As if... — FFPLUM

As if…

Season 202028 March 20204 min read

The Federation's General Assembly should have been held this Saturday at the headquarters of the Directorate General for Civil Aviation. I thank the DGAC staff and the employees of our Federation who prepared this key moment for our movement in advance. It has of course been postponed. We plan to hold the General Assembly on Saturday 29 August in the late afternoon during the Blois microlight show, followed by a big celebration. All of this is of course subject to how the current crisis develops.

Wall maps, posters and materials for clubs and affiliated companies will be distributed to you later. The Federation's physical head office has been put on standby but has not stopped. The team and employees are working every day, remotely, on all the ongoing projects.

We are neither receiving nor sending paper mail for the time being. All employees are now working from home. I wanted all the Federation's organisations to be contacted by head office to take stock. That will soon be the case for everyone.

In this period we all know the possibilities and the limits of remote working. Nothing beats discussion and physical presence, especially for a General Assembly. However, I wanted you to have the Federation's financial information, and I would like to give a brief progress report "As if" we were opening a General Assembly, around three questions: What objectives? What team? What tempo?

What objectives?

You will certainly have received the latest issue of ULM-Info (available here), in which the 2020 work programme is set out:

Preparing the delegation of the microlight theory exam for implementation in early 2021
Preparing the Microlight World Fair in Blois in 2021
Paramotor world championship in the Paris region
The new momentum from the creation of the National Sports Agency, which will let us develop our activity across the whole country with better-suited resources

These are only the priorities of the moment, which must not make us forget all the actions undertaken over the past three years, a summary of which, as regards safety and training, can be found in the editorial "Flight safety, training and class struggle". We also wanted to answer certain questions or controversies, hoping to reply argument for argument, action for action ("The Federation works for its members!"). This whole policy was launched from the "Generations ULM" programme, which has been updated for three years before each General Assembly, and these have been moments of constructive sharing.

One further novelty for 2020, which we mentioned last year. We want to create federation microlight strips in regions where access to flying and changes in land ownership are problematic, as the motorcycling, free-flight and model-flying federations do. We will put the principle to a vote at our "real" AG.

If we had to sum up in one sentence everything we have done for three years, we could say that the tremendous momentum of the microlight movement has not been matched by the human and financial resources needed to support our activity over the long term, in particular by supporting our instructors and our organisation managers. This is the groundwork we have undertaken. Without comparing ourselves with others, developing our own path, rebuilding our relationships with our main partners (Ministry of Sport, Ministry of Ecological Transition and DGAC, insurers) and creating new ones: ENAC, and soon the French Navy ("The sailors of the sky").

What team?

Its objectives can only be achieved with a fine team, of which I am very proud. A team of employees, a team of elected officials, supporters of everyone who wishes to join in its objectives. You will find an updated organisation chart here. You are welcome if you wish to join in the work undertaken. I want the team to keep growing around the divisions and also to renew itself periodically. If I had to name names, I would particularly like to thank two young Board members: Julien Tourbez, in charge of IT, and Océane Guinard, who leads, with Marie-Françoise Vallée Dubus, the superb youth team with very varied skills: broaden and rejuvenate, building on the experience of those with more experience, that's the equation!

What tempo?

For those who follow the life of the federations from a distance, which is tied to the Olympic cycle, we are in the last year of a four-year term. This year will obviously be very special, but we must always prepare what comes next, aware that time passes quickly, even in difficult moments. In the short term, we will need to prepare the restart as well as possible. In the long term, we will certainly need to rethink the main operating frameworks of traditional aviation. We have tremendous assets for that.

In 2020, if we look at the indicators, they are good: a rise in the number of members (over 500), a good flight safety trend (to be sustained over time), and balanced finances despite heavy investment.

From now on we will communicate every week through the newsletter.

Look after yourselves and your loved ones!

Courage to you all. We'll have great celebrations afterwards.