Sounds good now hammer this to the powers that be in the orgs.
> Dear Rocketeers,
>
> Below you will find my plan for saving rocketry now. Please read my proposal
> ASAP and e-mail me with comments. If you agree with my proposal, please
> contact the Tripoli and/or NAR BOD and let them know you are for the plan. > Thank you,
>
> ---Frank Rocketman Uroda
> President of Public Missiles Ltd.
>
> ------------------------------------------------------
>
> Frank R Uroda
> 09/22/03
>
> Re: Rocketry is dying.
>
> To the BOD of the NAR and TRA,
>
> The news isn't good. The regulators are at our throats. People are leaving
> the hobby in droves. The rocketry organizations are fighting hard but are
> running out of time and money. Small vendors are giving up and going back to
> their day job. The large vendors (relatively speaking) are all on the verge
> of bankruptcy. The regulators know if they hold us back long enough, our
> numbers will dwindle and we will die away. And they are right.
>
> Some have suggested we vendors should spend more money on advertising in the
> rocketry magazines. They think that this will draw more people into the
> hobby. But do they realize that 98% of their readers are already in the
> hobby? We need to reach those that don't know about the hobby.
>
> About 5% of the US population has flown rockets as kids. Of those about 10%
> would get back into rocketry if they knew how it has grown and matured (IE.
> mid and high power). That said, handing out 1000 free rocket magazines
> *might* lead to 5 prospects. Is that cost effective? Of course not. But this
> is what has been going on with HPR and other rocketry mags in this industry
> for years. Additionally, these prospects need to be followed up on. A single
> issue or ad will not get them hooked. They need to be reminded over and
> over. You need to catch them at just the right time. How many times have you
> read something that interested you and you said to yourself "I gotta try
> this someday". Then you forget all about it. If it was in your face on a
> regular basis, you would be more likely to give it a try. Of the people I
> meet on the street, none of them knows that HPR exists. Not one. >
> What we really need is new blood in the sport...and a lot of it! There is
> strength (and money) in numbers. We told the former president of Tripoli
> about my plan in the mid 90's. Tripoli should have taken us up on our offer
> years ago. If it had, by 2000 Tripoli would have had 15-20,000 members. What
> kind of voice would we have had in Washington with numbers like that? Now
> it's time to do or die.
>
> In the past, the NAR and TRA board of directors were always too cautious
> when it came to spending money on our defense and our growth. In the last 2
> years or so they learned a hard lesson on the importance of defense. They
> both stepped up to the plate and are doing what it takes to save the hobby.
> But an army cannot win if it's fallen soldiers are not replaced. So now TRA
> and the NAR need to learn about growth.
>
> No more preaching to the choir, no more half measures. We need to increase
> the number of active people in our hobby by a factor of 10 starting now. How
> do we do this? By promoting rocketry on television, in major, national (and
> international) magazines and on high traffic, space related websites. >
> Below is my plan for Phase 1 of the "Help Rocketry Survive and Thrive > Campaign":
>
> We have a once in a life time opportunity with the Discovery channel. They
> spent over $1,000,000 producing a one hour special on rocketry and LDRS.
> This series of shows will reach 6 million homes. Five million of the viewers
> will be our target audience; men between the ages of 25 and 54. The Discover
> Channel told me it will begin running the 3 hour show (Rocket Challenge) in
> November and it will run 6 times. If we (NAR and TRA) don't have commercials
> airing during the show, we will have blown it for all time. What we MUST
> have 3, 15 second national spots for each time this show airs. This show is
> equivalent to MILLIONS of advertising dollars but without our contact info,
> it's totally worthless. They will not give us the airtime during the shows
> required to get our info to the public. We will have to buy it in the form
> of commercials. That is how it works, and it ain't cheap.
>
> I have no idea yet how much a 15 second spot will cost us to have produced.
> It must be done by professionals as the Discovery Channel has high standards
> that must be met. The big ticket will be the airtime. The ad should display
> a website address at the end for more info. See the attached mpg for an
> example of a 15 second rocketry spot. This spot is just an example and in no
> way do I want to use it. I made it from bits and pieces I found on my hard
> drive in just a couple hours with no experience. We need a real pro to make
> the real one. It should show a father and son building, prepping, and flying
> both large and small rockets together I just wanted to illustrate that this
> does not need to be a complicated effort.
>
> A high bandwidth web site will have to be set up with all of the information
> the prospects will need to enter the hobby. People will be needed to create
> and manage the site. Others will be needed to answer e-mails. This site will
> get almost no traffic until the spots air. At that time you can expect huge
> spikes. Everything must be ready (our operators are standing by). Large
> volumes of e-mails will have to be answered ASAP. The links and forms must
> work the first time and every time. It will have to be set up to take secure
> on-line credit card orders for membership. On line memberships will have to
> be processed immediately. Printed material will have to be ready for
> immediate shipment. The days of "please allow 4 to 6 weeks for delivery" are
> long gone! If the customer doesn't get the membership card and any printed
> material (IE. Magazine, launch info, etc.) within days, they will be pissed.
> I will volunteer to design the layout of the site and make a list of what
> it should contain. I cannot implement any of the ideas or content. I have
> ZERO experience doing any of that. Greg Deputy of Blastzone.com has
> volunteered his services to create the site. Andy Waddell and I will assist
> in design and implementation. Greg will also donate 20 gigabytes of
> bandwidth per month. Additional bandwidth will be billed at $3.50 per gig.
> We can also help the NAR and TRA in sprucing up their sites or providing
> other assistance.
>
> Also, I found that
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is active and owned by a totally
> unrelated company. We should try to obtain
formatting link
as it seems to
> be owned but inactive.
>
> I have yet to explore the possibility of having a toll free number to call.
>
> In a nut shell, the 3 hour show "Rocket Challenge" will air twice on Nov. 3,
> three times on Nov. 10, and once on Nov. 17. We cannot pick and choose which
> shows or hours to run our ad. We must buy one 15 second spot in each hour of
> the show and for every time the show is run. The full package for 18
> insertions was originally $93,000 but after some major negotiation between
> me and the accounts manager, I got the rock bottom price of $68,000 (to be
> paid in advance).
>
> I know this is a major effort but it has to be done now. Like I said, this
> is our big chance, let's not blow it.
>
> Phase 2; The prolonged effort:
>
> We need to run large (full color, 1/3 page minimum) ads in major magazines
> like Popular Mechanics. These ads, when done right, work. Again, they are
> not cheap, but they are worth it. PML tried it in 1993 and it worked. We
> still get mail from those ads even though we quit running them 10 years ago!
> The problem we had is we could not afford to sustain the ads. We had just
> enough money to run for 3 months. Momentum was building rapidly but we just
> ran out of advertising money.
>
> It is a huge waste of money to run smaller ads. Trust me on this, we learned
> that the hard way.
>
> I contacted Popular Mechanics and used every negotiating trick I knew. It
> looks like we can get the 1/3 page color ads place for much less than PML
> paid in 1993! If we sign for 12 consecutive insertions, the cost per issue
> will be $4590.00. This is a great deal. I may even be able to squeeze them
> some more it we really do go with the 12 insertion pkg. They work well
> ahead. Even if we work very fast, our first ad would not come out until the
> January issue. The December issue closes on Sept. 25.
>
> Yes it is a big risk and a lot of money. But wars are not won by small,
> incremental moves. It is the bold strokes that win the wars. We are in a war
> now, actually a battle of attrition. It's a battle we are sure to lose. The
> regulators have nothing but time and money on their side. We have neither.
> We have but one choice, grow or die.
>
> There is still time to do this but now it must be done by the
organizations
since all of us manufacturers are on the verge of bankruptcy. Yes this will
> cost a lot but the membership will increase in large numbers and so will the
> revenue. So far TRA and NAR have done nothing to get new members. The
> government will win this battle by attrition. They are almost there. When
> AT, LOC, and PML, and the others are gone, LDRS 20-something will look more
> like LDRS 1. This will happen within 2 years.
>
> I will do my part as a volunteer in organizing, implementing and
> coordinating the ad campaigns. There are a lot more details that need to be
> discussed. Many other volunteers will be needed. So far Bruce Kelly, Greg
> Deputy, Andy Waddell, the entire PML crew, and I will do our part. I'm sure
> many others will too.
>
> Lets talk,
> ---Frank R Uroda
>
>
>
>
>