Congratulations to Bobbi LaSalle and Robin Mapp as our new SLSA directors voted in on September 1, 2013. They have joined sitting directors Dax Verlaine, Alvaro Pevensey and myself, Petra Xaris. We’d also like to thank JohnnyWhadd for being one of the candidates in the election and a very active member of SLSA. And to Nico and Dax Kona, our outgoing directors, thank you so much for your dedication and service, you are both awesome!
First, let me congratulate Willowwynn, iLaurenB, and Cierra Theriac for their election to the SLSA board. They will be replacing Zadi, Bobbi, and myself and running things for the next six months. Also, congratulations to JohnnyWhadd and MaryAnn Maa Rustamova, who were very close to being elected for these three positions. The SLSA hopes they will be first in line standing for Director in March for the next election, replacing Xander and Sally.
When I was elected six months ago, I saw a few problems that needed to be addressed by both the SLSA board and by its membership. We had elections where nobody bothered to vote, and it was a struggle to even get enough people willing to stand for election to fill the open spots. There was a drought of new members willing to consider the idea of standing for election, and while we certainly needed the experience of long-term members and former directors running again, I felt we needed the energy of the new to come along take the reins. We had surf sims closing around us and no new surf sims coming along who wanted to be considered for competition use. But what a difference a season can make! We had THREE new sims who wanted to become competition venues, and each–Barton Springs/Carpe Diem, Asylum Reef, and Cape Marina, jumped on board enthusistically and offered us new waves and new vistas to look at. The SLSA board is now comprised of three members who have only joined in the last couple of years, elected by nearly twice the number of voters who participated in the last election. And now we see something new and different–multigenerational members as SLSA directors. Xander Lunasea, adopted by Mick Lunasea and Revlon Benoir (both former directors) was the first SL 2nd generation surfer to take the reins of directorship. And now we have Willowynn, the daughter of former director Maldrul Morris, wanting to take on the responsibilities of running the SLSA. There seems to be a paradigm shift at work and our younger generation of members wants to try out their wings and see what they can do, not just on the waves. It does the heart good to see it.
So as our term is ending, I can say things are in very good hands. We can sit back and watch what these new people do while being willing to offer the helping hand when needed. Our responsibilites as SLSA members are to still participate and ask questions and suggest and understand that sometimes the wheels move a little slowly, but they do move. Our new members and our new directors have caught a new wave and they’re using a new surfboard to ride it with, and I think I’m going to have fun sitting back on my little old Orca board and riding the wave myself from a distance. Bobbi will be trying her best to learn how to climb that wave, because that wave is certainly going to be made of Mesh and therefore climbable, and Zadi will be sitting on her board by me and shaking our heads and saying, ‘How in the world does the DO that??’. Thank you for letting me try this out for 6 months, and for paying it forward.
It is time for another SLSA election. This time there are three Director positions to fill–two are full terms of 6 months, while one is a by-election to fill a vacancy in the board and will last for 3 months. Please visit the forums and look under Annoucements for further details on how you can declare your candidacy for election. Please support the SLSA by fulfilling this very important task. Thank you.
The 2012 Season 2 competition schedule kicks off on August 18 with the Open at Carpe Diem/Barton Springs. The Pro event will be held August 25.
All details can be found in the Forums under Competition Registration. Let’s get this season started off right with a huge turnout for both surfers and spectators alike.
With a new season comes the new push for sponsorships for the 2012 season 2 schedule. It takes money to put on fun events for everyone, and sponsorships are the way the SLSA can put on an entire season. Not to mention, a great way for your businesses to get exposure and potential new customers while supporting our organization. And you may be surprised at how inexpensive sponsorship in the SLSA can be!
If you are interested, please contact Bobbi Laval or Imzadi Amaterasu for further details.
Coming on the heels of the historic 50th SLSA competition at Tai, the first half of the 10th SLSA season closes out with comp #51 at Encinitas. This will make history as the first SLSA-sanctioned competition to allow the use of a non-SSi surfboard. All competitors will use the HP5 board during the Open and Pro event. Come join us at Encinitas for the Open on June 16th at 11 AM SLT. The top 20 surfers and those who qualify from the Open will surf the Pro event on June 23rd. We hope to see you there.
On September 12th, 2010, we, the SLSA Board of Directors, on behalf of the general SLSA membership and consistent with the wishes of these members, have decided the following:
The Archipelago sim is considered to be a desirable and appropriate facility for the SLSA to sponsor and have available for it’s members and open to anyone interested in surfing in Second Life.
The 25,000L$/month funding for this sim, however, cannot and will not adversely impact funds required for the primary mission and activities of the SLSA and will be budgeted independently of other activities (e.g., no funds from spectator stand sponsors and spectator stand donations).
The Board takes full responsibility for organizing and delegating all possible actions to promote the use of Archipelago in accordance with the wishes of the general membership and to try to achieve the goal of funding the monthly sim tier from sources other than the competition budget.
However, the Board has decided that should there not be sufficient funds to make the tier payment by the 16th of each month, SLSA general funds not to exceed 5000L$ will be used to make the payment. If there are insufficient funds to make this payment by it’s due date, Archipelago will be returned to it’s owner.
A money keeper account, Salsa Waverider, has been established for these Archipelago specific funds. Each director will have access to this account, and will be bound by the same expenditure rules as those for the general funds (refer to SLSA Constitution items 1.4.5 and 1.5.1).
