possible anti-gloom lessons

Ham radio and general aviation (GA) have a lot of things in common. Among
them a



They are both technology oriented.



The members of each can't understand why more people aren't interested in
it.



They both have a storied history, have kind of fallen on hard times, but
have lots and lots of new things going on, and are having problems getting
the kind of "traction" they used to.



Ham radio's national organization (the ARRL) is very analogous to the EAA.



Both are male dominated, but wives normally come along.



Both have a local network of local clubs.



And ham radio has a demographics problem that is a lot worse than GA, but GA
will probably be about the same as ham radio is now in ten years.



This past Saturday was "Field Day", ham radio's national "holiday", think of
it as Oshkosh, but distributed across the country with the participants in
radio contact with each other. On a national level, they do all the right
things: alert the national media, have draft press releases for local clubs
to use, have lots of information for the participants. For the first time,
I went to a Field Day event this Saturday. Of all the clubs in the Seattle
area, only one club was having an event local to me. I won't mention the
club, because I expect the situation I saw was repeated across the country.
The club is one of largest ones, and is even employer sponsored.



Before I went, I read their newsletter (on-line, a good start). I should
have noticed that even though they have lots of subcommittees, a lot of them
had "No report" at the last meeting; that could be considered a lack of
vitality. The newsletter listed a bunch of demos they hoped to have set up
on Field Day. I slept in, and was concerned that I might have missed some
stuff: I shouldn't have worried. They did have signs when I got close, but
they were generic club signs, not anything specific to "Field Day". If I
hadn't know that the club was sponsoring a Field Day event, I wouldn't have
paid any attention to the signs. There were quite a few vehicles, so I got
out and started looking for the "action". Lots of people in their RVs, and
lots of people in their tents. Where it looked like the radios were, no
one was sitting there. After walking around for a few minutes, I got mad
and left. It was probably the last Field Day event I'll ever go to.



Why am I posting this here? Because I think there are a lot of lessons that
can be applied to GA. If I had been someone wanting to get involved in GA
and went to a Fly-in that was done like this Field Day event, it would be
the last Fly-in I'd ever go to, and even worse, I'd figure that GA was a
bunch of geriatric curmudgeons and the last thing they needed was all these
airports taking up valuable real estate.



In no particular order:



Lack of subcommittee reports aren't an indication of club vitality, they ARE
club vitality. Subcommittee people, if they feel no one cares, will reflect
that in their work. One of the most important jobs of a club president is
to have the right subcomittees, and then to make them feel important.



There might have been other Field Day sites I could have gone to, but they
didn't advertise because "everyone knows" that they put on an event and
where. The event I went to wasn't even linked to off of the national
website, if I hadn't known of the club's website, I wouldn't have known
about it; in retrospect, that might have been for the better! I'm always
amazed how many fly-ins don't list themselves on sites such as
www.flyins.com.



Don't advertise "hoped for" events/demos unless there is a very high degree
of probability.



What the national organization(s) do is of marginal importance if the local
clubs don't take advantage of it and leverage it in the local media. The
best way to get coverage in the local media is to take them up for a
"sightseeing" flight a couple of weeks BEFORE the event, and take them out
to lunch after the flight.



Road signs and banners need to be relavant if you hope to draw
non-aviation/fringe aviation people. For someone coming to their first
fly-in, a sign that says "EAA Chapter xxx" doesn't mean squat. And don't
forget to add "Everyone Welcome!" (In my mind, the often used "Visitors
Welcome" doesn't work as well, people don't want to "visit" with strangers.



Fly-ins need to work hard to avoid being excuses to go camping with your
friends, like Field Day has become. I don't really know what this is, but I
know what it isn't. Walking around an area where everyone is inside their
tents and RVs makes me feel like either a thief or a voyeur.



And probably the best lesson I came away with:



Events that are trying to bring fresh blood in need "Greeters". Since there
are a lot of wives at Fly-ins trying really hard not to be bored, and since
women on average are more personable than men, this sounds like a heck of an
opportunity to kill two birds with one stone. Have the greeters wear badges
or vests that say "Greeter". Have a greeting table (clearly identified as
such) right at the entrance with a schedule of events (the time for the
meals, and special fly-overs, etc) and flyers from as much avaition related
stuff as you can (CAP, SAR, flight schools, airport restuarants, avaition
themed motels, other local fly-ins, regional fly-ins, closest aviation
museums, value of the airport to the local economy, etc.) If the fly-in is
large enough, have a map that shows the restrooms and kid's play area.
Don't forget things to prevent the flyers from blowing away. This is also a
great way to find out how people found out about the fly-in.