Several changes that came out of the March 2-4 USPA Board meeting in San Antonio, Texas, affect USPA rating holders. Those changes are:

• Candidates who are working toward examiner ratings in any discipline must now complete at least 25 ground evaluations. Until now, an examiner candidate could complete the required air evaluations without ever evaluating ground training. However, at most rating courses, an examiner candidate already evaluates ground training along with serving as an in-air evaluator, so the change should not affect the content of most courses. Consequently, the largest change for most candidates is that they must now log all ground training sessions and an examiner must sign off on them. USPA will add a form to the Instructional Rating Manual for logging the ground evaluations. 
• In an effort to ensure that new examiners gain some experience before training other potential examiners, USPA now requires them to run three complete rating courses after achieving their ratings before supervising examiner candidates during rating courses. Running three courses after earning the rating is in addition to the two complete courses examiner candidates must run under supervision as part of their course requirements. 
• The board adopted a change to allow non-USPA Group Members and non-Foreign Affiliates to hold USPA rating courses for a fee of $300 per course, payable to USPA Headquarters. Once a location holds three courses in any calendar year ($900 for the three courses), USPA will not require additional fees to host additional courses that year.   

In addition, the board discussed whether to add a high-performance canopy endorsement to the USPA PRO Rating. A subcommittee will work on the development of the endorsement for possible implementation at the summer board meeting in July. 

Jim Crouch | D-16979
USPA Director of Safety and Training