Adam This "separation of the generations" is part of the problem.
You younger guys and gals want to be a part of the total gliding movement. Us not-quite-OFITTH membership secretaries (well, 35 for me !) want to be able to meet your needs in our clubs as best we can. We know that attracting younger blood to the club is the key to our future, and the key to ensuring that when you're old enough to be in our shoes, there still IS a future for gliding in Australia for you to be a part of. Except for the very infrequent posting on this list from people like you, we rarely hear much. As I've said before, I'd really LOVE to know what I can do, or encourage my club committee to do, to increase the size of our junior ranks. I really doubt whether we will hear much feedback from the RTOs or National Coaches (as the only "oldies" allowed on your Yahoo! group) to give our clubs many clues about what we can do to lift our game, though of course I would like to be proven wrong ! Thus my interest in being a "lurker" on your e-mail list, so I can find out first hand. My club (Southern Cross in Sydney) is prepared to offer up to 4 scholarships each year to juniors, which gives them free club membership and free glider hire for a year (just aerotows and GFA to pay for themselves) - so far we have just one recipient. Maybe the junior focussed training organisations don't know about this ? I've found the youth-oriented gliding groups also tend to like to keep their young members to themselves. What I mean is that, for example the Scouts fly with the Scout Air Activities gliding wing only, even if it is in one old Blanik, and they do so fairly infrequently despite what I'd assume were still a fairly healthy number of scouts in the Sydney / Illawarra region that should be able to keep them busy every weekend of the year (do they take care of the Girl Guides too ?). Our Club with a larger and for the most part more modern two seater fleet (including a brand spanking new DG-1000), would love to be able to help give a great gliding experience to the Scouts and Guides too (even just to help shorten their waiting queue on days when they're busy and we're a bit quiet), but it seems we can't because there are some sort of rules and regulations of Scouting, such that instructors on these flights must also be afiliated with the Scout Association somehow. I know I need to find out more about this situation before I can claim any more-than-superficial understanding of the issues involved, something I will do the next time I see them flying. In the case of the AirTC (or whatever their new name is that Tom mentioned), they go away to Bathurst a couple of times a year, but then between camps I'm not sure that so many keep on flying (maybe being an "outsider" I'm wrong ?). There seems to be very little encouragement for these juniors to seek out their local club and fly with them in-between the scheduled courses. The idea that AirTC/Air League/etc members from the Sydney South-West area have to travel all the way to Bathurst to do a course seems crazy when Camden is less than half an hour down the road and we fly 5 days a week (and are looking to extend it to 7 days) and could perhaps fulfil some of their needs. But I'm not sure if there's anything we can do to "break in" to this market segment (as it were in business-speak), even though we could perhaps increase their capacity to offer gliding to their members (there must be some level of over-subscription to each of their regular courses). Apart from the two juniors that are actually members of our club and the cadets (acquired over a 3 year period, which is not what I consider successful youth recruiting), I don't get ANY real inquiries from others about the possibilities we could offer. It all seems strange to me ! I'm not sure whether these groups even mention our "older" clubs as alternatives that the juniors could fly at - one would hope so but the lack of inquiries would tend to suggest otherwise. I would love to enter into any dialogue with these groups which would help us to address the needs of the budding younger glider pilots that are out there somewhere. Slightly confused and bemused Jason Armistead Membership Secretary Southern Cross Gliding Club Camden NSW http://www.gliding.com.au/ > G'day again all, > > Sorry for not displaying the web address for the junior_soaring > webgroup, as I posted a large e-mail to the [Aus-Soaring] webgroup > sometime ago and assumed you all had it! but anyways, here it as again: > > http://groups.yahoo.com/group/junior_soaring - to join this group > is easy, click on the displayed link and follow the prompts! It will > then send a "request" e-mail to join the group, and if the numbers > add up (under 26 years of age, RTO's and National Coaches) then the > request will be accepted! > > It would be most appreciated if everyone could pass this web site > onto all juniors in your club, whether there pre-solo or advanced in > cross-country, their input will be most appreciated! > > at one of the recent junior meetings a pretty big discussion point > was the age limit for the juniors! We discussed on bumping up the > agae limit to 31 years and under to make the group larger! But in > the end we ended up turning that down because we wanted that special > atmosphere that the under 26's would be able to create! Also, > because it is the definition of a Junior @ world standard! > > Our next Junior XC Meet is going to be held @ Jondaryan on the 9th > and 10th of August! We hope to get alot of XC happening including > some coaching, there be heaps of laughs, lectures and de-briefs on > the days flight! And finally on the Saturday night we'll be holding > a fundraiser BBQ for the Juniors!!! > > C U in the CUes > Adam Woolley > > _________________________________________________________________ > Hotmail is now available on Australian mobile phones. Go to > http://ninemsn.com.au/mobilecentral/signup.asp > > -- > * You are subscribed to the aus-soaring mailing list. > * To Unsubscribe: send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] > * with "unsubscribe aus-soaring" in the body of the message > * or with "help" in the body of the message for more information. -- * You are subscribed to the aus-soaring mailing list. * To Unsubscribe: send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] * with "unsubscribe aus-soaring" in the body of the message * or with "help" in the body of the message for more information.
