What Mixon said! But rather than complain and take measures which will decrease membership even further I offer an all too simple solution to solve it--and that lies in the Grottos. From where I sit I can see an NSS membership that is growing old and Grotto activity mirrors that. Traditionally, Grottos were the breeding ground of new cavers. One of the results of an older membership is a reduction or even a total lack of recruitment and training in Grottos. A couple of dozen years ago there was a similar financial crisis within the NSS and a membership drive was held to push NSS membership to over 10,000 cavers. With enough pushing and prodding that was accomplished. What I think is needed now is another membership drive within the Grottos to both recruit new cavers and to get their non-NSS members to join. I suspect that some Grottos have aged to the point that they no longer have any members qualified to teach vertical caving safely--equipment and techniques have changed a lot over the decades--making things even harder. My suggestion is that we put extra pressure on all Grottos (especially those with college campuses nearby) to ACTIVELY recruit new members and baby-sit them all the way to membership in the Grotto and the NSS. There are sufficient regional Projects extant that not having training caves available is not acceptable as an excuse. Older, retired cavers can certainly gather cavers and get them to Grotto meetings and Projects even if the old timers just sit around the fire all weekend. The problem with low NSS membership is a failure to attract new cavers, not the dying off of the old ones. We need a full-speed-forward effort in the entire caving community to recruit, train, and retain new cavers from the ranks of adventurous younger people. --Ediger
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