flycatch

My Feedback: (26)

It amuses me to think that your club spends so much time looking for new members when I was there all the time

Do you rember me? I am the one you asked to join. I paid my dues and then I was asked to be a loyal and faithful member

I'm the one that came to every meeting, but nobody paid any attention to me. I tried several times to be friendly but everyone seemed to have their friends to talk to and sit with. I sat down among some unfamilar faces several times, but they didn't pay much attention to me.

I hoped somebody would ask me to join one of the committees or to participate or contribute, but no one did.

Finally because of illness I missed a meeting. The next month no one asked me where I'd been. I guess it didn't matter very much wheter I was there or not. On the next meeting date I could not attend. When I attended the next meeting no one asked me where I was the month before.

You might say that I'm a good person, a good worker and I love my hobby. You know who else I am? I'm the member who never came back.

Food for though and reasons why alot of clubs are dying.

abelard

Did you consider volunteering for a committee?

radfordc

My Feedback: (14)

Poor pitiful Pearl!

flyinwalenda

My Feedback: (5)

That could be part of the problem but cliques/ruling minorities, myopic thinking  and an unwillingness to move out of the past is what kills most clubs and drives new members away.  Look at the clubs that thrive and they don't have these issues and their program is an attraction to new members.

vpresley

My Feedback: (162)

Hmmmmmmmmm there are 2 ways to look at this!! 1. Waaaaaaaaaaaaaa poor me. Or 2. I am going to go out, have fun, do my thing with all effort and abandon, and just enjoy myself to the best of my abilities. Not depending on others to make me happy. I would be pro-active, not passive. I would volunteer for what interests me. I would help out at the field every chance I got. I would try to interest my friends to come out also. Your experience is what you make of it, not what others do or think of it. Its been my experience that what you put in to an hobby, is what you get out of it. The rest of the things you seem to want will come with time, but only if you make the effort and not just sit back and wait for something to happen. This kind of effort is rewarded most of the time, but not all. All Clubs are different. But you, are responsible for you. the Club maybe partially responsible, but so are you. My advice to you, is "GO FLY AND HAVE FUN", the rest will follow.


Vince AMA 7051

scale only 4 me

My Feedback: (158)

Yeap, you can only control you, expecting people to act the way you think they should is a recipe for frustration.

eddieC

My Feedback: (2)

I got the OP's point. 

jester_s1

Boo hoo hoo. This is a hobby full on introverts and guys who don't have great social skills. It takes work to assimilate a new person, and many club members just aren't interested in putting forth the effort. Guess what- the new guy just isn't that important that the majority is willing to drop their conversations with their buddies to take an interest in him. Geez, it's a club meeting, not church! Me, I didn't mix all that well with the guys at the club meetings. I even spent one Christmas party sitting alone because I saved a spot for a guy who wound up not coming. But I understood that I was the new guy and the others didn't have any particular reason to take an interest in me. No one was mean, just indifferent. So I took the initiative to shake hands and volunteer and get myself noticed, to show the other guys that they should be interested in me. As it turns out, I made a lot of friends that way. There are way too many guys who show up to a club meeting, don't try to get to know people, then gripe because of the "club mentality" or the "cliques." Did you ever think that expecting them to drop what they were doing because you walked into the room is a pretty big act of snobbery itself?

vpresley

My Feedback: (162)

+1 Jester!

Gizmo-RCU

My Feedback: (27)

Jester nailed it!

I have been a club officer a number of times and found it was difficult to be a full time entertainment comittee. It is what you make it. Don't expect others to drop everything when you show up, they don't know you
and like most folks who have been around a long time arn't given to take you into their circle of friends immediately.
Most of us have "seen them come and seen them go" so just take our time before jumping into a friendship blindly. We will offer help and support and when we get to know you a little, friendship will follow.

As a club officer I have heard complaints of "why didn't the club do this or do that", the complainer themselves often wanted something done that was interesting only to them but was unwilling to take it on personally, expecting others to do it.
They often went off to another club with about the same results.

Jim Branaum

My Feedback: (3)

As a long time club officer, I have to say that this analysis is pretty much on target. One of the things one of my friends told me when I got involved is that if X is important to me than it is MY job to make X happen because the rest of us are just here to have fun. After I wiped the dirt off my nose, I noticed that most club members actually do much more than we (officers and other members) have a right to expect and if I really wanted X to happen it was easy to get it done if it could be demonstrated to be important to others. I will never forget the impound incident! Our impound was accessible by the general public and their kids. We used to have switches moved, trims stirred up, and all kinds of interesting things happen to our radios. We determined that it needed to be more exclusive to get to for security purposes. We talked about it at the meeting and designed the solution. Then I left town for a week. The 'fix' was implemented before I returned.

The attitude even shows up at times when rules need to be enforced.

I really dislike the bunch that come whining about "Johnny did this (or that) against the rules last week/month" and that dislike is made worse when they don't even want to go with me to talk to Johnny. The ones that are my friends are that small select group that will approach Johnny at the time of the infraction and gently discuss it with him instead of ambushing me some time later with reports of foul deeds and expectations of action on my part. I did not hire on to be a policeman, rather just to help manage the club business. Some days it is a lot of stone and once in a while it is diamond.

YMMV

vicman

My Feedback: (10)

Nicely stated.

dasintex

My Feedback: (10)

For the most part 'Jester' has it right; the only thing I will add, is that you initially Welcome any new Guy when they first come out to a Meeting or the Field, introduce him to any of the members that are present, tell them about the club and whats going on, give him a club newsletter or info sheet, and let him loose, let him fend for himself, be helpful if the new guy asks for some help or needs a question answered just like you would anyone else, but leave him alone, don't babysit him from that point on like he's fragile or something, theres always plenty of stuff to do, heck it's always the same people doing all the work, voluteers are always needed to cut the grass or something, if someone quits because we were all cold, sounds like they need some social skills, another point, more than likely any new member or for that matter any member in any club is probably an Adult, or older teenager, so I'm sure they can figure it out.

bignasdy

exactly why I dont go to any meetings. Screw them...if i didnt have to be a club member as required by the city, I wouldnt be in it anyway.  I go fly and Im always nice but i dont go out of my way anymore. I listen to all the BS the newbs spout out, and smile all the way.Its funny stuff most of the time. Lots of goobers in this hobby.
 I Love planes, not people..especialy club types. No, I dont wanna hear how this guy cant monokote, this one always crashes, this one cant build..this one chopped his fingeers off with a sharp prop...duh,..this ones wife wont let him go flying.....who needs it. As a matter of fact, i dont need anyone at the feild at all....ever. This thread makes me want to share my experience at three local hobby shops I visited today, total of 150 miles, and 4 hours driving time. Here in Dallas, you only have one choice anymore  if yer a lifer like me. Thats Wild Bills in irving. Plano rc  now sucks, "they cant please everyone". A1 dosent have squat, Roys toys for big boys was so snooty the jerk wouldnt help me find a canopy I am looking for. So, I scooted on over to wild bills from there, another 45 mins. The guy (Lynne) was attentive, and even opened a kit so i could check to see if my canopy was close. It was, and he ordered it for me right there and then. Ten bucks. So, I went ahead and spent 130 bucks on the rest of the crap I needed instead of interneting the stuff. Ive spent thousands and thousands of dollars at Roys, but I guess the guy was having a better time  just standing there looking confounded. My request to match a canopy with mine was asking too much. Wow, he might have to lower a box off the shelf. What a joke.  Again, screw them, never darkening their doorstep with my presence, or dinero again. I aint drivin all the way to wild bills either. Internet will provide me with everything I need, and the LHS support is over.If they wont help, who needs them there. I dont. 
Im sure there will be some doofs that will argue with what I have said, but I dont care. Im not subscribed to this thread and wont see it anyway, nor do I care. Like I said, ME, and MY PLANES....no one, or anything else matters.
Lotsa guys on RCU are very helpfull though, and I like it here sometimes.
I will conclude by saying,when I was a kid, I was in a club at 9 years old. ( 1969) The meetings were at the hobby shop of course, not some stupid resturant.There were club building projects, and I alway went outside to the parking lot with any one of a dozen U C cox planes, and thats where i learned about building, flying and people. My dad would drop me off there...I was 9 like I said. No, I didnt get molestered, abused, talked down to, or anything else negative. It was heaven. I stayed in that club till I went in the army. It has since closed.  I still have the cox p40 and GB lil wizard I flew then. Also, my dad bought me a lifetime AMA membership. When I got out of the army, I sent in to get a card so i could fly, and the AMA says they have no records that far back. It was a three digit number. Screw them too, wouldnt buy that garbage either if it wasnt required. And i dont care if any whiners are offended...YOU offend ME!
Ahhhh I feel better now!
Off to tower to drop some more bucks.

bignasdy

oh and flycatch ,yer point is well stated. Your experience is backed up by the replys ya got. Good luck brotha...just enjoy yerself, and yer planes.
d

vpresley

My Feedback: (162)

So BIG why even post if you don't care?? Just spouting off? Getting back at all the mean people who have wronged you in your eyes? Better just have kept going without posting, all sour grapes by you. There are plenty of good people in most clubs. You fly at their grace, they did all the work so you could fly. Without them you would be sitting at home, wishing someone else would do the work so you can fly.


Vince AMA 7051

scale only 4 me

My Feedback: (158)

My experiance is you get what you give,, if people are giving you crap,, well,, you can do the math

Luchnia

My Feedback: (21)

This thread has some interesting aspects. I have felt the "cold" club and also the "warm" club, yet in my observation it is really certain people that are just not going to be friendly no matter what. There is a difference in a friendly group of people and the you know whats.

It would seem to me that the club should at least be friendly by welcoming the newby then after they are informed of all the ropes let him/her figure it out on their own with what ever instruction required. By definition there are some arogant folks in this world and what we believe to be some real buttheads.

For me the best rule of thumb when I look in the mirror, is the reflection I first look at and spend the most time with should be my own.

DESERT RATT

My Feedback: (7)

This is basically the very same treatment I and mySon got from the Garderville Nevada, Sage brush fliers. Never been back.

Live Wire

When It is a one man show you take what you get

eddieC

My Feedback: (2)

Live Wire

You want to make a bet Big name and money talks

eddieC

My Feedback: (2)

Larry, I don't get your last 2 posts. Care to explain?

Live Wire

Any one can see If you have a position and money you can run the club or what ever. It does not mean that they are qualified but when there name is at the top of the list they get the vote. Yes I am one of these old farts that has been around for a while. And Getting OLD and bitter.
Yes I started the club and can't see where it is going. Less members and less functions within to keep interest only to keep the person at [:@] YOU get the drift[:@][:@]

Live Wire

Yes the person that never came back is the one that some one sent away It only take ONE