JJ,

I got my life membership for $300 in 1979. As I recall, buying it was a
touchy decision. It was pricey at the time, and at age 21 there was no
telling how long I'd stay intereseted in the sport (having spent only a
few years in diving and auto racing). A lifetime affair with a 1-26
seemed improbable, but there was pressure on to help the society.

I have often thought of sending the annual dues anyway, as you are
doing (and then some). But I haven't done it. In 2001 I coughed up
quite a few hundreds of dollars to support protecting the airspace for
soaring, but having had a first hand view of how those dollars were
applied left me less than eager to forward more. I grant you, there've
been changes made, and perhaps I should reconsider, but I have another
concern: what exactly am I funding?

You are under the impression that we're in a down cycle - which implies
that there will be an up cycle at some point in the future. I wonder.
It's one thing to say that we want to grow the sport and sally forth
with good intentions on donated dollars, and quite another to examine
the market and understand if there really is any opportunity to grow
the sport, and if so, how. Some metrics are in order. How many student
licenses are granted each year? How many private glider ratings? What
is the demography of current SSA members? What is the best age for
someone to discover the sport? If we knew the answers to these and
many, many more questions, I'd feel like we had the right tools to make
a disciplined start of growing the society. But a handful of good ideas
without any emprical evidence? Present me with a business plan and my
checkbook will respond. Without it? Chances get slim.

Of course, I'd be happy to help fund the research, if we could convince
anyone that the research is a necessary first step. Alas, we have a
notion that such things can be accomplished by volunteers. Many things
can, but not a successful marketing campaign. No one does this stuff
for fun. Hey, what's your hobby? I like putting together marketing
plans for hopeless efforts... it's kind of a weekend thing.

As I've said in the past, I really don't care what becomes of the
society. I recognize that it serves me, but we don't need an
organization in order to fly. That said, I also recognize that I hold a
minority opinion. I am willing to walk in lock step with the majority,
but only so long as I think we're accomplishing something. If growing
the sport is vital, then we need to go about it appropriately. If we're
not willing to invest in the right tools, then it must not be so
critical as the rhetoric suggests.

So, why is the sport declining? Well, I think we all know the reasons.
Recent generations prefer more passive, often sedentary pleasures, of
which there are many, many to choose from. And there are many more cost
effective active pastimes. But I suspect there's one cause we haven't
really given much attention:

WOMEN

This is a sport dominated by men. While there are rare instances of
flying couples and a few single female glider pilots, most women who
come to the gliderport do it primarily out of love and/or duty to
spouse. Some even learn to enjoy the gliderport. But every man who
enters the sport is going to have to measure his passion for it against
the trouble it's likely to produce at home, especially among
career-driven spouses who hold weekends sacred as time for "us and
family." And more than once I've seen a young mother put her foot down
-- family comes first. Can you blame her? She knows he's a klutz, and
they have two kids to raise and put through college. Why should she
have to worry about their future every time he heads off to the
gliderport?

Soaring is going the route of the 2 seat sports car. A toy for the
young, the dream of the family man, and the bittersweet reward for the
fifty-something divorce.