Der Gasser- Letter to Editor

[Terry]

I guess I'll jump in as well. As to the former president/letter-writer, I was pleased to see that my personal (and previously unpublicized) view of his personality is shared by others. I sure felt stiff-armed and condescended to. Nonetheless, he may have something of value to say, and we should try to separate the message from the messenger. Now as to what I think he was trying to express, there is clearly a schism developing in the club and that is unfortunate, burt suggesting two clubs, one for the people we like and one for the losers, is just dumb. Economic hard times bring stress and the situation with the treasury makes it worse. We need to consider all reasonable options to keep the club solvent, maintain our activities, and try to get through this patch. That may mean higher fees, more perks for instructors, more work for instructors, or something else entirely. It should not mean that we should doubt the good faith and motives of our elected and appointed volunteer officers. Finally, when I started with DE in 2000, it was my impression that instructors commonly had two students each, and that was accepted as normal. We got the ratio down over the past few years but I do not consider it to be an imposition to carry two students when needed. It was particularly tough at Summit Point because the Red-Black group was combined into double stints, so you were on the track 80% of the day, but I suspect that with solo signoffs, people leaving early, cars breaking, etc, the workload could be brought down provided we develop a system. So my one concrete suggestion is that instructors must report changes in their student assignments on a real time basis and the CI or his delegate(s) can then shift people around fairly. At present, it is really an honor system and most instructors will help another if asked, but won't volunteer their availability if lucky enough to get a vacancy.