"Ulrich Neumann" wrote in message
om...
Therefore my questions: Does your club have a youth/family membership
category with reduced dues and/or waived initiation fees? Does your
club have a youth program? Have there ever been any legal/insurance
issues with minor members in your club? Any input is appreciated. (you
may reply privately, if you don't want to discuss this on the net)

snip

Most of the Clubs in Region IV - including my own, Skyline - have some kind
of youth membershi/involvement with a special membership category/fee
structure. One (Tidewater) offers SUBSTANTIAL youth scholarships!!! In
addition, there's an active CAP program for youth in gliders, although not
every Wing (state) provides instrutcion beyond "Orientation rides".

FWIW, the "problem" - at the risk of horrible oversimplification - seems to
be a cultural one in which the "boomer" generation (and maybe the younger
"boomer echo" generation") is far, far more risk-averse than the generations
that currently represent the patriarchs of soaring (like mine - I'm 68 years
old.) Frankly, I think this cultural issue is one that we need to get a lot
smarter about in soaring if we're to survive . . . but the solution
certainly isn't to turn our collective backs on young people, but to figure
out how to deliver safe soaring to a short attention span, risk averse
population . . .


Jim Kellett, Resident Curmudgeon
"Facts do not cease to exist because they are ignored ."
-Aldous Huxley