RE: Responsibilities we seem to avoid
While that was not what I have been trying to address, it does highlight one important facet of the problem. What we all got involved with in the first place was model aviation. Recent years have seen the paperwork from the AMA grow in some areas. Now, we have to spend time updating membership rolls quarterly, send in our by-laws to daddy for approval, and other stupid stuff that does not aid in flying model airplanes. Yes, paperwork seems to be the new hobby created by the AMA. Even in areas where the it looks like the AMA tries to help the hobby/organization grow, we have been overwhelmed with paperwork. Look at the fallacy created by the introductory pilot program.
When the AMA brought this program out, my club bought into it and convinced AMA to increase the number of Introductory Pilots allowed in each club based more on membership since that is a reasonable measure of activity. We have maintained several AMA IP's over the years and I have been astounded at how poor the program works. Every one thinks it is great, but in over 10 years I know of only ONE guy who was actually trained under it for the time period allowed. The problem is that for the IP to have fun corrupting, er teaching a new victim, er flyer, he has to do a whole bunch of paperwork. I know of 3 that tried and don't even train AMA members any more because of their displeasure with the paperwork seen in the IP program.
This is the kind of thing we need to change. This is the kind of thing that someone needs to talk to their DVP about and educate him.