The USUA Board of Directors met in Frederick, Maryland on August 27th and 28th to begin a new tradition. As of this year there will be a summer board meeting to go along with the customary winter meeting held at the annual USUA Convention.

After receiving progress reports on USUA programs and services, the Regional Representative program and the glider/trike initiative, board members reviewed USUAšs role serving air sport enthusiasts. Particular focus was aimed at FAAšs Sport Pilot and Light Sport Aircraft rulemaking project and the current Private Pilot Glider/Trike certificate option.

Al Carpenter, Board Chairman, summarizes the meeting: "In the longest, hardest-working meeting of the board since I have been a director, the board unanimously and forcefully registered its support for meeting the present and anticipated needs of ultralight and ultralight type sport aviation enthusiasts. Glider/Trike, developing largely due to the efforts of John Thornburgh and USUA Founder, John Ballantyne, and Sport Pilot/Light Sport Aircraft, now looming on the sport aviation horizon, each show promise of providing options of interest to our membership. Properly exploited, these programs do (Glider/Trike) or may (Sport Pilot) offer new (and legal!) ways to fly the kinds of aircraft/vehicles we want to fly, the way we want to fly them. At this meeting, your board has pledged to renew and enlarge its efforts to support and enrich USUA's advocacy role by informing and assisting its members regarding ALL such programs available to them, now and in the future." In many ways, a "great new day is dawning" at your "new and improved" USUA!

The board also considered recommendations offered by USUA regional representatives at the last USUA Convention in Indianapolis.