(If you haven’t already read it, the How our club works guide is good companion to this.)
Broadly, we have different groups of people who you will be interacting with as you take part in the wide range of gliding activities (roughly in order of visibility):
- Instructors and coaches (air & ground based)
- Other members learning to fly and flying solo in club gliders
- Other members who have a share in a privately owned glider
- The Office staff
- Catering staff
- Coordinators (for Juniors, Women, etc.)
- Workshop: aircraft and vehicles
- Safety & supervision
- Management Committee members
- Board members
Some people are in several groups at once!
For those people who are supporting gliding activities, very few of them will call themselves ‘volunteers’ – but most are. People either have a description e.g. instructor, treasurer, maintainer; or they view themselves as ‘helping out’.
How do you know who is who? In the club house and on the website there is a gallery with names, roles, glorious pictures and how to contact them (this might be via the Office).
Remember, gliding is a place for the inquisitive, so if you aren’t sure who someone is – by all means ask! If you need to find someone, ask around. Gliding App has contact details for people who want to be contactable!
If something that you didn’t like has happened, or if you have been upset by a person or an event, however small, please talk to someone about it. Please do not end a day at the airfield feeling bad. There are many individuals from many backgrounds in gliding, and we won’t all get on all of the time. There will be mismatches in styles of communication, but you will have seen that we also have codes of conduct, because good quality inclusion requires both tolerance of diversity of many aspects of being human, and limits to what behaviour we consider acceptable. Whether it is totally out of line, or a simple misunderstanding, neither do well if left to fester. So please seek help whenever you need to.
Even if you have been shown around and introduced already, everyone knows there is a lot to take in at a gliding club, and we all appreciate that it takes a while to learn the lingo, the kit and the names & faces – mainly because it took us a long time too!
