SRA HISTORY

The SRA In the "old days" (prior to the late 80's) competition rules were determined at SSA Board of Director's meetings once or twice a year. With little input from the pilots and with most of the directors having little or no contest flying experience, the results were less than perfect and pilots felt powerless to make changes. Enter the Sailplane Racing Association. At a meeting in 1985 in Cumberland, MD Ed Byars, Bill Holbrook and Karl Striedieck sketched out a plan to create a group to lobby the SSA for more pilot input in the rule-making process. With the advice of representatives from the three sections of the country, early SRA Presidents like Holbrook, Seymour and McMaster agitated the entrenched structure for a greater part in the rules process. Finally, in 1992, the 1984 suggestion of Larry Sanderson to create a pilot-elected rules committee with a predictable annual work schedule was adopted by the SSA Board. Although its activities as a pilot-lobby organization have been superceded by the more open framework of the rules committee workings, the SRA still exists as a semi-somnolent watchdog. More mundane but no less important are the services it still provides, such as scale maintenance, binocular logistics, annual pilot poll, hosting of pilot-input meetings at contests, travel expenses for the annual committee meeting, and a web site. Where required, these functions are made possible by an annual $12 contribution from pilots.   The SRA has changed in the 16 or so years of its life and these changes were to no small extent the product of its successful efforts to make competition rule making more relevant to those most affected by them: We the People. Karl Striedieck Soaring Magazine - The SRA , Dec, 2001, page 18 ( Competition Corner )