SAFA Skysailor Magazine

4 SKY SAILOR July | August 2022 Canberra Board Meeting Board members and senior SAFA staff held a face to face meeting in Canberra over the last weekend in May. It’s been the usual practice for quite some time to conduct such meetings once or twice a year. However, this was the first time since May 2019 that such an event was held. Weekend meetings have been held in the intervening years, but they’ve all been online. The two days were intense but productive. All attendees worked well together and participated fully – indeed, the level of Board/ staff engagement was the best I’ve observed in my time with the HGFA/SAFA. The agenda was broad and covered areas such as gover- nance, financial management, strategic plan progress, database integrity and IT security, Part 149 progress and a range of operational issues. Important member issues such as identifying and removing barriers to increased flying participation, volunteer demand and burnout and the need to ensure that we aren’t duplicating volunteer efforts across SAFA, Regional Associations and Clubs were carefully considered, and several initiatives have been identified that will help address these matters. NSWHPA Conference NSW President John Harriott and his hard- working committee held their inaugural Future of Flight conference in the Hunter Valley over the first weekend in June. Repre- sentatives of all NSW clubs attended and had an opportunity to present a snapshot of their club and its activities. There was a constant flow of ideas and positive energy, interspersed President’s Update by Paul Green