About a year ago, I wrote a post concerning a discussion over at the Gone With The Wind Kite Forum about organized kiting : Maybe Kiting Wasn’t Meant to be Organized. This is kind of an update to that post. I welcome any and all comments. Its free and easy.

Apparently this year there is a fairly competitive election going on for the presidency of the American Kiteflyers Association, where there seems to be some serious debate going on regarding the status-quo of the organization, and where it should be going in the future. Both of the candidates running have some vocal supporters. I personally have my pick, but since I’m not a AKA member, I can’t vote… but I’m certainly interested in seeing what becomes of it.

I’ve posted publically on the GWTW site, but I wanted to repost a couple of snippets to maybe get some solid discussion on the topic. I have taken out my comments about the preferences I have just so I don’t slant this discussion one way or the other. One of my comments was:

I was an AKA merchant member, and tried to be active within the AKA community at one time. I went to festivals, handed out brochures, put up signs to join AKA whenever I was out. I had a number of heated discussions with the then President about the AKA (you can probably find them here if you search). What I was always told was, “Well, if you want it, do it yourself…”

That is generally the response I got from any interaction with the AKA. It shouldn’t be like that. I want a leader that will listen to what the membership is saying, and try to come up with a solution. Not put the blame on the membership for not providing the solution for them.

I’m afraid that the AKA has been headed downward for a long time. I let my membership lapse a couple of years ago, and haven’t seen anything yet that would encourage me to re-join.

Another comment I had was a response regarding the kitesurfing community and why they left the AKA:

I know alot of kitesurfers that joined the AKA soley because of the insurance being offered. When the insurance issue became “muddied”, most of the kitesurfers left. I can’t really blame them… there was nothing else to keep them… Did you actually expect them to stick around for those couple of articles in a boring magazine (compared to the kitesurfing ones out there).

Which is where I was when I let my membership lapse. What exactly is the benefit to being in the AKA? A magazine, membership card and 10% discount? Oh, and a convention every year that I’ll basically never attend because its 1000s of miles away from me?

I would really like to hear from the candidates WHY someone should join the AKA… besides some lofty “for the good of kiting” comment.

Where do you stand? What can the AKA do to help shore up their membership, and actually encourage people to join up?