Tim,
As usual your reply is well researched and presented, but mate come down
to Bunyan, It is closer your front door than where you usually fly; we fly
all year round :)
Another issue I hear from time to time is members are sick and tired of
being told what they can't do; it is hard to retain motivated people with
that culture.
SDF
-----Original Message-----
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
[mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Tim Shirley
Sent: Thursday, 29 May 2008 8:22 AM
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]; Discussion of issues relating to Soaring in
Australia.
Subject: Re: [Aus-soaring] GFA, marketing and democracy in the GFA (was Re:
PDAPrograms andothermatters)
Hi all,
The long term average of GFA membership is in the order of 3000 from the
early 70's on. The reason I can say this with some knowledge is that I
was responsible for the first computerised GFA membership system (~1978)
and for all subsequent systems up to about 2000 when commercially
purchased applications took over. I don't have all the figures to hand,
these are just approximate values from memory.
Back in the late 70's membership peaked at around 4500 following the
Waikerie World Comps, but this was for only a short period. It declined
to the low 2,000's in the 90's but in the last few years seems to have
shown a slow increase. We should be careful of thinking that the 4500
was anything but a relatively temporary phenomenon.
I strongly support Robert's comment that the problem is retention not
attraction. It has been the same throughout the period I was involved
in the membership process. His suggestion that we can all do something
about that is equally valid. It's easy to bitch about what "they"
should be doing.
One thing I have previously commented on is the fact that we typically
attract people to join during the summer and then send them a big bill
for ongoing membership at the end of winter. Those in the southern
states, who may not yet be fully "locked in" to the sport and who may
not have flown for some months, may decide that the expense isn't worth
it and drop out. In Queensland of course, this would be less of an
issue because of a more even spread in the season.
Just as I can pay many other bills on a monthly direct debit basis, I
would like to see a similar method introduced into gliding. $200 is a
big bill especially if we haven't used the service for a while, but
$20/month as a direct debit is something most of us can afford and might
not even notice :)
Cheers
Tim
Robert Hart wrote:
> Gary Stevenson wrote:
>> These sports are relatively very new. It is inevitable that as the
>> young HG/PG pilots grow older, their undercarriages etc tend to fail,
>> and it would make sense that they do a review of their flying
>> options. This would almost certainly include changing to soaring as
>> we understand it. This is an avenue that seems to be little explored
>> at this point in time by the current board. As an example, it is
>> worth noting that Eric Barnes, a former hang gliding champion, has
>> been selected to represent Australia in the Reiti games.
> Ummm - it's Alan Barnes....but I say that as someone who has serious
> (and worsening) difficulty with names.
>
> As to attracting new members from other air sports, well, we do but we
> don't go out of our way to do it...because, as I have stated very
> clearly a few posts ago, we do not have an attraction problem: we have
> a *retention* problem.
>
> In other words our sport is pushing people to leave it at least as
> hard (if not harder) than it is attracting people.
>
> Unpleasant thought that, isn't it?
>
> Getting your head around it requires you to look at how *you* think
> and act as a club and GFA member when relating to other members and
> how *you* can improve on that - and make gliding more attractive to
> them so they are less likely to leave.
>
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