ORIGINAL: pettit
Could it be that BIG ED was referring to the ''volunteers'' that serve as club officers and ''run'' his club, rather than all the members ''volunteering'' to be members at no cost?
As a former club officer in several clubs, I enlisted the help of a number of club members to help get things done, with no financial compensation coming back to me.
Membership dues are all a part of the game.
Remember the ''90-10 Rule'':
''90% of the work gets done by 10% of the membership''
And that may be an over-estimation!
That is probably what Ed is referring to. A member does not join and pay dues to volunteer though. These are really different things. I do think there has to be some clarification there. I did not join the club I joined to volunteer to work. I joined to fly my RC planes. Some may not understand that there is a lot of involvment when they join an RC club. My club never once mentioned that I was expected to volunteer my time to assist with every thing under the sun that needed to be done for those that won't do squat. Although I do that, it was not mentioned is my only point.
We have discussed this before to some degree. It is like the golf club or many other clubs you could get involved with. You join and pay membership, but you are not expected to do field maintenance and repair the golf carts, etc. They may ask you to assist with certain events throughout the year, but most of the things you paid your dues for are included in your membership dues. The bad part is this may change from club to club and there is no standard of expectation within RC clubs. Certainly membership costs would be much higher if there were no volunteers to mow and do all the other things needed to get done.
The is just the reality of it and does not mean it is good or bad, just the way it is.