niaychi said...
why should seabreeze.com be the one stop forum for world wide community.

why shouldnt it? seabreeze has been the most helpful site I have found- and I did a lot of searching!

so all those that use this forum that are not members of a club get off your butts and join one so as to help give the sport a better profile.

I agree with you 100% on that, but reality bites-not everyone can devote a lot of time to regular club activities and promotional work- and would be happier with "social" sailing due to family and work committments and crook rosters.

Also there are not that many clubs- and suitable locations can be hard to find which I feel is the main thing holding back landyachting from expanding.
I tend to dissagree with what is developing as a Blokart club policy of excluding anything other than Blokarts from using the sailing areas they have managed to get sole use of.
(mind you- I can understand why they are heading in that direction.)

"get off your butts and join one " sounds very heavy !!

I have always found in life and business people tend to respond better wanting to do things rather than being "told" what to do.
A democratic society tend to promote this, maybe the thought needs to be,
What do clubs have to offer and how can a better, service/ product/ situation be created to attract new members?

The blokarts seem to have got something/s right

Car stickers persaye,
not all interested people will place a sticker upon their
Holly Grail car,....... this is the ultimate stasis symbol. Along with the Big dog,
gold neck chain, designer labeled clothes, and natty little wife.
Hell I know people that wont even put a rego label on the windscreen.
I had made a few hundred stickers 6-10 year ago asking of people support for
the miss-managed Darling River and catchment area. I still have some, tried to sell them to cover costs, not real successful. Tried to give some away around the tracks, biggest answer i got was " i don't put any stickers on MY CAR !!!"
Well i was out of pocket and that was the last straw with my wifeeeeeeeeeeeee,
separation [ D.I.V.O.R.S.E. ], and that cost plenty too, but at least i'm freee..
So if anyone wants a " Darling River Lover " bumper sticker, now collectors items,
Make an offer here or PM, if you love the system you must love " The Darling "
Also my research says that most people do not see them while driving, something about concentration and accidents while driving. Most people are aware of them walking thru car parks at shopping centers, but be warned the wrong sort of look at someone else's car in a car park [ iKEAR less ] could get you arrested or maybe spiked in the back with a sharp pointed object or maybe executed by some infidel with a BIG caliber Shooter and a wine and grass fed brain..... Think before you stick

niaychi, the quality of product or service is not dependant on the size of the group or business. A plumber, mechanic, coffee shop, pizza delivery guy or even large telecomunication companies can provide good or bad product or service its up to the attitude of those involved.
And to what organizations I belong to it is between them and me and no one else, and if any of those organizations leak that information then it would be regarded as a breach of trust and confidentiality and possible legal action may follow.

I think that the thread should revert back to the original topic of "Car Stickers" and stay on track......

Beachball,
OK I think when it comes to shopping we are all pretty predictable,
and shop in the main where we are cared for, where we are comfortable and are usually return shoppers.
Now i have been unable to find a better site than this "seebreeze" and that's world wide, to the limit of my computer skills. Do you know a better on, pray do tell. A bloke called "Lorry" whatever has set it up and allows us all to proliferate it with our nonsense, discussion and squabbling. AT HIS COST. As the site is a cross jeanrahs [ big word, wrong spelling i think] deals with lots of related interests it seems great to me, and i would not mind he having a small kick back from us collectively, i don't see no damage. And it costs nothing, probably only good manners realy.
Similarly with you being an old trucky pointing the Kenny across the paddock , you may be riding on second hand Bandags or you could be on Michelins, now i wouldn't mind anyone pointing this out to me as i ate my truckies mixed grill at the roadhouse,
I would probly think, now there's a trucky with brains, but i wouldnt say that out loud.

what the hell has being a truckie got to do with what we are talking about here,,,iam a truckie and have been 1 for the past 28 years but still fail to see what that's got to do with anything,,, and yes i guess to a certain extent we do shop at the same shops most of the time but i for 1 am not against looking around at other shops to see what they have to offer and if they offer someting different then i'm gunna go in and spend my money,, the point i was trying to get across is in my opinion and the last time i checked this was a free country and we were allowed to have opinions, it was and still is my opinion that we were trying to promote the sport of land sailing to the general public and not a web site,, yes i admit as web sites go seabreeze is not bad, but i like to go land sailing not website sailing, i thought that it would have been much better to put the sport in the public eye, and the rest of it will follow,, by all means go ahead and have your bumper stickers if that is your want, after all there are millions of other bumper stickers out there for all manner of things 1 more isn't going to matter all that much and i doubt that it's going to raise the awareness of land sailing all that much, but what the hell what ever floats you boat...i for 1 would rather see that energy put into something a little more concrete than trying to promote a website on a bumper sticker when the whole idea is to promote the sport [}:)]

Beachball, for the most part, I agree with you. The number 1 priority should be to promote the sport, not a web site. The web site, like the sticker itself is just a tool to build the sport. It would be wonderful to be able to achieve this promotion via an intensive, prime-time TV ad campaign, but that is probably a tad beyond the budget of most organisations within our sport. I think that Gizmo's bumper sticker idea has merit mainly because it fits realistically within the budget of the various clubs and gets the message to the maximum number of people for the price.

The problem we have is how to spark interest in people who have never even heard of the sport, let alone contemplated getting into it. The internet is full of web sites concerning land sailing, but the problem is that you have to go looking for them to find them. The benefit of the bumper sticker is that it will prompt some people to do just that. Sure, 99.9% of people will either see the sticker and ignore it or not notice it at all, but the remaining 0.1% is still a lot of people.

So, why is it important to get more people involved in land sailing? It is nice to share the trill and enjoyment we get from it, but there is an important 'selfish' reason as well. NickSh in the "Future of the sport" touched on it when he lamented the lack of venues. As a group, we are too easily dismissed and ignored by the authorities mainly because of our size. Kids on skateboards are often viewed by councils as nuisances in public places, but instead of just banning them outright, councils spend serious money building skate parks. Jet skis and wind surfers are accommodated by having designated areas at the beach. They have not been outlawed indirectly by virtue of having their venues blocked off. If there were 100,000 active land sailors in this country, there is no doubt that we would be accommodated. In fact, the blokarting community is discovering this in the way some organisations are coming on board when organising events. Tourist organisations have recognised the positive aspect in having 100 people converge on a location to spend their money and sail. Put simply, if we want venues, we have to grow.

If you have a better way of improving awareness that fits within the typical budget of our clubs and associations, I am sure we would all love to hear it.

Another added benifit of targeting children/young folk is that they have boundless energy levels.....to pester Mum or Dad to buy/build them a landyacht (model or fullsize) .

Schools do present a nice resource to nearby clubs (and other devoted individuals), especially those with technology classes that need projects. I remember how sick I was of building the same thing as everyone else in metalwork and engineering, and then never using it again afterwards. Speaking of which, has anyone heard how the kids in Kalgoorlie are going with there miniyachts?

This said, I still want a bumper sticker to tell the oddball who checks it out where to start the search for landsailing info. Still haven't figured out how to simply direct people to the land sailing forums here on seabreeze though Whoever said we need a 'www.landsailing.com.au' website wasn't off the track, would make it easier.

Car stickers are just a tool and not the answer to attracting more participants to the sport.
And you're right it then needs to lead onto a well made informative web site and there are some good examples around like..

UK http://www.bfslyc.org.uk/pages/fed_homepage.aspx

USA www.nalsa.org/

and i know this is French site but it's VERY GOOD
www.charavoile62.com/

but if you cant read French go through a language conversion site like "Bable Fish" and it will convert it to english if you follow the links.
babelfish.yahoo.com/

Its is just such a pitty that there is no "Front Door" to land sailing in Australia and with these examples it may give some guide to what is needed.

Gizmo said...

Joe....while I think your suggestions are meant well i dont think they are workable.
Your "street parade" idea is fine and has been done in the past in regionable town street parades

The Credit Union Christmas Padgent in Adelaide is highly structured/organized and timed to the second (I have spent many hours over the years doing the television coverage for this event). It has always been about children, fairy tales and the spirit of Christmas. It is not a street parade and should never become one.

Be very careful with the suggestion of school groups as intensive instruction and supervision and insurance would be required. School Teachers already have heavy workloads. I doubt the concept would get the go ahead from the Education Department. The idea may work better for Scouting Groups and water Sailing Clubs as an out of season activity because their insurance would cover those sorts of activities.
Mind you a good portion of kids today are more in tune with "cyber" space than "open" space.

what other suggestions to the problem do you have

here is one i made earlier



just an example