Hello, my friends!

2011 is the year that we saw the very first F3K World Championships. George Morris took home the Silver individual medal and our Junior Team (Nick, David and Lee) took the Junior team Gold medal. Pretty successful first outing if you ask me! 

2013... It may not sound like it but the 2nd F3K World Championships in 2013 is just around the corner. Preparations should begin NOW! 

For starters, should we establish some sort of committee to manage details and logistics on what, when, how and even where things need to be done?  

We need to start raising awareness, interest, enthusiasm and of course, funding.  Let's hear your ideas on how we, as a community, can make it easier for our 2013 USA F3K Team reach goals and milestones.

Soar!
Jun C.


2011_2012 F3K League

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/...hl=en_US#gid=0

Regarding funds... how about every F3K contest from now until the 2013 WC tack an additional $5 per pilot onto the registration fee? The CD will then turn this over to the fund. This alone could raise a few thousand bucks for the cause, and with very little pain or effort.

Thanks for getting this started Jun! Great suggestion Mike.
Someone will need to be in charge of managing the team fund. I don't know if the AMA is set up to handle that function or not.

I'll be managing the team fund. We have two accounts set up for the FAI teams. We just have to get the credit card payment thing set up so money for the F3K team goes to the F3K account and money for the F3J team goes to the F3J account. With the online payment system Gordon Buckland set up things will be much easier than in the past.

Tom

Great idea. What about selecting a team manager NOW to head this up?

The team manager needs to be nominated by the team.

I think that system needs to be tweaked. Waiting till the team is selected leaves relatively little time to do serious fund raising. If that burden was well underway prior, the manager could then concentrate more on logistics once the team is selected. Tom has the method set up to receive funds, but it needs a leader to coordinate and promote a UNIFIED effort nationwide. Why wait? Every day is an opportunity to make the burden more evenly spread out.

Originally Posted by jcats

 Let's hear your ideas on how we, as a community, can make it easier for our 2013 USA F3K Team reach goals and milestones.

I (along with the help of several others) have been trying to build interest by compiling and posting the results of the team qualification process:

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/...3UWc&hl=en_US#

But that said I am a few contests behind and need to get that stuff updated.

Another way people can support the effort is to enter the F3K team selection program. It is just $20, the funds go to the F3K team, and it gives very specific feedback to the AMA about the # of people interested in the FAI F3K program. The AMA will use this info to continue to support the junior and senior teams. I have entered the team selection program, even though I might not even fly any F3K contests next year. I highly suggest everyone interested in F3K enter the program.

Ryan

If a team manager candidate could actualy be identified this early in the game, meaning someone who actually wants to take on that job, then I would think that a good way to audition for that job would be to work on fundraising between now and the time that the team is selected. If AMA procedures specify that a team manager is selected after the team is chosen, then simply give the team manager candidate a different title (or no title at all) while he auditions for the position (by doing fundraising).

The downside of starting fundraising early is that you don't want to annoy the F3K community with 24/7 non-stop fundraising even in the off year for the F3K worlds. You also want to give the F3J team a fair shot at fundraising during their cycle without F3K draining away their fundraising suport. having said that, there may be some things that could be done now that would be a bit more below the radar. Things like arranging contributions from F3K contest proceeds, or working on raffle donations or matching funds or lots of stuff that I can't think of. Perhaps just stay away from the direct pleas for donations or raffle ticket purchases until after the team is selected.

One more consideration: If there was a shortfall of funds for the 2011 team, then maybe any fundraising prior to the 2013 team selection should go to the 2011 team fund. I'm not sure about that, but it is something to think about.

To get this started I will put take 5 bucks from each registration for my 2012 contest and donate it to the team fund. I challenge every CD hosting a F3K contest to do the same.

Bruce

Ryan or Tom,

Do we need to sign up for the team selection process every year or just once a rotation?

James

Originally Posted by Phil Barnes

The downside of starting fundraising early is that you don't want to annoy the F3K community with 24/7 non-stop fundraising even in the off year for the F3K worlds. You also want to give the F3J team a fair shot at fundraising during their cycle without F3K draining away their fundraising suport. having said that, there may be some things that could be done now that would be a bit more below the radar. Things like arranging contributions from F3K contest proceeds, or working on raffle donations or matching funds or lots of stuff that I can't think of. Perhaps just stay away from the direct pleas for donations or raffle ticket purchases until after the team is selected.

This is my concern as well. This concern is amplified now that there is an F3F team that will need support in 2012 as well as the F3J team.

For those that don't know, there are officially four FAI teams, F3B, F3J, F3K, and F3F. F3B and F3K share the same cycle, and F3J and F3F share the same cycle. What they all have in common is the entire soaring community contributes to each team. For example, the F3J/TD guys not only support F3J, but they also support F3B and F3K and will likely also support F3F. For me personally, there are only so many charities I can support in a given year. So please keep this in mind. I would hate to see the teams for the current year who need the support the most lose money to a team that hasn't even been selected yet.

Tom

Originally Posted by hohensej

Ryan or Tom,

Do we need to sign up for the team selection process every year or just once a rotation?

James

Just once per cycle.

Tom

You need to enter the team selection program each world champs cycle. James you are entered and fully qualified for the team selection TBD in 2012 that will select the team who will represent the USA in 2013.

Ryan

We will be sending a chunk of profits and donations from ECHLGF-2011 to the F3K fund. We designated 25% of the profits and all proceeds from the picnic on Friday to be sent. I believe it came to over $300.

We will wait for your message about the F3K account, Tom.

I also agree that we may want to help the 2011 team to pay off expenses, but I am biased of course. Tom, you will probably have the power to decide on that.