2009 RDMFC Events - What do you want to see?

Evening all,

Other than the Aerotow and IMAC next year, are there any Events you want to see at the club field next year? I'm thinking that the Electric day would be a good one, especially if the weather will be a little bit kinder! How about others? Scale day? Open day?

Any ideas, and suggestions would be appreciated Likewise, if you don't think there should be any, let me know!

Cheers
Andy

Hi Andy, both the electric and open days sound good, with any luck I might even have a leccy one to fly myself by then. Also what about a fun fly? Might be interesting.

the leccy day sounds good again.

Also, maybe the open day could combine the fun fly with invites to other clubs, possibly a couple of compettitions, i believe Mark had some good ideas on this. i'l let him chime in here.

Apart from seeing more of the membership at the events, I'm quite happy with the current layout of events I belive last year would have been huge for us if the weather had played ball, so i say stick with the open day/electric day/aerotow/imac

As for anything else ive several ideas for an "fun day" with several differnet events through the day catering for every, yes every member of the club be it a newby on a buddy lead up to IMAC winners and they all involve planes too I will start another thread with a poll to see how many would be intrested in what and the commitee can go from there,


M

Sounds good Mark

Do you think the events for a fun day could be combined with the Open Day, or would it be best left seperate?

I think the main thing for me is to figure out the reason for hardly any members coming to events. I can't help but think there is more to it than just the weather, (which obviously had a part to play, admittedly!). It seems a great shame to go to the effort of trying to organise something, to only have a handful of people turn up.

Maybe we need a bacon butty stand. That would do the trick for me!

Cheers
Andy

perhaps they were ordering their coffins that day!!!


but seriously, the lack of younger/new members really should worry the club. Especially after raising the membership fee to cover the shortfall.

It seems crazy to me to be saving for all eternity to buy a field for the club whilst allowing the club to fall into a situation where its future is questionable through lack of intrest and new members.

Seems odd that the club has virtually no point of contact for prospective members other than walking onto the field and asking.

Perhaps the open day should be advertised to joe public?
Maybe next years life boat open day could be used to raise the clubs profile?

On the other hand perhaps im barking up the wrong tree completely, i and the likeminded in the club may be flogging a dead horse? I would dearly like to be proved wrong about that

Leigh from what I've heard the subs were raised because our farmer wanted more of the cake but I agree it would be nice to attract some new blood HOW being the $64,000 question Is the website I've been running for God knows how long not a point of contact I've fielded many queries over the years and passed them on to the relevant committee members

i think its a question of knowing where to look bri. the website and now this forum are really useful but joe public is unaware, possibly?? I was, until i had been a member for a few months, i didnt know there was a club website.

The field itself is a massive "flying" advert for the club. but only when thers people there to ask. I did put forward to the chairman that there should be some sort of notice on the gate. maybe with the website adress on.

The website comes straight up on google or yahoo even if you don't input the full club title, anyone with a computer is surely going to know how to use a search engine.

not tryin to argue here bri just trying to make possitive suggestions

Rich Badham wrote:

A lot more flyers, the hard core members appear to be the same old faces , occasional new members most don't even last a season, even long time members don't seem to be bothered anymore, there must be something the club could do to encourage new or existing members to join,

it's an excellent hobby

I'm 100% with Rich on this, we want more regular flyers week in and week out, we have plenty of events they just need better support. Yes I know we had crap luck with the weather on all the events but the general lack of flying was abysmal yes again the weather did'nt help but I got well practiced for IMAC(yes I know I'm retired,and fat lot of good practice did me) spent a fair bit of time on tuition with new pilots (both modes) generally had a good summer's flying. But bear this in mind guys "Many Hands make Light Work" well the bulbs getting pretty dim and I'm not referring to my enthusiasm for this fantastic hobby.

As a newbie member to the club,I am very impressed with the attitude of members.Not only have they helped me and Sam with advice and practical support,eg standing with me on the flight line,they have also helped other newbies.It is a credit to certain members that they have been willing to drop tools(planes) and help out.
I well remember in Summer that I lost in a yellow wheat field a yellow Nova trainer,without hesitation or asking,a couple of IMAC flyers went and spent a good while looking.Thanks chaps.Keep up the good work all of you that help it will pay dividends.john

Well I suppose I should make some comment, as I've heard it all before over events and we always seem to come back round in a circle. For the record:

The farmer doesn't like the public coming onto the field and said no to public events on the field. However the club has never gone out of its way to discourage people turning up or from trying to run our events. There was a ban on dogs on the field for a number of years, which has been reduced to "on a lead". The farmer hasn't noticed this, we think. Remember we have to keep him a happy bunny. We used to have a gate sign stating our club presence but "Private Use" as we had non-club members flying on our field in addition to fly tipping.

The issue of raising the club profile has been well and truly flogged over the years. Everyone has thier own views on this, but should remember that when we did raise the membership after alot of hard work, we then had to put a limit on (maximum 75) as some members were spending more time instructing rather than being able to fly themselves, some new members were unhappy they couldn't get an instructor when they liked! and other existing members found there flying slot curtailed somewhat or couldn't get on with the attitude of some. We have a noise issue to maintain and limit 4 aircraft in the air. As for Juniors, come on £25 for a year!!!!! My daughter pay that a week for thier activities. And on top of this subject we then have the "Children & Vulnerable Youngs Persons" issue. Either juniors are interested or not. We are a minority sport (hobby) compared to all the other things they can do today and that isn't being negative. Some members will remember the Colwyn Bay promenade festival which the club attended for years. We had a fabulous turnout of models(always the same people, minority of the membership) and we even flew. But for a number of reasons was curtailed. Membership never did increase.

I do agree we need to increase the membership levels so I'm not being negative, but tying to help those that have joined us in recent years, where we have been before.

There are some members who don't contribute and there is not a requirement to do so. Just like any other club, no matter what the activity. There will always be the few who run things. There will always be the few stalwarts who get involved in activities. We have maintianed a membership over 50 for years, but how many do you see on the field, turn up at an event or club night. That should be a clue of what the general membership are interested in. "Flying for their own enjoyment". If it is seen that a minority are running events for thier own enjoyment to the detriment of others, then they are likely to become alienated.

Summary: you can't have public events on the field. We can have a few club focused flying events and I think we have the number right at 4, this keeps those members who aren't interested enough time to fly (not every weekend is sunny). I'm all in favour of events like the RNLI day, but you will probably only get the few wanting to help and those that that do should remember that they are representing the club and will reflect on all of us.

I'm all in favour of anything that helps the club and all it's membership and will get my support if it achieves this. I hate these forums sometimes when this sort of subject gets posted. Some people can't be "balanced" with their views or read more into things that are not there. Open and frank dosen't always work. So before anyone jumps in, think before putting pen to paper, you never know who might be reading and get upset. That leads to "clicks" and we don't want to go their again!

Have a nice day.

Rich Badham wrote:

A lot more flyers, the hard core members appear to be the same old faces , occasional new members most don't even last a season, even long time members don't seem to be bothered anymore, there must be something the club could do to encourage new or existing members to join,

it's an excellent hobby

I totally agree. Maybe a starting point should be to ask the existing members why they won't join in

they had the builders round