Who has Been excluded from a club?

[Eagleburger]

I tried to join my local club today and was told no by the secetary, as they had too many members. Also turned away was a father and son and another gentleman.

This club has 112 members, less than half of other clubs in the greater area. A couple of times I have gone to this club for a look and there was never more than 6 people there at any one time.

I feel that only a few people objected to new members, every other member was more than happy for us to join.

Other clubs where I had been a member, when I lived elsewhere, welcomed new members and there was a sense of community.


Has anyone else been subject to this kind of selfish behaviour?

[Extra nuts]

Nope. I think its rediculous to turn away new members. What does that say about our sport, about what kind of people we are. Its not good. Its unsportsman like.
The people in that club who are against new members need to pull their head out and quit beaten on the kids!!

[Howie]

.....

[Dan_nO]

That is pretty sad to say the least.

Would be nice to see how the ones who said no and was against it to have thier membership rejected.

[BillyGoat]

Well it certainly shouldn’t be the secretary's position to decide if a club has too many members.

Many clubs have a membership cap for one reason or another. If this club has one and they reached it, he should have explained that to you. Don’t judge the whole club by one inconsiderate idiot. Might want to inquire with other members about a cap and if there is a waiting list you can add your name to. If you get the same cold response I’d look for another to join.

[rc4flying]

I once belonged to a club that put a cap of 50 members. I never unstood the reasoning because there were only the same 5-10 guys flying on a regular basis. Go figure what some clubs think. That is why I attend lots of events. I enjoy the fellowship of this hobby and the friends that I have met.

Do what others have suggested and ask the same question to other members and about a waiting list, but I would be looking for somewhere else, if possible.

[SuperDave]

I was basically harassed out of a club. The Kirtland Air Force Base club as a matter of fact, and I'm in the Air Force!!! They couldn't kick me out by their charter rules, so they made it so miserable to go fly with them I left. Now most of you may get the sense that I'm a pretty easy going guys who makes friends easily...and that is true. But, these guys have a little private thing going of old grumpy dudes, so whenever new blood comes in, they harass that person until they leave. Things like selectively enforcing the rules...

Life's too short to fly in a toxic social environment.

[thewrap]

They tried to do that to me before I became a member at mine. It sukced but I was still able to use the field which I didn't get. You'd of thought that when I brought money to join they wouldn't even think about not letting me join. My dues for the next year are due and I don't think I'm going back.

[RCER123]

Why would they go to the hassle of "excluding" you!! The more members the better a club basically!! The people who do this are grumpy farts who deserve to "excluded"!! My local club had these people who owned, so the better people bought it over and the grumpy farts moved on to a different site!! Word on the street is that the club is now being built on!!! Makes you laugh!!! Sorry about it, join a better club which has kinder people!! Jack

[pepatrick]

Our club has a waiting list. We have over 250 members and on weekends it gets crazy. Membership limits usually have nothing to do with weekdays...but to deal with crowd control on weekends. We do have a memebership that is available for weekday flyers only. This increases revenue without clogging up the weekends for regular members. I think a club that has 50 members should not think about limits...but larger clubs should be allowed (and are) to limit the number of members.

[Eagleburger]

I can understand a cap where the land is privately owned, I would curse once but wouldn’t think twice and move on. This field is on council land, a council to which I pay rates. And here is the joke of the matter,

I have since discovered that that secetary does not live in the shire and would appear to not pay rates to it.

Beers up to the guys who objected to the committee’s decision and thanks to the members who were friendly and weren’t opposed to new members.

[Sukhoikid]

We use to limit only 100 AMA Open Flyers and unlimited youth pilots. Our field use to get crowed every weekend so we had to limit it for a while. Then we started to not have as many members come out so we open it up fully. Only thing that makes me dissappointed is we have over 130 members and only 3-8 come out on workdays to work!!!! And club meetings around 10-15 show up. We have had times where someone was cutting the grass and someone came out to fly and said your getting in my way!!! That really makes me mad!!!
But I do believe if the club has limited amount of space at the field (which we sort of do) and there are a lot of people coming out they should limit. But if not there is no reason to.