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Crisis of leadership in your club?

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Crisis of leadership in your club?

Old 10-18-2010, 10:36 PM
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Teachu2
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Default Crisis of leadership in your club?

I belong to two sport flying clubs locally, one being about 50 years old and the other about 15. There are at least seven clubs in the area - one focuses on large-scale aerobatics, one on electrics, one on sailplanes only, and four on sport flying - so there's always another place to fly. In addition, there are several informal groups who fly from church lots and off failed subdivision streets.

The old club has evolved over the years. I started with it when I was in 9th grade, and got lots of help there. At that time, it was hosting the largest F1 pylon race in the world, and was often on magazine covers as a result. There were no other clubs in the area, membership was 100+, and a typical meeting had 30-40 members present. Every meeting ended with a raffle, and there was a Q500 race every month - the Spickler Quickee was designed as a club racer for that club. It was a vibrant, active club, and in spite of the occasional human conflicts was a lot of fun. Members actively campaigned to get elected to the Board, and considered it an honor to serve.

That club spun off a few more over the years - the glider club started as a faction of this club, as did a now-defunct heli club. There was an attempt to form a Pattern club, which expanded into a sport flying club in order to get the field done - which irritated the Pattern flyers enough to go start another club (the current large-scale aerobatics club).

These clubs are interwoven to a large degree - many flyers belong to two or more local clubs. One year not too long ago, I was elected President of both clubs that I belong to - which brings me to this post. As the number of clubs/flying sites has grown, the number of individuals involved has not kept pace. Using the 80/20 rule (80% of the work is usually done by 20% of the members of any group), this has fostered a real problem as far as leadership. Most elections are now uncontested - and it seems to get harder to fill the positions every election.

Sorry that this rambles - I'm still trying to sort all the issues out and still not take two pages... Any other clubs have trouble getting members to step up and lead?
Old 10-19-2010, 12:05 AM
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vpresley
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Default RE: Crisis of leadership in your club?

Yes that is the trend. The doer's have died off, or quit flying. The doferme's are alive and well and growing. That percentage is more like 95/5 these days. Sad but true. Need higher Cluub dues to get things done when that happens. Just charge more. Its all you can do to make up for the loss of those that contributed their time to work parties. Or give free memberships to the workers. reward those that do, charge those that dont.


Vince
Old 10-19-2010, 02:45 AM
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eddieC
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Default RE: Crisis of leadership in your club?

I've been trying at our club to also get more members involved. When the economy was good, most were happy to pay more in dues rather than pitch in. The same folks were always helping at fun-flys, picnics, etc. The slow economy over the last couple years has brought the situation to a head, though. Membership is down, the state changed the rules so we now don't have a raffle, and costs are increasing. The club is now thinking about volunteer mowing instead of having it contracted out, but it may still wind up just a few doing most of the work.

I guess the best thing to do is to set an example - be an officer, pitch in with site maintenance and activities, etc. Hopefully more members will help out as a result.
Old 10-19-2010, 07:29 AM
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Default RE: Crisis of leadership in your club?

Our club averages 30 members. We have a GREAT grass stip w/ no trees or power lines close. We rent our ground & have been at the same location for 20+ yrs. Out of the 30 members, there's about 6 to 8 that do most all the work;we have around 6 to10 that fly pretty regular, another dozen or so that we never see (at club meetings or flying & the rest probably fly 2 or 3 times a year. Our meetings usually consist of 8 to 10 guys present. We instigated a "door prize" thing to bring in more members to the meetings, didn't work. As far as officers, usually the same 4 or 5 guys get elected ( they're uncontested) & they kinda rotate their offices. But, it seems to work for us. I've been a member for probably 5 yrs & don't remember any petty bickering amongst the members. I beleive we are very, very lucky to have what we have!!! Oh yea, we're like everybody else, "pinching our pennies" to keep it going.
Old 10-19-2010, 08:14 AM
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Default RE: Crisis of leadership in your club?

I am envious of you with so many clubs to choose from.

After 23 years a very well known RC Club known as "RC WORLD" (East Orlando, Florida) was close late 2006 primarily because of inner stiffle and rising Tax base and rising Property values. The "real" property owners decided to sell to the County as to make it a public RC Club but, there seemed like another private investor came in and offered them more $$$ and hence the sale to the County did not occur and the County subsequently bought another property closeby and the $$$ was spent by the County. When it came to selling of the RC WORLD, approximately 106 acres, that Private investor backed out from the deal and now the property owners had nothing since there was somekind of disagreement over allowing it to continue to be a RC Flying Club during the interium of being sold and all members were told Not to Fly anymore. Many got very disappointed and very angry because some had been members for over 22 years and they had somekind of purchase option into somekind of shares with the property ownership but, it seems like that was not clearly legally defined nor anyone really looked into the legal aspects of it and many were taken for over $1,500 per member. Talk about angry feelings.

Now recently (March 2009), two former members called me to say that this same RC CLUB formerly known as RC WORLD had been sold by the "BANK" and they had talked with the "NEW" owner who decided to allow it to become again an RC CLUB so, his property could come back into a decient area instead of a place for Teenagers to come late at night and do at times illigal acts and continued destruction of the remining Club house and see about cutting the long stalks weeds that have been growning after almost 3 years.

Again, more disagreements and trouble ensured because of differences of those two former RC WORLD club members who just does not seem to get along. One is very well off and lives by is proceeds from selling a Chrome Stamping company many years ago from Chicago area and lives very comfortable and has many hobbies as a result and the other is a typical retired gentlement who worked as a Communications Engineer and has meger savings and still works out of his home making super high end RC Retracts and Struts to make ends meet. Besides their economic status differences their personality are really not compatible to run an RC Club so, one of them (the one who is very well off financially) left and as a result the RC CLUB has lost many members and this is not good with a "New" RC Club.

It is sad that two grown men can not seem to get along for the good of the RC CLUB and good for the hobby but, it is most unfortunate to learn that just this past September 25th, 2010 it was announced that the owner has joined up to develop the property and build condos and the first thing to go is the nice Paved Asphalt Runway run and the last little bit of the RC CLub house. Depending on who you talk to, the building construction will occur as early as January 2011 to April 2011.

The Club dues presently $110.00 US and I have decided not to renew as a result of unknown future aspects of this Club and I don't want to be chasing anyone for any unused portion of my $110.00 or lets put it this way......I really don't want any portion of my money except to come somewhere nice to fly my models, all my models.

It is sad to see yet again after just a little over ONE YEAR of hard work to bring back this old RC CLUB back to life that it once again will be under the threat of being closed because the investor have decided to cash-in and really did not have any interest into RC Flying as he just wanted the Teenagers out and his property maintained.

I do not fault anyone for the impending loss of this RC CLUB as all the players seems to be dealing with their interests at hand and it seems like everyone got what they were looking for but, I do dislike Grown men not getting along and not making the best of a very good situation when the opportunity was there to have the best RC CLUB possible all the way to the very end.

Too bad that the guy who have lots of $$$ could not buy this property....or who knows perhaps he did and had some puppet Realtor to deal for him![:@]

So long RC WORLD (Presently EAST ORLANDO RC ASSOCIATION!!!)[8D]

Old 10-19-2010, 10:52 AM
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Default RE: Crisis of leadership in your club?

Our club is small, approximtely 30 currently, and pretty informal. About half of our members fly. Some quite often, others just occasionally.

I think we are typical. We are a group of guys who mostly want to play with our toys and escape for a few hours.

Our officers are re-elected forever unless they say they do not want to be an officer the following year; and getting someone to volunteer is very difficult. My brother is president and I am secretary. I think 2011 will be my 5th year as secretary. My brother was VP in 2009 before being 'promoted' when our multi-year president had to step back because of his work hours. Our treasurer and safety officer have been in office for 3 to 5 years.

We are extremely fortunate to have a great place to fly. One of our members owns the property and does at least 95% of the work related to field maintenance. He also maintains the small tractor that the club owns. If it needs parts the club pays for them but he will not accept any payment for his labor. When other work needs to be done, he lets the membership know and a small group comes out for a work party. Like most clubs, the same core group comes for most of the work parties. We had dirt hauled in this year to fill low and rough spots in the runway. The guys brought tractors with blades, and a small dozer, and knocked it out.

Carrell
Old 10-19-2010, 12:02 PM
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Default RE: Crisis of leadership in your club?

Looks like you guys have got it together. There's a lot more to an RC club than just flying !!
Old 10-20-2010, 01:49 PM
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Default RE: Crisis of leadership in your club?


ORIGINAL: carrellh

Our club is small, approximtely 30 currently, and pretty informal. About half of our members fly. Some quite often, others just occasionally.

I think we are typical. We are a group of guys who mostly want to play with our toys and escape for a few hours.

Our officers are re-elected forever unless they say they do not want to be an officer the following year; and getting someone to volunteer is very difficult. My brother is president and I am secretary. I think 2011 will be my 5th year as secretary. My brother was VP in 2009 before being 'promoted' when our multi-year president had to step back because of his work hours. Our treasurer and safety officer have been in office for 3 to 5 years.

We are extremely fortunate to have a great place to fly. One of our members owns the property and does at least 95% of the work related to field maintenance. He also maintains the small tractor that the club owns. If it needs parts the club pays for them but he will not accept any payment for his labor. When other work needs to be done, he lets the membership know and a small group comes out for a work party. Like most clubs, the same core group comes for most of the work parties. We had dirt hauled in this year to fill low and rough spots in the runway. The guys brought tractors with blades, and a small dozer, and knocked it out.

Carrell
I belong to a couple of clubs.

One is informal, and is almost like carrellh described. This is the best field and it's maintained by a couple hard working members. The other members help when needed.

The other is county owned, and basically a disaster waiting to happen. It's a scaled down version of the Basin. Basically, it's not out of the question to see one or two fist fights a month. The field is owned by the county, but a few members think they own and control the field without consent from the membership. They (a handful of officers) vote people in and out of the club based on popularity and the buddy system. It's a sham.
Old 10-20-2010, 02:12 PM
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Default RE: Crisis of leadership in your club?

Any other clubs have trouble getting members to step up and lead?

We see the same faces in officer positions, occasionally shuffled to other offices,because most membersjust want to fly occasionally and ignore the club the rest of the time. Getting everyone to pony-up and mowis like pulling jury duty with the county. The nominating committee has to beg to come up with a single body for each office on the slate each year. Ithink those that serve all do so with the clause: "if no one else steps forward . . . " So no one does. If pressed the response may be something like: "I was treasurer in 1973, it's someone else's turn."

At the meetings everyone talks at once, usually to their neighbor and loudly on any subject except the one on the floor, until the president asks: "and who will head-up that project?" - - - {sound of crickets} - - - When somone is assigned or chosen it is then labeled "Cronyism" by members whose hobby used to be model airplanes but is now complaining at meetings; or behind your back afterwards.

And then, if you make a decision as a board member just to move things along andget on with your own life to get home before bedtime, you're a "Nazi"

Just like real politics and municiple management.
Old 10-20-2010, 08:51 PM
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Default RE: Crisis of leadership in your club?

We had our club meeting tonight. It was time to nominate new officers (4) nobody wanted to do it so the guys in office now said theywould. The guy that does our newsletters & sends them out before each meeting told us he was done. He puts together a VERY GOOD one( Major bummer!!) We had 8 guys present (3 of them were the officers.) Whatcha gonna do??? We've tried door prizes & other little things, nothing works !! One member lives right across the street from where we have our meeting & hasn't been in 2 yrs. I suggested, maybe dancing girls. Hahaha

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