As someone decades below the mean age mentioned below, I'd like to sound off.
I'm 28, a college graduate (in art and computer science, if you must know), and my prime love is to design and scratchbuild. I'm not a very competitive person, but I was recently lent a video by a flying buddy that showed me just how beautifully some folks can fly. Still, I ignored the Nats posts. They're *really* far from me (in New Haven, CT, and no car), I'm younger than the vast majority of individuals competing, and frankly, I don't see a whole lot of scratchbuilding happening. I see a lot of people who have spent a *lot* of money for something I can't possibly design to the level of - and neither can most of the people competing. So, responses. On Tue, 11 Dec 2001, Matthew Orme wrote: > Well, I do, if the goal is to attract new membership from young males. One > needs to go to the target audience, which I don't think is at a PBS > station. (maybe Animal Planet) Do you have young boys? What interests them? > How do you get them excited about it? Certainly not by dragging them to an > event (at lots of local clubs) where the mean age is 55. Do you know who > Tony Hawk is? How do you create an RC version? Do you want to? Discovery Wings could do it. Those of us a little curious are already attracted by it. ESPN could, but the videos would have to be really high quality. Look, they cover sailboat racing. Hours of slow jockeying for position, and they make it look exciting. The important thing about this argument, though, is that the Old Guys seem to like it the way it is, and the young guys are saying "Fine, I'll do something else. I'll skateboard, I'll write software, I just don't want to be associated with rich, fat, old men." Or, in my case, I'll build planes and have no association with the AMA, since it doesn't seem to offer much to me. I'd really love it if this is wrong; if people on this list range from 10 to 100 and build planes that cost in the same range. But I doubt that's how it is. > If you want to target the Mcneil news hour crowd, I suppose a PBS station > is appropriate. One has to define the goals, and then do something that > will accomplish that. If you believe that the goal is NOT to attract that > younger age group, I suppose the status quo is fine. Hey, I'd love to see model sailplanes on PBS. That would be great. That also gets the Dr. Who/ Monty Python crowd, don't forget. > >Should have picked something other than a stupid sports channel, as an > >example. Well, this *is* a sport. > Be polite. My boys love to watch MTV Extreme Sports with the Skate > boarders, BMX bikes, Wind Surfing, etc. First thing you learn in marketing, > it where your target audience IS, and then GO there. They will not come to > you. Windsurfing is like flying a sailplane in 2 dimensions. > >You need to stop watching professional wrestling and start attending the > >NATS. Have you ever been to one, anywhere, anytime? > > > >You still do not know what your talking about. Wait, the claim is that the Nats aren't attractive enough. It's illogical to say that he can't talk because he's never been to one. > I know exactly what the Nats is, and what it is not, just like I know the > moon is not made up of green cheese. How the contest is handled is not > relevant. > > It does not attract ONLY the best pilots. That doesn't matter. If it did, that would reduce the numbers even further. It's not like you can't share sky. > It is not broadcast to markets that new members should come from. Or even markets that old members are in, if I'm any indication. We *do* have this here Internet thingy. People wait for days to download Star Wars trailers. They'll wait to see sailplanes, too. > It does nothing to attract new members. Yeah, I don't see what the benefits of membership are. Would someone let me in on the secret? > "What can you do to get some boy scouting age kid, who has never seen a RC > plane fly before to attend the Nats, and watch an event or 2, and become > excited enough to want to join?" Make it so he can *build* a plane himself, not just fly a toy, in an evening. Make kits that function and can be tweaked, that he can afford to work on himself. My average scratchbuild is about $10 in materials. I'm sure someone could put together a kit for that amount of money that would teach the basics, even a freeflight one. (Graupner's three freeflight kits almost fit this bill, but they're too expensive for a 12 year old to experiment with) Of course, the radio is the problem. But I bet that could be confronted, too, if a radio mfgr. would take the challenge. The money concern is serious business for a kid. What was *your* allowance? How much did *you* make from your paper route? $100 represents saving up for months to a kid. I think an inquisitive kid should learn to build and fly and see the whole process as a whole. These planes *aren't* toys if you build them yourself. They're art. Kids know the difference between something they've built and something they've bought. Having a club that teaches kids how to make planes would go a long way, I think. But kids don't have cars and clubs don't have other kids, so there's a long row to hoe. -J RCSE-List facilities provided by Model Airplane News. Send "subscribe" and "unsubscribe" requests to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
