Gathering, Long post with a question. Options

[JoeSharp]

Gathering, why aren’t we getting the participation that we should be? We have over 14,000 members now. I can’t say as all of the last 4 or 5 events that we have had here I have considered flops as far as numbers go. I don’t understand it.
One of the reasons I enjoy gathering so much is the Brainstorming. I feel that it is very important because, we as creative individuals will be turning ourselves lose into Mother Nature’s realties in a creation of our own invention. Brainstorming with anyone that can get themselves to an event and adding their IQ to mine, I am sure that the total will be at least an IQ of 120. And who knows, they may have a totally different insight into what you are thinking about.
Just because you are here you are a unique individual. You have an affair with a car that even Volkswagen pushed off on Porsche. And for years Porsche owners have looked down on us and treated us like they had something shoved down their throat.
No matter who you are, you will find Respect at our gatherings. You will find unique individuals like yourself, interested in the same things as all of the other unique individuals there.
So my question is how can we reverse the trend and get more people to come to our gatherings?
Sorry about the long post.

[VaccaRabite]

Its not just cars.

There has been a lack of attendance at non-car hobbies too.
I don't reenact much any more, but the folks I know that do say the numbers have not improved much in the past number of years. in the late 90s through 2007 events were BIG. Now we are lucky to get 4 or 5 guys from our unit on the field.

The guys I used to sail with are always scrounging for crew. They used to be turning crew away.

The worst attended ECC we had was not the one during the torrents of rain. It was the one on a spectacular mild sunny day at a historic car AX. So there that is part of the issue.

But I think the economy is playing a part. Gas got expensive, and lots of folks either lost their jobs or felt there jobs being threatened. This did not effect me, but it did effect a lot of folks I know.

And life changes... In the past 4 years I've had 2 kids. All hobbies took a back seat. My slow pace of work pre-kids seemed like a million miles an hour post kids. I bet, if we did some sort of age study here, we would find that the median age is increasing since 2003. We get a few young folk coming on, but for many of us - we don't have the time to party like we did 5 years ago. In my case, it may be another 15 years before I have free time like I used to.

Zach