PRA Official Election Results

[Rotornut]

Ron, You already have your hands full with Ch#13, and ROC. Please dont take on more than You can Handle. Indiana is far away and, BD Days beat them by at least 30 more Gyros present. Roc is growing in leaps and bounds, you might want to think about, just how far you can go with this CH.
only my 2 cents.

Richard has been in PRA for over 5yrs, but just hosting BD Days is more than enough for us.
MJ

ps/I also get to see more of the Family at BD Days! and I love it.

 

[donshoebridge]

Don: In post #13 ...I saw my name mentioned and had to comment. I was asked to run while at Bensen days by Bill Finnegan and then was strongly backed by Greg Gremminger to pursue it. So I did. I mentioned that I had been a member for four consecutuve years ,,but also had some years of membership around 1985-1987.

I later was contacted by Greg saying that I would not be qualified until I had 5 consecutive years in....and that would not happen until the 2007 election for the board.

But then I was made to understand that they had a meeting and I was good to go,....so I went ahead and sent my stuff into the PRA magazine. Nothing else was ever said about my not having 5 consecutive years in until I just now read it in your post #13.

So...no grapevine...but straight from me. I was told my years were acceptable to qualify me. I would not have run otherwise.

Next year...I will have five consecutive years in....


Stan

Stan,

Your membership record reads almost the same as mine does, and I too would not have run if it were not for the actions of Tim Blackwell and Glenn Bundy (and Greg had something to do with it as well). The point to all of this is who had the votes. I found it a bit strange that your name was announced at the BOD meeting as one of the winners and then they retracted it. After I heard the "not eligible" statement I was wondering if that was the reason your name was retracted all of a sudden. Then I got to thinking that if it could happen to you, then it could happen to me.

My problem here is this... If you and I were led to believe that we could run for a BOD position, were allowed to announce or candidacy, had our names printed on the ballet and in the magazine, only to find out at the very end that all the votes for us didn't count, even if you or I had enough votes to win a slot, then how honest is the voting system within the PRA?

If by the letter of the bylaws I was not eligible, fine, I can live with that, but my name still should not have been on the ballet because it would have denied votes to someone else. As a current PRA member, and as someone who ran for a BOD position, and the fact that there is no wording in the Bylaws to the contrary, then it’s up to the BOD and the new president to provide some clarity on this subject, to not only myself, but to you and everyone else that has an interest in the PRA. All I'm asking for is the vote count. And if either you or I had enough votes to win, then I also want an explanation as to why we were not elected.

I’ve already been asked if I wanted to run again (I said “sure, why not”), I’m sure you heard, but I have to tell you, I’m a little apprehensive. I’m sure you noticed that in my voice and in the delay of getting the answer out at the BOD meeting. But if I only had a handful of votes, then I’m going to pull my name now and not waste my time, anyone’s vote, or screw up someone else’s chance of winning. I’d much rather see you win a BOD slot than to have both of us loose. But if I had a large percentage of the votes, than I want to know that too.

 

[GyroRon]

Don, the flip side to your point of view is as follows..... If a person wants to be elected to the board, it is probably a good idea that this person has read and knows the by-laws themselves. If they did, then they would know before they run for board that they are eligible or not. See my point. It is just as much your fault as it is anyone elses.

Don't worry about it so much. There is always next year. Why not take the time you would have spent on the board and get your gyro flying? What is the roadblock to seeing your project completed?

 

[Heron]

yeah . . .and wear a pink tutu next time, williya?
Who ran . . .how many votes in the ballet for each?
That is the important question. We need to know how is the group shaping up.
It is though choice always, so many good candidates to choose.
Did Stan ran for pres or BOD?
Some candidates are a promise of more action, others more thinking and politics, a good minute of all actions regarding the election should be available for those far away. Even the gossips that will become "official" as the year progresses.
thanks
Heron

 

[rustynance]

Don,
I suggest you contact Dave Prater. He was responsible for the counting of the ballots. Too my knowledge substantially less than 300 ballots were recieved at the PRA office. Dave could give you some indication to the number of votes that went your way. I would not support posting the exact number of votes for each candidate on this forum. I would support posting the exact number of votes for each candidate on a PRA members only forum.

Stan's name was read by mistake when the new BOD was announced. Gary had several pieces of paper in front of him and simply looked at the wrong one momentarily. This was immediately corrected by Dave who had counted the ballots. Gary actually stated this immediately after being corrected by Dave. I was there, standing very close to you Don. Their is no conspiracy here.

I hope both of you run for the board again. You both bring a wealth of knowledge to the PRA.

If the PRA is to succeed, we need everyone working together. We can do great things for the rotorcraft movement, but the key word is WE. Greg is now the volunteer coordinator. If you have any special skills and have a little free time please contact him. He will try to match people to tasks in the future.

I have requested the Board minutes for both the PRA and PRA Mentone Inc, for the last ten years. I will review them thoroughly.

Should anyone have any questions or concerns about the PRA or any of its practices please contact me. My cell number is (803) 608-0360

Thank all of you for supporting the PRA

Rusty Nance
President

 

[donshoebridge]

Don, the flip side to your point of view is as follows..... If a person wants to be elected to the board, it is probably a good idea that this person has read and knows the by-laws themselves. If they did, then they would know before they run for board that they are eligible or not. See my point. It is just as much your fault as it is anyone elses.QUOTE]

Actually Ron, I did read them and I decided not to run because I was not (I my eye) eligible. I stated this to a handful of people at one of chapter 81's meeting and was encouraged to run becasue I "was" eligible. In fact, I've been wanting to run for awhile but could not afford the $500 Life membership.

 

[donshoebridge]

Don,
I suggest you contact Dave Prater. He was responsible for the counting of the ballots. Too my knowledge substantially less than 300 ballots were recieved at the PRA office. Dave could give you some indication to the number of votes that went your way. I would not support posting the exact number of votes for each candidate on this forum. I would support posting the exact number of votes for each candidate on a PRA members only forum.

Stan's name was read by mistake when the new BOD was announced. Gary had several pieces of paper in front of him and simply looked at the wrong one momentarily. This was immediately corrected by Dave who had counted the ballots. Gary actually stated this immediately after being corrected by Dave. I was there, standing very close to you Don. Their is no conspiracy here.

I hope both of you run for the board again. You both bring a wealth of knowledge to the PRA.

If the PRA is to succeed, we need everyone working together. We can do great things for the rotorcraft movement, but the key word is WE. Greg is now the volunteer coordinator. If you have any special skills and have a little free time please contact him. He will try to match people to tasks in the future.

I have requested the Board minutes for both the PRA and PRA Mentone Inc, for the last ten years. I will review them thoroughly.

Should anyone have any questions or concerns about the PRA or any of its practices please contact me. My cell number is (803) 608-0360

Thank all of you for supporting the PRA

Rusty Nance
President

Thank you Rusty. I'll call Dave Prater.

 

[gyroplanes]

Great to see the PRA pres here

Great to see the PRA pres here

Nice to have you posting on the forum. It could keep you busy. I would like to see the non-sensitive PRA questions answered here instead of by phone calls. We can all learn from these exchanges.

Rusty, how about telling us your vision for the PRA's future. (I don't expect or want an immediate response)

Your loyal servant, Tom

 

[Harry_S.]

Mr. Nance;

You're asking for loss of leisure time by posting your phone number...unless you put it on hold or whatever; when you sit down for dinner or retire for the night.

I am not one, but...there are some radicals on this forum.

I am encouraged by your availability to usn's and may I add my congrats to your election.


Cheers

 

[gyrogreg]

All nominees were "eligible"

All nominees were "eligible"

Just to set the record straight. All Nominees posted in the magazine and listed on the ballot were "eligible" candidates. No one was excluded and there were no wasted votes.

There are pros and cons to listing the actual tally of votes. But, if we do this, it should be made available to the PRA members only - another reason the "Members Only" section of the website is important.

Probably the worst thing about posting the vote counts might be showing how few members really take the time to vote! I'm not aware of the numbers either, but I have heard also that the total votes might have been close to 300.

For those worried about a "conspiracy", please volunteer to be a vote counter next year. At the Wednesday morning flight breifing, Dave Prater asked for volunteers to count votes - he got none or maybe one - and had to just arm twist some "volunteers" to help count votes. FYI - the process of counting votes involves two pairs of counters, calling out each vote, and a pair of tabulators marking down the votes. The pairs of teams are to avoid mistakes! Six people are involved, besides Dave Prater overseeing the whole process to make sure it works correctly.

What we really need is an early "volunteer" to be the BOD Nomination Committee Chairman. I volunteered for this job at Bensen Days, but we should start earlier to recruit more candidates and have better time to get their names and information out to members. We had a lot of candidates this year! But, only five openings - not everyone could win! Next year there will be fewer openings! But, I do hope the candidates this year will try again next year.

As far as the list of BOD members - it had been posted on the "Elections Results" thread under "PRA Discussion" on 7/23. I just got a little time to go through the forums this evening, and I found it right away! But, here it is again on this thread:

President: Rusty Nance (new BOD member)
VP: Greg Gremminger
Treasurer: Robert Rymer
Secretary: Glenn Bundy

Other BOD:
Ron Menzie
Ernie Boyette
Tim Blackwell
Steve McGowen
Jim Mayfield
Kerry Cartier (new BOD member)
Duane Hunn (new BOD member this year, but had been on the Board before)

- Thanks, Greg Gremminger

 

[GyroRon]

Rusty, I am so happy to see you are here on the forum to answer questions and that you are going out of your way to be there if anyone wants to ask you something. You are THE man!!!

 

[Friendly]

Congradulations to all elected officials

Congradulations to all elected officials

Greg,
I renewed my membership late and did not vote. NO EXCUSE.
There is a poll thread here on the forum that lets you vote and tells you if your have voted already.
It would be a wonderful thing (in my opinion) If we had an election day where we could vote by membership on line and if you did not do it on line you could mail in like absentee voting with all ballots mailed ahead of time. The results would be like watching the election returns on tv. I am pleased that responsible people have stepped up to lead in such times as this.
I hope and pray anyone who has been unhappy in the past will endevor to bury the past and encourage our new leadership . For past members whether they they were the best or the poorest, I thank them for making a committment to PRA. There are some things I would have done differently, but I do not know that I could have done it better. God Bless them all.

 

[Rotornut]

Rusty Said /If the PRA is to succeed, we need everyone working together. We can do great things for the rotorcraft movement, but the key word is WE.

Rusty, Richard and I want you to Know that Sunstate Wing & Rotor Club PRA Ch# 26 Support Greg and you Both. If we as a Chapter can Help you in anyway dont hesitate to call Richard 239-633-0156. We look Forward to Seeing you at BD Days 2007. Thanks for Steping up. We Love Ya MJ

PS./We is ALL of PRA Members and then Some, come on GyroNuts lets Help and give our Input to the New Prez.

 

[Rotornut]

Mark Said / I hope and pray anyone who has been unhappy in the past will endevor to
bury the past and encourage our new leadership .

Yes Mark we all Need to Support and Encourage the New PRES AND VP.
We need to All Stand UNITED! If we are to Survive. So to those sitting on the side lines with no PRA MEMBERSHIP NOW IS YOUR TIME TO SHOW YOUR SUPPORT! JOIN. MJ

 

[gyrogreg]

It would be a wonderful thing (in my opinion) If we had an election day where we could vote by membership on line and if you did not do it on line you could mail in like absentee voting with all ballots mailed ahead of time.

Hi Mark,
This is just one of the functions we would hope to be able to do with a "Membership Only" section of the PRA website. Tim Blackwell has volunteered to be doing this, but Tim certainly could use some technical web development expertise. I'm not sure that it would be a good idea to allow just one day of voting or to show a continuing tally of votes - tends to influence voting. But, an electronic way to supplement the paper ballots might be a really good way to encourage voting.

There are lots of other technical functions we have envisioned for a "Members Only" section of the web - keep the membership database on the web for automatic join and renewal and automatic access to the "Members Only" section - for instance. We also envision a full color PDF of each magazine issue on the web - give members a chance to voluntarily sae the PRA some printing and mailing expenses, with the benefit of full color even if we can't afford full color in the printed version! Searchable articles archives on the "Members Only" section - we will be looking for volunteers to scan old magazines and such to digitize the articles - this would not happen immediately, but we have a few years of Rotorcraft articles already digitized.

A "Members Only" section could have a lot other resources and benefits to attract and keep members. For instance, the "Members Only" section could have training resources that instructors and students could use for ground school, and test prep.

 

[Friendly]

Scanning

Scanning

Greg-
That is something, I think I could do

 

[Heron]

We could vote by Net, using PRA's site or even this Forum.
AS this Forum will be the window where people from all corners meet and trade info, it will also become a very important guide to future enhancement of the PRA.
Thanks Uncle Rusty for been here and I hope we do not choque you with too many questions and requests.
I feel we are on to something better, no descredit to all past leaders.
thanks
Heron

 

[rustynance]

MJ, I really appreciate that. I will certainly be calling on you and the Sunstate Chapter in the near future. Hope to see you at ROC.

Ron, I will endeavor to make myself available to the general membership. Hopefully, the PRA email address for the president will be redirected soon and I would like to use that means as much as possible. If someone really just wants to talk about an issue in real time then please use my cell number that was posted earlier. I would especially like to hear from all the chapter presidents on what they think the PRA can do to increase its membership base.

Tom, I'll make an attempt to describe my vision for the PRA.
There are several areas the PRA needs to improve in. Membership needs to increase above 2000. The services provided to the members should definitely increase in quantity and quality. Most importantly we need to become a family once again. Many other issues come to mind but I want to keep this short enough to not be cluttered.
Most of these are co-dependent and could be improved if we just did one thing; we have to make all of the PRA fly-ins fun for the whole family. With escalating fuel prices, most people just can't afford to take two vacations. One for the family and another for Mom or Dad to go to the convention or other fly-in such as Bensen Days or ROC to name a few. In years past the entire family looked forward to a flying event. We need that again. Next years convention will include more for the family. Mind you it's a start, we won't perfect it the first year, but it is a start. Please contact the convention Chairman with any ideas you may have in this area.

Bearing in mind that family should always come first, I have placed that issue at the beginning. That being said, my main issues for pilots within the PRA will be safety and education. You can think of education as training if you like but I think it is much more than that. Whether you are self taught or received dual from an instructor, we can all learn more about the aircraft we fly.
Kerry has done an outstanding job as the PRA safety guy. True wisdom is being able to learn from others mistakes. We are in the process of forming a committee that we hope can help the FAA during experimental rotorcraft accident investigations. Jim Mayfield has volunteered to provide assistance to this committee.
We need more technical articles in the magazine. We have relied heavily on Chuck for many years in this area and he has been flawless. It's time for some others to step up to the plate and help in that area. Al, Udi and the other smart guys, I want you to write and submit articles to the magazine.

This is part of my vision for the PRA. We have the best members of any organization out there. We have a superb Board of Directors. With a little work, we will grow in numbers, help each other, have fun, and be successful.

Thank you
Rusty

 

[Rotornut]

Greg G. Said / A "Members Only" section could have a lot other resources and benefits to attract and keep members. For instance, the "Members Only" section could have training resources that instructors and students could use for ground school, and test prep.

Mike Gaspard is your Man Greg. He designed and developed Sunstates web page with a Members only on many diff. items. Check him out and see if he can not help out. Mike was a God Send for Sunstate and Me who was in charge of keeping the web page. Thanks AGAIN MIKE. MJ

 

[Rotornut]

Rusty Nance Said / Most importantly we need to become a family once again.

That is One of the Most Important Things we could do Right Now.
But, then to Me all GyroNuts have Been Close to my Heart and I consider them FAMILY. MJ