The two clubs I launch with are predominately males over the age of 50. All of the launches I've been to over the last 5 years had, at most, 1 or 2 people under the age of 20 actively participating.
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Unfortunately I see this hobby becoming esoteric once the baby boomers and early gen-x'ers are gone.
The observation above is not far off the mark, but I disagree with the conclusion.
You will see why in a moment.
Last year I had actively attended launches with 2 local clubs, with longer (once a year) drives to 2 additional clubs.
One of the two local clubs always draws a good sized crowd of 15-40 people throughout the launch day, with 1-3 families with kids in attendance in additional to the usual assortment of white males over 40.
The second local club frequently cancels launch dates, or bails on them early if no-one arrives within the first 30 minutes of launch opening time in the morning. Guess what my family does? We come to the 2nd club's site with our local launch equipment, and by mid-day usually have another 1-3 other families with kids come and join us to launch rockets off our pad. The families who come out and launch with us have fun at the
family-friendly times of the day, when the official club chieftains are long gone. The official "club" reports that no-one showed up for launch.
We also hold impromptu low-power launches at the local HS's athletic field, and at a local park, and coordinate with other families and cub scout packs who want to gather and have fun launching rockets. Works well, and everyone has fun, but you will never see any sign of this activity on the NAR or Tripoli "books", "reports", or membership rosters.
Thus, if you were to come out to the official launches with the second "club" - you would conclude that the hobby is dead, and no-one shows up to the launch days. That club still exists, but mostly in (very well regarded, award winning) newsletter form.
If you come out to the launches with the first club - you will conclude that the hobby is doing just fine.
However, if you find us launching rockets with local kids, you might surmise that the hobby is prospering and growing like crazy.
Draw your own conclusions.
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