HGFA Skysailor Magazine

2 SKY SAILOR January | February 2019 HGFA Strategic Plan Around 18 months ago the COM began reassessing its approach to the management of our sport and its national direction. Overall participation numbers have remained relatively static for some time. HG numbers have shown some decline; PG some increase, although this is blunted somewhat by attrition and there appears to be increasing interest in powered flight whether PHG, PPG or UL. However, the Australian population has more than doubled since hang gliding commenced and extreme adventure sports have grown in the choices available as well as participation rates. Our share of the perceived market for our types of activities has in effect significantly declined. Because of this, we need to reconsider what we do as a national body and the manner in which we do it. I’m pleased to advise that the COM has approved a strategic plan for the development of our sport and the direction we believe it needs to take over the coming years. This plan now available for comment on the HGFA website and we would appreciate any input our members care to provide. Essentially, the plan targets ‘Growth that delivers a sustainable future’. It has six key ‘pillars’ with a mix of short, medium and longer term strategies to take us in the direction we believe we need to go. The Six Pillars ➲ Safety and training: A safety culture of care and diligence that exceeds our responsibilities to all stakeholders and which is supported by world class training. ➲ Governance: Our governance embraces best practice andmeets ASC mandatory requirements for an Australian NSO. ➲ Finance: Financial success facilitates the infrastructure that delivers a sustainable future. ➲ Participation: Recruiting and retaining more participants is what makes our sport grow. ➲ International sporting success: World leading, well-known competition pilots across all disciplines provide a marketable brand success that supports a sustainable future. ➲ Operational excellence: Our administration is modernised, our staff engaged and motivated, operational initiatives are pre-planned and well executed, and our members are well served and supportive of the direction of their sport and the manner in which it is managed. Getting There Members may have already seen some of the work starting to roll out with the need to move our organisation from an ‘Incorporated Association’ to a ‘Company Limited by Guarantee’, thus modernising our governance structure and placing our sport and its national body in the best position to benefit from this very important reform. Our financial strategy will also benefit members in different ways. Ours is a sport that operates with virtually no owned infrastructure. There are a very small number of exceptions to this. For the overwhelming majority of participants, we operate thanks to the support of Governments, local Councils, various National Parks & Wildlife entities and private landowners. We are almost entirely dependent on the good grace of all these to be able to fly, and most clubs around Australia have experienced disappointment at different times when site access has been lost for whatever reasons. We don’t own our right to fly and we don’t own our future and it’s way past the time when we need to address this. Our plan allocates some of our reserves to be used by State Associations and/ or Clubs in the form of low cost loans to be applied to infrastructure projects. By using our own capital, we are able to retain the revenue stream associated with it and when loans are repaid, the capital can be recycled and the process repeated again and again. By adding to our reserves over time we can accelerate this process to provide the sustainability desperately needed for our sport. This is a long term strategy, but we need to make a start and build our capacity over time. We will have more information on this throughout the year. Another financial strategy is to consider acquisition of our own office premises. The HGFA has always rented – ownership would give us a property asset which would likely appreciate in value over the long term and would eliminate our annual rental burden. The COM will carefully assess this in terms of risk/reward, other costs, cash flow implications and alternate uses of capital. Finally, we are allocating funds to invest in activities that contribute to our abilities to attract new members, improve the retention of existing members and increase non-member revenue. In future SkySailor editions I will provide more information on all other strategies, but for now, please have a look at the proposal online and provide us with any feedback you consider valuable. Safe flying. by Paul Green, HGFA President President’s Update Photo: Bila Bakonyi, Fine-Line Photography