1. An Example of Club Planning Harry Fox Bay Area Soaring Associates, Inc.

2. Club Background BASA has about 70 members. We do not provide primary instruction or tows – instruction and tows are provided by local FBOs. Cross-country, high-altitude wave and aerobatic flight allowed with proper training and experience. Gliders based at Hollister and Truckee, California, plus Minden, Nevada. At start of our planning process, we had 6 gliders in fleet: Two Grob 103’s, one SGS 1-34, three Pegasus 101’s.

3. How/Why Do You Start Planning? Could be a formal club process on a periodic basis. Could be triggered by a particular problem or opportunity. In our case, a few instigators started the process by saying “we want new gliders”.

4. Identifying Needs And Goals Surveying the members: –Their level of experience. –Which club gliders they fly. –Which club sites they fly at. –What type of flying they do. –Their goals for themselves and the club. We conducted a written survey, then discussed the results at a club meeting.

5. Club Leadership Gathers Information Evaluate club fleet – what needs replacing first. Identify potential replacements. Explore financial alternatives – how to pay for it. –In our case, we came to the conclusion we needed to raise the level of monthly dues. If we stayed at our previous level, we could maintain what we had but eventually would own a fleet of antique gliders.

6. Communication With Members Club leadership summarized its conclusions in a written report. Published in club newsletter. Discussed in depth at several club meetings. Feedback from club members steered the final proposal. This took several months and went through multiple iterations – patience is required.

7. Obtaining Approval Club leadership drew up formal written proposal. Lobbied club members to participate in vote. Formal vote taken to approve proposal.

8. Implementation Increased monthly dues, lost two or three members as a result. Started saving funds from increased dues, looking at available gliders. Lots of communication with members about flight tests, available alternatives. An opportunity arose to buy before we had saved up enough, so went back to members with a proposal to borrow needed funds. Another vote was required to approve.

9. Results Membership numbers are up significantly since buying new glider. We love to fly it! Will start shopping for the next glider soon.