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My pleasure, sir. Lots of good stuff was put out by the SubCommittee ... back when it was a worthwhile organization. Thank god it's under new management -- might regain its former glory.
David, I know, l can hope. I joke with you, but in reality I really hope the past can be forgotten. You, I value you more than whatever group you choose to participate in. You are one of the few.
If you can cut, drill, saw, hit things and swear a lot, you're well on the way to building a working model sub.
David, I know, l can hope. I joke with you, but in reality I really hope the past can be forgotten. You, I value you more than whatever group you choose to participate in. You are one of the few.
The past is prolog; the past informs and shapes our present and future. The past is forgotten/discounted at ones peril. Past events prepares us for the now.
You are a kind, self sacrificing, forgiving person, Tom. You will be the first eaten by the mob.
Thanks, Ron. Much good fun we had at our get-togethers in the day.
I find it so titillating when confidence expressed from the stage garners squeamish reactions from an audience. Teaching is performance art -- and the act has no meaning without an audience to amaze, challenge, delight, inform and impress.
You either dominate your audience, or you lose your audience.
I think the hobby has been in decline for some decades, probably as long as the SC has existed. I would say generations that grew up beyond the early 1980's have little to no interest in this kind of hobby, and those that may dabble usually with RTR's or fix up a secondhand item.
I think that's primarily a consequence of decline of traditional manufacturing industry here in the UK and in the US, with skills not passed on and it's also starting to bite in parts of mainland Europe, because a lot of the 'dirty' hands work has been moved to Eastern block or Asia and Indian countries.
In the 1990's many modellers were still relatively young men, but now many are getting on and some have shuffled off this mortal coil. There isn't enough younger recruits to fill the gap that is opening up. A lot of clubs try and generate some appeal amongst teenagers. That's fair enough, but you're going to lose them to wine, women and song (this is mainly a bloke thing, regardless of what anyone says about gender bias), until they get to their mid twenties or so, then they may look to pick up old interests once the novelty of chasing skirt and blitzing brains cells has worn off- course some never get out of that habit.
So really the ones you want to try and net are the late twenty to late forty somethings, mature enough to stick with it, young enough to have the energy to get things motoring, and the older generations can bring experience and skills without having to concern themselves with doing the heavy lifting.
To appeal to this set, you are going to have to bear in mind that first they're unlikely to have the practical skill set older generations had, secondly there are a lot of competing entertainment and thirdly when they do engage it's likely to be via social media rather than a forum or a printed magazine.
Good luck trying to find them, because there are a lot of other clubs especially in the model field looking for likewise.
Now what I'll say next probably won't be what some wish to hear, but I don't think the SC is salvageable. I think what you have is an organisation in managed decline. I see parallels with the AMS say twenty years ago, and if you look where that is now, it's pretty much only contributed to by one person, who is also acting chairman, treasurer, membership secretary etc.
Any efforts made may make the decline more shallow, but i think there will need to be some significant changes to have any marked effect, and you'll need plenty of people on your side to make it happen. Good luck!
I think the hobby has been in decline for some decades, probably as long as the SC has existed. I would say generations that grew up beyond the early 1980's have little to no interest in this kind of hobby, and those that may dabble usually with RTR's or fix up a secondhand item.
I think that's primarily a consequence of decline of traditional manufacturing industry here in the UK and in the US, with skills not passed on and it's also starting to bite in parts of mainland Europe, because a lot of the 'dirty' hands work has been moved to Eastern block or Asia and Indian countries.
In the 1990's many modellers were still relatively young men, but now many are getting on and some have shuffled off this mortal coil. There isn't enough younger recruits to fill the gap that is opening up. A lot of clubs try and generate some appeal amongst teenagers. That's fair enough, but you're going to lose them to wine, women and song (this is mainly a bloke thing, regardless of what anyone says about gender bias), until they get to their mid twenties or so, then they may look to pick up old interests once the novelty of chasing skirt and blitzing brains cells has worn off- course some never get out of that habit.
So really the ones you want to try and net are the late twenty to late forty somethings, mature enough to stick with it, young enough to have the energy to get things motoring, and the older generations can bring experience and skills without having to concern themselves with doing the heavy lifting.
To appeal to this set, you are going to have to bear in mind that first they're unlikely to have the practical skill set older generations had, secondly there are a lot of competing entertainment and thirdly when they do engage it's likely to be via social media rather than a forum or a printed magazine.
Good luck trying to find them, because there are a lot of other clubs especially in the model field looking for likewise.
Now what I'll say next probably won't be what some wish to hear, but I don't think the SC is salvageable. I think what you have is an organisation in managed decline. I see parallels with the AMS say twenty years ago, and if you look where that is now, it's pretty much only contributed to by one person, who is also acting chairman, treasurer, membership secretary etc.
Any efforts made may make the decline more shallow, but i think there will need to be some significant changes to have any marked effect, and you'll need plenty of people on your side to make it happen. Good luck!
Sobering stuff, sir. I find nothing you presented to argue with. People have stopped using their hands. That simple.
Yes. Indeed. When you surrender to CAD you abandon the need to understand materials properties, three-dimensional thinking, and proposed component fit and integration rational. You just make a pretty picture with aid of the tool-bar and mouse, and then skillfully mash the 'enter' button. Where upon you announce to the world: "Look what I made!".
It's not that simple with CAD, Dave. You need to understand fits and tolerances and materials to make anything of worth. Computers act but don't think, yet. Certainly there are some systems coming in with iterative design algorithms that can optimise structures in very unusual ways- the items look almost alien, but it still requires a creators eye to say yay or nay.
The tools and materials have never been better in this hobby- I remember the 'good old days' where anything electronic cost an arm and a leg and another arm, and was then often less than reliable. To find materials and stuff to build, i often had to shuttle around from store to store, often the parts weren't available or i had to adapt something which worked, but not quite as well as wished. I could go on, but I think you get the point.
I've been blending newer systems with the old, and i really like it. It's enabling me to complete some stalled projects, and think up some new ones. One of the things I've been conjuring up and previewing on the Dive-in FB page is a small under 1kg (2Ib) submarine based on a subdog design, which can be printed on a small 3d printer in two sections. Dynamic diving, no wtc required, simple bayonet type o-ring gland and I reckon could be built and run for under fifty quid ($65).
This IMO is the sort of thing that may stimulate some interest in the hobby, maybe, but it's just one piece of a puzzle.
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