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USA Soaring Team Task Force

As more classes and World Championships were added it became obvious that the original U.S. Team Committee as formed in 1995 could no longer meet the needs of U.S. Teams and the soaring community.

United States Soaring Team Task Force
At the February 2002 Soaring Convention held in Ontario California, the SSA Board created the U.S. Team Policy Task Force. The goal of this task force is to accomplish a fundamental review of how U.S. soaring teams do business, solicit community input, investigate areas for improvement, develop solutions, author a report and provide implementation assistance. See the initial taskforce proposal here in PDF. The operating principals of the task force are transparency, accountability, competitiveness and sustainability.

Task Force Members
Team Task Force members included, John Seaborn (Co-Chairman), Ken Sorenson (Co-Chairman), Doug Jacobs (US Team Chairman), Jim Short, Tim Welles and Jim Payne. Your thoughts on the future direction for US Soaring Teams are critical to the process. Contact Co-Chairman John Seaborn by e-mail. Click here to mail.

As part of the Task Force Effort the first ever U.S. Team e-survey was run on the Internet, and provided SSA members the opportunity to help shape the future of U.S. soaring teams. Using a combination of multiple choice and open ended questions the 2002 U.S. Team Survey was designed to provide the United States Soaring Team Task Force and ultimately team management with a better understanding of how the US Teams are viewed by the US soaring community and to act as a guide in developing sound policy for future teams. The final results from the survey are now posted below in PDF format. Special thanks to Aland Adams and Bill Bartell for their work and support making the team e-survey possible.

Findings & Recommendations
At the January, 2003 Soaring Convention held in Dayton Ohio, the U.S. Team Task Force presented its findings to the SSA Board of Directors. The Task Force defined and examined 14 areas and made recommendations based on their findings. The topics and draft reports are posted below for public review and comment. Central among these findings was the need to modernize the U.S. Team Committee. See the Task Force proposal to the SSA Board here in PDF. At the Dayton meeting the SSA Board voted to adopt the Task Force recommendations unanimously and charged the appointed members of the U.S. Team Committee to form the new organization. Please read the New Form of U.S. Team Committee & Election Process document available here.

U.S. Team Committee Elections
The new team committee, using the successful Rules Committee as a template, will include three appointed and three elected members. Nominations for the elected positions to the new U.S. Team Committee are being sought by February 25. The election will be conducted on-line from March 1-31. The population eligible to vote, after some review, has been changed to include all SSA members. While a deviation from the original Blue Book proposal this structure is more inclusive of U.S. Team supporters and contributors.

See the U.S. Team Committee page here

U.S. Soaring Team Task Force Documents
Team related topics posted for review and comment by the soaring community.

Date	US Team Task Force Documents
Date Posted	Document Title & Author	Ver	Draft Date	Status & File
02/07/03	New Form of U.S. Team Committee & Election Process	3.0	02/07/03	Under Review (PDF 223Kb) Click Here
01/26/02	Founding Task Force Proposal to SSA Board of Directors - Adopted 2002	1.6	1/26/02	Final (PDF 334Kb) Click Here
02/21/02	Introduction to US Team Task Force	3.0	11/05/02	Final (PDF 380Kb) Click Here
04/10/02	1) Team Policy Statement Draft: John Seaborn	2.0	11/05/02	Final (PDF 133Kb) Click Here
04/10/02	2) Team Goals Draft: John Seaborn	2.0	11/05/02	Final (PDF 154Kb) Click Here
08/27/02	3) Team Organization Draft: Ken Sorenson	4.0	11/05/02	Final (PDF 159Kb) Click Here
05/09/02	4) Team Planning Draft: John Seaborn	2.0	11/05/02	Final (PDF 310Kb) Click Here
08/25/02	5) Team Funding Draft: Ken Sorenson	3.0	11/05/02	Final (PDF 182Kb) Click Here
08/08/02	6) Team Fundraising Draft: John Seaborn	5.0	11/05/02	Final (PDF 288Kb) Click Here
11/05/02	7) Team Pilot Obligations Draft: Jim Payne	4.0	11/05/02	Final (PDF 149Kb) Click Here
11/05/02	8) Team Communication Draft: Jim Payne	3.0	11/05/02	Final (PDF 147Kb) Click Here
08/19/02	9) Team Financial Management Draft: Doug Jacobs	2.0	8/13/02	Final (PDF 151Kb) Click Here
11/05/02	10) Team Pilot Selection Draft: Jim Payne	3.0	11/05/02	Final (PDF 286Kb) Click Here
11/15/02	10A) EZ Team Pilot Selection Draft: John Leibacher	2.0	11/15/02	Final (PDF 286Kb) Click Here
11/05/02	11) Team Preparation Draft: Jim Payne	2.0	11/05/02	Final (PDF 170Kb) Click Here
04/15/02	12) Team Documents Draft: John Seaborn	2.0	04/04/02	Final (PDF 613Kb) Click Here
10/01/02	13) Team Survey & Report Report: John Seaborn	--	10/01/02 (Ended 8/31)	See Sections Below
10/01/02	13.1) Survey Section 1 Team Survey Executive Report	1.0	10/01/02	Final (17 Pages) (PDF 576Kb) Click Here
10/01/02	13.2) Survey Section 2 Team Survey Multiple Choice Report	1.0	10/01/02	Final (54 Pages) (PDF 842Kb) Click Here
10/01/02	13.3) Survey Section 3 Team Survey Open Ended Responses	1.0	10/01/02	Final (75 Pages) (PDF 1.4Kb) Click Here
12/17/02	14) SSA Board of Directors Proposal & Recommendations	4.0	12/17/02	Final (PDF 251Kb) Click Here
02/16/02	US Team Policies, Procedures & Guidelines	B.1	09/08/98	Under Review (PDF 98Kb) Click Here
02/16/02	US Team Selection & Funding Policies	1.0	04/02/01	Under Review (PDF 27Kb) Click Here
You will need Adobe Reader to access these topics. Most systems have this plug-in already installed but if not click the button at left and download the free Adobe Acrobat reader. Some files are large and may take substantial time to download.
Date	US Team Task Force/ Committee Progress
03/25/03	Posted notice that nominations for U.S. Team Committee close. Elections start online.
02/07/03	Morphed Task Force page into U.S. Team Committee page
02/07/03	Added background paper on new form of New Form of U.S. Team Committee & Election Process and announced call for nominations.
01/25/03	Team Task Force Presents proposal and recommendations to SSA Board. Adopted by unanimous vote.
01/06/03	Public Comment period closed. All USTTF documents in final form.
12/17/02	Final TTF Proposal to SSA Board of directors published as 14) SSA Board of Directors Proposal
11/14/02	One of the findings of the U.S. Team e-Survey was that the process used to select U.S. Team members to the team is not well understood. The TTF and particularly John Leibacher, created a simple explanation of team selection to help clarify the process. This has been posted under team selection. 10A) EZ Team Pilot Selection
11/05/02	USTTF final sections published for public comment and review. The final sections of the U.S. Team Taskforce project have been published to the taskforce web page and are now available for public comment and review. The newly published sections include, 7 Team Pilot Obligations, 8 Team Communication, 10 Pilot Selection and 11 Contest Preparation.
10/01/02	USTTF Team Survey results have been posted - see the results above in PDF format.
09/12/02	US Team Survey reporting is coming along. The final report will be broken down into three sections. 1 Executive Summary, 2 Multiple Choice Report and 3 Open Ended Report.
08/31/02	US Team Survey Closed - Thanks for participating. Report to be posted here soon.
08/31/02	USTTF 3 Organization and USTTF 5 Funding drafts posted for comment
08/20/02	US Team Survey Closes August 31... Do it now!
08/19/02	USTTF 9 Financial Management draft posted for comment and review - see above
08/08/02	USTTF 6 Fundraising draft posted for comment and review - see above
06/19/02	US Team e-survey now online - Take the e-survey!
05/15/02	USTTF 12 Documents draft posted to web for public comment and review - see above
05/09/02	USTTF 4 Planning draft posted to web for public comment and review - see above
04/10/02	USTTF 2 Goals draft posted to web for public comment and review - see above
04/10/02	USTTF 1 Policy draft posted to web for public comment and review - see above
02/23/02	First drafts of individual topics are starting to circulate. Once the TTF members have had an opportunity to review the various topics they will be posted here for your review and comment.
02/23/02	US Team Task Force kick-off document with time line and individual topics posted on web. See 02/23/02 listing above for a copy.
02/20/02	US Team document topic added to individual TTF areas to develop
02/12/02	US Team Task Force (TTF) Web page created.
02/11/02	Task Force Kick-off document has been sent to members for review and approval.
02/09/02	SSA Board of Directors created the US Team Policy Task Force at the February 2002 Soaring Convention.