WE LIVE IN FAST-PACED TIMES, with so much happening around us so quickly that it's often hard to keep up. We are inundated with information constantly, from a myriad of sources: Internet, television, radio, cell phones, it's everywhere. The demand on individuals is at an all-time height, not only to comprehend this onslaught of information, but respond to it as well.

Life is a series of events, and sometimes those events are tragedies. It is during those times that ordinary people, fueled by the essence of humanity, rise to the occasion and go above and beyond the call of duty to respond as heroes. In every instance, a select individual or group of individuals rises in response and meets life head-on.

Many life events call for ordinary people to act in the capacity of leaders. Leadership is probably the most desirable of human characteristics because so many other qualities end up bound together in those people who are natural leaders. Leadership can accomplish great results when other management traits fail. Leadership is an absolute necessity in order to sustain excellence.

I am often taken back by the amount of energy, devotion and manpower leaders contribute for the benefit of others. Leaders can move mountains when they put their mind to it. Leadership can be contagious, but when the going gets tough, the effort required of leaders will separate the wheat from the chaff. Leaders run on a differ fuel source than ordinary people, and often find themselves stretching their fuel to unbelievable lengths.

Oftentimes, society's expectation of people in leadership roles can be very demanding. Because of their passion for excellence, we often see them as the Energizer Bunny, and expect them to keep going, and going, and going. These unreal expectations can often cause a leader to expend himself over and above what even they know they are capable of accomplishing.

In hobby rocketry, we have the good fortune of being surrounded by some of the best leaders any organization or group could hope to be surrounded with. These tireless, passionate individuals donate untold amounts of time and energy to further our individual pursuit of flying rockets, often without due thanks for their work.

The ongoing litigation between the NAR and Tripoli vs. the ATF has exposed a lot of raw nerves and a lot of emotion among many of us, and the emotional highs have brought out a renewed call for action. Fliers everywhere, even overseas, have responded to the necessity of funding the legal effort, and have poured untold amounts into the hobby's legal fund coffers. The demands on the hobby leadership is at an all time high, and until this litigation is behind us, these demands are not expected to wane until we have some answers we all agree with.

But this is just one forefront where leadership is readily visible. At a local and regional level, leadership demands abound. The need of clubs to form regional flying events demands that individuals step up to the plate to organize and conduct these events, so that others may participate. Everywhere from the top to the bottom, leadership is needed and the call usually is happily answered.

But at what price? While burnout is often a real result in many of these leadership positions, I think its more important that we consider the ultimate victims here: our family and friends. Life has a way of putting things back into perspective when we least expect it. The timing is never appropriate, but life is often accompanied by another real reminder: a partner called death. As in life, death can remind us of things we have neglectfully forgotten.

For some reason, while in pursuit of our hobbies and interests, we tend to take for granted the very people around us that would emotionally bankrupt us if something were to happen to them. When everything is said and done, and we stop focusing on self-centered hobbies, in the end it's just friends and family, battling life and death. And life isn't the ultimate winner.
 
When we lose someone dear to us, all of our interests and distractions become unimportant. Death makes us consider what it is that really matters.

A good friend of mine recently lost someone that was close. His peers look at him as some sort of super hero. And while he has the personality and charisma of someone larger than life, he will tell you that suddenly he feels very mortal. He wonders isn't he too young for this sort of thing to be happening to. But death, like life, doesn't take such into consideration.

My fellow rocketeers, America needs heroes. And the America I am talking about is probably living under the same roof as you. Or they are nearby, close enough that you could touch base quickly with them if the need arose. No matter when you plug into the world that's going on around you, the same events will still be happening. There will always be external needs demanding to be met. But will the people dearest and closest to you always be there?

Trust me, you will get to fly rockets again, but will you be able to spend time with your spouse? Will you get to go fishing with your father? Or look at old photographs with your mother. Will you get to spend time reminiscing about childhood with your siblings? Take it from someone who just buried his only brother, at age 53, in July. Volunteer to do something special with them. Donate to their cause.  Organize a letter-writing campaign to them.  Act like you are their Energizer Bunny. Make sure they go to sleep at night knowing that they are loved. Be *their* hero. I can assure you, everyone will still be here when you get back.

Darrell D. Mobley is the editor of Rocketry Planet. You may reach him by email at This email address is being protected from spam bots, you need Javascript enabled to view it . If you would like to comment publicly, post your response below.

11-07-2006 01:14 PM  #1
Just Jerry Freeform rockets advocate   Joined: Aug 2006 Posts: 727	Leaders in this industry are PUNISHED by their collegues. If one were to review my rmr internet postings for example they are repleat with loud calls for policy and regulatory changes years or decades ahead of the disaster we now have with BATFE. All they wanted was "record of sale" and "compliance". They got neither. I know. I was at the NFPA meetings the ATF sent two (2) agents to. I sat next to them and "caucused" with them. I passed the recomendations along to NAR and TRA. They were DOA. They got clubs telling members and vendors to get BATFE permits for exempt goods, thus annoying a big-a$$ bureaucracy. You need look no farther than my archived posts to rmr for heroic policies to EXPAND rocketry by both lowering the barriers to entry AND giving authorities what they really need - traceability of larger motor sales. Anybody care to look for, and act on them, now? Just Jerry

11-07-2006 01:21 PM  #2
crontab Certified Level Three   Joined: Aug 2006 Posts: 204	I think you miss the point of the article, Jerry. It's not presenting an opportunity to toot your own horn about what you have and haven't done FOR the hobby — it's telling you to attend meetings with your family, to caucus with them, to effect policy and regulatory changes with those closest to you. Can you be that dense?

11-07-2006 05:28 PM  #3
Just Jerry Freeform rockets advocate   Joined: Aug 2006 Posts: 727	Quote: I think you miss the point of the article, Jerry. It's not presenting an opportunity to toot your own horn about what you have and haven't done FOR the hobby — it's telling you to attend meetings with your family, to caucus with them, to effect policy and regulatory changes with those closest to you. Can you be that dense? At one point rocket folks WERE the ones closest to me. Through a series of others' thefts, frauds, and political posturing I was pushed out. Fine. BUT as the guy who grew HPR and had a 70% market share at one point, and had the first certified HPR motors, perhaps my expertise should be listened to, even if in absentia. Just Jerry

11-08-2006 11:33 AM  #4
crontab Certified Level Three   Joined: Aug 2006 Posts: 204	You sure can make a good thing bad. It's too bad we can't pay for the NAR/TRA lawsuit with ego. If we could, we could donate yours and carry the litigation into the 22nd century. If history serves correctly, USR was not the first certified HPR motors. From what I have read, your motors never qualified for testing. And 70% market share? Man, what are you smoking?

11-09-2006 12:57 PM  #5
Just Jerry Freeform rockets advocate   Joined: Aug 2006 Posts: 727	Quote: You sure can make a good thing bad. It's too bad we can't pay for the NAR/TRA lawsuit with ego. If we could, we could donate yours and carry the litigation into the 22nd century. If history serves correctly, USR was not the first certified HPR motors. From what I have read, your motors never qualified for testing. And 70% market share? Man, what are you smoking? NAR-TRA 1993 Joint Motor Certification List I see your focus is personal attack. I remind RP readers I have suggested SPECIFIC changes NAR and/or TRA can do within their own powers and jurisdiction to more widely make rockets available to consumers. Tripoli in particular under the Kelly and Rogers regimes (both marked with severe ethical lapses) added many new rules and regulations, which resulted in a substantial drop in HPR participation and the killing of popular lone ranger HPR. Through these club and NFPA changes, HPR was concentrated to clubs, and through the powers they have to write NFPA regulations, wrote rules to require club membership to do HPR. Non-club joiners simply faded away. Also several changes to the safety codes and to motor certifications rules narrowed the options for vendors, launch sites, and HPR consumer prospects, but also is what invited ATF to the party. How soon we forget. How happy we are to forget, so long as you have a public whipping boy, who had NOTHING whatsoever to do with the substantial over regulatoin of rocketry by NAR/TRA at these levels: TRA safety code TRA TMT NAR safety code NFPA-1122 NFPA-1125 NFPA-1127 Federal regulation (by failing to participate in NPRM early on) Federal regulation (by requiring manufacturers, vendors, and consumers to treat exempt rocket motors and propellants as ATF regulated items) Federal law (by opposing or obstructing the Enzi bill) Rag on me all you want. I can take it. However it is off-topic and a violation of the RP TOS. But how many people in the USA should be in HPR in your opinion, 3000 as today (nationwide), or 20,000 as was the case in 1992, or even more, had we simply grown the industry under the rules in place then? I was there. I was leading the charge. The Lucerne launches I founded and hosted (100-4000 people at them!) resulted in the MAJORITY of Triooli membership despite the fact Tripoli had no jurisdiction whatsoever at those launches. In hindsight supporting Tripoli was a gross error. But then, so was believing Bruce Kelly or Chuck Rogers was ever my friend. JUST Jerry TRA #012 (membership refund pending)

11-09-2006 08:04 PM  #6
ddmobley Administrator   Joined: Jul 2006 Posts: 2548	Jerry, knock it off. You're acting like a brick. When I write an editorial entitled "Oh to be like Jerry Irvine" then you can pipe up and toot your own horn to infinity and beyond. As it is, you are distorting the message of the article. Grossly. Quote: I was there. I was leading the charge. The Lucerne launches I founded and hosted (100-4000 people at them!) resulted in the MAJORITY of Triooli membership despite the fact Tripoli had no jurisdiction whatsoever at those launches. In hindsight supporting Tripoli was a gross error. But then, so was believing Bruce Kelly or Chuck Rogers was ever my friend. Might I remind you of our rec.models.rockets discussion in the Fall of 1996, when you inasmuch as told me to stop talking and start doing. If you have the charisma to lead a charge, then it's time to stop talking about the past and start doing something about the future. You challenged me to do something productive for the hobby instead of talking about it. We all know what the result of that was: the highest-trafficked hobby rocketry website in the world. Today, the shoe's on the other foot, and I am challenging you to stop talking and start doing. Anything less is just a waste of time: for me, for the readers, and most of all, for you.

11-09-2006 10:21 PM  #7
k3td Earth-bound misfit   Joined: Jul 2006 Posts: 64	Quote: You challenged me to do something productive for the hobby instead of talking about it. We all know what the result of that was: the highest-trafficked hobby rocketry website in the world. Today, the shoe's on the other foot, and I am challenging you to stop talking and start doing. Anything less is just a waste of time: for me, for the readers, and most of all, for you. Amen Brother!

11-10-2006 11:26 AM  #8
Just Jerry Freeform rockets advocate   Joined: Aug 2006 Posts: 727	Quote: As it is, you are distorting the message of the article. Grossly. You challenged me to do something productive for the hobby instead of talking about it. We all know what the result of that was: the highest-trafficked hobby rocketry website in the world. Today, the shoe's on the other foot, and I am challenging you to stop talking and start doing. Anything less is just a waste of time: for me, for the readers, and most of all, for you. The message was posted to a ROCKET website. The message was be a hero. I am saying that in the context of the rocketry community that involves regulatory reduction from WITHIN the organizations. I am no longer in those organizations or on NFPA committees. The folks who are, need look no further than a Jerry Irvine rmr post to see specific rules changes that WILL radically increase rockletry participation and market size. A rising tide lifts all ships. As far as doing somethig myself. I am. Quietly, but I will say this. My goal is to get thousands of new folks into rocketry. I am well along the way to achieving that. Do not expect me to brag about it this time as that seems to simply make me a target from jealous souls. Just Jerry