I posted some thoughts on the future of gliding a week or so ago and have been a little surprised at the low number of responses, Two were quite hostile, another one came today quoting a favourable USA experience with a commercial operation and its convenience and cost versus a club operation and there was one offline email that was very supportive of new ideas being put up for comment.
Does this mean my post was too long, boring or not relevant or just silly. Who knows as relatively few have commented? Anyway after going back and reading the GFA Business Plan, other info on the GFA site and the last 2 Soaring mags I thought I would come at the issue of no growth in GFA membership from another angle
The GFA Business Plan is notable for its lack of concrete targets in key areas eg membership growth, retention rates, flying hours/launches per member, revenue growth, surplus growth. The Plan spends a lot of time talking about developing this and that but no targets to measure progress against.
The Plan lists the steps being taken to try to boost membership and this appears totally based on providing clubs with support. No attempt is made to target particular areas eg city or large regional areas where the people are and no mention is made of supporting commercial operations or setting up more commercial organisations.
One recent article in the magazine asks the question re is there a large pool of pilots out there current and possible who want to fly for recreational purposes as distinct from competition or long distance flights? There is also discussion about the need to improve retention rates claiming 1,000 new members join per year but the same number leave? What work is the GFA doing on these questions?
The recent AGM is covered in the mag and its apparent GFA are again expecting no growth in membership and as they rely almost solely on member fees for income, no growth in revenue.
GFA is a not for profit (NFP) organisation, one of many thousands in Australia ranging in size from the local netball club to the Salvos. In recent years many NFPs, small and large have embraced the idea of "Social Enterprise". There are several definitions of this but the key point is that an organisation engaged in social enterprise is producing products or services to generate "earned income". This is quite separate from the normal unearned income a NFP has in the past relied on eg government funding, donations or membership fees. And very importantly it is not based on selling to the members alone or clients but it means selling to the general public so your potential revenue is not limited by your membership numbers or client base.
NFPs have embraced this concept because of the difficulties that exist with reliance on unearned income, eg government funding continually declines, donations are subject to the whim of the public/corporates and member fees are difficult to raise.
Earned income means an NFP is out there competing against other NFPs and the private sector for a share of the money the public spends on products and services, it establishes a business with a cash flow and growth prospects, it draws attention to the NFP and creates awareness and sometimes excitement by the public and for a member based NFP, additional members.
What I am suggesting is that if GFA is to significantly grow the glider pilot market it needs to do a lot more then provide some assistance to clubs. I am saying it needs to be out there leading the way, doing the work itself on the frontline of gaining members. To do that you need additional funding and I suggest a front line "shopfront" to put gliding on the public's map of cool things to do.
GFA could either set up one or more social enterprises to fund worthwhile activities to increase memberships or it could combine the 2 eg run a centre that makes money and attracts new members.
Now before anyone flames me and tells me this would send GFA broke I would ask that people take the blinkers off and let all the ideas flow freely if they are really interested in making gliding a growth sport.
Moreover I know NFPs can rapidly grow if they put their minds too it. The NFP I am currently involved with grew in the last 3 years from a base of 80 staff to over 400 now, quadrupled its income and along the way dramatically increased the range of products and services it offers its client base. Plus we did it from our own resources and we now get 99% of our revenue from earned income. No one would of thought 3 years ago that we would be running the types of businesses we do now.
The NFP sector in Australia and the USA is the fastest growing sector of the economy, so how come GFA is content with no growth? We are becoming increasingly richer as a society and looking for places to spend our leisure money, GFA should be out there getting more then its fair share of the market. How come glider activity is far higher per head of population in some European nations despite the far poorer weather and ATC issues?
I don't have the answers as to what type of social enterprises GFA should develop but nor did we 3 years ago when we decided to go for growth but after working it through with some skilled people we did come up with the initial ideas and plans. We made mistakes, some ideas failed, some really worked, the point is you decide you want to grow and then develop real strategies to achieve growth.
One last point, GFA almost has a monopoly over gliding and monopolies generally have the following features; nil or low growth, lack of innovation if not outright stifling of innovation, strong resistance to change, inability to attract and keep the best staff, over priced products and services, poor customer service. Does the GFA have some or most of these features?
The other feature of monopolies is that eventually their position is challenged due to government intervention or the rise of new businesses based on different models and innovative use of new technologies. Arguably this is already happening with the rise of the Recreational Aviation Australia association. Is there a scenario down the road where GFA continues to decline and is subsequently forced into an amalgamation or worse forced to be absorbed within another recreational aviation association through lack of a viable membership base in the coming years?
I would love to see the GFA leading a dynamic and growing glider movement but I can't see that happening with the current strategies. Comments?
Mark
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