CHAIRMAN'S THOUGHTS

摘要

January 2021 is finally here. I am sure that most of us are very glad to have the long year of 2020 behind us. While soaring still faces challenges, 2021 offers hope for normalcy. In this month's column I would like to highlight new members of your Board of Directors and two SSA initiatives intended to make 2021 a good year for soaring. You will find much more information about these topics in this issue of Soaring. Before introducing the new members of the board, I would like to thank Ann Lafford for 2 years of excellent service as Chair of the Board. Ann oversaw many changes during her tenure and worked hard to make the SSA a better and more efficient organization. She attended events such as Oshkosh and many contests to represent the SSA. She also ran one of the only completed contests in 2020, the Region 3 contest in Dansville, NY. Thank you! Your SSA Board has 2 new Directors at Large, 1 new Regional Director, a new Treasurer, and a new Chair. The new Regional Directors are Hartley Falbaum of Georgia who is taking over as Region 5 Director and Walt Rogers, Region 12 from California. The new Directors at Large are Rick Roelke from New Hampshire, Dick Andrews from Minnesota, and Kathy Fosha from California. The Executive committee will have a new Treasurer, David Hart from western Pennsylvania, and a new Chair, the current Region 2 and 4 Director, James Garrison from central Virginia. All of these individuals are very active soaring pilots; you can find short biographies of each and the rest of the SSA board in Denise Layton's article on page 10 in this issue of Soaring. Welcome to all and I look forward to working with everyone.