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