Contest participation

thanks for all the info. I read Soaring and r.a.s religiously, and had no idea. I went to thermal camp last year at Air Sailing, and they also have an XC camp and wave camp.

Let me recap what I found.

ABQ Soaring -- nothing on their website http://www.abqsoaring.org/calendar.php?year=2016

Seminole Lake -- SSA calendar has "Seminole Lake Wave Camp," which has only the date and a person to contact. No info on the Seminole Lake website itself http://www.soarfl.com/Upcoming_Events.html

Lake Keepit 4 day xc -- http://www.keepitsoaring.com/LKSC/in...ay-xc-weekends

Ephrata -- http://www.thedustup.info/

Region 1 -- http://www.flynesa.com/Region1/ "The Bus class is intended to encourage clubs to bring a two seater, and more importantly bring members new to contests. Generally, this class features an experienced instructor pilot and a rotating cast of copilots new to the racing scene. What a great way to contribute to the growth of cross-country and competition soaring!"

Region 2 -- http://tinyurl.com/h8g64gz We will have an "OLC" class for pilots who want to participate but not fly in the normal regional contest classes. Pilots may select their own tasks or fly the FAI or Sports task. Flights will be scored using the OLC and daily best performances will be recognized. Coaching and mentoring will be available. If you are interested in flying the OLC Class, just register as a Guest and I'll contact you individually with other details.

some other's i found:

Air Sailing -- http://www.airsailing.org/xc_camp2016.html

Nelphi -- google finds old XC camp pages, but nothing up for 2016 yet http://www.utahsoaring.org/

Exactly. The SSA is very fractured (to say the least) in its communication and marketing execution even though that task should be job #1.

From what I can see, we at the SSA has no very little marketing or marketing strategy. Our website should be set up based on our key audiences. It is not. It is generally set up to serve active existing SSA members.

We very little in the form of a growth and development strategy. Very little social media strategy. We have an almost ancient website that speaks for itself. Again, it only really serves the people who are already familiar with the SSA and know what they are looking for. You really do not get a sense of what is important or really going on at the SSA from our website. For example, another forum was recently created to foster inter club communications. I'm sure that there are others. This information cannot be found as a resource from the SSA website.

You're description of learning about cross country camps, etc from RAS and varied sources really speaks volumes to the larger problem.

No wonder RAS is so popular. It's really the best communication platform available. This is sad. What a huge opportunity for the SSA.

The SSA should have its own moderated (login required) forum really...

This problem (finding cross country camps or destinations or destination based non contest events, etc) is a perfect use case example for an SSA site rebuild.

Who are the target audiences for the SSA website? Are we providing them with good information or are they forced to go to RAS or "search around" for themselves? Of course if they are forced to go elsewhere the SSA has failed, miserably...

Quick list of SSA website target audience...

General public (unfamiliar but somehow interested in soaring and doing research...)
Contest pilots
Prospective Contest Pilots
Cross country pilots (non contest)
"Prospective" Cross Country Pilots
Pilots looking for soaring travel destinations
Pilots looking for soaring camps and coaching, training, mentoring...
OLC community
Prospective OLC Pilots
Commercial Soaring Operations
Prospective Commercial Operation Customers
Club pattern pilots (non-cross country)
Student pilots
Prospective students pilots
Prospective existing (but non glider) pilots (power, etc)
Tow pilots
Soaring Clubs
Soaring Club members
Junior pilots (should be top of this list)
Female pilots
Soaring Club members
Soaring Clubs
Instructors
Cross Country active Clubs
No Cross Country Clubs
Media
International Soaring Community
Potential Event Sponsors
Etc., etc.

This is a significant task but each of these audiences are very important. We need communications and marketing strategies that serve most or all of these communities. Little exists for them now.

We need to bring the SSA out of the 90's and into 2016.

Sean Fidler

On Sunday, January 31, 2016 at 9:37:54 AM UTC-5, Bob Pasker wrote:
thanks for all the info. I read Soaring and r.a.s religiously, and had no idea. I went to thermal camp last year at Air Sailing, and they also have an XC camp and wave camp.

Let me recap what I found.

ABQ Soaring -- nothing on their website http://www.abqsoaring.org/calendar.php?year=2016

Seminole Lake -- SSA calendar has "Seminole Lake Wave Camp," which has only the date and a person to contact. No info on the Seminole Lake website itself http://www.soarfl.com/Upcoming_Events.html

Lake Keepit 4 day xc -- http://www.keepitsoaring.com/LKSC/in...ay-xc-weekends

Ephrata -- http://www.thedustup.info/

Region 1 -- http://www.flynesa.com/Region1/ "The Bus class is intended to encourage clubs to bring a two seater, and more importantly bring members new to contests. Generally, this class features an experienced instructor pilot and a rotating cast of copilots new to the racing scene. What a great way to contribute to the growth of cross-country and competition soaring!"

Region 2 -- http://tinyurl.com/h8g64gz We will have an "OLC" class for pilots who want to participate but not fly in the normal regional contest classes. Pilots may select their own tasks or fly the FAI or Sports task. Flights will be scored using the OLC and daily best performances will be recognized. Coaching and mentoring will be available. If you are interested in flying the OLC Class, just register as a Guest and I'll contact you individually with other details.

some other's i found:

Air Sailing -- http://www.airsailing.org/xc_camp2016.html

Nelphi -- google finds old XC camp pages, but nothing up for 2016 yet http://www.utahsoaring.org/

Hi Bob
How long did it take you to search out the information above?
Thx
UH