YNOT

This is a letter my Father wrote the other day to the AMA.


Steve,
My AMA is 20236 so I have been in the loop for some time, also I am a hobby shop owner for 27 years in the Houston, Texas area and a great supporter of AMA.
The AMA continues to complain about not appealing to the new younger members and continues to try outdated methods to cultivate these younger folks, both male and female. Let's face it, having a model building clinic during the Nats or at Muncie is not going to attract new members. So what's stopping the growth? Try this as a MAJOR problem. The staunchy old AMA members that run families off the flying fields when they show up with one of the new "hobby type" radio control planes sold by companies like Great Planes and Horizon Hobbies, or Wallgreens, or Sam's, or Sharper Image, you get the point.
We try to tell the new R/C flyer about how they no longer have to spend $400 to $500 to be in the hobby, about how the R/C community is a great place for families and youngsters to bond around a common interest, only to have the great disappointment of rudely being asked to leave the field because the don't have an "AMA License". Remember that term "license"? We no longer use that word in the store and tell the customer that is buying a full function trainer that they should join the AMA for the insurance, not because they need a license.
It is incumberent upon the AMA to educate its members that we DO NOT need a license to fly these models.
Per the letter of the law, what about the R/C car groups that run cars at a flying field. One club here in Houston actually has an R/C car track at their field and host events, are they in violation of the AMA guidelines by not insisting that these folks be members of AMA?
Steve, it's really tough to grow the hobby when so many of these old hats are still running things at the local level quoteing antiquated outdated rules that are still on the books at AMA.
We strongly suggest that the new full function R/C flyer join AMA, but he has just spent $400 buying a model and wants to fly. For those situations we put them on a buddy box and fly them until their AMA is processed.
But again, what about the new guys with the $120 to $190 radio control electric aircraft they got for Christmas, and believe me they are being sold by the thousands around the country, are we suppose to run them off or groom them as the future of the AMA. My choice would be to groom them for the hobby, but we can't do that by insisting that they spend almost $50 to join the AMA just to fly a $120 airplane. But I do believe that if treated right most of these folks will want to stay in the hobby, buy a .40 trainer and join AMA. But if we continue to treat them like they don't belong we can not expect them to want to continue in a hobby that does not welcome them with open arms!
So where do these folks fit into the AMA, are they outcast or are they the future? The AMA needs to find a place for them in our organization. Maybe a trial membership, maybe a no magazine membership, maybe anything to not run the folks off for good. Give it some thought, a lot of future menbers are being put at risk of never joining the AMA.
Currently the AMA has a greater pool of future members as in any time in its history, let's not let them get away because we can't or won't move past "the way it has always been done". Times change and so must the AMA!
Thanks for your time,
Ed Dupaquier
AMA 20236
Trains & Planes Toys & Hobbies
Houston, Texas