Sad, but true...

Volunteerism

by Warren Massey, LUNAR #007

As the person who has manufactured 99% of the club's equipment, has been responsible for maintaining it, storing it and carrying it to and from the field on all but 2 or 3 launch days since the club was founded, as a person who is at the flying field every month to help in the setup and take-down the equipment, as the person who donates use of equipment, time and materials to maintain the membership list, adding new members to it each month and printing membership cards, as the person who donates use of a phone line and maintenance of the club's answering machine and as one of the relatively few who work in one of the administrative positions (LCO, RSO and registration) on launch days, I'd like to say a few words about volunteerism and this club.

As applied to the general membership, in a word, it stinks.

As an example, at the most recent August launch, I arrived at my usual time of 7:15 A.M. at the field prepared to help get everything setup for an 8:30 A.M. launch start. Well, surprise, surprise, I am the only one there! I start unloading the truck anyway and Lynn Kissel arrives soon after and helps me finish unloading. Since the layout of the stakes and pads is the absolute first thing that must happen in the field setup procedure and since it takes a minimum of three (five is preferred) people to do it, Lynn and I busy ourselves with setup of our personal areas until more help arrives. More people did start arriving but it was not until nearly 8:00 A.M. that anyone came over and volunteered to help with the setup (I do not intend to go out looking for people to help, that would just be one more thing I'd have to do and I've got to draw the line somewhere). From that point on, setup proceeded fairly smoothly but since it takes about an hour to do, we were not ready to launch until a bit after 9:00 A.M. If people who are willing to participate in the setup get to the field and start to work between 7:15 and 7:30, we can indeed be ready to fly at 8:30!

At some point in the setup between 8:30 and 9:00 I overheard a conversation among a group of new arrivals that basically was expressing their dismay that the time was now after our published 8:30 start time and we were not ready to launch. They could have stayed in bed that much longer if they had know we were going to be delayed. All this while they stood around watching the rest of us work.

This same day Lynn went on to take the first shift as RSO and I went on to take the first shift at the registration and information table. We did this because, like usual, no one else came forward and volunteered and it was the only way we could see to get things moving. As things progressed it became obvious that we were going to be without an LCO for an extended time so Lynn, having checked and assigned 12 rockets to pads, switched hats (or more properly, vests) and became LCO. After the 12 rockets were launched he then went back to RSO'ing. As the day progressed and there was less activity at the registration table, I took over for Lynn at the RSO table and he became LCO full time. From the RSO desk I could make quick trips to the registration table as needed.

A bit later during all this Anita, my spouse, arrived with my 9-year old son Travis and she covered the registration table for me. Travis was left to prep, fly and retrieve his rockets on his own. He has learned to do this since his dad often is involved with helping run things on flying days (not that he or I want it this way, it's just the way it is). It's amazing how independent the kids can be and how well they can perform if circumstances demand it of them.

Anyway this is the way we worked it to cover these three positions for the first two hours of the launch day. After that, enough of the very small cadre of club workers had arrived and began helping giving us a chance to spend time with our families and fly our rockets too.

Folks, this attitude does not cut it. There are no indentured servants in this club who's sole task in life is to make it easy and convenient for the rest of you to fly rockets, yet that is the apparent attitude of most of the club membership!

By joining the club and paying the money associated with membership you are buying the right to participate in the club and participation involves more than just arriving and flying your rockets. We even try to reward the participation by giving 4 free flight cars to anyone who helps with setup, take-down, RSO, LCO or registration.

The jobs really are not very difficult either. Anyone can help with setup and take-down. Any adult or senior member (or maybe even a sharp junior member) can take a shift as LCO, RSO or registration. In any case, if any one of us is working one of these jobs and is faced with a situation that he is not sure about, there are plenty of other members around who are more than willing to offer up advice (most of the time it is even good advice) as how to handle the matter. In another article I have provided a brief description of each of the jobs to try to dispel some of the mystique and get more of you stepping forward to help out Hopefully you will see that none of the jobs are very demanding. As I said before, after you are done with a job you can go to whoever is handling registration and ask for your four flight cards.

There is a sign-up board at the registration table with the various jobs called out. When you arrive in the morning and sign up for flying, also take a look at the job board and commit to a time to help your club. As it stands now 10% of the membership is carrying the other 90% and, speaking as one of the 10%, we're getting tired of it. We are becoming burned out and one day soon we are going to pack it all in and give up. That will leave a lot of you with rockets and engines and no legal place to fly them. If each Adult, Junior and Senior member committed to doing just four 1-hour jobs over the course of an entire year, we would not be having this problem.

Information date: Oct. 1, 1996 lk