[ricki]

The meeting was well attended with the majority of invited businesses present. I think it went well on the whole and was a worthwhile thing. A lot of ideas and views were expressed with general agreement on many points and some disagreement on others. I believe it was a productive lively discussion among leaders in the Miami-Dade kiting community.

It was generally agreed that more organization was needed to preserve access and improve kiteboarding in our area. Various ideas were discussed for launch areas remaining in Miami-Dade County including approach to instruction and riding practices in general. I hope a lot will grow out of this first meeting to benefit our sport. It is definitely a work in progress.

Two things were resolved among many points including the formation of a kiteboarding business group such as Paul Menta has described in a separate post. The forum should be up today. Secondly to work to expand the level of active community involvement and in turn the effectiveness of the FKA in representing the interest of the sport and participants at large. This was the primary reason the FKA was formed seven years ago. Involvement was fragmentary as was the ultimate effectiveness in some ways over that time. We are losing too much access through poor kiting behaviors. We need to turn a corner on this and soon before we sacrifice more areas.

Lots more to come on this.

Special thanks to all who attended, a complete listing of which will be uploaded here once I receive it.