|
Hi Ian
You can teach old dogs new tricks, it just takes
longer
Michael
----- Original Message -----
Sent: Wednesday, August 31, 2005 8:38
PM
Subject: Re: [Aus-soaring] A NEW APPROACH
TO GFA PROMOTION & MEMBERSHIP??
Dave,
I'm with you. It may take a little longer to
pound the info through our slightly thicker skulls, however we realise that we
are not cast iron and bullet proof! Many of us do become addicted and as you
say have a little more time (and money) to devote to our flying as well
as the club. Most of the future belongs to the young, but we oldies have
plenty to contribute also.
Hopefully also we have a little more life
experience that can contribute to the future of our clubs and
the sport, while trying to increase the interest from those still in the
first flush of youth.
Bob
----- Original Message -----
Sent: Wednesday, August 31, 2005 8:09
PM
Subject: Re: [Aus-soaring] A NEW
APPROACH TO GFA PROMOTION & MEMBERSHIP??
Hey Macca,
Don't knock us 50+ lot. Some of us didn't
discover gliding quite as early as you did, and maybe we took a bit longer
to learn as the younger guys. But we can still become addicted, maybe more
so. With family left the nest us old guys can spend a bit more time at the
Club - both flying and helping. I'm doing everything I can to make up for
lost time. And I know a few others like me.
Dave
----- Original Message -----
Sent: Wednesday, August 31, 2005 6:41
PM
Subject: Re: [Aus-soaring] A NEW
APPROACH TO GFA PROMOTION & MEMBERSHIP??
It is a problem teaching the 50+ group -
think they should have a tax to rebate young peoples flying. I learnt as a
teenager and we got money back thru "Royal Aero Clubs" for when we earnt
our C or was it our clubs got the rebate. I am getting a young
kid who earnt points through "work for the dole" and the government are
paying an intro course of $600 - another kid Coles-myres paid for his
flying thru working at Bilo. They are better kids to teach than the
ones whos parents throw the money at gliding. Actually we have a
"wait list" of currently 4 people who want to learn - we want to look
after the student we already have rather than overload the system - and
let the new lot start in say 6 weeks
Ian McPhee
--- Original Message -----
Sent: Sunday, August 28, 2005 9:10
PM
Subject: Re: [Aus-soaring] A NEW
APPROACH TO GFA PROMOTION & MEMBERSHIP??
I read the link below.
Seems that those who participate in
gliding do so before regular sex and after they can't remember what it
was :-)
Now if anybody knows a marketer who
can convince the public that gliding is better than sex we've got it
made.
Seriously though, training 50yr+ people is
a hard slog. Ask EP or any instructor who has had a few. Our "Old
Bomber" Eric Bates was a breeze as he had learnt to ride the bike when
he was young. I do not derogate this market niche as there
are many others who are chasing it in this period of demographic
change.
Also on oldies, I am retiree and will
not glide on the weekend unless it is for a special reason.
I am getting close to the top of my family
hierarchical pyramid and there is always something on like baptisms,
birthdays engagements, weddings etc. etc. which I am expected to attend
and which I do enjoy. Before I retired I was the "old fart" who never
came to anything because I was at the gliding club. I am lucky
that my club can accomodate weekday gliding as golf, bowling etc. clubs
do for retirees. This is something that needs to be taken into account
if this market is pursued.
The airminded oldies could be one
of the saviours of our sport in the short term but in the long
term I feel the sport for "ordinary" people is doomed for reasons I
won't discuss here. There have been many activities, that have had
their time and passed. As for myself I intend to enjoy it unfettered
and to the full as long as I can.
Chris McDonnell
----- Original Message -----
Sent: Sunday, August 28, 2005
6:02 PM
Subject: Re: [Aus-soaring] A NEW
APPROACH TO GFA PROMOTION & MEMBERSHIP??
----- Original Message -----
Sent: Sunday, August 28, 2005
1:09 PM
Subject: Re: [Aus-soaring] A
NEW APPROACH TO GFA PROMOTION & MEMBERSHIP??
Robert Hart wrote:
> Geoff Kidd
wrote:
>
>> I would council
the GFA to take (pay for) professional advice on
>> key
issues such as marketing etc.
>
> Agreed - but only
after some extensive consultation in-house - ie with
> the
members. It is the members' organisation and they should have the
> major say in the direction their organisation takes. Once
the goals are
> known, expertise to help achieve those goals
can be paid for.
Don't agree, Robert. The goals are
already known; Extensive
consultation with the members is
going to deliver the same outcome
we're already talking about
here, namely that the sport needs to be
grown.
The
particular ways in which it is grown aren't (or shouldn't
be)
important to the current members. We all happen to fit
in to a
culture that says lots of time and not much money is an
ok way to
learn how to fly, otherwise we wouldn't be here.
So our ideas about
the way to go about this, as shaped by our
personalities and
experiences are automatically incompatible with
the potential customer
base we're talking about here.
In
short, if GFA engaged in detailed consultation with the
members,
and the members recommended the particular direction to
take, then
the members would effectively sabotage the process by
recommending
a direction which was familiar and (for their
demographic) "tried
and true." The safe option is the one
we already have, because (for
us) it has worked.
Taking a
new direction requires the organization's management to
take a
risk, to do some stuff which hasn't been done before which
is
targeted at growing the sport. Consultation with outsiders,
not
insiders, is necessary -- outsiders will have perspectives
that would
simply never occur to the likes of you and me, and (by
definition)
they're the kinds of people we need to appeal
to.
> but I would suggest that there is a heap of
untapped expertise
> amongst the GFA membership.
...
and look where it's managed to get us.
Forget it. Just
pay someone who really knows what they're doing,
instead of
relying on volunteers who *say* they know what
they're
doing.
Frankly I don't give a rat's arse about
whether the strategies
employed by the GFA to grow the membership
are compatible with the
views I'd put forward if I was consulted,
as long as they work.
The end justifies the means.
> I
am not suggesting that the membership take
> on entirely the
production of the business plan (few members will have
> both
the time and expertise available to do that), but this is where we
> should start as the membership will have a set of views
that are bound
> to illuminate the issues in interesting and
useful ways (some of which
> will be negative - also good to
know).
Yeah, great, if we want the whole process to get
bogged down in
bureaucracy for five years while half the
membership argues about whether
they've been consulted enough and
the other have bitches about the
fact that their responses to
consultation have been ignored, then
that might be a good
idea.
There are too many prima-donnas in the gliding movement
who will be
only too happy to vociferously oppose anything that
they, personally,
don't feel happy about. When you have
enough people like that with
opposing views, it's always easier
to blow them all off and just get
on with the job. Who
cares if there are a handful of seriously pissed
off people who
think they're being ignored if hundreds of new pilots
are joining
the sport every year? That's an acceptable price to pay,
in
my opinion. We don't *need* the entire existing membership to
be
happy if there are plenty of new members coming in to replace
the ones
who are upset enough to leave.
> Hmm - *I* do
not want to set the principles and aims - but *we* (the
>
membership) should do so.
We already know what the aims
are: lots of new pilots, enough new
money coming in to grow
the fleet, everyone having fun without having
to get emeshed in
the day-to-day running of the national body.
I doubt that
there has been a single national exec in the last ten
years who
hasn't known what those goals are. They haven't failed
to
achieve those aims due to ignorance of what they are, they've
failed
to achieve them because the stuff they've tried hasn't
worked.
If you spend the next five years consulting, you'll
have arrived at the
same answer and wasted five years, and you'll
*still* have an exec who
knows the right answer but doesn't know
how to implement it.
So stop wasting time, hire someone who
does, and make the problem go away.
-
mark
--------------------------------------------------------------------
I
tried an internal
modem,
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
but it hurt when I
walked.
Mark Newton
----- Voice: +61-4-1620-2223 ------------- Fax:
+61-8-82231777
-----
_______________________________________________
Aus-soaring
mailing list
[email protected]
To
check or change subscription details, visit:
http://lists.internode.on.net/mailman/listinfo/aus-soaring
_______________________________________________
Aus-soaring
mailing list
[email protected]
To check or
change subscription details,
visit:
http://lists.internode.on.net/mailman/listinfo/aus-soaring
_______________________________________________
Aus-soaring
mailing list
[email protected]
To check or change
subscription details,
visit:
http://lists.internode.on.net/mailman/listinfo/aus-soaring
Internal Virus Database is out-of-date.
Checked by AVG
Anti-Virus.
Version: 7.0.338 / Virus Database: 267.10.14/79 - Release
Date: 8/22/2005
_______________________________________________
Aus-soaring
mailing list
[email protected]
To check or change
subscription details,
visit:
http://lists.internode.on.net/mailman/listinfo/aus-soaring
_______________________________________________
Aus-soaring
mailing list
[email protected]
To check or change
subscription details,
visit:
http://lists.internode.on.net/mailman/listinfo/aus-soaring
_______________________________________________
Aus-soaring mailing
list
[email protected]
To check or change subscription
details,
visit:
http://lists.internode.on.net/mailman/listinfo/aus-soaring
|
