Involving the pattern community as a whole.

[Troy Newman]

Great idea.....I would suspect that many CD's are heavy into it and are already NSRCA members....

This might not catch em all but surely more than what we are catching now....

I'm not so sure about the $5 thing but we do have expenses I understand that.....Perhaps the Internet and its cheap access could help out with some that don't like the $5 thing. Now remember that we might have to look at some statistics on the members vs non-members votes during a rules survey. But this might lead us down a much better decision path than before. Especially becasue most of the members are happy with the status quo. Myself included....but prospective members I think there are Three kinds....

#1 Burned, mad, upset or dscouraged....These are the important former members that we need to mend the fences with. These are the guys that use the Janet Jackson line "What have you done for me Lately?"

#2 The guys that have no clue we exist. These are the #1 Target. The guys that are in the first type have an impression of us...right or wrong...But these guys don't even know we are there....We can make huge first impressions.

#3 The cheap guy that won't spend his $30.....They will always be there and we will have a really tough nut to crack here. All we can do is keep supporting them and hope a few will join the fold.

Then I would say lets go a step further. The IMAC olive branch needs an advocate. This is a tough one. I have flown in IMAC events. I have CD'd a couple. In some cases I was 100% welcome until I pulled out a pattern model. Or until I went to an event and was not understanding the way things were run....Prime example the rule book says a 150 deg box and during a pilots meeting its assumed that we are all flying a 180 deg box...meaning "NO BOX"....I just couldn't believe it absolutely shocking. Well you want to know what...the best flyer still won! And guess what I was dead last out of 5 guys.

You know a few months back IMAC was struggling with no newsletter. Maybe that would have been a good chance to welcome them into the KFactor? I still gotta beleive that both groups have the same interests and problems. The concerns and growing pains of the IMAC people are the same things that trouble our group. I gotta think we can help each other...and build for the future.


Eric has said it many times...Aerobatics is Aerobatics. He has flown and participated in the IMAC NATS, written articles and so on.....Maybe we need a liason between the two groups or at least some working relationships. Today I don't think they exist. I know they have fired across our bow many times....And we have also. We have and I personally have made some statements that were not in the best interest of promoting a relationship between the groups. But like all other siblings eventually sometime in your life you wake up and figure out that the little brother does have something to offer....

I think a good start on the building blocks of a relationship could be give them our membership lists and get a handle on theirs...Then they could advertise with us and we could advertise and recruit from them also.

Whatca think boys?


Troy

----- Original Message -----
From: Henderson,Eric
Sent: Wednesday, December 11, 2002 10:50 AM
To: 'discussion at nsrca.org'
Subject: Involving the pattern community as a whole.

Here is an approach that I would have like to implemented on my watch!


What we need is a register of ALL AMA members who are interested in pattern. This would be easy to do/build with a simple expansion of the existing NSRCA membership database.  Non-NSRCA pattern members could then be include in the distribution of such items as NSRCA surveys, major actions/issue etc.

There would probably have to be a small cover charge for this registration, say $5, that would cover our printing and mailing. The Regular NSRCA member would get the K-Factor and the registered NSRCA member would get major announcements and the big rules surveys etc.

I imagine that we could do is get the CD's to register pattern pilots with the NSRCA and then we could include the people that are interested. Some kind of pitch like, "How would you like to know what is going on with sport and have a vote/say in the direction?" "Here, just fill in this form and I'll send it to the NSRCA for you...."

As they said to Steve Austin, "We have the technology, we can rebuild you. Time for a new approach to the NSRCA's promotional activities and  aspects?

Regards, retiring Eric.


-----Original Message-----
From: Troy Newman [mailto:troy_newman at msn.com]
Sent: Wednesday, December 11, 2002 11:44 AM
To: discussion
Subject: Re: Annex Fresh Idea


Once again another speaks out that not all pattern flyers are NSRCA members!

Sounds like a recurring theme?



We all know the reasons.... they have been hashed many times....I think part of our problem is we believe that we(NSRCA) are the sole keeper of the flame....and to be honest....We are not. We were invited to the game. We did start it, and we won't be finishing it either.

Sure we can take our marbles and go home but that doesn't serve anyone's interest. We did that in 94 with the N-PAC event.


I'm curious why we as the NSRCA are so close minded to non-NSRCA members......?

Does our $30 a year give us the right make rules and exclude others from having input on the subject.....This is all done under the holy veil of membership.....This exclusion of non-members is what is driving us down...not because we don't have sexy website...or we don't have a perfect KF, or we don't have press recognition in the magazines, or because we are not quick enough in changing our sequences in order to compete with the other Aerobatics kid in town.


I think we are so concerned about new members...me included that we don't include people that are not members...The answer is "Well Join up and get the info."  

I've been guilty of this also...Maybe we need to open our doors and open our minds....If we invite the neighborhood in with the idea of a BBQ....and expect them to bring all the food how many will show?

We need to give them a reason to be here and not a reason to stay away!


Thanks for sticking with us Chuck!!!! We are glad to have you and your insight.Get more from the Web.  FREE MSN Explorer download : http://explorer.msn.com
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