Club Growth

Is anyone experiencing a resurgence in club growth and if so, could you share the following with me (as well as any any other suggestions you might have for other clubs):

How would you quantify any recent growth?

How long have you been experiencing such growth?

Do you believe such growth was a one-off scenario or do you believe it is sustainable (and why)?

What factor(s) do you think lead to such growth?

Do you attribute any of it to club member participation in social media? If so, please describe.

What is the demographic makeup of these new members (i.e., age, profession, are they a transition pilot, do you know of any other hobbies/interests they have)?

What are you doing to facilitate training and retain these new members?

Are you doing anything in particular to recruit GenX and Millenials into your club?

Thank you for your responses!

Best regards,

Chris Schrader, SSA Director Region 6
Clubs & Chapters Committee

Our little club is doing well.

Membership up 50% over 6 months. Not saying much - we went from 8 active
members to 13 active members.

We still fly ancient Bergfalkes, but we have a couple of newer glass ships.
Growth has been "lumpy" but we are attracting the 25-30 year olds.
1* low time PPL who took an intro and said - this is the way to learn
stick and rudder skills.
2* 25 year old who recently graduated university. His father flies, and
now he has time to learn.
1* Early 20s lady - DAD is a COM pilot, she has taken a few flights over
the last few years, now has a job that allows her to finance getting her
license.
1* ~30 year old Local who saw the gliders overhead for afew years, and
eventually wandered into the hangar...

Dumped the static website and moved to Facebook. Started posting videos
and pictures of what we do. Lot higher qualified interest generated -
the people we reach have some connection.

Biggest change for us was to get the club operations slick, new launch
trailer with all the kit/documentation in it. Now when they get to the
airfield, we are set up to make it a more engaging and slick experience.
There is a cluster of chairs under the shade awning...

So you might say we took a customer centric approach. Made it organised,
accessible and pleasant for family, friends and visitors. We are getting
new members from all three groups.

Bruce

On 2017-01-25 20:07, Christopher Schrader wrote:
Is anyone experiencing a resurgence in club growth and if so, could you share the following with me (as well as any any other suggestions you might have for other clubs):

How would you quantify any recent growth?

How long have you been experiencing such growth?

Do you believe such growth was a one-off scenario or do you believe it is sustainable (and why)?

What factor(s) do you think lead to such growth?

Do you attribute any of it to club member participation in social media? If so, please describe.

What is the demographic makeup of these new members (i.e., age, profession, are they a transition pilot, do you know of any other hobbies/interests they have)?

What are you doing to facilitate training and retain these new members?

Are you doing anything in particular to recruit GenX and Millenials into your club?

Thank you for your responses!

Best regards,

Chris Schrader, SSA Director Region 6
Clubs & Chapters Committee


--
Bruce Greeff
T59D #1771

On Wednesday, January 25, 2017 at 1:07:19 PM UTC-5, Christopher Schrader wrote:
Is anyone experiencing a resurgence in club growth and if so, could you share the following with me (as well as any any other suggestions you might have for other clubs):

How would you quantify any recent growth?

How long have you been experiencing such growth?

Do you believe such growth was a one-off scenario or do you believe it is sustainable (and why)?

What factor(s) do you think lead to such growth?

Do you attribute any of it to club member participation in social media? If so, please describe.

What is the demographic makeup of these new members (i.e., age, profession, are they a transition pilot, do you know of any other hobbies/interests they have)?

What are you doing to facilitate training and retain these new members?

Are you doing anything in particular to recruit GenX and Millenials into your club?

Thank you for your responses!

Best regards,

Chris Schrader, SSA Director Region 6
Clubs & Chapters Commit

Our club has had a steady small stream of new members over the past 5 years.. We have a very active local Hang Gliding group and pilots got tired of carry their gliders up mountain trails and other inconveniences and transferred over. Reach out to those clubs...sooner or latter they will come.

Dennis....DC

On Thursday, January 26, 2017 at 6:27:28 AM UTC-5, BruceGreeff wrote:
Our little club is doing well.

Membership up 50% over 6 months. Not saying much - we went from 8 active
members to 13 active members.

We still fly ancient Bergfalkes, but we have a couple of newer glass ships.
Growth has been "lumpy" but we are attracting the 25-30 year olds.
1* low time PPL who took an intro and said - this is the way to learn
stick and rudder skills.
2* 25 year old who recently graduated university. His father flies, and
now he has time to learn.
1* Early 20s lady - DAD is a COM pilot, she has taken a few flights over
the last few years, now has a job that allows her to finance getting her
license.
1* ~30 year old Local who saw the gliders overhead for afew years, and
eventually wandered into the hangar...

Dumped the static website and moved to Facebook. Started posting videos
and pictures of what we do. Lot higher qualified interest generated -
the people we reach have some connection.

Biggest change for us was to get the club operations slick, new launch
trailer with all the kit/documentation in it. Now when they get to the
airfield, we are set up to make it a more engaging and slick experience.
There is a cluster of chairs under the shade awning...

So you might say we took a customer centric approach. Made it organised,
accessible and pleasant for family, friends and visitors. We are getting
new members from all three groups.
--
Bruce Greeff
T59D #1771

Hi Bruce - what country are you operating in?
Uli

Aero Club Albatross has been doing quite well in the membership department. In 2008, we had a total of 91 members. As of this January we have 107. Furthermore, "Full Flying" membership has increased from 44 to 66. Our dues structure gets most of its income from full flying members, particularly as they are paying in their initiation fee, so the membership increase has been particularly good for us.

We are doing a better job of retaining people. There's a lot more energy in the club and a lot of flying happening from Blairstown.

I believe that the biggest reasons are that the club is quite affordable and provides a clear pathway from rating to soaring. People joining the club can putter around the pattern through taking gliders to National competitions. Cross country flying is encouraged and people will wholeheartedly volunteer to crew if someone lands out. As the club provides these opportunities, we have a lot more time to hook people to stay with the sport since they are not burdened with a big capital investment once they get their rating.

Furthermore, the club has coalesced into a much better defined social body. My opinion is that Blairstown used to be more "cliqueish". There were the guys that fly club equipment, the 1-26 guys, and the high-performance ships.. It seems to me that these distinctions have largely disappeared. We're all out to have fun and soar.

Another thing is that we upgraded our fleet and we did so using a lot of sweat equity. The best improvement was the Grob Twin Astir, though we also now have a LS3 and LS4. The work we have been doing on the Grob Twin Astir, LS4 and 2-33 has added another level of enthusiasm to the club. While there are some club members that do a lot, a lot of club members have done some work on those projects. It is particularly exciting when the gliders come out nice after months of work and especially since we can't really afford to have them done any other way.

We do have social media now, specifically an Aero Club Albatross facebook page. The page is useful to showcase our work and flying, though I don't believe it is directly going to increase membership. Consider it "earned media" that keeps getting the Aero Club Albatross name out to the rest of the world. It's supplemental, though it is a nice addition.

Our best marketing device has been OLC. There is no better way to showcase the quality of a soaring site than show all the great flights happening there.

Most of our new members are either foreigners who are working in the city and were exposed to soaring in their own country or empty-nester airplane geeks. We're getting more and more members making the big drive from New York City.

We're somewhat unique in our location, though I think we're finally on a path to consistent growth.

Hope this helps,

Daniel Sazhin
Membership Chairman
Aero Club Albatross

On Wednesday, January 25, 2017 at 1:07:19 PM UTC-5, Christopher Schrader wrote:
Is anyone experiencing a resurgence in club growth and if so, could you share the following with me (as well as any any other suggestions you might have for other clubs):

How would you quantify any recent growth?

How long have you been experiencing such growth?

Do you believe such growth was a one-off scenario or do you believe it is sustainable (and why)?

What factor(s) do you think lead to such growth?

Do you attribute any of it to club member participation in social media? If so, please describe.

What is the demographic makeup of these new members (i.e., age, profession, are they a transition pilot, do you know of any other hobbies/interests they have)?

What are you doing to facilitate training and retain these new members?

Are you doing anything in particular to recruit GenX and Millenials into your club?

Thank you for your responses!

Best regards,

Chris Schrader, SSA Director Region 6
Clubs & Chapters Committee

TCSC, Treasure Coast Soaring Club, was launched in November and we have 25 members as of last weekend. Excellent location and hangar space available at X52, New Hibiscus Airport, Vero Beach, Florida.