POLL: Your Age Range and Years of Club Membership.

[Bush Walker]

Please humour me a little and give it a go!

Our discussion about Club membership has been hampered by a lack of information about this Forum's members.

How Does Your Club Use Social Media? [12/279] POLL
Does your Club need more Gen X & Gen Y members? [31/556]
Is your Club Size Diminishing and your Membership Ageing? [191/2849] POLL
Bushwalking Clubs: the good, bad and the ugly [23/488]

What is your age range?
Have you ever been a Club member and for how long?

Why did you join?
Why did you leave?
Why didn't you join?

Due to a limitation in the polls on this forum which don't allow branching, I have coded (eg 2C=baby boomer with 5-9 years club membership) each option in the poll. Please humour me a little and give it a go! (PS the poll is limited to 30 options)

BIRTH YEAR

1..1925-1945 Silent Generation
2..1946-1964 Baby Boomers
3..1965-1980 Generation X
4..1981-1990 Generation Y
5..1991-

NUMBER OF YEARS A CLUB MEMBER

A..0
B..1-4
C..5-9
D..10-24
E..25-49
F..50-74

INSTRUCTIONS

1. make a choice from each category eg 3C
2. select this combination from the poll above (YOU MUST CLICK A BUTTON)
3. tell us why you haven't joined, have joined, or have left the Club, including the code you selected above to help us to determine if reasons depend on age.

NB Non Club members need to respond too, so we getter a better picture of Forum membership.

[Bush Walker]

Code: 2B

I joined a club so I could find others of similar ability to form a group to climb Federation Peak in Tasmania.

[kbm63]

2C - would still be member of club but moved away - however still retain some contacts. Club in the eighties was certainly a younger group.

[Mark F]

2D
Learned much about walking in the Senior Scouts where we were lucky to have Ray Jerrems as an assistant leader.
Walked with the SUBW for about 5 years including a stint as president.
Walked with Kamerukas into my early 30's.
Moved to Tasmania, married, had kids - no club, not much walking. Did look at HWC, but every speaker at the club meetings prefaced their remarks with "I have been a member of the HWC for ...(insert large number)... and I..."
Moved to Canberra, kids grown up, looked at a couple of clubs but didn't want the level of bureaucracy and regimentation. Now I solo walk regularly, particularly long distance routes, and do day walks with my partner.

[icemancometh]

Code: 2B

I joined a club so I could find others of similar ability to form a group to climb Federation Peak in Tasmania.

Do clubs still work like this now? Be keen if they were. Most TRs I see from clubs now are more mundane affairs.

Most of my partners cite work and time and lack of interest to do longer/more committing trips and struggling to find new ones hence why I came on the forum.

[ignavus davus]

3A.

Have planned to join for several years but haven't got around to it. I find the website for the Hobart Walking Club (the club I would join if I was to join) to be a bit uninspiring from the perspective of a potential new member.

[Bluegum Mic]

3A. Have never joined a club as I had friends locally who enjoyed walking. Im about to join a club in the next month as Im moving interstate. Reasons for joining will be to access a greater variety of walks and activities and meet new people.

[jez_au]

3B
34yo

Am member of two clubs, but one I walked with for three years but not in the three years since, prob never will again. They are generally too old for me. The other club has younger ppl and do overnight walks which I prefer. Primarily I seem to use clubs to make new hiking friends to hike with elsewhere.

[mikethepike]

2C (just left B)
I have done a lot of solo walking in the last 20 years but joined my current club to get amongst like minded people and to find partners for small groups for multi day harder or more isolated walks that I would not feel comfortable doing solo. Unfortunately I can hardly say that it's been a success. People seem to be attracted to tame walks and they are the vast majority. There's seems to be little excitement about tackling something a bit harder or even talking about them. And far too much bureaucracy. I'm starting to realize that I'm not walking as strongly as I once did and if I wait much longer, the harder walks will be out of reach. Diamond peak and certainly a POW Range traverse is already in that category. I've just come back from the Main Range and while we didn't complete the whole of the walk for a number of reasons, I experienced enough of it to realize that traipsing over the whole of the main range skyline would be more demanding than I was expecting. It's not that many years ago that it wouldn't have been.

[flatfoot]

3B

Lost 35kg, was predominately cycling for fitness/weight-loss. Cycling can be boring so I decided to take up bushwalking. This is now my preferred form of exercise (although exercise is not my only reason for joining a club - predominately the social aspects, chance to see specy places, enjoy the bush). Since June 2010 I've been on about 50 walks. 70% of my walks would be with a club, 25% solo and 5% with various family/extended family. I've also mixed in a couple of walks with work colleagues.

[Graham51]

2C
I am not currently a member of a club. I rejoined a club back in 1984 and remained a member for several years. I rejoined as the people I had previously walked with had become lazy and/or unfit so I had noone to walk with. However the club didn't really cater for my needs as I was looking for more challenging walks which weren't being offered and when I programmed these I was only accompanied by 1 or 2 people - sometimes none. I have since found a couple of peopl.e with similar intersts to me outside the club. Now I walk mainly with a friend and my wife - separately.

[Bush Walker]

Thanks to those who have replied so far.

Please add you "vote", even if you are not a Club member. Choose 1A, 2A, 3A, 4A or 5A

There is already an early pattern beginning to emerge with most Club members in the Forum (7/9) responding being born between 1925 -1964, with only 2 after this.

[Graham51]

That could mean that the younger walkers have better things to do (like getting out walking in the bush) than spend their time dreaming about it.
The 2 you refer to who were born after 1991 apparently think they have been members of a club for over 50 years! Perhaps they are mentally challenged young people or people born around 1891 suffering from dementia.

[Bush Walker]

Thanks Graham51

That could mean that the younger walkers have better things to do (like getting out walking in the bush) than spend their time dreaming about it.
The 2 you refer to who were born after 1991 apparently think they have been members of a club for over 50 years! Perhaps they are mentally challenged young people or people born around 1891 suffering from dementia.

Next time I do a poll like this I must remember to not provide options that are invalid!

[taswegian]

2A
Like the solitude of walking alone and visiting where/ what I wanted.
Walked with couple of mates and even then felt resticted at times.

[johnat]

Walk with my partner and a couple of mates (sometimes) because I like the ability to get out into the bush, away from other people.

Why, then, would I even consider joining a "bushwalking club"? The terms bushwalking and club, to me, are mutually exclusive!
True, I live in the "bush" (ie not NSW - Newcastle, Sydney, Wollongong) and prefer my own company to that of hordes of others. True, I am a Boring Old F@rt (BOF) who is easily amused by the beauty of the bush and the inhabitants (natural) thereof. True, I would prefer to be on the other side of the world when Country Music invades my city.

Bush = solitude! (apart from march flies, mosquitoes and bush flies, that is!)

[MartyGwynne]

2 D for me.
Have walked with young and old people and there are varying degrees of enjoyment with both younger and older.
Some of my older companions are now too elderly to walk extended trips (4-5 nights).
The young may not want to walk with older people as my club is now mainly made up of older retired members (the young don't want to walk with grandpa and Grandma I suspect). I am not that old yet.
Well had better go and walk my dogs (the young and the old one).

[Nick S]

4A
26years.

Often thought about joining the Launceston walking club but never get around to it. Actually I think it would be interesting to meet other walkers. I'm sure there are a few old timers out there with some good stories.. but for trips I'm pretty happy getting a few mates together for longer walks.. been over most of tassie with just help from guide books and this website

[jacko1956]

2A
Just feel that not ready for a club yet.
Want to get more hiking under my belt and don't have much spare time until I finish working.

[tas-man]

2E
Was a member of Brisbane Bushwalkers from 1969 to 1994. I was invited by a friend to join BBW after a year of discovering bushwalking with my work mates. I really enjoyed the walking trips and developing my skills within the club environment, and found the mentoring of younger members then by older experienced members to be a significant positive aspect of club membership. My years of active bushwalking within the club resulted in friendships that have lasted a lifetime. The BBW club trips were more than just walking trips, but the environment in which deep friendships developed with like minded persons with a common passion in just "being out there." When our family moved to Tassie in 1994 I joined the Launceston Walking Club then and am still a member. I have enjoyed what these club memberships have given me and have been happy to contribute time to the running of both clubs by involvement at committee level. There are many and varied reasons why people go bushwalking, and club's provide just one way for people with a common interest to pursue that activity together.

[stu]

Personally i'm a 3A.
Not sure how you get 5F tho, let alone 2 of them?
Time travellers?