Originally posted by J_R
Bill Lee,
JR wrote in another post:
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I have a question about Sandy Frank's intention's when he openly encouraged modelers, world wide, to write to the City of San Diego, and to 'sign' the petition, after the City had already sided with the Torrey Pines Gulls. I could see no useful reason for him to do this.
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Bill Lee wrote in another post:
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As to Sandy's actions regarding the Torrey Pines issue: I have not researched the timeline, but my recollection is that he simply passed on what had been e-mailed to all AMA members by AMA HQs. My recollection (it may be wrong and I'll research this) is that he did that essentially coincident with the e-mail, not a long time later. However, as you know, many folks will not see a Usenet posting for many days after it is made, and if the posting has timely information in it, the readers may react far too late. Again, I will look at the time line of this and post it for all to see.
As to his intentions: I cannot say what they are since I have not asked him that question. If I may be presumptuous, I will say that it was simply to get the word out to a larger audience than the e-mail reached, or perhaps into an audience that seems willing to act more than the average Joe Flightpack. However, that is just my presumption, knowing the man as I do.
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O.k., here is the timeline as best as I can determine. BTW, this is a collection of dates from the gliderking.com website, dejanews, and AMA. I won't try and hit everything, but these are important dates.
August 16: Petition drive opens on gliderking.com. Discussion of the petition drive appears on rec.models.rc.air (r.m.r.a)
August 25: Update on negotiations appears on gliderking.com
September 16: Sandy Frank posts a copy of the e-mail that AMA sent to members who registered e-mail addresses. As I recall, it was intended that they were to send 50,000 each week until all of the membership had been covered. I am not sure if that continued. IMPORTRANT POINT: It was AMA HQs that did this mass e-mail. If the mass e-mail continued for more than one week, two at most, many folks would have received the e-mail after the issue was settled.
September 20: Sandy Frank posted a copy of the AMA web site note, News Release, dated 21 Sept. It went up on the AMA web site on 20 Sept with that News release date on it.
September 25: Agreement reached with Air California Adventure, Inc. to once again allow access to the site.
September 25 (Same date as above!): Sandy Frank posted a question on r.m.r.a stating that he didn't see many of the frequenters of that newsgroup on the petition list at gliderking.com
That's the timeline and I will let the readers determine if "after the City had already sided with the Torrey Pines Gulls" is accurate or not. I cannot find any date other than September 25 where such an agreement is actually done. Perhaps other things did happen, perhaps some knew of progress, but as far as what I can find in the public record, September 25 is the magic date.
Now, JR, you mention intentions. I would hope that understanding the timeline would obviate any concern. However, as I said I would do, I asked Sandy about it. I will paraphrase his response (o.k., I wrote the words for him and he agreed with them! :-):
> I posted the AMA-supplied information when it was first made
> available to us as well as the general public. It was posted to r.m.r.a
> to widen the distribution, and perhaps to an audience more inclined to
> participate in internet-based activities such as was requested in the
> AMA article(s). The question posted on Sepember 25 was made to
> again try
> and increase participation in the petition drive, and it was simply a
> coincidence that the question was asked on the same day that the
> agreement was reached (unbeknownst to me).
I hope that satisfies your concern, but I DO need to ask one further question:
This activity at Torrey Pines and the relationship between AMA, Air California Adventure, Inc., and the local soaring fliers has been satisfactorily concluded. It is fait accompli.
So, JR, why are YOU surfacing this issue now, and why are YOU so concerned about Sandy Frank's intentions, particularly now that this is all water under the bridge?
Regards,
Bill Lee