Club meetings

[ken anderson.]

our club-blyth valley radio model club/bvrmc.co.uk.---meet once a month--considering we have over 100 member's we probably get on average 20 member's who attend on a regular basis-do other club's find they are the same?...................

 

 thank's for any feedback........ken anderson...........

[Tim Hooper]

Ken,

 

20%  seems about average for any kind of society.

 

The only time we get more than that is at the annual AGM.

 

tim

[Bruce Richards]

Same at my club. Same faces every month and about 20% of the members. Seems par for the course.

[Garry Pollard]

Ken

You only have to look on this forum. I would say 20%  input would be well over the top, except when freebies are being given away then it is another matter.

Garry

[Andy Ramsay]

Our club has cut our four annual meetings to two, thankfully, the AGM and one mid term. Most meetings the committee is in danger of outnumbering the members.

However, should we actually be worried about this? Many members, probably due to domestic circumstances etc. , don't actually fly but have this residual loyalty to the club and cough up their dues. Should we condemn them for subsidisibng our passion?  

Personally I find the meetings of any club, society etc a drag and attending is somewhat of a chore. Don't get me wrong. I try to play a full part by doing things that need done  but talking shops bore me to death. 

Then agaim I'm an anti social sod!

To set the above rant in perspective  a turnout of approx 20 to 25% is normal. Oh dear, we're par for the course!

[ken anderson.]

yo-last night we had 21 member's attend.............

 

 

            ken anderson............

[Gaz Elliott]

Our club is the same and when i first joined tried to get there regular. But then the meetings seemed to just repeat same ole stuff over and over .. the politics got in the way of the reason people where/are there. Club nights should be more fun/active. You don't join a swimming club and just talk about it and sit on the side!!! With technology moving fast our club room could accomodate the smaller indoor flight stuff easily, and this was done but has fizzled out for more committee talk. Too much politics too little flying!!!!

[iawnski]

full turn out every week  100% no probs .could be we down to 3 members lol

[Andy Green]

We dont have club nights, I cant even get a meet at a pub once a month, shame really.

 

Andy

[ken anderson.]

I originally posted this thread in 2009! ........... anyway our monthly meeting is coming up on thurs evening ....they start at 20.00 and normally finish at 20.20...we go through the formalities and then open up the meeting to 'any other business...and that's the meeting over....

what do other clubs do on meeting night's......apart from hiring some lap dancer's or stripper's......I was wondering what the agenda is at other club night's.....(mod's if you're not happy) about the hiring bit---amend it to suit(keep young Asher's Happy)

 

ken Anderson ne..1 ....... club meetings.

Edited By ken anderson. on 08/04/2014 17:51:42

[Masher]

We are at the 20% attendance level and once the formalities are out of the way (somebody usually manages to stretch it out to 10 minutes) it's just a chat in a pub. Most of the attendees revel in playing on a simulator where 1 bloke at a time "flies" watched by half a dozen others, yawn this bores me to death! We have talked about getting members to do some training (Eg on electric set up and safety) but it doesn't seem to happen. We have also talked about getting external experts in but haven't been able to find any.

Fortunately our meetings will now be held at the field so the embarrassment of having nothing on the agenda can be used for flying instead.

[Biggles' Elder Brother - Moderator]

I think we can just about cope with that Ken!

Our club meetings were getting a bit like that too. And its a viscous circle because you have low numbers because there is no much "value" in the meeting. But you don't want to risk inviting an external speaker because the number that turn up to listen are embarrassingly low! One feeds the other!

So we've started trying to do a few things that don't rely on an external speaker in the hope that this will bring the numbers up to a level that might justify at least occasionally inviting someone along!

Things we have done recently:

1. A quiz - I know you have one in the pipeline! Don't ask me how I know - I have my sources. . Its good if there is a little prize - couple of bottles etc. makes it fun. Mixture of questions, full size aviation and modelling. A few easy questions in each round and few silly ones no one will know. Finally a few "serious" ones to sort the men from the boys. everyone "does OK" so no one is left out.

2. A "Balsa Bash" - teams were given one sheet of 1/8" and two sheets of 1/16", some CA, a craft knife and a steel rule. They had to design and build a bridge that would span a gap of 12" between two tables that a toy car could pass over. Then the bridges were "tested to destruction" by applying weights - I think the winner supported something like 25Kg before breaking! This was also popular.

3. A talk on the new taranis by a "committee member" - ie me!

4. A Show and Tell - bring your new model and tell us a bit about it. Popular this time of year with new models appearing for the summer.

5. The Phoenix Challenge - bring a laptop with the Phoenix Sim on, a projector and a screen then have a virtual "fun fly" competition - "spin til you die", balloon bursting etc. Used to be "land the Camel without it turning over" in version 4 of Phoenix - but Version 5 makes it too easy. You can convert this Phoenix thing into a virtual slope soaring competition if you like

That's some of the things we've done. Has it increased attendance? No not really - but those of us that have gone have had a lot of fun!

I'd be keen to hear any other ideas for activities on club night people have tried!

BEB

[john stones 1 - Moderator]

Auctions and AGM are only time we get a good turn out

We have meetings at the field in summer (weather permitting)

One of lads takes orders for chippy, so its fly, eat and no grumbling

attendance has gone up, we have a fly and a laugh

make sure you have a word with chippy before meetings due

if he runs out of fish , its the committee that will get battered

[Toni Reynaud]

Chichester and District Model Areo Club - membership of about 125, Club nights once a month, normal attendance 25 to 40, more when there's a good speaker - this month is test pilot John Farley taslking about "an update on the Harrier and its eventual replacement the F-35B". Three months in the summer we have light flight on the playing field adjacent to the Club in which we hire the hall, an Auction once a year, Balsa Brain, and various other speakers, demos, show and tell, simulator evening in January, tabletop sale in December to coincide with subs payment, indoor flying (not always well supported!) to keep people interested. Chatting, beer and the Spot the Plane lucky dip to win £20 also helps.

[Malcolm Blake 1]

We are, at present, just 60 odd members and get about 20-30 members turn up at our monthly meetings. These are held on a Monday night at a fine hostelry where we have a good room just behind the bar.

In the 1990s we used to have 100 members and still only got about 30 or so turn up for the monthly meetings.

When possible we like to have a guest speaker and the individual members would try to source an interesting person but nowadays everyone seems not to bother any more. Again, ocassionaly, we have a member talk to us about the model he is buiding or has built and brings it along to demonstrate.

I belong to a golf club and the same attitude prevails there - sign of the times I'm afraid.

[Bucksboy]

We've got membership of 100 and normally get 30-40 to the monthly meetings. The 4 summer meetings are BBQ's held at the field and electric flying after 7 pm, these get the same number due to the free food, all paid for out of membership fee's. The other meetings are Project night, Second Hand sale, Pylon racing using a pair of Vapours and a selection of speakers on varying subjects, mainly aviation.

From the same 100 we have about 25 regular fliers and 25 (ish) less regular. I struggle to remember the other 50. The big advantage is that they then subsidise my flying.

[Stevo]

20% seems average. We are supposed to be running a 'family day' in June... They asked for volunteers.. I tagged along before the meeting and.. volunteered.

So far so good. I took part, offered suggestions, but it seemed as though only ones from established (and not new) members seemed to be acted upon. Not dettered, I came home and emailed in a whole list of ideas, security.. how we take and account for expenditure, banking money, money making ideas, volunteering for chores during the day and so forth.

To this day I've never had an acknowledgement or indeed a reply.

I gave up! Don't get me wrong, I have respect for those on the committe that mak the club work. However when new voices seem to be ignored it ends up with the 'same old... same old..."

This applies to all sorts of voluntary clubs from Parents' Associations to flying clubs.

Me? Just turn up and fly!!!

[ken anderson.]

so nothing has changed in the 4 years really----- 20% seems to be average...... we struggle to get a committee most of the time.......

ken Anderson ne..1 ..... chairman BVRMC.

[brfc7]

Posted by ken anderson. on 09/04/2014 18:11:09:

we struggle to get a committee most of the time.......

ken Anderson ne..1 ..... chairman BVRMC.

Not to mention trying to get members to help out as a safety officer (which every member should be really)

baz

[Biggles' Elder Brother - Moderator]

In a funny way this thread is actually quite reassuring! Its very interesting to learn that many other clubs seem to have this poor attendance at club night. We had thought "maybe its just us"! But no, we are smack on the 20-25% that seems to be typical.

Maybe as someone has said its just a sign of the times - I don't know.

BEB

[Mark Hancock]

We had 9 at our club meeting this week (Chester-le-st RMC). Strange thing though at last years AGM we had a vote to cut down our monthly meetings, it was met with outrage by the members. Mind you I did not see any of the people who voted to keep the monthly meeting,at this club meeting. We have about 15 - 20% at our meetings.

[john stones 1 - Moderator]

First outdoor meeting of the year (chippy night) free delivery order came to £106 gave us a discount, meal was lovely. Weather was good, 20 attended out of 60, loads flying, bit of night flying later. All jovial, no whingeing

Do club business whilst their mouths are full, no objections or complaints give it a try the mood's much better.

John

[Former Member]

[This posting has been removed]

[john stones 1 - Moderator]

My feelings are don't worry about those that don't turn out for events, meetings etc. Better men than myself have tried to generate enthusiasm amongst them. If they just want to fly...no problem, concentrate your efforts on those that want to do a bit more

John

[Erfolg]

Initially i did not recognise that this was a very long running thread.

My club no.1 is apparently typical, in the numbers attending club night, which only occur during the late autumn through to early spring.

Numbers have fallen over the years (although I did stop modelling for some +15 years), as we have all aged, a lot, from the late 70s to now. In those earlier years, the attendance was very good. In those days the club was very active in the BARCS leagues. When club nights would have speakers, some of the topics were wide, although mostly centred on technical matters relating principally to gliders and competition tactics. There were until very recently just three members who now compete, that has now reduced to one. Although we have a regular attendance of members from other clubs setting and practising with glass type models.

We also had a club night in the 70s, through the summer in those days, comprising of a evening comp club league. The attendance was always quite large, at, plus twenty to thirty of us. You learnt a lot about therrmaling, in identifying lift, how to get back, get down, hit the spot, within slot time, what model types worked and what did not. After the comp night, we would by and large, retire to a local pub, for a drink, discussion.

Now one of us is an active competitor. So club nights now have indoor electric flying, some conventional indoor stuff, a few comp nights and of course our annual GM. We no longer have any presentations or speakers as we cannot be sure at all, that we will not be inadvertently insulting the presenters and wasting their time.

In our case I suspect it is a case of an ageing club. We never go for a drink as a group at all. Some of our members who were amongst the driving force, are no longer with us. Some who were major forces in gliding, no longer compete, although one is still commercially producing glass ships. Much has changed.

I still chuckle at the thought of some who tried to make Gentle Ladies competitive, the most amusing was one with braced wing struts to take the launching forces. halcyon, golden days, which have gone forever in our club.

These days, I am often the only one at the club field. Yes so many changes.