RE: Could one accident ruin the hobby?
Good luck at that.
The biggest source of "new blood" to bolster the AMA's numbers, the park fliers, are not going to buy in. Catchy slogans ("Continue the FUN???"), tiered rates, naked women, stuffed animal giveaways, stickers, T-shirts... Nothing's going to get a signifigant number of them to jump on the AMA bandwagon. What do you need the AMA for when you can skulk in the shadows and fly when nobody's looking? What do you need the AMA for when you can just move on to the next open spot after the cops run you off the local schoolyard?
I dare say that most of the people that "NEED" the benefits AMA offers ARE in the AMA already, and most of them are only in the AMA because they were "forced" into it by their club, which they only belong to because the club "forced" them to join in order to use the club's field.
First things first: Turn around this attitude of "joined under protest." Again, good luck. You're trying to sell politics, ideals, not tangible goods.