What is most important in making a club attractive?

I am allowing multiple selections for this poll, and I have little doubt that we might see 100% across the board. But I am curious as to what people think.

It really depends on what people are looking for. A lot of people join our club flying low power and then some graduate to mid and high power. So many people joining a club aren't looking for high power to start.

Other than friendliness of members I don't know what is apparent to people "off the street" who want to join any club. If you know the people or know their reputation than other things do apply.

A functional website with contact information newer than 15 years old.

Having access to a decent field and hosting launches often. Without these everything on your list fails.

astronwolf said:

Having access to a decent field and hosting launches often. Without these everything on your list fails.

Click to expand...

Hmm, I kind of took that as a given, but in hindsight, probably should have made it a choice.

Friendliness of the members, hands down. I won't attend the nearest club to me for this very reason.

You forgot to include "location" or "distance travelled". And, number of launches per year.

I cross the US border to fly in the US because my local /regional club:

• Is actually a longer commute (2hr vs 1.25hrs (including the 5 minutes border stop & 5 minute Dunkin donut stop!!))
• Fly much less (4-6 times a year compared to every month)
• Dues are way more (even with the US/CAD exchange rate)
• Insurance / organization affiliation
• An out-of-date website
• And (sad to say) I didn't initially feel welcome..

I casted, waiver altitude, knowledge of the RSO/LCO, and low flight fees. A close commute trumps all. I’m an L1 on a limited budget looking to L2 this year. Lateral recovery area is a massive big one on my list. I don’t care if you have a 25kft waiver if it’s only a quarter mile recovery radius. I also really dislike any RSO/LCO that lacks a bunch of practical experience knowledge. I’ve met flyers as unfriendly to call me an idiot to my face not naming names during an L1 cert but when I learned a bunch step by step it made the insult worth it. I’d rather get called an idiot and learn the right way. And those flyers that mentored knew more than two other RSO’s I met.

It sucks when an greener RSO tells a new flyer to buy a new different rocket for L1 cert when another grumpy insult yelling experienced flyer simply shows you how to pack chutes and cords properly to fit inside your existing short stumpy rockets. Just rambling here. Huge turnoffs are swamps, lakes, cornstalks, excessive trees too close to pads, too many freaking houses next door, and rolling hills. Nothing sucks more than driving eight hours to find out the high waiver free flight fee launch site is on the middle of a residential neighborhood with bad rod angles, high winds, and full of rocket eating obstacles.

I can deal with insults. I hated neighborhood high power rocket recovery this year. Rant of a new guy. Words that made me cringe during multistage complex competition flights from an unnamed RSO was I’ve never flown a multistage before. They can hold an L3 and still not know how a min diameter H to H staged flight works yet they cleared it for flight and your pushing the waiver harder than most single stages have at that launch site. That’s a scary feeling when it boils down to try it and don’t get hurt lol.

Without friendly members and conducting operations safely, nothing else matters.

I don’t see it in your poll but what has really caused our club to grow this past year was the acquisition of a new field that has a whole lot more recovery area than our old field. Our numbers have doubled and I’ve heard nothing but positive comments about the new field.

I’ve been to launch sites in Utah, Virginia, Florida, South Carolina, and Alabama. Out of those places I haven’t ever encountered very unfriendly members as a new guy to this hobby. No one ever dropped cuss words to my face or did anything that made me truly feel unwelcomed.

timbucktoo said:

I don’t see it in your poll but what has really caused our club to grow this past year was the acquisition of a new field that has a whole lot more recovery area than our old field. Our numbers have doubled and I’ve heard nothing but positive comments about the new field.

Click to expand...

Lateral recovery area trumps waiver on my opinion. What good is a high waiver if you can’t push it with large recovery area? The HARA place got Jackson 5 field to play with in spring. The turnout for Feb 9th was massive and even had an L3 cert attempt on an M. There was a lot less obstacles than the other field they had on fall. Many flyers including myself were very impressed with the newer larger cornstalk free field.

Every time I've ever created a poll, I've wished I could go back and add more selections. Ah, well. It is what it is.

TimothyG said:

A functional website with contact information newer than 15 years old.

Click to expand...

Having accurate coordinate location data for flyers out of state and new to the field to actually find the damn place.

Flyfalcons said:

Without friendly members and conducting operations safely, nothing else matters.

Click to expand...

To that I would add Communications, keeping people aware of what going on and when, generally across several mediums such as a website, social media and regional mailing lists.

Porta-Potty

dshmel said:

Porta-Potty

Click to expand...

Let's add CLEAN porta-potty.

dshmel said:

Porta-Potty

Click to expand...

This item seems so ellusive to many smaller clubs. Yet it’s a basic sanitary need and women really appreciate it. Flyers are in a better mood when they have a place to sh*t. I’ve met guys that turned really grumpy too when they needed to go.

Baristas.

Maybe I'm just really lucky in our club. I really haven't seen much in the way of trouble from RSOs/LCOs other than LCOs regularly mispronouncing my name. In their defense, it's not obvious how it should be pronounced, so I'm not really complaining. Distance traveled is kind of a bastard for HPR, but the LPR/MPR field is only an hour or so away.

Pro tip on portapotties: our club rents a line of them for campers at weekend launches. The ones in the middle stay a lot cleaner than the ones on the ends.

NO DRAMA

Andrew_ASC said:

This item seems so ellusive to many smaller clubs. Yet it’s a basic sanitary need and women really appreciate it. Flyers are in a better mood when they have a place to sh*t. I’ve met guys that turned really grumpy too when they needed to go.

Click to expand...

Depends (no pun intended) on the club. When I flew in MN years ago, both the NAR and Tripoli clubs had a porta-potty(s) for their monthly scheduled all-day launches. I fly in Argonia and we also try to make the 2 MWP (mini and regular) launches hosted by QCRS. They all have facilities. Another club that I launch with does not have portable facilities. In that case, it is a 2 hour drive, a half day (!) launch, and then another 2 hours home. Of course, I stop before reaching the site and then another stop afterward. But a porta-potty should be in the club budget and would attract more families.

Our low power club has a 1,000 ft max altitude, is surrounded by Mission Bay (on windier days a rocket or two will end up in the water), up until a month or two ago our website looked like it was put together on a rusty ColecoVision, the only porta-potty is a city parks one located a hefty walk from the flight line, we’re limited to low/mid power, launches are 4 hours max per day, and our communications are few and far between.

We’re slammed with participants. We even have lines with some questionable line management and people keep coming back.

I’m interested to see if the growing lines start discouraging people and the group shrinks a little.

As for high power, I love our HPR group. There’s rarely a line for a pad, short waits to launch, 18K waiver, tons of room to recover. It’s easy to go high there.

Something I’ve experienced at other clubs that really discouraged me was long lines for a pad assignment and long waits on the pad to launch. I saw poor organization that lead to the latter. It was a high power field and I didn’t trust them to launch before my electronics batts died. There was no way I was going to try an onboard camera. I’ve stayed away from that field for the most part.

Hot Dogs

How tough is it to say 'boatgeek' ? JK, nobody can say my last name right either, unless they're Hungarian. Potties are good, big fields are good, food is good, People have always been good to me. As members, Help Set up/Break Down, do a stint as RSO, schlep some stuff, help keep the field clean, it's the core group that makes a good club, and oh, having someplace to fly. (Speaking from experience on the last one).

-Mike

Bat-mite said:

Every time I've ever created a poll, I've wished I could go back and add more selections. Ah, well. It is what it is.

Click to expand...

You forgot "Rockets with really nice paint jobs".

Nathan said:

You forgot "Rockets with really nice paint jobs".

Click to expand...

I don't know ... Tom has a lot of fans.

DAllen said:

NO DRAMA

Click to expand...

This is huge in any club setting. There are always those who love to create drama, play politics, etc, and that has to be the absolute worst thing for any club.

The main rc flying club that I belong to has the number one rule of "no drama allowed". This has made it the most fun and relaxed club in the area, and probably has the largest number of experienced pilots, as well. Because of that number one rule everyone knows what to expect. Anyone who causes drama is out. A VERY low number of people have ever been asked to leave.

A good field is a big one, too. Being able to launch/fly with low risk of losing a rocket is great and makes a location that much more attractive.

Waiver altitude on HPR is something that has caused me to look to travelling to the US (Canadian flier here) for my certification flight, but HPR will be a relatively low amount of my flying. The local club has no limit on low and mid-power and is only about half an hour away for me. Looking forward to flying there when the schedule is released.

1. Field
2. Pad management and throughput
3. Keeping a schedule and not being afraid of a little weather (one club near me cancels launches if a 10 day forecast says it "might" rain and wimps out entirely during the winter months.)