abel_pranger

Honestly Hoss, the poor overworked club secretary has been coddled to the extent that he has been given control of key elements of AMA policy. Every club member must be an AMA member, because the club secretary couldn't be expected to keep up with workload of verifying everybody's personal liability insurance. Then there is the oft repeated mantra you are humming, that the poor overworked secretary should only have to do it once a year. What's the difference in doing it once a year vs once a month? AMA provides him with a roster of those in the club that are AMA members. Organize said list by month rather than alphabetically. The secretary generally attends a monthly club meeting, and with that simple list knows which club members need to renew that month, and can do his verification in a couple of minutes then and there, for members that have not already mailed him photocopies of their AMA cards. Great big hairy deal. The only reason HQ did not do this years ago is caving to the hue and cry from those in the membership that dig in their heels at any thought of deviating from the sacred way things have always been done. "Status Quo Uber Alles!" is the AMA member's creed.

Abel

Jim Messer

My Feedback: (2)

Abel:

I have been club secretary for about five years. I can tell you that the way AMA operates now, is like they don't know that modern computers exist. It is a real pain in the butt to make out their pencilled forms, even once each year. You have to list all the new members, their AMA numbers, their address, and who knows what else. Then you have to do the same thing for all those members that either quit the hobby or didn't renew their AMA membership. On top of that you have to cross out those members that no longer belong to the club for one reason or another on the huge piece of green/white paper, with carbon copy. After that is all sent in and done with, along comes a new member, and you have to get out the forms and do it all over again. It costs me time and money, and I don't like that.

It doesn't stop there. You also have to write in club officers as they change, with their life history, when all that should be required is their name and AMA number. I hate all this extra paperwork!

I long for the day when the AMA will have a computerized list of my club that they send me by E-mail as an attachment, and request that it be updated. Ten minutes at my computer, and it would be completely finished; then I could E-mail it back where they would file it until the next time to update. Let's get rid of all that paper!!! The turn-around would be much quicker, and we would both save a buck in postage to boot.

Now then - to the subject: If they continue to stay with paper, then I would want all memberships to expire as they do now. However, if they were to go to computerized listings, and do the up-dating by E-mail, then I could live with expiration dates more often.

abel_pranger

Excellent post, Jim. There can be no progress until the problems that impede it are defined and bounded. You've gone a long way towards providing that needed definition.

Abel

Nathan

My Feedback: (12)

There was a reason that thread was closed fella's.