I agree that current training and introduction in to the hobby is severly lacking and a contributor to dwindling numbers of AMA participants. I also believe that the huge variety of shiny scale RTF's that vary in quality and are generally difficult to fly also contribute heavily to the problem of low numbers. No longer do you have to build for weeks to months, and the need to find someone that knows how to build and fly has been removed from the process with the RTF's. Now anyone can succeed, or fail to learn, without ever finding a club or even and instructor, and AMA is never seen as a necessity. So why would anyone make the effort to seek out a club or instructor. All of these new problems should be what is increasing participation, but with the closed minded practices of many fields and many individuals in this hobby we have turned a potential boon into a slow spiral. I have visited far too many fields where the best I could hope for was the cold shoulder, and more often it was rude condesending attitudes. What will save our fields? Minimize the cliques and discurage the superior attitudes that seem so prevalent at most fields.