Nick Gilbert wrote:- <<<<
"Go to a parachute centre sometime. I visited one to have a chute repacked outside Sydney one day. It was a Friday afternoon and there must have been 60-70 people there, with very few people over 30. Can you imagine how uncomfortable and out of place most (i will not say all. I know some damned funky older instructors) 50-70 year old gliding instructors would be in that environment?" "It is not a matter of blame, bad attitude or ageism. It is simply lack of common ground. The amount of time you spend not flying when you are learning means that you need something other than the gliding to make you come back. Sitting around for 2 hours in between flights, talking about Lawn Bowls (thanks for that one Peter) does not float my boat. Luckily I was born into the sport (thanks Dad)." "I don't care what anyone says. Gliding IS a cool sport. We just need to make life at the gliding club interesting enough to keep them coming back until the sport hooks them." >>>> Nick seems to be stating that young people need other young people around them to provide "comfort" and "common ground", and so they do not feel "out-of-place". While this maybe so, very few clubs can immediately provide this level of support given the scarcity of young people in gliding at the moment. The question of the youngsters on this list is, therefore, what is it that a club can do that will make life at the gliding club interesting enough to keep the younger people coming back? _______________________________________________ Aus-soaring mailing list Aus-soaring@lists.internode.on.net To check or change subscription details, visit: http://lists.internode.on.net/mailman/listinfo/aus-soaring
