[roc-chat] Re: [roc-chat] Re: [Bulk] Re: Participation
- From: "chris_coffee@xxxxxxxxxx" <chris_coffee@xxxxxxxxxx>
- To: roc-chat@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Tue, 13 Nov 2012 23:55:31 -0800
In fact, he is...LOL. You share the name of greatness, sir.
Sent from my Verizon Wireless 4GLTE smartphone
----- Reply message -----
From: "RocketDog" <rocket1dog@xxxxxxx>
To: <roc-chat@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Subject: [roc-chat] Re: [Bulk] Re: Participation
Date: Tue, Nov 13, 2012 10:27 pm
no sir...but I bet he is a great guy.
-----Original Message----- From: Chris Coffee
Sent: Tuesday, November 13, 2012 12:48 PM
To: roc-chat@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [Bulk] [roc-chat] Re: Participation
Are you the Ken Curran from Curran Electric in Barstow?
-----Original Message----- From: RocketDog
Sent: Tuesday, November 13, 2012 12:32 PM
To: roc-chat@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [roc-chat] Re: Participation
Some great thoughts Mike.
I am a BAR. Think this is my 3rd year as a ROC paid member. I joined to
FLY ROCKETS, learn a few things and hang out. I fly High and Low powered
ships. Lately it has been hard to fly. Bad W, too many people and so on.
Add range duty to this and you fly even less. And I have been RSO on
several occasions. The incentive for me to continue assisting is to be able
to fly and not getting stuck for several sessions. Maybe members only times,
days or events. Split hi and low powered launch areas. Two lines. Help
table for the guest members and less experienced flyers and RSO referrals.
Get 'em off the pads (launch safely more quickly).
Ken Curran
-----Original Message----- From: Mike Riss
Sent: Tuesday, November 13, 2012 4:10 AM
To: roc-chat@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [roc-chat] Re: Participation
As a newly-elected member of the ROC Board of Directors, I need to qualify
the following observations
and opinions as being strictly my own, and not anything official. However,
before I get to things,
I would like to thank those who voted, even if they didn't vote for me. I
look forward to
continuing the opportunities to fly rockets and make friendships that ROC
currently provides, as well as
make improvements so that everyone agrees that ROC is one of the best rocket
clubs around!
1) Membership - need to distinguish between "member" and "executive member".
I'm not trying to sound "hokey", but people that attend a rocket launch are
members of the rocketry community,
and by extension, when they attend a ROC launch, they are members of ROC.
In other words, ROC is not only the
Board of Directors, club officers, and executive members, but everyone at
our launch.
While people may consider "Executive" membership as a way to save on launch
fees, or as a way to support the club,
the basic purpose of paying yearly dues is to be able to participate in the
operation and direction of the club
via voting on the club's Board of Directors, as well as qualifying to be on
the BOD. I don't think that the
responsibility for running a launch falls only on those who choose this
membership level. To keep this post from
getting too long, I'll just say that I think EVERYONE that attends a launch
incurs some responsibility to make the
launch happen. The reasons for this would take me some time and many words
to explain, but maybe Brother John can
chime in like he does and put things succinctly in 25 words or less. :-)
2) Survey
At ROCStock, Mike Kraemer mentioned a survey that he had attendees from
ROCtober fill out, on Survey Monkey, IIRC.
Maybe that would be another way to collect
opinions/comments/suggestions/etc. as it would allow people to submit
them anonymously. Some might find it easier to respond to a survey than
take the time and effort to craft a post
that accurately conveys their thoughts without drawing someone's ire. Mike
Kramer, if you wouldn't mind, please
send me the link to that offline. Thanks!
3) ROCtober
As I posted last month, I had a great time. Yes, it was a lot of work, but
I recall my time in scouting, and would
have loved to have gone to an event like this back then. I can understand
it's not everyone's cup of tea. However,
without new participants coming into the hobby, how much longer can
manufacturers and vendors survive the attrition
that time, competing interests, and changing life circumstances take on
those currently in the hobby? My personal
opinion is that it's worth focusing one month on this type of activity.
Keep in mind that we're not just talking
about the youngsters here, but their parents and other adults as well. How
many BAR's stories start with
"I used to do rockets, got out of it for awhile, but got back in doing it
with my kids"?
4) Low power/High power at ROCStock
I was LCO from noon to close, and launched plenty of high power rockets. I
also got in a flight of my own (J350) before
that, around 11am. Maybe the perception was that there were more low power
flights because earlier in the day,
there were. It always seems to take most of those flying high power longer
to get rockets to the pads, but eventually
they do -- or maybe it's just me that takes a while to get going ;-) We
did manage to fly over 1,000 rockets on the
Saturday of ROCtober. Sure, something like 80 to 90 percent were low power,
but any way you cut it, that's a lot of
times the "GO" button was pushed :-) I know my fingers were sore after
LCOing for a few hours! Maybe we need to
adopt the way low power was managed at ROCtober for ROCStock as well. It
takes more people, but seemed to keep
both low power and high power fliers happy.
5) Participation (FINALLY!)
Maybe people feel like because they paid, they shouldn't have to do what
they consider "work". Maybe they're intimidated
by what they think might be expected of them, especially if they don't know
what that might be. Maybe they're just
not "people" people -- think the stereotype of being introverted that
"technical/scientific" types get labeled with.
Maybe each month they see some people that always hang out together, and
memories from high school of cliques of
the "cool kids" come flooding back. Maybe they have competing commitments
and have to compromise by not being able
to devote a whole day (or days for ROCStock and ROCtober). Maybe they just
don't know how many people it really takes,
and/or assume that there are plenty of people. I've taken it for granted
that I need to help out for a number of years
now. However, I only recently recalled that for the first couple of years
that I came out, I just showed up, flew, and
went home. I wish I could recall what it was that caused me to walk up and
ask Rick O'Neil if he needed help tearing
down. Even if I could recall, I don't know that my reason would work for
anyone else.
I know that I said at the beginning that this was just going to be about my
personal thoughts. However, I am going to
spend some time looking for additional ways to get feedback for the club's
BOD and officers on these subjects,
like maybe a survey. ROC-Chat is great, but I think we need to "cast a
wider net".
Mike
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