Are there any female members in your club?

[Gary Manuel]

+1 Wright Stuff. Plenty of words available to circumvent this.

Some long term members miss the company after they have to quit for health reasons etc.

What better compliment than the club to offer them recognition for their years of contribution and experience, by offering them "lifetime non-flying friendship" (or whatever you want to call it) to the club.

Edited By Gary Manuel on 06/07/2018 14:13:09

[Martin Harris - Moderator]

Posted by kc on 06/07/2018 13:24:49:

We cannot have cheap 'social' members in our clubs because the BMFA requires 100 percent BMFA membership in it's member clubs which ups the price by the BMFA subs!

I don't think that's correct - from the current handbook:

3. BMFA AFFILIATED CLUBS
3.1 Affiliated Club Membership
Open to clubs and model flying groups consisting of not less than five persons. All current club members who fly and/or who are involved in any organising function within the club whatsoever must be registered with the BMFA as fully paid up individual members and at least one of them must be a senior member.

(My italics)

Edited By Martin Harris on 06/07/2018 14:13:39

[Tim Flyer]

We have a number of “club friends “ who regularly turn up at our club to watch the planes and have a chat . They are made to feel welcome and often join us for a cuppa. Some are ex members some not . All works fine with us .

[Colin Carpenter]

Back in 83-84 Mary Leader was one of the founder members of Bath Model Helicopter Club . She mastered a Kalt Baron before gyros and Heli radios while the rest of us were on Morley Hughes 300 , struggling prior to the mixers for Bell Hiller mixing becoming available !! Ahh !! Nostalgia !! Colin

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited By Colin Carpenter on 06/07/2018 15:59:58

[Former Member]

[This posting has been removed]

[FilmBuff]

Posted by supertigrefan on 06/07/2018 16:03:06:

Why should this question even need to be presented?

Why should there be an incentive to encourage female (or any) members to join outside of members of school age?

If they show an interest and wish to join a club then great, I'm sure they will be welcomed and assisted as equally as any other new member, if not then crack on with whatever it is that does interest you.

I'm sick of all this preferential treatment to encourage members of society outside of the core majority. 30+ years in the Government\Public service has taught me that preferential treatment for anybody breeds nothing but mistrust, contempt and resentment. It's not a healthy solution.

[Former Member]

[This posting has been removed]

[Denis Watkins]

Last year My club voted that we all pay Full Membership, one price for everyone.

[john stones 1 - Moderator]

Posted by Gary Manuel on 06/07/2018 14:10:41:

+1 Wright Stuff. Plenty of words available to circumvent this.

Some long term members miss the company after they have to quit for health reasons etc.

What better compliment than the club to offer them recognition for their years of contribution and experience, by offering them "lifetime non-flying friendship" (or whatever you want to call it) to the club.

Edited By Gary Manuel on 06/07/2018 14:13:09

We have done in the past Gary, made them Honorary members.

[Gary Manuel]

Posted by john stones 1 on 06/07/2018 17:34:25:

Posted by Gary Manuel on 06/07/2018 14:10:41:

+1 Wright Stuff. Plenty of words available to circumvent this.

Some long term members miss the company after they have to quit for health reasons etc.

What better compliment than the club to offer them recognition for their years of contribution and experience, by offering them "lifetime non-flying friendship" (or whatever you want to call it) to the club.

Edited By Gary Manuel on 06/07/2018 14:13:09

We have done in the past Gary, made them Honorary members.

Yep.

Costs nowt and benefits everyone.

 

Edit - I think we should make the ladies who work so hard at our open days honorary members. It would mean that we can boost our number of female members and we would be doing our bit for national statistics

Edited By Gary Manuel on 06/07/2018 17:43:21

[john stones 1 - Moderator]

Friend who was a pensioner when he was still with us, asked for reduced membership for OAPs at a meeting, the reply was "You fly 7 days a week, you should be paying more."

Can't tell you his reply, will get in bother.

[john stones 1 - Moderator]

Posted by Gary Manuel on 06/07/2018 17:40:01:

Posted by john stones 1 on 06/07/2018 17:34:25:

Posted by Gary Manuel on 06/07/2018 14:10:41:

+1 Wright Stuff. Plenty of words available to circumvent this.

Some long term members miss the company after they have to quit for health reasons etc.

What better compliment than the club to offer them recognition for their years of contribution and experience, by offering them "lifetime non-flying friendship" (or whatever you want to call it) to the club.

Edited By Gary Manuel on 06/07/2018 14:13:09

We have done in the past Gary, made them Honorary members.

Yep.

Costs nowt and benefits everyone.

Edit - I think we should make the ladies who work so hard at our open days honorary members. It would mean that we can boost our number of female members and we would be doing our bit for national statistics

Edited By Gary Manuel on 06/07/2018 17:43:21

You behave yourself, we'll make yours n Igors wife members if you like, keep me out of it.

[Cuban8]

Posted by Denis Watkins on 06/07/2018 17:31:08:

Last year My club voted that we all pay Full Membership, one price for everyone.

We had this some fifteen years ago - because of the ageing demographic,an annually increasing number of relatively affluent older members who were able to use the club's facilities on a far more regular basis and at much reduced cost, had the 'age concession' removed. This went through without any discontent IIRC. We still give a reduced rate to juniors, although no members fall into that category at the moment.

Should any member fall on hard times and find themselves temporarily in financial dire straights, then something would be sorted out to help them with their subs, but without causing them any embarrassment. So far, we've never had any such request.

 

Edited By Cuban8 on 06/07/2018 18:22:33

[Martin Harris - Moderator]

We had reduced rates for over 65s until a couple of years ago when we voted to amalgamate all senior memberships, partly because many of the "pensioners" had better access to club facilities during the week - and quite a few had more disposable income than the younger ones with mortgages and growing families...

The rate was set somewhere in the middle.

There was very little dissent heard when the argument was presented at the AGM and it has certainly made life simpler for the membership sec.

[Jon H]

Posted by supertigrefan on 06/07/2018 16:03:06:

Why should this question even need to be presented?

Why should there be an incentive to encourage female (or any) members to join outside of members of school age?

If they show an interest and wish to join a club then great, I'm sure they will be welcomed and assisted as equally as any other new member, if not then crack on with whatever it is that does interest you.

I'm sick of all this preferential treatment to encourage members of society outside of the core majority. 30+ years in the Government\Public service has taught me that preferential treatment for anybody breeds nothing but mistrust, contempt and resentment. It's not a healthy solution.

With respect, this comment is spectacularly short sighted.

The op was asking a question, one that has now been discussed at length.

While I agree that there should be no split in fees between genders and that you cant make someone be interested in something they aren't I totally disagree that female and junior members should not be encouraged in some way. In the case of the ladies, the fact that this is perceived as a male sport may indeed be enough to put some of them off. I dont see why efforts to change the idea that model flying is a boys only club is a bad thing.

As for school kids, most of us I am sure were well into some sort of model construction by that age, be it airfix kits or balsa. The point I was trying to raise is that younger members are the long term future of the hobby and most of our clubs. I dread to think what the average age is for most clubs now.

Computer games are also not completely to blame, you cant play games for 8 hours straight if mummy takes the controller away (yes, I remember!), and the total nanny state preventing kids buying paint/glue because a handful of morons sniffed it is also a problem but one that is easy to overcome.

[John Tee]

We have two lady members. Angela flies heli's and gliders as well as trying most things and Barbara is a non flier life member who is the widow of one our founder members. She has made teas and sausage rolls etc for most clubs nights and AGM's for the last fifty years. We have many wives and girlfriends who support our special days at the field and out twice yearly indoor fly in and fish and chip nights. Nice to see the ladies on the field.

John

[Former Member]

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[Gary Manuel]

Posted by Tom Sharp 2 on 06/07/2018 20:23:39:

It is strange how some threads fly, 40 comments in half a day.

It's one of those attention grabbing questions.

It's because Men are from Mars and Women are from Venus. Who doesn't love an extra terrestrial story?

[Former Member]

[This posting has been removed]

[David Davis]

Posted by supertigrefan on 06/07/2018 16:03:06:society outside of the core majority. 30+ years in

...You appear to loath the nanny state as much as I do, financial and preferential treatment is not the solution to it, it merely feeds and sustains the monster.

The decision to allow female pilots to join the my club free of charge was made by the committee and endorsed by the (male) membership at an AGM in order one presumes, to promote wider involvement in the hobby from a section of society which is under-represented on the flying field. It was not foisted upon us by any "nanny state." I have not detected any "mistrust, contempt or resentment," Super Tigerfan, from any of my clubmates as a result of this decision.

I also spent my entire professional career in Government/Public service but I do not share your views. The Private Sector is not always as efficient as it is claimed to be. You want an example? Cast your mind back to the London Olympics. A private company gained a contract to provide security at the games. It could not recruit sufficient personnel. The organising committee had to called the army in.

[Former Member]

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[Former Member]

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[john stones 1 - Moderator]

Jeez, maybe the Ladies are just thankful we've gone out flying.

[Former Member]

[This posting has been removed]

[David Davis]

Read my Original Post Super Tigerfan and some of your questions will be answered.

I'm going flying.