Re: The Problems with Indoor FF

From: rreyno2001 <rreyno_at_earthlink.net>
Date: Thu, 04 Jun 2009 15:45:26 -0000

--- In Indoor_Construction_at_yahoogroups.com, "Don DeLoach" <ddeloach@...> wrote:
>
> Also, in our efforts to grow we need to decide if we are trying to attract
> more people like us who enjoy the challenge of Indoor FF, or do we want to
> change Indoor FF into something that has "mass appeal", but probably less
> appeal to us.

Assuming there is an effort to grow then it must come at the grass roots level. USIC is the culminating end of the sport where you go to test yourself and feel what it's like at the top. It seems to me never having been to the Nationals that there is a wide variety of event types some of which started as beginner events and are now dominated by experts. So be it, that's human nature and likely we need to keep inventing new events for just that purpose.

In Colorado Springs we have done a terrific job of promoting the indoor sport (Thanks to Don Deloach)even having newspaper articles and TV news coverage several times. John Kagan was the media star in a couple of those actually. We often have national experts attend our meets. In addition we have a pretty active Sci Oly group who fly with the club and are actively recruited. Several of the club members are active as mentors. We have a pretty acceptable Cat II place to fly. We have a couple members of the local R/C Glider club join us regularly.

So are we growing like topsy? No. We have a good active group to be sure but we're not seeing several new adult members cultivated from the community although the community certainly is aware of our sport.

I think the temperment of the indoor flyer is going to be a mature one attracted to the esoteric nature of what we do and likely comes from another branch of modeling. Perhaps that is where we should do our recruiting. I did challenge the local glider club to a LPP "cook-up" and there is modest interest.

Finally.....who knows what "USIC" is? I myself didn't know for a few years that it was part of the National Model Airplane Championships or the NATS. If we think we want to recruit within other modeling groups how about not disguising the event? The Nationals (NATS) certainly has a lot more name brand recognition than USIC. Don't want to be thought of as exclusive? Don't go incognito.
Received on Thu Jun 04 2009 - 08:46:01 CEST