KidEpoxy

With the exception of annual luncheons/BBQs
I dont recall a time that more than half our club members were at the field at once

If the cap is an arbitrary number,
perhaps changing it to a Occupancy Cap rather than a enrolled cap
could help

If there is a cap of 100 set by the landowner,
perhaps he would consider a 125 Member Cap with a 80 Field Occupancy limit in the club rules

tinner1

Our club has a cap of 95 and that is dictated by the city because we fall under a "recreation category" and there is a limit to parking based on acreage. So to not "turn away" potential members, the club/landowners agreement is that you are an AMA member, be on our waiting list to join if someone drops out, and can fly as a "guest" as long as an "active member" is present. I am retired and live less than 5 minutes from our field so I offered to be on the notice board to come and be the "active member" so a guest can fly if they show up and no one is there. THAT's how you can promote the hobby even with club caps.

cloudancer03

My Feedback: (22)

when I applied to join my present club they had a cap and I barely got in under the cap.now there is no capand the membership has stagnated.we need new young blood.I can certainly appreciate a club having to impose membership limits.my golf club at one time had to do the same.there are times when its reasonable .but if a club restricts membership with no real valid reason it should be dropped.my experience and likely many here have or have had the same experience when you only see a handful of people using the field.the same people all the time and more than half of the members never fly or participate in outings meetings or anything.which has always made me wonder why restrict membership in the firstplace.

The_Mad_Hatter_632

i would figure if your club was at it's cap and you had so much interest that you had to figure something out that would be a happy problem, as far as the work load issue you'd get another person to help with the books and have a third to check over the two.
for some reason people like to over think things it is easier then most think if you just sit down and think it through .


dbcisco on the parks for electric planes and heli's we'd have to over come the negative stuff such as what happened in the tampa area, but as i've seen even after that accident people are still flying there.

bradpaul

First off to take it off the table the club that I am a president of DOES NOT HAVE A CAP.

But we do require a vetting process for new member and a six month probationary period. Why? Experience has shown that the biggest problem any club can have is the member with an agenda. Old, young middle aged it does not matter if they can't play well in a group we send them on there way. Over the last five years that has happened about two times, once with a young 3D flyer that thought that the rules did not apply to him and once with an "old fart" that wanted to be a field Nazi.

If a club has a cap that is entirely the clubs business, and the AMA like it or not is at the best a provider of low cost insurance.

OK, so that does not play well with some of you, so start your own club, run it the way you want, that is the great thing about freedom........ We currently have about 85 members, would we consider a cap at around 100 members? Probably yes........ but get this our annual dues are $150.00 ..... Are we a "country club" well not yet but that is our goal.

Clubs are individual entities that create there own rules......... if you for some reason move to central Florida and that kind of club appeals to you look us up........ Central Florida Sport Flyers. If our attitude turns you off, well there are a lot of other clubs in the area.

Brad

beepee

An occupancy cap? Oh, great, I charge up, pack up, and drive 30 miles. I get turned away because the limit has already arrived. Think about it. That is not going to work.

It should be the objective of every club to grow the hobby, but there are often other forces involved that have been well covered here. Accept that. As for the club that I referred to earlier that operates with a cap, there is no motive for them to find a second site. Because of the almost urban location, any second site would be at least 25 miles away. Why buy the headache of managing, caring for, and paying for another location? If there is that much need, let another club form and operate there. This is not a who can be the biggest competition.

Bedford

The_Mad_Hatter_632

beepee i don't think that's the way it works although if it is that would be a poor way to do any club.......... i'm not in any club so i could be talking out
of something i do not know .
what i don't understand is why can't you have more then your cap there can't be anyway if you've got 100 members they all show up to fly on the same day, i'm not saying it couldn't happen but what are the odds .

i know if i was in a club i'd probably rarely run into any other members i'm one of those that likes to put it up in the air just as the sun is rising .

KidEpoxy

for an organization that has spent so much time entrenched with
the operations of frequency boards to limit & rotate the number of folks using a capped resource,
why would we just assume the Take Turns concept of using frequencies couldnt be used to take turns using the field? The internet can be used for more than rants: the club could easily institute a rotation / signup system online. You would know weeks in advance if this is your 'every 3 weeks you sit out a day'

It comes from the concept of Overbooking.
What was the last 3 weekends average for 'Highest % of clubmembers at the field at once'?
On average are over 90% of club members at the field at once? 75%?
At our club, an average flying day might have 1/4 of the roster, a good turnout might have 1/2 the members show up.

beepee

Then you have the members that do not have internet access. Sounds crazy, but I know several.

The simple way is the best. My club started at 40 and slowly raised it to 100. The raises were reviewed against the kind of weekend participation we had. In the early days, there might be 6 or so on Sunday. That led to the first increase. As the participation grew, the club raised the membership limits (took maybe 4 years) until the peak activity was how they wanted it. They are happy where it is. No on-field limit. No pre-booking. They have a club event with better than usual turn-out, it gets busy, but everyone has a good time.

You add complexity and someone has to oversee it and police it. This is a hobby with volunteer manangement. And we all know how hard it is to get that management sometimes.

Bedford

KidEpoxy

The frequency board at the club is not on the internet.
The Occupancy Rotation board does not have to exist just on the internet, it can be screwed to the bottom of the freq board at the club. And as I alluded to, once you know which day/days of a 3week cycle you sit out, then there is nothing stopping you from taking a crayon and marking those days on your pin-up calender or dayplanner.

I dont mind solving all the problems you are trying to find with this,
but you dont have to try to find problems for me to easily solve.


But, as Hatter said,
and I am of a similar mind on that.

next 3 times you go to the field
count the guys there,
and let us know if it is more than 75% of your clubs roster on average

The_Mad_Hatter_632

i broke my crayon .................

i'm basing my words off of a local club (i do not belong to) and the many times i've stopped by to catch the action and to just chit chat and nobody was around and that was including a couple of saturday's and sunday's, my mind was "what................ no one fly on the weekend unheard of " !

the only time i could even imagine a almost 100% turn out would be some kind of event, the key word is " almost " ...........
 

fliers1

A couple of years ago, one local club's president showed up with food, drinks and a gas cooker for a scheduled club picnic and funfly.

Turned out, he was the only one who showed. Had all that food all to himself. Needless to say, he was quite upset. I had been telling him that his club's membership was in serious decline, but he insisted that the reason it just appeared that the field was constantly deserted, was because we were not there at the right time. I just could not get it across to him that his club simply didn't have any active fliers on the roster. Even this reality check (no shows) couldn't persuade him.

Fliers1

K-Bob

My Feedback: (1)

Rules, rules, rules. My goodness. That's what makes them clubs so dagburn lousy. All this crud about Internet. Heck we can't even count on our Safety guy to have email!

What ,they gonna have a old fart guarding the gate demanding to see your papers?

"You have a red card, Sonny. No flying for you! Come back in one week!"

Nah.

Grab your 42%er and head for the park playground.

KidEpoxy

"No flying for you! Come back in one week!"

oh, bravo Sir. A well played subtle pop reference.
Me likee[sm=thumbup.gif]

lopflyers

My Feedback: (12)

Land owners rent their lands. At least one of the clubs I belong to have a $1000.00 per month rent. I assume they dont care who flies in their field if the rent is up to date.