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  • VATUSA Town Hall Meeting: January 14, 2016

VATUSA Town Hall Meeting

Don Desfosse

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VATUSA Town Hall Meeting
« on: December 22, 2015, 08:49:27 AM »
VATUSA is pleased to announce a Town Hall meeting, Thursday 14 Jan at 9:30pm EST, 8:30pm CST, 7:30pm MST, 6:30pm PST, 5:30pm AKST, 4:30pm HST, 15 Jan at 0230Z, etc. -- pick your favorite time zone. :)

A suggestion was made after the Kyle Ramsey Town Hall Meet and Greet a couple of months ago that VATUSA should host a similar type of meeting.  Don Desfosse, VATUSA Division Director, will host a brief discussion highlighting some recent VATUSA highlights, projects, challenges and opportunities, turn the mic over to various VATUSA staff members to add a little color, and then open the forum for general conversation, questions and answers.

To the best of my knowledge, this is the first time we've ever tried this in VATUSA, at least in the 8 years that I've been a member.  Like any new undertaking, I figure it can't (or shouldn't :) ) hurt to try it out and see if it's a good thing to do once in a while.

Of course, with approximately 17,500 active members in VATUSA, there is no one day and time that will be perfect for everyone; if the meeting is a success and something we want to try again in the future, we'll do our best to rotate days and times to give everyone an opportunity to participate.

The meeting will take place in the VATUSA Teamspeak server.  The following credentials will be in place shortly prior to the meeting.

The TeamSpeak server address is: ts.vatusa.net:9989
Password:  townhall
Please use your full name and facility (e.g. John Doe - ZXX) in the nickname login line.

Meeting will be held in the Archie W. League Conference Room.  If you're a minute or two early and don't know who Archie W. League is, read the description on the right side of the page.

Hope to see lots of folks there!
« Last Edit: January 14, 2016, 07:27:27 PM by Don Desfosse »
Don Desfosse
Vice President, Operations, VATSIM (VATGOV2)
Division Director Emeritus, VATUSA

Camden Bruno

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Re: VATUSA Town Hall Meeting
« Reply #1 on: December 22, 2015, 11:48:37 AM »
Fantastic idea, I'm looking forward to it! Great opportunity for everyone to receive updates and voice any questions, concerns, or suggestions they may have.

See everyone on the 14th!

Don Desfosse

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Re: VATUSA Town Hall Meeting
« Reply #2 on: January 13, 2016, 07:59:33 AM »
Reminder:  This is tomorrow night!
Don Desfosse
Vice President, Operations, VATSIM (VATGOV2)
Division Director Emeritus, VATUSA

Dhruv Kalra

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Re: VATUSA Town Hall Meeting
« Reply #3 on: January 13, 2016, 06:39:36 PM »
Can this be recorded for the potential no-shows?

I may be a slight latecomer depending on what time I wrap up flying tomorrow night, but will do my best to make it.
Dhruv Kalra
ZMP ATM | Instructor | Grumpy Old Man

Wesley Miles

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Re: VATUSA Town Hall Meeting
« Reply #4 on: January 14, 2016, 06:47:19 AM »
Can this be recorded for the potential no-shows?

^^ What he said.  I'm disappointed I'll be missing this, and would love to have access to a recording.
Wes Miles
Division General Manager
VATUSA

Don Desfosse

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Re: VATUSA Town Hall Meeting
« Reply #5 on: January 14, 2016, 10:21:32 AM »
Sure -- I'll try to figure out how to do that before the meeting, or rely on someone smart to volunteer.

Update:  I figured it out (not tough).  Someone just remind me tonight in case I forget :)
« Last Edit: January 14, 2016, 11:41:41 AM by Don Desfosse »
Don Desfosse
Vice President, Operations, VATSIM (VATGOV2)
Division Director Emeritus, VATUSA

Corey Burt

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Re: VATUSA Town Hall Meeting
« Reply #6 on: January 14, 2016, 11:08:01 AM »
I would love to have a recording of this event as well.

Corey Burt


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Richard Sill

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Re: VATUSA Town Hall Meeting
« Reply #7 on: January 14, 2016, 12:51:15 PM »
There is a Start Recording menu item on TeamSpeak under Tools for users with the appropriate permissions.

Richard Sill
ZME DATM

Dhruv Kalra

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Re: VATUSA Town Hall Meeting
« Reply #8 on: January 14, 2016, 02:33:41 PM »
Well, barring a last-minute callout, I'm spending today on home reserve, so maybe I'll be around for the whole thing after all!
Dhruv Kalra
ZMP ATM | Instructor | Grumpy Old Man

Chris Robison

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Re: VATUSA Town Hall Meeting
« Reply #9 on: January 14, 2016, 07:39:44 PM »
This should be called "The State of the Union"......
Chris Robison

Don Desfosse

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Re: VATUSA Town Hall Meeting
« Reply #10 on: January 15, 2016, 12:39:26 AM »
Folks, my thanks to everyone who could make it and who participated.  What a great forum.  I really appreciated the chance to interact, the ideas that I got, and the passion that was in the room tonight.  Thank you for your dedication to making this hobby better, every day!  We will certainly do more of these.

Topics discussed included:
- Major accomplishments in 2015
- Current VATUSA projects, including Academy and New Website (Academy discussion centered on reinvigorating the idea "one last time" and if we can't gain traction, stepping down the vision to something less grand)
- Focus on Training and Events for Growth and Retention
- Metrics
- Forum Presence
- Open forum, which included many, many topics, including:
 - Pre Departure Clearances (PDCs) (Tom Seeley opened a forum thread to continue the discussion)
 - Mandatory Pilot Training and/or Testing - would also help with controller retention
 - Institutionalizing TMU as a VATSIM function
 - Need to ensure S1s and S2s are better trained in proper VFR procedures and IFR in uncontrolled airspace procedures
 - Event staffing for adjacent facilities to one hosting an event
 - Need for improved pilot quality
and many others. 

Teamspeak recording can be found at:  www.vatusa.net/files/vatusa_town_hall_20160114.mp3
WARNING:  It's a 154MB file (which is a heck of a lot better than the 1.9GB I started with!)

I'd like to give a shout out to the VAT-TS team, who hosted our Town Hall forum and host the VATUSA TS.  Not only did they bump up our slots and bandwidth for the event, there were several members on hand to help in case we had any issues.

Again, thanks for the participation, great to speak to so many folks, and look forward to doing it again!
« Last Edit: January 15, 2016, 08:06:36 AM by Don Desfosse »
Don Desfosse
Vice President, Operations, VATSIM (VATGOV2)
Division Director Emeritus, VATUSA

Rick Rump

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Re: VATUSA Town Hall Meeting
« Reply #11 on: January 15, 2016, 08:06:28 AM »
Thanks for having us Don, could this be at least an annual thing?
VATUSA Deputy Director Emeritus
Former ZDC ATM, DATM, TA & WM
VATSIM Supervisor | Team 5

Camden Bruno

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Re: VATUSA Town Hall Meeting
« Reply #12 on: January 15, 2016, 10:03:46 AM »
Great job planning this, DO! Lot's of great information covered, questions answered, and more. Looking forward to the next one.

Appreciatively,

Kyle Kaestner

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Re: VATUSA Town Hall Meeting
« Reply #13 on: January 15, 2016, 10:15:13 AM »
I don't know if it's just me, but I'm having trouble accessing the file for the recording of the meeting.

"[an error occurred while processing this directive]" was the message I received.
Kyle Kaestner
C3 - Air Traffic Manager
vZKC - Kansas City ARTCC

Andrew Morkunas

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Re: VATUSA Town Hall Meeting
« Reply #14 on: January 15, 2016, 10:23:04 AM »
I am also unable to access the recording.

Andrew Morkunas