problem.
Prior to 1976, soaring was not an official AMA
event. In 1973, AMA established a Soaring
Advisory Committee to establish soaring as an
official event. The Soaring Advisory Committee
recognized the National Soaring Society (formally
East Coast Soaring Society) as the soaring
special interest group in 1974 and turned over
most of its functions to that group. NSS soon
ran into the same problems as LSF: Worker
burnout and finances. Finally, in 1995, NSS
could not run the soaring events at the Nats so
that lead to Mike Stumps agreement with AMA for
LSF to run the soaring events at the Nats and share the revenue.
I ask my question again. How do they propose to
run and finance the program, or do they expect to parasite off LSF?
Chuck Andeson
LSF 586 Level IV
ECSS/NSS 72-361
AMA Soaring Advisory Committee 1983-1985
NSS District V VP 1985-1987
NSS Treasurer 1988
1989 present no office and never again.
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