The A.M.A. is looking for your opinions

[Old School]

  Recently the AMA has begun to look at it's overall structure and would like to make the association more appealing to all current members and of course any potential members. Ted Wojcik is part of an AMA task force labeled "AGENTS OF CHANGE" and has direct input to the A.M.A. with regards to this task and would like to hear any and all opinions with regards to how the A.M.A. can improve itself and make some adjustments to better serve it's members and continue to represent modelers in our government system.

Some of the changes discussed up to this point would be varying amounts of insurance coverage, wether or not to receive Model Aviation(magazine) with your membership, how to recruit and appeal to new members and aspects of the hobby from small park flyers right on up to giant scale, and of course keeping the annual dues reasonably priced.

If you have an opinion, or would like to point out your likes and dislikes of your A.M.A. membership here is your chance, if you could change something about the A.M.A. to better serve the modeling community, here is your chance, any and all opinions are welcome as this is a public discussion. The A.M.A. realizes it must change to reflect the times and here is your chance to make a difference, please chime in and let's make a difference.

Thank You, Glen Bolser
Flying Tigers President

[fourlocks]

Glen -

Should we be forwarding our comments to Ted?   Here are mine:

In my opinion, one change AMA has to make, is to get more involved and provide more support, at the local level.  From what I've seen, we pay our national dues and in exchange, NH Flying Tigers enjoys AMA's insurance coverage, but that's about it.  Okay, okay; we get the magazine, too.

If AMA really wants to better promote the sport, they need to help local clubs better promote the sport.  A good example where they could do this, is our Annual Fly-In.  This is a high-visibility 2-day event involving multiple clubs and what does AMA offer, to help make it a success?  Nothing.  AMA should provide event planning kits, advertising templates, posters, demonstration ideas, etc.  They should provide help with publicity, provide advice and assistance in organizing and running the event, and they should help coordinate it with other local clubs.  And yes, AMA should offer grants to help fund local, successful RC events like our Fly-In. 

This would not be a waste of AMA resources, either; these events bring in new members which benefits the AMA as much as the local club.  And while we're on the topic, how about AMA helping in other areas of member recruitment, too?

Paul L.