MEMBERSHIP CATEGORIES REVISITED
by Jeff Melin

This month, the CISS board met specifically to review the membership categories as described in the Club Bylaws. The purpose of this was to review how the categories are being used and to insure that their use is uniform and makes sense for the well being of CISS.

The Operations manual is currently under a major review and updating as well. These two actions are tied together because membership information of a temporary nature, such as Initiation Fees, Dues, Operations fees, and administrative procedures, all of which may be changed as needed by board action, are being moved to a new Membership section in the Operations Manual.

Regular, Family, Special, Student, Weekend, and Associate Membership Categories will be continued. The Inactive Category was discontinued some time ago via board action due to lack of use, although copies of the Bylaws distributed thereafter continued to display it.

Principles that have been looked at in this review have been that the policy followed must meet the fiscal needs of CISS, be fair to all members, and keep in mind that the club is a flying club and other benefits such as socialization, etc. are secondary to the main purpose of the club. Also, all flying status members must willingly give a fair share of time and effort back to the club in order to keep costs low and under control. The officers will be taking a hard look at all necessary activities so that if a member believes that he or she is physically unable to perform a scheduled duty such as Ground Crew, Tow Pilot, or Flight Instructor, we may be able to offer another necessary job to serve as that members time contribution to CISS.

At this time, no changes are anticipated for Regular, Family, and Student Members. The Special Member category, intended for those who with board approval, are temporarily relieved of scheduled duty due to unusual or extreme work related or family issues, will see the elimination of per flight surcharges and an increase in the annual fee for missing duty to $400.00 per year, effective January 1, 2003. Associate members must maintain an SSA membership but will no longer have flying privileges. The purpose of the Associate category is to enable a member who will not be able to fly due to work or other conditions to preserve their initiation fee investment and SSA membership until they can resume Regular status with full flight privileges. Obviously, flight surcharges for the Associate category will no longer apply. The Weekend Member is defined as a non-CISS, current SSA Member, who is current or who seeks a BFR or check ride prior to flying club equipment. The fee for such a person will be $25.00 per day plus applicable fees paid in cash at the time of flying.

Should you have any questions, please feel free to contact Jeff Melin, Membership Chair, 8csoars@prodigy.net, 317-848-5306 or any of the club Officers.

A LETTER FROM AN OLD FRIEND

Greetings everyone,

Wanted to share some good news. This past weekend I passed my CFIG checkride and am now a teacher of the great art of soaring. I just hope I can do it as well as the fine instructors at CISS who taught me. Thanks Alex, Don, Nyal, and Mike. I look forward to seeing you all again this summer and sharing experiences.

I have filled up my first log books. 215 flights in gliders for a total of 103.6 hrs (lots of sled rides and pattern tows) and I also have 514 hrs in those noisy powered airplanes (lots of trips east to Indy).

Hard to believe it was just six years ago this month when I visited Terry for the first time and got my first glider ride (2 hrs in the back seat of the Grob, spoiled for life).

The week of the Fourth of July I am headed to Minden, NV to work on cross country soaring and fly the LS-3 and LS-4. My goal is to complete my Gold badges and develop my XC experience.

The Wichita Soaring Association is recovering their SGS 2-22, so I am learning how to prep aluminium for paint and put fabric on wings.

The Boilermaker Soaring Club is finally operational at Purdue. They are using a 2-22 and a Super Cub for operations. They fly out of KLAF and the Delphi airport.

Hope all is well with you and that you're off to a great soaring season.

Happy Landings,

Andrew Peters
Flight Test Engineer
Model 680 Citation Sovereign
Cessna Aircraft Company
316-517-0378



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