WhiskyTangoFoxtrot
Well-Known Member
- Joined
- Jun 11, 2019
- Messages
- 140
- Reaction score
- 32
Got my NAR Members' Guide Today. What a POS. Nothing but recycled articles and no member discounts. What a waste. Try to defend this, sportsfans.
Well, you lost me, dude. You say you miss the discounts and the membership coupons. I guarantee you if you remember the issues of this guide that had those things you've wasted your time leafing though this bunch of recycled material. This material is only good for someone who can't tell the difference between an Estes Alpha III and a LOC Cyclotron.What were you expecting? Advance LINUX guided multi staged MACH 2+ min-dia carbon fiber Strato scratchers articles?!
It's an excellent learning tool, and a great reference for newer rocketeers. While I did miss the discounts & coupon pages, it was still packed with good information. And it only comes out once every 2 years.
I may be relatively new to NAR, but I don't remember seeing any of the articles in my past publications of Sport Rocketry.. And frankly, while the articles are below me, it's a great tool for newbies. I gave mine to an eager colleague who's showing an interest in model rocketry. Bring it to your local club to donate to other newbies if you don't want it.. Or the local scout troop, or air cadets, or 4H, or...
If you think it's such a POS, what can you offer to help improve it? Magazines in general are dying, they need people to contribute articles & content & such. Sadly, we all seem less & less likely to do one, despite a nice reward for doing so.. ($350 if I recall, for a published article)
NAR put out a magazine & a help guide. That's more than some organizations do with the fan-base we have.
Hardly progress for an organization that has it's largest membership ever.It's important to keep in mind how many new members join each year. While some articles may be 'recycled', for a large number of people they contain new material for them.
I'll tell you what I can offer to improve it. Make it a part of a new member's enrollment package. I'm willing to bet that 75% of the people who got this POS learned absolutely nothing new
In terms of discounts, I would assume that is up to the different vendors to offer a discount. I doubt NAR ever subsidized the discounts. If the vendors have not offered a discount they may have found in the past they didn't get enough response to make it worthwhile....
In terms of discounts, I would assume that is up to the different vendors to offer a discount. I doubt NAR ever subsidized the discounts. If the vendors have not offered a discount they may have found in the past they didn't get enough response to make it worthwhile....
True, and I'd wager that the vendors offering discounts in the guide actually had to pay an advertising fee, which subsidized the cost of the guide.
Incorrect. We don't sell ad space in the Member Guidebook, only Sport Rocketry magazine.
I’ve been a member of NAR for at least 5 years or more, and I don’t remember ever receiving this Guide in the past. This is the first one I remember receiving. When I saw it in my mailbox, I thought it was going to be a copy of Sport Rocketry, but obviously it’s not, and clearly it serves a very different purpose. Frankly, I wouldn’t expect a publication like the guide to be updated very often — that’s not the purpose of it. It looks to me like a broad overview of rocketry for people who are new to rocketry and new to NAR, so unless something changes significantly in the overview topics covered for that specific audience, you wouldn’t expect an update to the material.
The Guide does seem like something that should be sent to new members with their initial membership, not sent out to all members every 2 years. I see the value for a new member, but not much value to anyone who has been in the hobby a few years.
Do you have a Handbook of Model Rocketry ( Stine ) ? If not, you're in for a real treat!As a beginner I'm finding the guide anything but a POS. I can see where experienced flyers have no use for it, but it's answering a lot of my newbie questions (and admittedly raising a few more), so hopefully I'll be able to learn a lot from it and have smooth launches that don't delay or disrupt the more experienced people at launch events. This is one way that it can serve even experienced people: it will hopefully cut down on the numbers of clueless newbies. There will always be a few, of course.
Try to defend this, sportsfans.
Do you have a Handbook of Model Rocketry ( Stine ) ? If not, you're in for a real treat!
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