| I received a call from Chris Spohr the other day requesting I put something in
RC_notes detailing the structure of the One-Eighth Air Force, of which group I
was a co-founder some 11-years ago. Seems Chris is a little disappointed in his
local "club" as it'S suffering from the "don't bother me, I paid my dues" syn-
drome any time there's work to be done. (Sound familiar?) Chris's even been
criticized by long-time members for "dragging out a meeting" when he's responded
to calls for "new business" with suggestions regarding maintaining/improving the
flying site. Additionally, established members appear to have little time or
patience for helping beginners. (Particularly sad in my opinion.)
I know John Tavares and others have expressed disenchantment with their various
"clubs" in the past for the same [and other] reasons. At the risk of sounding
overly cynical, I believe this problem exists to a greater or lesser extent in
virtually any/every "club" that exists anywhere, whether it be a model "club,"
A bridge "club" or whatever.
The key reason I believe this to be true is DUES, the common denominator of all
"clubs." Yes, dues! Why? you may ask. Well I'll tell you why; the fact that a
"club" has initiation fees, dues, etc. means that "anyone" can join the club by
the simple act of plunking down the cash. But, why is that bad...all "clubs" do
it, don't they? What's bad about it is simply that, having "bought" his way in,
the member feels completely justified in saying, "Hey! I work 40-hours a week at
the grindstone, 'this' is just a hobby to me...don't ask me to work, I PAID MY
DUES." And, you know what, he's right! He did, indeed, pay his dues, purchased
his membership and no one mentioned that there might be work involved...why
should they? This "is" just a hobby, isn't it? Besides, we don't want to scare
this guy off before we get his dues to bolster our flagging treasury, do we?
Let's be realistic; right or wrong, this guy's got every right to believe that
his dues pay for any/all "club" operations and, by paying them, nothing else is
required to maintain his membership in good standing. Now, obviously, not "all"
"club" members take this position; in every "club" there's the usual 20% who do
all the work, always volunteer when needed and, but for them, the "club" could
not exist for long. Think about it, isn't it always the same faces who main-
tain the field, run the events, sell the hotdogs, etc., ad infinitum in your
"club?" I'd be verrry surprised if anyone could honestly say this wasn't so in
their own "club." The same 20% "serves" the 80% to whom "this is just a hobby,
don't ask me to `do' anything." But, guess what: the 80% CONTROL the "club"
as they possess [and are not afraid to wield] the voting majority.
So, how do you fix this? To be patently honest, I don't believe you "can" fix
it as long as a "club" can be joined by merely paying the required dues/fees.
More unfortunate, It'd be nearly impossible to fix the problem within an estab-
lished "club" because those who'd be most impacted by the fix are the very ones
who'd vote down that very fix. You almost have to be subversive, gathering
those who share your convictions into a covert power-bloc with the goal of dri-
ving your position home and, like it or not, you'll have to attain and hold
office(s) within the club to have the remotest chance of implementing change.
But "what" changes are we talking about? That's the reason I've enclosed the
word "club" in quotes every time it's been used...the first thing you MUST do is
throw out "all" the usual connotations of the word "club." Initiation fees,
dues, assessments, these must all be scrapped because as soon as you accept the
first dollar from a member, you're right back into the "Don't bother me, I paid
my dues" syndrome. Next you must make membership a "by invitation only" commo-
dity. No one joins, they must be invited, sponsored, screened and approved for
membership by a majority vote of the general membership. Each member's "dues"
are then defined, UP FRONT, to be his continued and ongoing contribution/parti-
cipation in support of the "GROUP," "ORGANIZATION," call it anything you wish
EXCEPT "club." This denotes a "joinable" commodity and we already know the
associated dangers that invites.
Now, when a member volunteers or is assigned a task, failure to satisfactorily
complete the task is defaulting the conditions of his membership, the same as
failing to pay his "dues," and the member is dropped for lack of contribution,
simple! You now have a 100% working group!! Naturally, it's idealistic to
suggest that a "true" 100% can be attained, but you'll come awfully close and,
at least, the working majority will also control the "group" which is vital!
So how do you raise operating funds without dues? You do it the old fashioned
way, you "earn" it. You throw events and plunk the entry fees, moneys from raf-
fles, concessions, parking and such into the treasury. You hold Mall-shows,
throw money-raising events for local charities and get all the "good-press" you
can from the community. Then you can even approach local government/businesses
for assistance, sponsorship, donations, etc. Sure, it takes time and a LOT of
effort but a dedicated "group" can work miracles. In time, the "group" can own
property, develop a first-class flying site and be the envy of other "clubs."
Their "is" one danger to all this; outsiders will call you "elitists, country-
clubbers" and worse because not just anyone can "join" your "group." But these
critics are exactly the types you don't want anyway, remember? Refer them to
the nearest joinable "club" where they can become part of the non-working 80%.
Does this work, though? You betcher' life it does! These are the exact pre-
cepts we used to form the One-Eighth Air Force over 11-years ago and it gets
stronger by the day, boasting as near a 100% working membership as you're li-
able to find anywhere! Show me a "club" that can make that claim. Our "group,"
contrary to what you may believe, is NOT made up exclusively of high-powered
scale "aces." Just the opposite, in fact, is true; of our 35 local members,
only about8 of us are active, competitive scale modelers. The majority of the
membership is comprised of folks who truly love scale, are willing to work
very hard to promote scale through the "group's" activities/events and are eager
to "become" competent scale builders/flyers. To that end, we offer building
seminars, flight training, contest familiarization and any other instruction/
assistance necessary to all members who wish to acquire/advance their skills.
The first "graduate" of our grooming efforts recently qualified for anf flew in
his very first U.S. Scale Masters and is simply thrilled to death about it. Ask
"him" if he believes in the concepts I've expounded above.
Adios amigos, Al
|
| For want of a better place to put this, I'll post this report on the
presentation we had at our club meeting last night by Irv Searl.
Irv Searl is a world-class Precision Scale Master who has won many
national contests over the past two decades. He won 1st place in
Precision Scale at the 92 Nats, 2nd place in 93, has placed in the top
five at Rhinebeck many times, and many first places in regional contests.
Not too shabby.
He brought two of his planes to the meeting, a Neuport 28 built from
a Proctor kit, and a scratch-built Ryan STA "John Gosney" special.
Both are quarter scale and in pristine condition ready for the Top Gun
contest later this month.
Irv gave a very interesting talk about how he goes about choosing a
scale subject, and then how he pursues the duanting task of building
the model to look just like the original. He had the audience on the
edge of their seats for an hour relaying anecdotes and tales about his
exploits on the contest circuit and of the ups and downs of building
Precision Scale models. One funny story was about the 2500+ rivets on
the Ryan. Seems that when he was doing the Ryan for the first time, he
had to learn the skill of putting on rivets, and although he got the
job done, he wasn't at all happy with it. So in a moment of total
frustration he began to scrape off the rivets so he could do it over
right! Imagine throwing away all those hours of painstaking work! It
was after he scraped all the old rivets off that he decided to count
how many there were, and thats how he came up with the actual number.
Well, bottom line on Irv's work is that it is absolutely spectacular!
It has to be seen to be believed. After his talk, we all hovered
around both models taking pictures, oogleing all the georgeous detail,
and druelling over(or should I say lusting over) his beautiful
aircraft. It was a _very_ enjoyable meeting and everyone was totally
in awe of this man's work.
We gave him a royal sendoff to the Top Gun contest by presenting him
with a one-of-a-kind coffee mug with a picture of his Ryan on one side
and his name and list of several contests he's won with it on the other
side. The mug was supplied by Alton Ryder, who has taken this up as
a "retirement" business, and a very nice piece of work it is. Irv was
quite pleased.
Irv lives in Nashua, so local clubs might want to extend an invitation
to him to do a presentation in the future. He loves to do it.
Incidentally, he works part time behind the counter at RC Buyers
Warehouse in Nashua, where many of us have gotten to know him. Seek
him out sometime when you want to "talk scale". He does it for hours
and loves every minute.
-Joe
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