Let’s Focus on Growth (Ernie Dawe, Propeller Dec 2010)

[Raymond]

Hello Race Fans!

As you will see on page three (3) of the December 2010 issue of Propeller, Ernie Dawe wrote an article that was designed as an APBA National Meeting primer to get people thinking about how to;

1) Keep existing membership
2) Attract new members
3) Pursuing past members

If I understood correctly the intention of this project is a deliverable to the APBA membership that can be used to grow our membership base. It is not something we will expect APBA to do for us, but rather a list of things we can do ourselves, for us.

Because not all of us can be present at the National Meeting to help brainstorm up this list, I thought I would start this post to jumpstart documenting good ideas for those that can attend.

The intent of this thread is to ‘brainstorm’ ideas. In keeping with that intent, I would like to ask that;

1) There be no responses to prior posts unless it builds on that prior idea
2) There be no opposing veiws or critical comments posted
3) All ideas posted must be worded in the positive
4) No comments on other current on-going topics such as class combinations allowed unless it is a fresh idea concept that needs to be communicated: again stay away from criticizing.

The intent of these rules is to foster maximum idea generation synergies though the process of brainstorming.

Ernie, I hope you can use what I hope comes flooding in.

[HRTV]

Sorry but your rules are pretty funny :-) I dont think you know this wild bunch very well.

[raceright]

Sorry but your rules are pretty funny :-) I dont think you know this wild bunch very well.

Ditto lolololoo

[Raymond]

Sorry but your rules are pretty funny :-) I dont think you know this wild bunch very well.

Ok, yea yea your are probably correct but can you blame me for trying?

What I am asking for is flexible and open minded thinking. (did I just set myself up again? Grand scheme or small scale: we need all the ideas flowing.

[hydroid]

CONTRA + Initiative

Sorry but your rules are pretty funny :-) I dont think you know this wild bunch very well.

Contra: It's because Raymond knows this bunch too well that he was compelled to stipulate the Kindergarten rules. Sad comment they have to be stated/pleaded over, over again.
Raymond, I apologize for breaking them, will make my contribution below.
All are invited to review the positive tone from the body of Raymond's posts, in his attempt to grow YOUR opportunities to race: http://www.hydroracer.net/forums/showthread.php?t=18297
He has tried consistently to elevate the growth discussion to a positive dialogue and direction.

Initiative: 2011 growth idea in infancy TORC is initiating:
Our Club is approaching several high schools in heart of Ontario cottage/boating country, schools with woodworking shops, non-urban kids with mechanical/woodworking propenstity, asking teachers if interested in building ASR/H's over the following winter semester. Intent to have 2-4 schools build same spec boats they can complete/parade/race at one of our spring races, for bragging rights/trophy.
It offers competition/rivalry bt schools for the shop 'team', rather than the usual ftball, bsktball, vball, jocks, etc..
Idea is to strap on 9.9 hp stock engine for the parade/drive by. Lots of 9.9's sitting in garages/sheds,...criteria for winner TBD, working on this. We have one school pumped, working on others. We'll provide plans, drop in to direct progress, show our boats/video, keep them pumped.
This could also be used for/between Scout troops to earn woodworking badges/competition.

Construtive suggestions welcome, to improve on this.

Who knows where this goes, but to Raymond's point: "...not something APBA will do for us, but what we do for ourselves..."
Hoping other clubs/regions can use this, might spark something, engages kids/parents/gets them to races, test ride a ASH/R w OMC, etc... new racer growth...etc

Q: What are YOU doing?

Merry Christmas, and take ownership of growth in new year.
Erik

PS: I've never met Raymond, don't know him from Adam. Read his Bio/occupation; how long do you think his leadership talent/skill will tolerate bickering BS, until no fun/moves on?
PPS: Dan, for clarity, the above NOT directed at you, but the collective.

[Raymond]

What if each club got a boat kit from one of the kit manufactures at or slightly above cost and had some winter club meetings to assemble it as a boat ready for the next new guy or the clubs next Racer School boat? They could also make that boat part of a turn key package ready for new name purchase.

Could the club building such a boat use that assembly time as a club ‘product’ to advertise to attract a new name to help build it? As Racer School is designed to get a racer into a boat, maybe we could entice someone into the boat by way of participating in the ‘build’. Before you knock this idea; I would be personally willing to give up a months worth of Saturdays or more through the long winter months to participate and support such a project.

Heck, we could chronicle that build here on Hydroracer and on the club websites to further expose the project as a product.

[raceright]

Hello Race Fans!

As you will see on page three (3) of the December 2010 issue of Propeller, Ernie Dawe wrote an article that was designed as an APBA National Meeting primer to get people thinking about how to;

1) Keep existing membership
2) Attract new members
3) Pursuing past members

If I understood correctly the intention of this project is a deliverable to the APBA membership that can be used to grow our membership base. It is not something we will expect APBA to do for us, but rather a list of things we can do ourselves, for us.

Because not all of us can be present at the National Meeting to help brainstorm up this list, I thought I would start this post to jumpstart documenting good ideas for those that can attend.

The intent of this thread is to ‘brainstorm’ ideas. In keeping with that intent, I would like to ask that;

1) There be no responses to prior posts unless it builds on that prior idea
2) There be no opposing veiws or critical comments posted
3) All ideas posted must be worded in the positive
4) No comments on other current on-going topics such as class combinations allowed unless it is a fresh idea concept that needs to be communicated: again stay away from criticizing.

The intent of these rules is to foster maximum idea generation synergies though the process of brainstorming.

Ernie, I hope you can use what I hope comes flooding in.

I shall address item two new members...
Start a new category in APBA where boats are of specific size to coinside with engine size. All engines must have had at least 500 produced in order to be used. All engines must be run the way the MFG produced them.
Must be dealers in all states with engines available within one month from order. All MFG engines that meet these requirments shall be legal for racing.

Figure this out and I'll buy a few.

Pat

[Raymond]

Anybody have any experience with CAD or CATIA software? What about a short tutorial post on the anatomy of a race boat (hydro and both runabout styles). This could serve to calm the anxious nerves of those looking in and may help them to make the leap.

[Raymond]

How about a pictorial familiarization / recognition thread that identifies all the different motors that are out there in SO? We could include some basic stat data along with each picture to help new name understand what class it currently runs in and in what configuration.

Send me your pics and supporting information and I will create this thread. This is a no brainier way to ease the way to new name understanding of the options out there. Don’t let the current on going discussions on the topic of class combinations curtail this project; we can adjust as needed as we progress.

[hydroid]

Engine desrciptive

Raymond, have a look at Rick Fralick's website.
http://www.fralickboats.com/index.5.torc.html
Best engine descriptive summary I've found; could use a bit of an update ie: SW. Could also incorporate a table to include HP, which is better understood by newbies, engine weights, average speeds, etc...Rick has speeds in 'Local Classes' tab.
This is a good starting reference. See the other tabs on left side column, some good articles borrowed from others.

[Boatracer4fun]

What if each club got a boat kit from one of the kit manufactures at or slightly above cost and had some winter club meetings to assemble it as a boat ready for the next new guy or the clubs next Racer School boat? They could also make that boat part of a turn key package ready for new name purchase.

Could the club building such a boat use that assembly time as a club ‘product’ to advertise to attract a new name to help build it? As Racer School is designed to get a racer into a boat, maybe we could entice someone into the boat by way of participating in the ‘build’. Before you knock this idea; I would be personally willing to give up a months worth of Saturdays or more through the long winter months to participate and support such a project.

Heck, we could chronicle that build here on Hydroracer and on the club websites to further expose the project as a product.

Great idea. R11 has a program called Norcal 400. They provide everything including safety gear. I believe it is $100.00 per person.

I think the biggest program is finding a person or persons to hual and store the gear for each race. Great idea. Instead of somebody going out and spending big $$$$ on a race setup, they can get there feet wet for cheap.

[Racerkyle20]

What if each club got a boat kit from one of the kit manufactures at or slightly above cost and had some winter club meetings to assemble it as a boat ready for the next new guy or the clubs next Racer School boat? They could also make that boat part of a turn key package ready for new name purchase.

Could the club building such a boat use that assembly time as a club ‘product’ to advertise to attract a new name to help build it? As Racer School is designed to get a racer into a boat, maybe we could entice someone into the boat by way of participating in the ‘build’. Before you knock this idea; I would be personally willing to give up a months worth of Saturdays or more through the long winter months to participate and support such a project.

Heck, we could chronicle that build here on Hydroracer and on the club websites to further expose the project as a product.

Seattle Outboard's J Project at the Seattle hydroplane and boat musuem is doing just this. We work with J boats and have a father/son combos come in to do a build. We used mulitple sources to attrack this project including the wooden boat show in seattle every summer. The project has been running for about 5+ years strong and has increased J membership in SOA by a lot. 10 JSH's at a race normally....Sornson kits normally used.

[Raymond]

Please remember, there is no magic pill. The solution will be a strategy of efforts.

As has been said before; put a friend or neighbor on your crew as helper.

Take a buddy testing with you; let them go for a ride.

Put an old boat on display at your local marina.

Neighbor Clubs would be wise to better coordinate weekends so as to not compete against each other.

Create a press secretary in each club to release pre and post race info to the press and virtual media.

Got a computer smart person in your club? Would they be willing spend some time to create / upgrade / maintain the club website and social network site? It’s all about exposure to people people.

Got an old boat lying around donated it to the club for demo rides or… a racer school.

[Raymond]

Here are a few ideas for the Race Committees;

In support of keeping race day costs to a minimum, is there any way to step up the pace of the race day? Such as keeping the pressure on for teams to be ready when their respective classes are called. How about keeping the pre race green flag time to the three minute limit or less as allowed by Rule 4?

When calling mini breaks or lunch why not define the reconvene time in terms of both elapses and clock times so all participants such as turn judges, patrol boat drivers and race teams know how long they have until they are expected to be ready to go again. The elapse time gives all an idea of ‘how long they have’ and the clock time gives them a reference of end time if they don’t have a clock/watch to refer to at the moment of announcement.

The person on the microphone announcing the race has more influence than I think we realize. A good announcer can help to ‘hype’ up the race and get both participants and spectators excited about what is going on. Its also ‘free’ exposure potential for the club, sport and her sponsors.

Minute to second action announcing could dramatically improve the ‘race day’ satisfaction for those team members that are scrambling in the pits to get their gear ready for their next heat and can’t ‘watch’ every race.

Have you ever considered the ‘FREE’ (as in no cost what so ever to the club) benefits of touting and praising the local sponsors and those that helped to support the race via the general announcement system? Even if you had to pay a fee to get into a site or paid for your EMS service, the ‘goodwill’ generated by giving those support people recognition may be just that which gets you back in the door again next year.

How about scripting out some standard blurbs on paper about those that supported the event so any announcer at a given race will have an understanding of who to mention and how it should be phrased? This would support repetitious announcements via various different announcers that would build the reputation of the club and the sport.

[Raymond]

Ok, so I seem to keep rambling on but...I have a new idea: or rather more detail to an existing idea.

Why don't we promote ABPA via its own Facebook page? NASCAR and NHRA both have face book pages so why not APBA? APBA Water Cross Racing has their own page so...why doesn’t APBA at large or even the different categories and regions? Lets go people! It is 2011, lets not be left behind!

Do you remember the Shotgun shot pattern discussion from my ‘Exposure Thread” of last winter? It’s the same thing. One aspect of our solution is to put this in the face of the public. It’s the bait to get someone into the boat so we can set the hook.

Facebook costs nothing and it WILL INCREASE EXPOSURE. If there was such a page, those of us on Facebook could promote it and point to it from time to time for all our friends to see. Remember a Facebook account is free. It is another point of interception that new name could come across and be exposed to...us.

Hydroracer, none of this will or is intended to divert traffic from your site. This site serves a need that Facebook cannot; catalog and chronicle topics by type and date. It is my recommendation to you that you too should create a Hydroracer Facebook page to complement the forum message board. This is another opportunity for us to expose our friends to the sport and your website. When there is a topic that may be of interest to a potential ‘new name’ friend someone may have, we could easily point them to the forum.net site to read the rest of the story and oh, by the way, we say this out loud in public on our Facebook Wall for everyone to see so...not only have we exposed the sport but also the hydroracer.net site.

I really believe that exposure is a big part of the solution. I think it we can increase our exposure without any bean-counting demographic marking research by just using these new age tools sitting right in front of us. What harm can it do? How hard is it to do?

Can I gain some buy-in and supporting activity? It won't cost anybody anything and...You can do it while watching the playoff games this afternoon. Once your account is set up, if it’s not already, all it takes is mention of this or that every now and then from your page to spread the word which is less maintenance that it takes to rig your boat cart. How much easer can a promotional tactic be?