Team USA,
As I round into the home stretch of my assignment as Division Director of one of VATSIM's top, finest Divisions, let me say thank you, from the bottom of my heart, for the opportunity to serve you, VATUSA, and VATSIM, in this pivotal role. I can't believe it's been five years in this role. Honestly, some days, it still seems like almost yesterday when I started.
It's truly awesome to see where we've come from over the last 5 years, where we are now, and to know where we're going in the future. In the last 5 years, VATUSA has grown its active member base by 20%, both from an ATC and pilot perspective. Our online presence has also grown dramatically. I attribute a lot of this to having an aligned, unified VATUSA vision and strategies we've employed to pursue our vision over the last 5 years.
Our vision continues to be
Culture
- Fun, Team, Family, Excellence
- Create the Magic
- Inspire Passion
Retention
- Training and Events are key
- Eliminate training bandwidth bottlenecks
- Focus on updated, self-study materials, and additional training bandwidth based on workload sharing, augmenting resources, and sharing resources
Growth
- leading to our ultimate goal: Every facility staffed with a good quantity of quality controllers and a good quantity of quality pilots during peak times, at all major airports and facilities, and as many other times and facilities as possible, while having a really good time doing it
We have certainly come a long way. And we still have a long way to go. Our improvement should be a focus of every member in the community, every day. Our drive, dedication and passion for improvement should be relentless. Most importantly, we should be developing and driving a fun, family-like community culture. Promoting our hobby as a mainly-realistic simulation vs. a game is hard work for pilots, students, controllers and staff alike. And the only way to relentlessly pursue greatness without burning out or questioning return on investment is by doing what we do within a community that we not only like, but that we love. It takes a culture of acceptance, family and the pursuit of greatness to help make that happen. We've come a long way, but we still have a long way to go.
I'm really excited seeing Mark Hubbert stepping up from the Division Training Director role into the Division Director role. We have spent the last month working on an aligned, seamless transition. I'm heartened to know that he plans on continuing to promote the Division's vision moving forward. He and the USA Division team will continue to build upon the hard work we've done and the successes we've earned, and the decisions that they are making as a team during this transition have been excellent. I ask you to give Mark and his team all the support and more than you've given me.
VATUSA is in good hands.
I also can't thank enough the phenomenal team I have now, and have had in the past. Each member of my team has brought his own unique flair to the role, and has brought a passion and dedication to excellence, growth, and fairness that I could not have imagined. From the bottom of my hear, thank you.
I've been popping into as many Teamspeaks as I've been able to over the past couple of weeks and saying my thank yous to as many people personally as I could. If I've missed you, I'm sorry to have missed you!
In closing, I can't thank each and every member enough for all of your contributions to our hobby, VATUSA, and VATSIM as a whole, past, present and future. I encourage you to all keep going with a passionate, relentless pursuit of culture, retention, growth, quality and improvement. I thank you all for your support over the last 5 years, and wish you all the best moving forward!
______________________________
Don Desfosse
Director, VATUSA
03 Feb 2013 - 03 Feb 2018
