That's easy... more young people.
And the best way to do that (that I can think of) is to make them instructors when possible. Make a place on your committee for an under 30 year old. Make it their job to make the club more youth-friendly.
Target the younger people as they approach the pie-cart. I have seen duty pilots berate people when they are surprised to learn that they may have to wait a while (you can't just waltz in here and expect...etc...). This does nothing for anybody & and is just the sort of thing that will cause someone to think, "the flight was great, but ......."
This is a VERY important issue. Writing the sport off as 'Un-Cool", and blaming this as the reason for lack of youth is the easy way out. What option do we have? Wait until the younger people get old and loose their fashion sense?
A DVD of the next JoeyGlide would be a good way for the GFA to spend some $$$'s and do something about this.
Nick.
----- Original Message ----- From: "Christopher H Thorpe" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: "'Discussion of issues relating to Soaring in Australia.'" <[email protected]>
Sent: Thursday, March 24, 2005 11:11 PM
Subject: RE: [Aus-soaring] mining past glider pilots
Nick Gilbert wrote:-
<<<<
"Go to a parachute centre sometime. I visited one to have a chute repacked
outside Sydney one day. It was a Friday afternoon and there must have been
60-70 people there, with very few people over 30. Can you imagine how
uncomfortable and out of place most (i will not say all. I know some damned
funky older instructors) 50-70 year old gliding instructors would be in that
environment?"
"It is not a matter of blame, bad attitude or ageism. It is simply lack of
common ground. The amount of time you spend not flying when you are learning
means that you need something other than the gliding to make you come back.
Sitting around for 2 hours in between flights, talking about Lawn Bowls
(thanks for that one Peter) does not float my boat. Luckily I was born into
the sport (thanks Dad)."
"I don't care what anyone says. Gliding IS a cool sport. We just need to make life at the gliding club interesting enough to keep them coming back until the sport hooks them."
Nick seems to be stating that young people need other young people around them to provide "comfort" and "common ground", and so they do not feel "out-of-place".
While this maybe so, very few clubs can immediately provide this level of support given the scarcity of young people in gliding at the moment.
The question of the youngsters on this list is, therefore, what is it that a
club can do that will make life at the gliding club interesting enough to
keep the younger people coming back?
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