A Catalyst For Change: Group Sets Their Sights On The USPA Board of Directors
By Luke Seile
Mem No. 221735

Motivated by their passion for the sport and a common goal of making changes, a group of experienced skydivers have assembled to make a run at the USPA Board of Directors in the upcoming November election. “A group of us started to really notice the need to revisit and update a lot of the USPA rules and procedures,” said Charles Bryan , 17 year veteran of skydiving, former DZO and National Director Candidate.

With that in mind the core group began to reach out to other professionals and friends within the industry. What they found was a like-minded group of individuals, with varying backgrounds, wanting to help evolve the governing body of the sport. Through moderator Eli Thompson, co-creator of FlyBoyz and National Director Candidate , the group began to debate the important issues affecting the Skydiving Industry; three common goals began to immerge:

Rejuvenate the Board of Directors with a diverse group of qualified, motivated jumpers with varied experience in the industry.
Grow the sport. Work to bring in new participants, money and public attention to the sport.
Focus on education not regulation. Develop programs above and beyond the current “student status” to help advance the individual pilots skills while improving the safety and proficiency of the sport as a whole.

Eli Thompson explained, “What really drives our group is that we don’t want to see skydiving just scrape by and survive. We want to get in there and help the sport prosper.”
With concern for the health of the sport, the group has attracted individuals from across the United States. Each individual has their own focus but an overwhelming sense of urgency to work out different challenges facing the industry.

Current board member Jessie Farrington has a focus on individual jumpers stating, “If people want to stay in the air with as little interference as possible we need people [on the board] who are willing to make changes.”

Making changes to the regulations and procedures is what skydiving needs right now. Every year the sport evolves; from new equiptment and technology to more advanced flying: It is time that the rules that govern what we do evolve with it. The first step is actually voting for the people that you feel will do a good job advancing the sport.

“We need to go back to the roots of what the USPA Board of Directors was created for: It’s not about arguing, it’s about growth..” states Eric Deren who is running for a seat as National Director. Deren continues, “Over the past years, the USPA Board of Directors has had moments of greatness and moments of failure. We want to help create more moments of greatness.”

Candidates for change are:

National Board of Directors:
Eli Thompson
Charles Bryan
Mike Swanson
Jon DeVore
Luke Aikins
Kirk Verner
Eric Deren
Cisco Neri

Northwest:
Jessie Farrington

Pacific:
Chris Q

Western
Scott Smith

Central
Rook Nelson

South East
Kyle Stark

Mountain
Miles Daisher

Eastern
Brian Germain

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A Catalyst For Change: Group Sets Their Sights On The USPA Board of Directors
By Luke Seile
Mem No. 221735

Motivated by their passion for the sport and a common goal of making changes, a group of experienced skydivers have assembled to make a run at the USPA Board of Directors in the upcoming November election. “A group of us started to really notice the need to revisit and update a lot of the USPA rules and procedures,” said Charles Bryan , 17 year veteran of skydiving, former DZO and... (read more)