University/College Skydiving Club help!

[JumpCrazy 0]

Ok, here's the deal:

I go to the University of Western Ontario Located in London, Onario. I am one of the Skydiving Club execs there as well
The clubs members pay a dues fee of $20 at the beginning of the year to join and get a good deal on their first jump out of it. We do most of these jumps in the fall (our season ends in November) and we never see these club members again.

I want our club to be more than just that but am wondering if there are any ideas on how to make it better. As it sits now, taking ppl for the first jump is all we do.

BTW, our school has a population of over 30 000 so there are definately enough ppl to support a decent club.

Any ideas??? What do other clubs do??

Flying Hellfish #470

[RoadRash 0]

I feel your pain! I am a member of the Purdue Sport Parachute Club and I was secretary last semester...The problem is retaining jumpers who did their first jump right? Well, we usually get a lot of tandems...but when it comes to AFF and beyond...no dice...I know very few people in our club that stick with it...or WHO EVEN JUMP!!!! I am considered one of the most active members..and I don't think I am all that active...Purdue has over 30,000 students as well and an airport plus, a very big aviation program...We have good deals for AFF...that usually gets people to at least try something beyond a tandem...talk to your local DZ...hell, I need some suggestions too!


~R+R

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Fly the friendly skies...^_^...})ii({...^_~...

[SarahC07 0]

Heh, we kinda have the same problem...

The Skydiving Club at my school just got some new leadership and we're actively trying to gain some new members...

There are 46,000 students at Texas A&M University... so there HAS to be some future hard core skydivers in there somewhere!

I'll be watching this thread ....

Sarah

[rocketdog 0]

HEY BEN -- ITS HOLLYWOOD (from the Richmond boogie)

anyway, our club also has $20 dues, but then IF you decide to come back you CONTINUE to get discounted jumps...... we worked w/ our DZO to cut a little bit off each jump, but not enough that the DZ is foregoing a profit.... make sense?

also, we give them a certificate & membership card, have a "Day @ The Dropzone" (where EVERYONE comes for a really cheap day of jumping) and invite them to stay for the party

hmmm.... thats all i can think of off the top of my head, but it is REALLY hard to get our students to come back for a 2nd jump -- especially if tandem is their first.

KEEP IN TOUCH!
~hollywood

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[samhussey 0]

Theres a cool article you can download from the BCPA site which ahs some great suggestions for stuff like this. www.bcpa.org.uk I just started the skydiving club at my uni, and so far we got a fair number of people who actually want to progress in the sport, not just do one jump and never return! You need to emphasise how much better value it is to keep at it then to do just the one jump, keep an active club social schedule (weekly piss-ups, parties etc. etc.) and incentives to get an A license.

[Kennedy 0]

We had similar issues in keeping jumpers at U Maryland. Well, one thing we did was throw a mini boogie at the end of the year specifially for our jumpers and new jumpers who stuck with it.

We also started taking care of the "real" jumpers in addition to the new jumpers. We set up trips on the schools dollar, got them to pitch in vans, transportation costs, etc. There was talk of tunnel time for the really active int he club. I think it actually happened.

Now all the "first gen" jumpers are gone and there is still a club run by jumpers, so I'd say we did pretty good.

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[Vallerina 2]

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...hell, I need some suggestions too!

My suggestion: make static line an option. There would've been no way in Hell I could've stayed as current and gotten into skydiving as a college student if all I had was AFF. I could've done at most one jump a month. I could do a few a month with static line. The major selling point of your next jump being only $35 is what did it for me!

There's a thin line between Saturday night and Sunday morning

[samhussey 0]

True. Currently, all the members in our club are going through the Static Line system. Its the only realistic option for most of them.

[pilotdave 0]

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There was talk of tunnel time for the really active int he club. I think it actually happened.

Yep, 3 hours of university funded tunnel time, plus 2 coaches. That's the stuff that gets club members active!

When I was president at maryland we started doing a bunch of stuff to try to keep people involved. Club jackets ($170 each, but only charged members $40), club t-shirts, some free jumps for helping the club out (putting up fliers and stuff), and the free trips to florida including tunnel time. Also got the members to show up to our monthly "info sessions" by offering free pizza.

Dave

[karenmeal 0]

A friend of mine runs the Virginia Tech skydiving club. They are actually doing pretty well, and have lots of active members. They give discounts on jumps to people doing tandems. Then later on down the road they have two club rigs that are available for a rental fee of 5 dollars. They've applied for various types of funding from the university and for two years now have gotten the school to cover all their jumps and some additional fees for collegiates (I think the school paid for some tunnel time too.)

I think what has helped this club out is having a very close relationship with the DZO at the nearest DZ. They've worked out some deals to not only help cut back on cost for the first jump and the student program.. but they've provided incentive for the students to continue since the cost for rental gear is basically a non-issue.

They have tons and tons of parties and dinners to atleast get the whuffos to hang out with them. The president also teaches packing classes for free to anybody who needs to learn. Because their are some people with higher jump numbers in the club.. nobody really pays for coached jumps. If you want the e-mail of the guy who is the club president, PM me.. I'm sure he'll be happy to share a bunch of tips with you and give you great advice.

-Karen

[JumpCrazy 0]

Hey Hollywood.

Thanks for the great ideas everyone...I will bring these up to the other execs.

Keep more ideas coming please!!

Flying Hellfish #470

[base428 1]

I used to be president of the West Virginia University Skydiving Club. Membership turnaround is inevitable, as many college students join your club just to make one jump.

How do you keep them onboard for a year or more? I don't think you really can unless you find those truly dedicated, addicted students out there who you know will continue in the sport.

We also had the following which helped attendance:

-Ran a Skydiving Club booth for the entire first week of school with videos and rigs for students to explore.
-Hand out pencils/pens with your club logo.
-Advertise in the college newspaper.
-Advertise on the college radio station.
-Attend the Collegiates.
-Sucker your college into funding your trips to the Collegiates and other events like we did.
-Have your members wear " Skydiving Club" jackets.
-Jump onto campus illegally (I did that once...)

Good luck.

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[kansasskydiver 0]

Quote

BTW, our school has a population of over 30 000 so there are definately enough ppl to support a decent club.

Any ideas??? What do other clubs do??

you'd be suprised actually... Our school has about 40000 and we only tapped into 3 people for the info meeting and a total of 16 for the semester.

Last semester we had a waitlist. Numbers don't mean much as I've learned. Spend the money and time to advertise. All our sign-ups though come from word of mouth

<--- See look, pink dolphins DO exist!

[RoadRash 0]

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-Jump onto campus illegally (I did that once...)

Good luck.

Oooooooh...I have thought about that!! There is a nice sized airport near here...how do I go about a little jump into Memorial Mall at PU? Seriously though...how do I go about jumping into campus?


~R+R

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Fly the friendly skies...^_^...})ii({...^_~...

[Tink1717 2]

What we did, and still do, at University of Maryland College Park, is maintain a high visibility on campus with booths, fliers and meetings. We recruit a lot of tandem students and seem to have been able to retain a fair number of up jumpers, (Yo, Dave, Kennedy, wasssup?) who are active in keeping the thing going. We have also managed to set things up, mostly through the efforts of Dave and Lewis, (past presidents and founders) to get enough funding to have a pretty cool trip to the collegiate boogie at Williston in January. There is a pretty good article by Lewis somewhere on this site (I have no idea how to find it) on starting a college club. The result is that there is something for everyone at the club. For those who just want to do a tandem, they get a break in the price. For those who stick with it through AFF, there is both a price break and other stuff like T-shirts and jackets. For the up jumpers, there is a core of cool people to jump with. That way everyone is a winner.

The hardest thing about keeping a club going is finding capable people to take the place of those officers who graduate. Keep in mind that there will probably be only a handful of people who stick around and learn enough to run the club when people leave. It's tough, but it's worth it.

Skydivers don't knock on Death's door. They ring the bell and runaway... It really pisses him off.
-The World Famous Tink. (I never heard of you either!!)
AA #2069 ASA#33 POPS#8808 Swooo 1717

[crzjp20 0]

at least yall have a skydiving club!! i havnt seen one here at LSU yet, if anyone knows of one please inform me, otherwise i am starting one in the fall!!

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Fear is not a confession of weakness, it is an oportunity for courage.

[JumpCrazy 0]

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The hardest thing about keeping a club going is finding capable people to take the place of those officers who graduate.

Apparently thats why our club went bye bye a bunch of years ago. Someone brought it back only a few years ago. I am already worried about this happening again and the last or our execs won't graduate for about 3 more years.

Flying Hellfish #470

[flighty 0]

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There are 46,000 students at Texas A&M University... so there HAS to be some future hard core skydivers in there somewhere!

Howdy Aggie. I was an officer of the tamusc for a few years, and here is what worked for us;

Cheap colorful flyers with the tearoff phone numbers at the bottom. Write SKYDIVE really big with some info about first jump course, price and whatnot. Make up a few with different sayings, so people who notice them keep noticing them.

come SKYDIVE with us
We're the Texas A&M Skydiving Club
Take a first jump course at AOT and jump the same day. Static-line $150 or Accelerated freefall $250 every weekend 10 a.m.
Stay for first jump stories at the bonfire at sunset. skydive.tamu.edu
Call ###-#### for more info
(then the little dangly things with)
SKYDIVE info
Bob ###-####

People who will jump usually are interested in skydiving and will notice a flyer about it if you make the word skydive big and clear. A big roadblock for many people who would otherwise be skydivers is not knowing that it is pretty easy to make their first jump. Talking to an enthusiastic club member will work out a lot of the feer of sounding stupid questions.

Static-line and AFF are the way to go. We almost never got a student to come back after a tandum. Maybe we were doing something wrong, but we just didn't. There is a real sense of accomplishment after doing aff or sl that we just didn't see with tandums. If you can combine that with getting the student to feel welcome (no trouble at aot for that) and getting them to stay for first jump stories and beerlight, they really get a taste of why to continue in the sport. When they call for info be sure to tell them about the first jump stories at the end of the night, so people plan on staying. A little effort with getting everyone to stop and gather for it goes a long way.

~Cindy~
Quantum materiae materietur marmota monax si marmota monax materiam possit materiari?
Spelling and grammar errors are left as an exercise for the reader.

[flighty 0]

Another great way to get people out is to get someone to write up their first jump story for the Bat (school paper.) Include details, like cost and what the fjc was like. Target it to someone who would jump if they knew more about it. A positive piece is garonteed to convince people that they can do it too. Talk to the photographers too, because a nice swoop with a colorful canopy makes an irresistible cover shot. I have a cover shot of my husband on the Eagle (A&M town newspaper) and we got more than one Bat cover while I was there. It is sure to make anyone interested in skydiving pick up the paper.

~Cindy~
Quantum materiae materietur marmota monax si marmota monax materiam possit materiari?
Spelling and grammar errors are left as an exercise for the reader.

[redrocka 0]

True, static line or IAD is a big plus for college jumpers. The weekly parties help alot (we've got a good number of 'groupies' who just show up for the parties), Things start picking up as you get more licensed jumpers. Offer rides to the dz, we started giving out tickets to everybody that shows at the weekly meetings (good place to show boogie videos) and then drawing for a free student jump every now and then. Print up t-shirts and stickers (stay visible on campus, fundraisers and handing out flyers is a good way to involve all those who've always wanted to do it but can't afford it this weekend) Organize and advertise club trips to boogies, wind tunnel, whatever... bbq's, camping trips... I think the key is getting new people into the social side of skydiving, so if they can't afford to jump, they're still around jumpers and talking/thinking about the sport.

Sweet Gravity...

[redrocka 0]

Oh yeah! We also just started getting local bars, buisnesses... to 'sponsor' us (read, give us free money, just offer to put their logo on the back of your club shirt or whatever...) One of them buys a few tandems a year and raffles them off every now and then. We even had hand-stampers made up so when all the students woke up all hung over the next morning, they had our clubs website written on them.

Sweet Gravity...

[champu 1]

as far as the initial attraction, most normal tricks work. Flyers, meetings, making sure to plaster all your members with loud colored t-shirts that say "SKYDIVING" on them. A simple, easy to read website with a section directed to people who have no idea what's going on is good too.

To retain newbies is hard. I think it's great when people come to do tandems, I kinda chat with them for a while after they jump and I usually run the whole "getting their license" thing by them. This usually doesn't work, but it has a couple times.

For people that take the first jump course, they get put on "the list". people on "the list" are encouraged to get the t-shirt, submit a brief profile to go on the website, and have me get a mug of them to go with the profile. I send an e-mail out to all these people once a week with a quick news blurb, updates on accomplishments (licenses, new rigs, getting off student status, etc) a joke or two, and ask to see who wants to jump that weekend.

The whole idea is, I try to make it feel like an on going thing, something to look forward to on the weekend besides just getting wasted at a frat party again.

[VivaHeadDown 0]

With the number of students you have on campus, don't tell me you can't get more active jumpers. I helped run a club when I was going to ERAU that boasted anywhere from 20 to 40 active jumpers each semester, with tons of tandem activity. Our school only had 5000 people total. Believe it or not, every college student isn't poor. Many have rich families that are funding their adventure into education and often times want their kids active.

You have to be visible. A lot of people here talk about fliers, those are good. If you can arrange demos, they get attention. Whenever we did a booth, we'd have videos and gear all over it. Then follow up with a "wanna skydive?" info session a few days later to get curious people even more jazzed (offer free pizza and the attendance will double). We were able to get Bill Booth to talk at one of them. Not a big name to new guys, but he's charismatic and knowlegable and that works well when coupled with video and demo (not just jumping into events but also showing off the latest technologies in skydiving).

And what gets people to stay once they're hooked? Party. Clubs are designed to get groups together with common interests and goals. Skydivers want to belong, and need others to help them grow in the sport. A big boogie each semester, with a couple parties at member's houses keep the group together. If you don't promote group activities, then you will not retain membership. Also, as a leader, you need to continually grow new leaders. If someone takes an interest in the club when they're new, give them little duties that are fun. Like taking care of the bar-b-q and beer at the boogie. It'll expose them to other duties that they'll want to take on later. I worked my way up to president by junior year, then back down to vice-president my senior year so that I could help oversee the training of the new guy. It's been a couple years, and the names the club lists on the website are unfamiliar, but there are a lot of them and I see calendars that resemble the types of semesters that we set up, so something must have worked.

Good luck, and have fun with it. It's a lot of work, but well worth the effort. And don't do it alone. You need a group to run everything, so start spending time with other jumpers in order to build that initial team.

Don't Confuse Me With My Own Words

[sdgregory 0]

I am the Treasurer of the Skydiving Club at the Ohio State University and we are addressing this exact issue.

The problem with this Skydiving is that it naturally has a very low retention rate. Less than what? one half of one percent of the population actually skydives? Think about that. And of those that ever leave a plane an even smaller percent actuallly do it again. With over 54000 students at OSU our club has only 8 licensed jumpers in it's member base. We also have a faculty advisor who has over 700 jumps, his Tandem Rating, and his AFF/I rating and two AFF-I/Coaches from our home DZ that volunteer their services to help out.

We only charge five dollars for dues. You will never make money off dues so we decided to just make it this token amount. But if you buy a club T-shirt and you paid dues, then we take five bucks off the price of the shirt.

One of the things we work on is getting large groups to go up and do Tandems and Level I AFF's. We get the paperwork for them, we take care of transportation and our advisor even take sthe time to do a little class before we head to the DZ. You know, a what to expect/safety/basic info course to help them get prepared and excited. By bringing large groups consistently, you make the DZ money which then opens up opportunities to get larger discounts. Remember that even though your club is not for profit, your DZ is NOT. If you make them money then they want to help out more.

The main issue for Skydiving clubs seems to be visibility. What are you doing to get the attention of future skydivers? A good person to talk to is Jim Twardowski (airtwardo here on DZ.com) He helped build a club at one fo the Illinois colleges and it was pretty damn successful.

Maybe he will post here to give out some the wealth of knowledge he has one this.

A big key is to take what you do have as members and get together at the DZ. Organize club jumps for licensed members and share the expewrience with the non-licensed members. Get them excited about what you do so that they want to join in. They gotta believe the expense of attaining a license is worth it. Retaining new members is harder than bringing in new members. You almost gotta make them feel welcomed and try not to bore them to tears. We are currently dealing with this issue.

[JumpCrazy 0]

Wow! I don't know who to respond to because you all have excellent ideas.
We have only been able to locate a few experienced skydivers but they don't join our club because of they way it is mainly set up for first timers. You people have great ideas on how to keep everyone interested. Also, I think more advertising is an excellent idea, and a website is something we definately need.

Keep the ideas coming!!

Flying Hellfish #470