We finally joined NAR

oh, that upscale could take a nice cluster of O's I would imagine LOL

actually, one thing that I want to try is to double up on the length of the BT by using a nose cone shoulder as a tube coupler...

this would be a cool rocket upscaled to 38mm or more, that's for sure! :)

jim

tater schuld wrote:

TARC does not require NAR membership. In fact, there is almost no reason for a junior flyer to join NAR. They can't be certified for HPR. They don't have to worry about insurance or liability risks. And most already read the Sport Rocketry magazine that whoever got them into the hobby is subscribed to.

At NARAM 2003, last August, Bundick stated that the junior membership had hit bottom and the decline had stopped. When pressed, he could offer no reason why he felt that way. But from the latest numbers, it does not look like it has.

The decline in junior membership is even more alarming when you consider that most senior members were junior members at one time. Therefore, we can extrapolate out about 15 years and see that our adult membership could decline by 65%. We need to do something about it now because it will be too late when the senior membership starts free-falling.

Craig

Craig R. Saunders, crs at MaxThrust.net,

Hmmm... as a kid, I never bothered joining... I just bought Estes stuff at the local hobby shop and found an open field to fly it in. (When you're a 12-year-old kid in Ohio in 1969, people don't even usually think you're much of a terrorist when you do that).

When I got back into rockets a few years ago, I joined NAR to fly high power rockets at local licensed launches.

-dave w

Good little German?

steve

Hey, the Germans Built an awesome V2!

Which is stupid considering every HPR launch necessarily has adult supervision.

He just says whatever sounds good. When I press him he changes the subject so you are lucky by comparison. You got an answer, albiet a random one.

I have proposed 6 some things and they have all been REFUSED. And *-I-* proposed LMR and HPR :)

No. Good little Californian. :) Local club with Pyro III operator and field permits.

-dave w

But doesn't the same level of civil disobedience apply? Shouldn't you thumb your nose at the State? Aren't you toting the totolitarian line by complying with their Nazi like requirements? What about the rockets red glare, our God given freedom?

steve

"Homeland Security", and the new Federal regime, is one thing, but I respect the Office of the California State Fire Marshal, and am quite willing to work within the requirements of its regulations. (Compared to the Federal stff, they almost make sense: I already _know_ I'm not a Terrorist; I still wouldn't want to start a brush fire by launching improperly...)

-dave w

That is true. In fact, the NAR considers TARC to be an outreach program, to promote the NAR and gain new members. But they do not seem to have gained a measureable membership increase from the TARC program, although membership may have been worse without it.

This is very sad. Perhaps the NAR should realign its services or SR content.

I suspect the vast majority of SR members are members that joined as Jrs. and simply continued their membership. As JR membership declines, but renewing members age, LR membership can show some growth. I think the SR category is fueled of its own accord, eg. BARs and HPR, TRA refugees, etc., rather than aging LR members. Other than classic statistics, there is no reason to have a separate LR membership category, even the LAC is long gone. Nevertheless, the decline of JR membership bodes ill for the NAR and sport rocketry in long term.

Alan

Not neccesarily. Demographics in motorcycling are following a similar trend, with fewer and fewer people taking up the hobby when young but more and more doing so when they are older. Overall growth is what I would think is important.

The kids have too much to do whereas dad just wants to have fun.

FWIW, I was never a NAR member as a kid.

This is exactly what Bunny has been preaching for severa years now. I share his worry, but believe there is one minor error in his philosophy. The core of the NAR today, and most likely the core of the future NAR is the BAR. Alas, I'm not one, having never given up the hobby. I don't believe Bunny is either.

But the BAR that joins the NAR today, or next year or next generation isn't necessarilly someone who was an NAR member when they were a kid. If that were true we'd see the junior NAR members with numbers like 80532, and the adults flying HPR with numbers like 23508. But that's not what we see. Adults who flew rockets as a kid, but never joined the NAR, are what is fueling the growth in HPR. We need to get kids involved in the hobby, not necessarilly as members of the NAR, in order to assure that there will be future BARs to be NAR members.

Bob Kaplow NAR # 18L TRA # "Impeach the TRA BoD" >>> To reply, remove the TRABoD!

I would believe that most junior members became senior members, but I'm somewhat skeptical that most senior members were once junior members.

I was aware of NAR when I was a kid, but never joined. There just wasn't anything compelling at the time (to me) to attract me. I still flew lots of rockets but didn't need membership in NAR to fly. I did end up joining as an adult, largely because I wanted to participate in HPR.

As for how to get more JR members, there probably aren't many more kids out there that will join purely for the sake of contesting, liability insurance or the magazine (or some combination thereof), no matter how much marketing effort is expended. Some will join because their parents join. Some may be attracted by programs like TARC. There are probably quite a few kids out there that would join if there were some sort of JR high power certification program, but I think we've been down that road before.

Still, I'm not sure a drop in JR membership necessarily portends a drop in SR membership 10-20 years from now. However, it may indicate less interest in rocketry overall in the under 15 crowd, which is clearly a cause for concern.

I resemble that remark!

-dave w

Let's go again.

Jerry

Non-member service programs is precisely what I have been preaching about for years. By pure statistics (bell curve) a fraction of those will join right away but 100% will think of NAR when/if they become a BAR.

But someone with no real exposure to NAR won't even do that. Call them Wal-Mart BARS.

Jerry

Maybe it should treat kids as adults and "up-sell" them.

Just Marketing Jerry

When did Estes quit putting membership applications in rocket kits? Could this account for some of the decline?

Sam Midkiff

A better email address than the one given in the message header is: s m i d k i f f aaaat p u r d u e dottttt e d u

I am more curious about another issue.

I wish an Estes person would post this.

How much has Estes SPENT on putting NAR apps in kits per year including the printing and the labor and everything? I assume it was deductible, so they probably actually know that figure.

I am betting they would have made NAR better off by spending that much on free memberships for people as the conversion rate seems horrificly low.

Mark? Barry? 1-800 number users?