Since the creation of the Collegiate Soaring Association in 1985 as an IRS 501(C)3 organization, numerous donations have been made to CSA for tax credit. These have been put to use directly for the tax-exempt purpose (fostering the amateur collegiate sport of soaring on a national basis), or have been sold for cash. Either way, the asset value has remained dedicated to the collegiate soaring cause, be it at Penn State or UCSD or wherever the need or best use arises.
The same cannot be said of assets accumulated by individual clubs. It is a common mode of failure of campus soaring groups that they forget the need to recruit students every term, membership drops, fees rise, and before long the club is peopled by older "community" members who are long past being students at the host college--if they ever were. Assets won by the student body become inaccessible to them in this process of "dropping the college affiliation".
It has happened time and again that a group of students at "State U. Soaring Club" painstakingly acquires a 2-33 over a few good years, then it hits a cyclical low point in membership and a new "Townie Soaring Club" rises from its ashes with a heck of a deal on a 2-33 rescued from bank foreclosure. More disturbing still is when a group of students at "State" want to soar a few years later and no one at "Townie" helps out.
In some cases, the University itself takes possession of abandoned gliders after a student group goes inactive. This is even worse, because the administration is bound to sell them off as soon as possible, and the gliders may go far away where they will definitely play no role in any later resumption of the local student soaring activity.
Student organizations, especially for low profile activities like soaring, are subject to large fluctuations in activity. With high student turnover, it only takes 2 years for all memory of an inactive club to disappear. Campus Student Organization Offices have no vested interest in restarting any particular campus club. Only the Collegiate Soaring Association has the necessary institutional memory and the (tax-exempt) purpose to resurrect an inactive group. If equipment accrued by a previous generation of students is held by CSA until such time, a resumption of operations can be made faster at a higher level, and with an asset value that belongs in all fairness to the student body that acquired it.
In other words, any college soaring club in the USA should have in its Constitution a dissolution clause that becomes automatic after one academic year with no activity, and which reads:
"After all outstanding debts have been satisfied, any remaining assets will be donated to the Collegiate Soaring Association, to be held in trust trust towards resumption of student soaring activities on this campus".
The University, its Student Government, a successor "Townie" club, even the Soaring Society of America--none can be trusted to hold to that stated goal. CSA, by contrast, was explicitly created to do so and is permanently dedicated to the task. If the "State" glider club, furthermore, fails to come back in any given year, their glider can be temporarily re-allocated by CSA to seed a new or renewed effort at a more receptive campus. No equipment need sit idle, let alone be permanently lost to college soaring.
CSA is proud to have rescued from and/or returned gliders to since 1985 for:
The students and alumni of those schools who poured their time and money into a glider for students at their alma mater saw their effort preserved.
Donations are welcome at any time for tax
credit in that year
Below $5,000: need only a letter of acceptance for your tax files
Above $5,000: need a qualified appraisal and form 8283 with 1040
Collegiate
Soaring Association, Inc.
4671 Kipling St. #68
Wheat Ridge, CO 80033-2855
 |
(58K) SCHWEIZER SGS 2-33 N5707S. Built 1967. SN 54 3300 TT Gift of Soaring Club at UCSD |
Based at Illini Glider Club |
 |
(98K) Schempp-Hirth Std. Cirrus N411JR. Built 1971. SN 32 2000 TT Gift of Dr. Jane Robens, Washington DC |
Based at Penn State Soaring Club |
 |
(48K) AS+ Russia AC-4C N1809. Built 2000. SN 48 40 TT Gift of Dr. Greg Medis, Madison WI |
Based at Colorado State U. |
 |
(59K) SCHWEIZER 1-36
"Sprite", skid-version N3618D. Built 1981. SN 24. 680 TT Gift of James Grefig, Ossining NY |
Sold as salvage to private owner in UT |
 |
(60K) SCHREDER HP-14, 18m extended
span, V-tail N9159. Built 1969. SN WHR-2 1100 TT Gift of Michael Baumer, UCSD |
Sold to private owner in MA |
ELFE PM-3. Gift of Richard Bultman, Newton NJ. Sold to
private owner in WI, award-winning restoration
HAIG American Eaglet. Gift of Michael Thompson, Louisville KY.
Sold to private owner in AL.
Available to CSA member groups on request.
ASC FALCON sailplane kit (under construction at PSU). Gift
of Mark Hardesty, Phoenix AZ
ASC FALCON sailplane kit (under construction at MSU). Gift
of Mark Zahn, Pasadena, CA
GEHRLEIN trailer for 1-36. Gift of Hans Arnold, Elizabeth CO
A-14 Oxygen system. Gift of Ivan Jaszlics, Evergreen CO.
Donated to Mile High Youth Gliding Assoc.
BERTEA radio & Gadringer seatbelts. Gift of David Rolley,
Bennett CO. Installed in HP-14
TERRA TPX 720 handheld radio. Gift of Michigan State U.
SC
TANDY PC-2 pocket computer, with final glide program. Donated
by Phil Petmecky, Houston, TX
REPLOGLE Barograph & Winter Capacity flasks. Donated by
Rolf Hertenstein, Lyons, CO
BARBER bronze eagle trophy. Donated by Richard Hall,
Boulder, CO. Donated to SSA for Mozer trophy
WINTER Barograph, broken Altimeter, ASI, T&B, Compass. Donated
by Mike Koerner, Palos Verdes, CA
ICOM handheld radio, Omega wind meter, Solar trailer vent. Donated
by Mike Koerner, Palos Verdes, CA
ILEC SB-8 variometer & glide system. Donated by Mike
Koerner, Palos Verdes, CA
RETURN to CSA
Last revised: 12-Jan-07