27 Feb 2023

Not satisfied with the situation? Attend the CIA Meeting and help find solutions

By Hiromi Furukawa (JPN), Balloon Pilot, CIA Officials Subcommittee member

Are there things you are not satisfied at ballooning competitions?

If yes, do you know that you can step forward to improve that situation by attending the FAI Ballooning Commission/CIA meetings?

I would suggest a 3-year plan starting with the CIA meeting in Switzerland in March this year.

1st year : come and see what is happening during the days of meetings & discussions.
2nd year: become a member of Subcommittees or Working groups.
3rd year: start to improve the situation with your suggestions and actions.

Last year I attended the CIA meeting in Rome and made a report about it.

At the closing of the 2022 report, I suggested everybody join the meeting.

And I would like to offer this reminder again as we will have the CIA meeting soon in Switzerland.

CIA Plenary meeting is held every year in March and many decisions are taken there. The schedule consists of Working Groups (WG), Subcommittees (SC), Plenary sessions and social events. All these meetings provide the opportunity to discuss issues, share ideas, offer solutions and work together.

You can join the meetings as an observer, even if you are not the delegate or a member of those SCs or WGs. At the plenary portion of the meetings, you have to ask permission to your NAC’s delegate but it doesn’t mean that you do not have chance to express your opinion.

I offer this information as I didn’t know that anyone can attend the meetings before I started to participate in 2008. I was thinking that I will not be able to tell my opinions at the meeting. In practice, you can tell your opinions freely there, even you are not an official member of them.

Make your plan to contribute to the international ballooning community:

Come to see the atmosphere of the meeting and try to understand how things work there.
You also meet and talk with the people whom you usually do not have time to talk well during ballooning competitions.
You may start to contact the SC or WG that you are interested in during the year and to volunteer to become a member of that SC/WG. Or talk to your NAC’s delegate and hopefully you will be approved to become a member.
You start to propose ideas that you think would be useful to improve the situation and the ballooning society.

CIA needs more people who can offer input from their experience to effectively improve practices. Please do not hesitate to share information and volunteer to join!