The key point that I'm reading into the OP's post is the idea of having low-key not-too-highly-competitive organized activities that are, at the same time, fun for the pros and yet inviting for newbies alike, and in which the pros are encouraged to mentor XC beginners and wannabees to help get them all into it. Amirite?

Out here in PASCO territory (Region 11), there's an on-going low-key contest in which XC fliers attempt to capture the PASCO Egg, a carved wooden egg trophy, to bring home to their home base. The rules are deliberately devised to be simple and encouraging for XC beginners.

The basic task is to fly from any Region 11 airport or glider port that doesn't have the egg to the port that does have the egg, whereupon the egg is captured and brought to that pilot's originating airport, where it remains until someone else captures it again.

Here's the PASCO egg web page with some info: http://www.pacificsoaring.org/egg/
Here's a page from Nevada Soaring Assoc from 2009 with some then-recent capture history and photos: http://nevadasoaring.com/picture-gallery/pasco-egg/

Organized activities in any sport that are specifically designed to be attractive and encouraging to newbies are good to have. I'm just a pre-solo n00b myself, but this is the kind of stuff I can be looking forward to.

-- J. J.
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