I imagine he means it would be nice for a non-racer who is interested in racing to be able to race a couple of times (to test the waters, so to speak) without having to pay money to an association.
If you have to pay to play before you do any playing, less people will be interested in trying the game.
They way things are now, you can play forever at a certain level without paying. When should you start paying?
I think many people rationalize it along the lines of if the association is directly involved in putting on the event, then by all means the requirement of being a member to sail in the event is necessary. However if the event is being put on by your local yacht club and the association has no involvement, then being a member of that association should not be a requirement for participating. It could/should be encouraged via a feature/benefit explanation from the association of what membership does for you.
I love this topic... I find I run hot and cold with the association. ( lottsa stuff edited out between)
Everyone should pay their class dues for the good of the class....
The good of the class are activities that responsibly grow the class within the confines of the one design concept.When you wrote that, what did you mean?:
a. What is the good of the class?
Great question, and IMHO the answer is simple... The class is the boat.b. What is the class?
That is the harder question. A certain amount of that money that I gave for the good of the class should be spent on the operations of the class itself... district events, measurers, and the beauracracy necessary to control the one design aspect of the class (boat).c. How would you expect the money to be spent?
Re-stating my question:
What should the spenders be trying to accomplish when they spend that money you gave "for the good of the class?"
For those outside the North American Region, or not (yet) members of ILCA-NA, here is a link to the Winter 2009 issue of The Laser Sailor (you'll need Flash 9 or better to view the page turner, if it doesn't work let me know and I can point you to a pdf...