As usual, Gill, you have hit the nail squarely on the head, and voiced issues of membership that I mentioned to Bill Putnam, NSS Director of Membership and Fundraising I think.
When I started caving, joining the TSA and the NSS were two things that were pretty much expected to really embrace this wonderful world of caving that I wanted to be a part of. Our Grotto, though small and short lived, had leaders who pushed hard for this, and gave us the training or access to it so as to be well prepared for whatever this adventure called for. Yet, although one member was a driving force in creating the grotto at one of our major state universities, I am the only one still a member of these organizations and still caving. So, I totally agree with you, but know it will take much hard work and creative persuasion on the current grotto leaders to get new members and keep them. Even though we do not live near a major grotto, Jim has gotten new cavers we know to join these organizations, for it is the best way to have a large network of like minded people who can help you stay underground doing what we love as often as possible - all over the US and beyond! Mimi Jasek PS. I still want my printed NSS News. Sent from my iPhone On Mar 21, 2013, at 12:39 PM, Gill Edigar <gi...@att.net> wrote: > What Mixon said! > But rather than complain and take measures which will decrease > membership even further I offer an all too simple solution to solve > it--and that lies in the Grottos. From where I sit I can see an NSS > membership that is growing old and Grotto activity mirrors that. > Traditionally, Grottos were the breeding ground of new cavers. One of > the results of an older membership is a reduction or even a total lack > of recruitment and training in Grottos. A couple of dozen years ago > there was a similar financial crisis within the NSS and a membership > drive was held to push NSS membership to over 10,000 cavers. With > enough pushing and prodding that was accomplished. What I think is > needed now is another membership drive within the Grottos to both > recruit new cavers and to get their non-NSS members to join. I suspect > that some Grottos have aged to the point that they no longer have any > members qualified to teach vertical caving safely--equipment and > techniques have changed a lot over the decades--making things even > harder. My suggestion is that we put extra pressure on all Grottos > (especially those with college campuses nearby) to ACTIVELY recruit > new members and baby-sit them all the way to membership in the Grotto > and the NSS. There are sufficient regional Projects extant that not > having training caves available is not acceptable as an excuse. Older, > retired cavers can certainly gather cavers and get them to Grotto > meetings and Projects even if the old timers just sit around the fire > all weekend. The problem with low NSS membership is a failure to > attract new cavers, not the dying off of the old ones. We need a > full-speed-forward effort in the entire caving community to recruit, > train, and retain new cavers from the ranks of adventurous younger > people. > --Ediger > > --------------------------------------------------------------------- > Visit our website: http://texascavers.com > To unsubscribe, e-mail: texascavers-unsubscr...@texascavers.com > For additional commands, e-mail: texascavers-h...@texascavers.com > --------------------------------------------------------------------- Visit our website: http://texascavers.com To unsubscribe, e-mail: texascavers-unsubscr...@texascavers.com For additional commands, e-mail: texascavers-h...@texascavers.com
