new concepts-Pattern is HARD!!! Darn It!

[Mike Mueller]

Amen Eric! 

-----Original Message-----
From: Henderson,Eric [mailto:Eric.Henderson at gartner.com]
Sent: Wednesday, July 30, 2003 7:51 AM
To: discussion at nsrca.org
Subject: RE: new concepts-Pattern is HARD!!! Darn It!


Ref, " Pattern is hard and that does scare the average club schmoe. In an
effort to entice newbies into pattern you gotta look for the right guy at
the right time. "   
 
I am in and have been in clubs with 200 and 300 members. Held a pretty low
key fun fly and got six entrants and 10 plus for the picnic. Most folks just
don't like to compete WITH their aeroplanes. Do rough math and you soon see
how small the pool is of potential pattern pilots. Just relying on few great
guys to find and cultivate the potential pilots is not a strong formula for
success.
 
The whole point of writing my Monday notes was to prod for ideas to address
the three R's of pattern, Recruit , Retain and Rejuvenate. If you can accept
that the NSRCA is a Society and not a ruling body, you soon get into what
the society should be doing. Many of us give thousands of personal hours to
encouraging others. But what do we have in the form of tools to help us
reach out.
 
It is very easy to get completely wrapped up in what it takes to run
contests and keep track of rules changes and needs etc, but without NSRCA
promotion and recruitment efforts we go the way of the Dodo bird!
 
 
Twenty or less at local contests that used to be 30 -40. A hundred at the
Nat's where the only "healthy' class was Masters. That scares me!
 
Regards,
 
Eric. 
   

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://lists.f3a.us/pipermail/nsrca-discussion/attachments/20030730/1c451335/attachment.html