BillyVance 35 #26 January 24, 2008 Quote And back to the thread at hand... Get rid of the group membership program and replace it with the group inspection program. Those who pass get EARNED advertising rights, instead of purchased advertising rights. And, as with anything earned, the USPA can publish guidelines that will weed out the trash - if they have the balls to do it. There is very little trash really, just some DZs and resale programs.... Sounds good to me, but we all know the USPA has no balls. "Mediocre people don't like high achievers, and high achievers don't like mediocre people." - SIX TIME National Champion coach Nick Saban Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Unstable 9 #27 January 25, 2008 I agree with Davelepka on this one, almost 100%. I may not be a DZO, but I have been on the BOD for a dropzone for a number of years, and I'm starting to discern short term versus long term goals as far as running a DZ are concerned. In our case, the Coach program has not been a method of extracting more $$ from poor helpless students. On the Contrary. It has been key in helping us keep raising up the next generation of instructors. It helps students have more 1 on 1 contact with the Coaches, and it provides us a venue for our long term goals of growth. Quote What's good for the fun jumper is good for the DZO. I agree with this. It is applied well to our case; but I can see where it can not be universally applied to all DZ's. The DZO's in the Kansas City Area all agree: Skydiving, for the most part, is a word of mouth sport. We've dumped up to thousands of dollars doing various market surveys, market response trials, and pure advertising. Even on successful methods, they did not compare to Word of Mouth advertising. We live next to a large (25,000 Soldier) military base, Ft. Riley. We draw quite a few upjumpers. One of them, with about 50 jumps, is involved in this group Single Soldiers Group, a group, funded by the army and various Grants, to provide soldiers with things to do other than go drink and party. With the right connections, we found a major pool for tandem students, and we take large groups of them often. This is how we pay for our club and our DZ, and that has proven effective. By adjusting ourselves to be a very up-jumper DZ, we are able to grow. For the First time, we will be hosting a Turbine week long boogie in 10 years! This is a case study; Does it hold true to, oh say, Skydive Las Vegas? Probably not. But it holds true that experienced skydivers are not a plague or a financial burden to DZO's.=========Shaun ========== Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
