SSA Convention reports?

From the youth presentation, keep in mind that our
junior pilots would like to be known as PILOTS, rather than 'the kids'.
Kevin Christner is an instructor after all... Thanks to Kevin...and
Sylvia... for presenting...

... uh, we all start as kids (Mark Keene spoke of gliderport visits at 12, I
was a latecomer at 15...), but juniors are ready and able to lead. Kudos to
Kevin and Sylvia, Mike Westbrook and Mike Riley, for not only CFIing and
towing, flying badges & contests, running ground ops and Club junior
organizations, but staffing the Youth booth at Ontario, founding a potential
new SSA Division (www.juniorsoaring.us), publishing newsletters, seeking
donations of idle sailplanes for junior PILOTS, and so on. Not to mention
Garret being featured speaker at the Competition pilots' breakfast, Liz
running US Team Convention raffles, Orion and Justin organizing summer camps
(by this point in the list we've crept up a bit past age 25)... They are
taking over as I always hoped their generation(s) would.

John H. Campbell
SSA Youth Committee

Stewart Kissel wrote:
Anyone care to share with us non-attendees the highlights?

As a final note, Jim Skydell reports that the convention was a huge
success with over 2,000 attendees.

mike

I was surprised to not see two of the bigger vendors/suppliers
in attendance. Neither Wings and Wheels or Knauff And
Grove were there.
Brian

Stewart Kissel wrote:
Anyone care to share with us non-attendees the highlights?

As a final note, Jim Skydell reports that the convention
was a huge
success with over 2,000 attendees.

mike

Tom had announced previously he would not be there, but he's no longer the
Schempp-Hirth distributor either. M&H was there, as was Tilo H. Tom and
Doris are golfing in Florida prior to the Senior's. Personally I missed Tim
as I was looking forward to sampling his personally roasted blend.

Frank

"Brian Iten" wrote in message
...
I was surprised to not see two of the bigger vendors/suppliers
in attendance. Neither Wings and Wheels or Knauff And
Grove were there.
Brian

Stewart Kissel wrote:
Anyone care to share with us non-attendees the highlights?

As a final note, Jim Skydell reports that the convention
was a huge
success with over 2,000 attendees.

mike

sorry folks......I didn't attend this year and it's certainly nothing
against California or the folks out on the left coast..(I could have used
the break from this lousy Western NY winter!)..it's just not practical to
attend these conventions every year, and to be very honest I will probably
make only conventions from now on every other year or less for here on out.
The cost is high with travel, shipping paying for booth and floor space,
lodging, extra printing and entertaining I have to spend each year I go is
nearly 5K.....and this I would rather not have to make up (from you). But
the biggest reason for not attending is that there simply isn't enough of
anything new to show and tell from the previous years....sure there are a
few new items that arrive and occasionally a new glider design to show but
this year what was new was going to be "updated software" ? not much else.
Certainly I'm saying nothing against the seminar speakers, but again, most
are also repeats from previous conventions. I have, as well as many others
repeatedly suggested to the SSA they go to an "every other year" convention
so that all vendors can and would make an extra effort to put their best
foot forward but they have not been very responsive, and after all, this is
"their" big event. If they ever adopt this venue I'll be back..bigger than
ever... .We have to keep in mind also, even the biggest soaring suppliers
and vendors are still very small businesses, most run buy and completely
staffed with just one or at best a few people doing everything at home or
away (here it's me and my 2 dogs )....I do want to say I missed seeing
many of my good friends and loyal customers, many who also can't travel for
events in the far east. Hopefully I'll see more of you next year and will
have the new HpH 304S sailplane to show as well.....until then, I'm
here.....answering the phones and filling your boxes.
Best Regards
Tim Mara
Wings & Wheels

"F.L. Whiteley" wrote in message
...
Tom had announced previously he would not be there, but he's no longer the
Schempp-Hirth distributor either. M&H was there, as was Tilo H. Tom and
Doris are golfing in Florida prior to the Senior's. Personally I missed
Tim
as I was looking forward to sampling his personally roasted blend.

Frank

"Brian Iten" wrote in message
...
I was surprised to not see two of the bigger vendors/suppliers
in attendance. Neither Wings and Wheels or Knauff And
Grove were there.
Brian

Stewart Kissel wrote:
Anyone care to share with us non-attendees the highlights?

As a final note, Jim Skydell reports that the convention
was a huge
success with over 2,000 attendees.

mike

Tim:

Sorry you couldn't make it, but both my wife and credit cards thank you
for your choice. The weather wasn't much of an attraction this year,
rainy and cold for the most part (cold for Californians, not upstate
New Yorkers).

Several observations:

Attendance was over 2,000 this year, very different from other
conventions I've attended. Both the subjects and content of the talks
were mostly new this year, even though many of the faces were the same.
This was the result of a deliberate effort by the organizers. Several
past speakers were told, in fact, that they wouldn't be invited unless
they had new material. The Melville presentation at the banquet was
marvelous.

For the those of us who struggle with the fine points of flight
software, access to the programmers was valuable.

The Pipistrel made it's first appearance at a convention as did the
sustainer version of the LAK.

I've never been in a retail business, but, given the size of the
soaring pilot population, a chance to reach perhaps 20% of the total
market in person would seem hard to pass up. I wonder if the vendors
who did come would care to comment on whether they felt it was
worthwhile for them. I know that my wallet was lightened by more than
I can safely admit in print!

Hope to see you next year in Arlington.

Ray Warshaw
Claremont, CA


Tim Mara wrote:
sorry folks......I didn't attend this year and it's certainly nothing
against California or the folks out on the left coast..(I could have
used
the break from this lousy Western NY winter!)..it's just not
practical to

This is the first convention we missed in thirty years.
Doris and I had a great time playing golf and doing some other duties while
the convention was going on.

Sorry to miss everyone, however we probably will take off every 30th
convention from now on

Tom Knauff
Knauff & Grove Soaring Supplies

wrote in message
ups.com...
Tim:

Sorry you couldn't make it, but both my wife and credit cards thank you
for your choice. The weather wasn't much of an attraction this year,
rainy and cold for the most part (cold for Californians, not upstate
New Yorkers).

Several observations:

Attendance was over 2,000 this year, very different from other
conventions I've attended. Both the subjects and content of the talks
were mostly new this year, even though many of the faces were the same.
This was the result of a deliberate effort by the organizers. Several
past speakers were told, in fact, that they wouldn't be invited unless
they had new material. The Melville presentation at the banquet was
marvelous.

For the those of us who struggle with the fine points of flight
software, access to the programmers was valuable.

The Pipistrel made it's first appearance at a convention as did the
sustainer version of the LAK.

I've never been in a retail business, but, given the size of the
soaring pilot population, a chance to reach perhaps 20% of the total
market in person would seem hard to pass up. I wonder if the vendors
who did come would care to comment on whether they felt it was
worthwhile for them. I know that my wallet was lightened by more than
I can safely admit in print!

Hope to see you next year in Arlington.

Ray Warshaw
Claremont, CA


Tim Mara wrote:
sorry folks......I didn't attend this year and it's certainly nothing
against California or the folks out on the left coast..(I could have
used
the break from this lousy Western NY winter!)..it's just not
practical to

It sounds like the efforts to remove some dead wood
and inject new life into the convention worked well.


Part 2 of my question...What sort of recruiting efforts
to attract new members? There was a simulator? Any
other efforts specifically targeting new members?

"Stewart Kissel" wrote in
message ...
It sounds like the efforts to remove some dead wood
and inject new life into the convention worked well.

Jim Skydell's demand that speakers come up with new material seems to have
worked very well.


Part 2 of my question...What sort of recruiting efforts
to attract new members?

The SSA had a booth at the model airplane AMA (Academy of Model Aeronautics)
convention that attracted a lot of attention. The AMA was also at the
Ontario Convention Center but a couple of weeks earlier than the SSA. I
suspect that a lot of the non-SSA traffic at the SSA convention was from
this source.

There was a simulator?

Sky Sailing had a Grob 103 cockpit rigged up with PC controls (stick, pedals
and spoiler) that operated the X-Plane simulator. The sim ran an LCD panel
in the cockpit with instruments and a projector with forward outside view.
The person in the cockpit seemed to be having a lot of fun. Some observers
watching from outside got airsick.

Any other efforts specifically targeting new members?

There were a couple of roundtable seminars on this subject. I didn't go
since I had other obligations. My talk was on winch launch to reduce
training costs for newcomers.

Bill Daniels

It sounds like the efforts to remove some dead wood
and inject new life into the convention worked well.

Thanks

Part 2 of my question...What sort of recruiting efforts
to attract new members? There was a simulator? Any
other efforts specifically targeting new members?

First we had to get them in the door.

Data derived from last year's Online Glider Pilot Survey nearly 1000 of
you participated in was used to determine which "cross over sport"
periodicals should get convention ads. They included Latitude 38
(freebie west coast monthly sailing magazine given out at all marine
supply stores, yacht clubs, etc), LA Sport and Fitness (freebie at all
health clubs, foot and bicycle races, etc), Model Aviation (Academy of
Model Aeronautics national journal), Pacific Flyer/Aviation Business
journal (power flying), and California Diving magazine (scuba). The
survey indicated glider pilots were frequently also involved in these
sports.

3X8" cards about the convention, as well as $10 discount coupons for all
Region 12 FBO's inside a trifold brochure explaining the basics of
soaring and listing all club and commercial places to soar in the region
were distributed at several large airshows in SoCal over the prior year
by many SSA members. A Sparrowhawk and an SSA booth was at the AMA
national show in Ontario that Bill describes below this note (he and
many other SSA members staffed this, Mike Reagan lent his ship). Every
person we talked to was told about our show.

Doug Easton (new SSA Director at Large, now chair of the SSA Growth and
Promo Comm) handled all of our brochures, cards, and print media
advertising. He also was able to get a local cable TV channel to
feature the convention on a Friday night broadcast,and placed listings
in the Calendar sections of several local newspapers.

Any walk-in attendee had to fill out a form and tell us if they were an
SSA member or had ever been soaring, and where they had heard about the
convention. Those in either category got a special registration packet
with a free issue of SOARING mag and SSA membership application, a
trifold, and a $10 discount coupon (we did a print overrun of 300 for
the Feb SOARING issue, specifically designed for new people - 5 pages of
happy solo pictures, no Safety Corner describing something bad).

We are still analyzing data derived from attendees to see what
advertising venues worked. We spent less than half the advertising
budget SSA made available to us.

Guided tours of the convention were given by Region 12 volunteers every
other hour, which began by showing folks Gavin Wills' 13 minute video
from NZ. Easton also put together an all-day "screening room" with many
other soaring videos. Instruction given to tour guides was "tell people
why you soar." Derek Lisoski spent weeks turning the Grobus fuselage
generously lent by AirSailing into the simulator. While it was tough to
get glider people out of it, the sim was really created for those with
no soaring experience.

As far as getting our own Region 12 SSA members to attend the
convention,(many of whom had never been to a convention, despite it
being in SoCal several times in the past), a printed version of our mid
January Region 12 newsletter,( Southern California Soaring,
http://www.socalsoaring.com ) was mailed to all R12 members, and in
this special case, due to proximity to LA, many region 11 members. It
took the previously unheard of step of listing the abstracts of all
speaker programs three weeks before the event. It was completely paid
for out of Region 12 funds, as a way of supporting the SSA. In every
past convention, no one knew what was going to be said until they got
there (and usually missed two days of talks they would have attended,
had they known about them).

And that is how you get 2027 people to an SSA convention, and hopefully
a few people interested in soaring. No rocket science (although Mike
Melvill's talk was frankly the best I have ever heard, by anyone, on any
topic).

Our convention is the best opportunity to market soaring.

Regards,
Jim Skydell