2021 NAMBA Nats Race Program

family can share in their success and maybe take even more interest in the hobby. Creating a good positive atmosphere can only help people want to be a part of it and keep the racers coming back for more. How then does this all tie back to a Spring Day in April 1993? Through fate, random chance, destiny - whatever you want to believe it to be - I came into contact with Jimmy Johnson. At a time after that I saw something at a hobby store that sparked a conversation about RC boats. Jimmy could have just as easily said he used to run them and has some of that stuff in his attic and left it at that, but he did not. Seeing that I was interested, he took the next step and offered up blowing the dust off those boats so we could go have some fun. As they say, the rest is history. As a result, though, I found an amazing new hobby to replace what had been taken from me a few years, made lifelong friends, and found ways to share what I have come to love with the people around me with the hope that maybe a few would take that same next step that I was offered. That spectator who is wandering around the pit area at a race or sitting there watching the heats could just as easily be that next person who develops a passion for the hobby we share. Take the time to engage with them or with other people you know who you may have just shared your hobby with in passing because that little effort may make a difference for them. If you have a boat you can loan and invite them out to give it a try, you may be helping create a member or more in the future. Taking extra steps to help your local club or District build presence and awareness in your area can pay incredible dividends. You never know what may come from taking just a little bit of time sharing what you love with somebody else. I cannot be more thankful that one person did that for me. brave enough or maybe already have some controller skills with cars, planes, or drones, getting them NAMBA single event insurance and sponsoring their entry for a race weekend. Getting boats into the hands of people who show an interest has a great potential of building membership which benefits local clubs, Districts, and NAMBA. We in District 9 decided to take a slightly different approach to this by creating a class called Arrive & Drive and investing in the purchase of four ready-to-run ProMarine Phantom’s. This class allows our members to invite people they may know to come out and try racing boats, but it also captures the interest of spectators who also may come out to a future race for their opportunity to run. Those same boats are also used to advance a class made popular at the NAMBA Nationals called Kids R Boaters Too. This class focuses on junior members who may not yet be comfortable with controlling the boat on their own or need just a few races of practice before stepping up into a traditional heat racing class. In either case, getting our product into the hands of our future potential racers is a very powerful method of encouraging people to take the next step and invest in their own racing machine. Another area we continue to develop and build upon is promotion. Each year we have postcard-sized heavy stock glossy flyers made that show what the boat racing action looks like, images of family participation, a schedule of events, and links to social media and other web resources. We pass these flyers out to spectators at races, give them to our members to put on countertops in hobby stores, and otherwise make them available for people to share with others to help build awareness and recognition. It was with just one of those flyers left in a hobby shop that we had a couple who had some boats enter them at a race with one of them running Arrive & Drive. That then became two full-time boaters and a Kids R Boaters too entry. Exactly the family participation we really want to see. Most importantly, District 9 focused on the experience of racers and spectators at our events. We wanted to focus on making it fun and engaging. If there are spectators, approach and greet them and provide information about who we are and the hobby with the flyer. Answer any questions they have. Tell them about our Arrive & Drive and Kids R Boaters Too programs. Be a great example of sportsmanship and the positive environment surrounds our events. Use podium photos, post them on social media and tag people that are in the photos so their friends and 2021 NAMBA Nationals Page 51