Flying Site Assistance
Wes De Cou | [email protected]
Does Your Network Work?
A seasoned gandy dancer with three young children and a lovely wife was laying a section of track on a trestle high above a rocky gorge in Colorado when, to his exquisite horror and dismay, he tripped on a loose spike and took a header over the side.
The 800-foot fall would have really hurt this fellow, but there was a safety net and the net worked. So I thought we’d talk about networking.
I wrote some columns approximately three years ago about networking and its value to a club. This month I want to review and synthesize those columns.
I am told stories almost every month about how a network contact proved to be the icebreaker in what were otherwise fruitless field negotiations. “You know, Wes, we were at a stalemate until one day when Nate’s wife was talking to the mayor’s sister at lunch …” is the kind of thing I hear.
Whether you are a club officer or merely a member who wants to ensure your flying opportunities far into the future, insist on getting a network list started in your club. How do you start?
How about establishing a network of key contacts throughout your community? These would be people who might be able to provide support for our sport, although they aren’t directly involved in it. If you try a few of the following ideas, you’ll be surprised at the influence you can bring to your side of the negotiating table.
Establish a communications chairperson/secretary/honcho—whatever you want to call the position—in your club, or decide to take up the challenge yourself. Using the club roster, send a regular mail or e-mail survey to every member in the club. On the survey ask each member to identify influential people in the community with whom he or she has at least a casual relationship. List the types of contacts you are trying to develop and ask for suggestions.
Does anyone in the club know the mayor, a city council member, a freeholder, a parish official, or a chamber of commerce official? What about a member of the board of education or a science, math, history, or physics teacher? In a recent article I wrote about the wife of a club member who went right to the mayor’s office to promote a point. That meeting was instrumental in the club successfully getting a new flying site. The wife didn’t necessarily know the mayor personally, but voting for her made them vicarious friends. The point is that even if you don’t know someone, knocking on the door can help.
How about county, state, or federal governmental officials? We’ve had more than a few meetings with federal legislators in Washington, D.C., just because a member was friends with an elected official.
Does your spouse have any such contacts? How about the kids? Do they go to school with or socialize with the kids of any influential people?
Find out who knows someone in the news media, whether it is the newspaper, local radio, or television. It doesn’t have to be the editor or the news anchor. Media people at any level can represent a foot in the door.
For some of your more outgoing club members, the development of affinity contacts is a real possibility. These are not necessarily personal contacts at the moment, but because you have a common bond through a high-school or college class, a church affiliation, or something similar, you can develop a relationship for the future. You can develop an exhaustive list and you will develop some key contacts.
If you or someone in your club develops a “key contact” survey, send me a copy. If you have ideas but don’t want to develop a full survey, call or e-mail me with the ideas. I’ll be developing a survey as well. I’ll take all of the ideas submitted and come up with a usable document we can have available on the Web site.
After you have mined all of the contacts you can from your current membership, you’ll have a tool to use whenever you accept a new member. The new member fills out the survey as part of the application process, and your club’s key-contact list stays current.
Now that we have the list, what do we do with it? Once you have completed your initial list—remember, the list has the potential to grow with each new member who joins your club—you will want to divide it into major key-contact categories. You might want to establish the categories of:
- Public-relations contacts
- Political contacts
- Charitable-organization contacts
- Educational contacts
- Plant-and-equipment contacts
- Chamber of commerce contacts
This isn’t an all-inclusive list, but it might give you some ideas. Here are a few ideas about how you might use your contacts category by category. Again, these are only a few suggestions. Your unique situation and the degree to which your contacts are personal or professional friends of your members will determine your next moves.
Public Relations Contacts
This list would include people in radio, television, the local PBS station, local newspapers, and friends who are public-relations professionals.
Have the club secretary or another willing member assume the responsibility of apprising these key contacts whenever your club is going to sponsor or participate in an event involving the public. If you hold an event to benefit a local charity, let all of the key contacts know about it in advance and try to have them in attendance when you present the check.
Events such as groundbreaking ceremonies for a new field, the dedication of a new field, your club’s participation in active flying demonstrations or static displays, and involvement in local public events are all opportunities for positive exposure. Let your local public-relations contacts know what’s happening.
Political Contacts
This category includes anyone in a visible elected or appointed position at any level from federal to state, county, or local.
Make sure these key contacts know who you are and what you do. Other than the plain fun of building and flying with your friends, there is an educational and recreational story to tell.
When you’re talking to political figures, be sure they are aware of any give-back activities in which the club participates, such as working with local Scout troops or school groups. Whenever your club conducts a charitable event or works with local citizens during a learn-to-fly/model-airplanes event or a similar program, be sure to invite local political figures. They will see the value you add to the community. The perception that you are a value-added organization is helpful when residential encroachment says it’s time to think about relocating the flying field.
Charitable Organization Contacts
People who are heavily involved with organizations or events such as Toys for Tots, the Special Olympics, or the Ronald McDonald House belong in this category.
See what your club can do to support a local charity and make sure the public-relations and political key contacts know about it.
I’m familiar with instances where admission to flying events consisted of an unwrapped toy, no value specified, to be donated to Toys for Tots. Large models, small models, and helicopters flew great demonstrations all day long. Moms, dads, and kids got buddy-box time, and Toys for Tots received a welcome contribution.
In another case, a local club collaborated with the Special Olympics to provide entertainment for the athletes during the time between events. Flight simulators and static displays, including engine runs, were a great hit with the participants.
We give to the charitable organizations because we recognize their needs. If local key contacts know we’re good citizens in that regard, then we benefit as well.
Educational Contacts
School personnel and local Boy Scout and Girl Scout leaders are among the contacts in this category.
Find out if there is a model-aviation club, or interest in one, in your local schools. Volunteer to help with such a club.
Volunteer to put on a model-aviation demonstration as part of a sixth- or seventh-grade science program. A description of the forces acting on an airplane, a demonstration of the action of the flight surfaces, and a flight demonstration on the soccer field—don’t forget the buddy box—can lead to many invitations for the same session in other schools.
The Boy Scouts have a merit badge for aviation. This is an excellent opportunity to offer instructional help for a youngster while garnering another public-relations point for the club’s résumé.
Chamber of Commerce Contacts
This category means anyone in the chamber of commerce office. Even if you don’t have a member who knows someone in the local chamber of commerce, go to your local office and discover what events are happening in the community. Find out who’s in charge and see if a model-aviation demonstration would be a welcomed addition.
Many clubs around the country participate in fairs or other large public gatherings and are able to display all aspects of our hobby.
Plant and Equipment Contacts
Who in your club knows someone in the landscaping business? The paving business? The lumber business? Someone in heavy equipment?
I’ve been invited to many fields around the country where improvements to the site were virtually free of cost to the club. At the least, improvements were done at cost. Someone knew someone, made a case for the recreational and educational value of the sport, and asked for help. That last part—the asking—that’s the tough part. But it’s also the surprising part because often you’ll find a benefactor.
The key-contact list is only one of myriad strategies available for clubs to adopt in an attempt to solidify their positions in the future. The real necessity is that you do something.
If we hide our heads (and our clubs) in the sand and remain inert, then when residential encroachment jeopardizes our fields, it will be easy for the powers that be to give us the boot. No one will know who we were or what we did.
But we’ll know what we did—nothing!
Avoid that 800-foot fall. Get a net ... network ... working!
Transcribed from original scans by AI. Minor OCR errors may remain.
