Carl R. Stevenson wrote:
"Mike Coslo" wrote in message
...

But, to answer your paragraph, why would anyone take a group of kids to
an amateur club meeting? It's a completely different environment than
they would be comfortable in. And there is usually business to take care
of at a meeting that would be mind numbing for kids to listen to, like
finances, membership issues, etc. If you really wanted to get them
interested, you would get a few amateurs to meet with the kids on the
kids turf, like a classroom, the local YMCA, places like that. The kids
would be comfortable, only hams who ar interested in public outreach
would be involved, and a program could be put together that would keep
the kids involved and interactive.

- Mike KB3EIA -



I think that getting kids involved with local ham clubs is an excellent
idea.
It will socialize them with the older, more experienced hams that can
"elmer" them, show them that there is order and organization, expose
them to programs and activities, etc.

The KEY is finding the RIGHT ham club that will treat the kids the way
they be deserve to be treated as the future of amateur radio, not a club
that will shun and ridicule them as Cindy has described.

I think that the best approach is to get with the kids at a level that
they can relate to. And a club meeting is not always the right place.
There is business to attend to, and that is a necessary evil which can
turn a kid off really quickly. It can turn a lot of other people off also.

In our club, the board tries to do as much business as possible during
the separate board meetings. But we still have to bring a surprising
number of issues before the membership.

Now that being said, if someone wanted to bring a number of students to
a club meeting, we would probably come up with some program to keep them
entertained and interactive.

What is interesting to a group of Older folk is probably not going to
be interesting to a group of teenagers, save for a narrow overlap.

The other thing I would be interested in knowing is the other side of
the story. Did Ms Cindy just show up with the kids in tow? Did the hams,
if they knew she was coming, do nothiing special for them? There are
enough unanswered questions that I must go on the evidence presented,
and that is the illegal packet suggestion, and the odd race related
comment. Perhaps Cindy can elaborate.......

- Mike KB3EIA -