2019 AMA sticker
 

Interesting choice of word , "Safeguarding" .

I sure hope so ......https://cimg8.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.rcu...6fa1d8a333.jpg

;) You missed the point entirely , no bash , "I sure hope so" meaning just that , it's AMA to the rescue or the hobby is doomed .....

Amen to that . Right now the AMA is the only thing standing between us and finding a new hobby , and I'm too damned old to be finding any new hobbies , I'm perfectly fine with the ones I've got now .

I like the use of the word "safeguarding" because it sounds quite proactively defensive . We need all the defense we can get .

Personally to me it comes across as a day late and a dollar short. The time for such a statement on the sticker, and elsewhere, was over 10 years ago when this whole mess started. But today it looks more like damage control because the AMA knows their rep as the modelers advocate has taken a major hit through all this.

Actually , in my opinion the beginnings of all this was June 9 1981 , the date the FAA published Advisory Circular 91-57 . I know I've said this before but I do believe the FAA's intent at that time was that we were not to exceed 400 feet AGL , and I believe the FAA thought we were being faithful to A/C 91-57 all these years . So tell me , and this is not a taunt but a serious question ; What in your opinion should the AMA do or should have done , beyond distancing us from the flying camera crowd , that could/would have gotten the FAA to let go of the 400 foot monster looming over our hobby ?

I was in Germany in 81 and President of an AMA club with German members flying from a US Army Post. We had a really good deal. We had a huge room provided by the Army for a club house. We did all our building there and had a table capable of turning out a perfectly flat 16 foot wing panel. Our runway was a sod strip originally built by the Nazis. We shared it with what little full size traffic came by. Maybe 5 aircraft in the 4 years I was there. And all but one were helicopters. Not a busy field but the Army kept it up.

In the end they might not have been able to do anything. But from where I sit, they avoided contact with the government at every turn.

First mistake IMHO was to relocate HQ to Muncie. This took them totally out of the DC Loop. Having lived in the area for 29 years to include working in DC for a number of those years, I have seen up close and first hand what it takes to get and hold the governments attention. And the AMA still doesn't have it. But it appears the MR crowd does.

I know for a fact that following the move a number of AMA members living in the DC area volunteered to help establish and maintain contact with the government. To my knowledge the AMA never took anyone up on their offer. One individual had been the college roommate and good friend of a very powerful Virginia Senator. He could have provided tremendous help. But him, like his club were ignored by Muncie.

Simply put, rather than build some kind of monument to toy airplanes, the AMA should have put the Muncie money to work lobbying in DC. They knew nothing about lobbying when all this started. IMO they still know very little today. Relying instead on the low bid lobbyist to do it for them. You get what you pay for.

Which brings us to another point. Such efforts don't come cheap. So who here would have paid twice their normal dues knowing the second half was going directly to lobbying efforts? I'd be willing to bet 75% of the membership would refuse and at least 15% would leave the AMA as a result. To include a number of clubs. 1981 was after all just before the tart of Sport Flyers (SFA). And how much money did the AMA blow on that legal fiasco that could have been directed to more productive things?

But of course I know have the advantage of 20/20 hindsight. Regardless of the fact that at the time I wrote numerous letters to the AMA voicing my opposition to many of their decisions of the time.

The AMA is a business. It should be run like a business.

Exactly. AMA seems to say they're doing something is as good as actually doing it. For months preceding the FAA bill they messaged how well things were going. I can't prove it of course, but I think it's because they either can't read the signals they're getting from staff or they're reading them, but deciding to forward another message to members.

And yet it's being managed like a second rate elementary school bake sale. Read the July EC minutes and see what the CFO and auditor are telling them.

If I hang out with nothing but Cleveland Browns fans, and I never am exposed to any other type of fan, then of course I'm going to say that "fellow enthusiasts have an entirely different view." Did you ever consider that they "fellow enthusiasts" you hang out with might be a tad homogeneous group? So it's no wonder their opinions are homogeneous. Hardly indicative of a much more diverse group.

I'd have to join to have access to the minutes. And that ain't going to happen.

Except this one is factual. the did not safeguard anyone but professional drones.

I believe the membership has been sold a bill of goods on this and a number of other issues. I believe the entire Muncie staff and EC has failed the membership and has been doing so for years. The web site suggests great things (when it works) but the staff is short on producing. I believe there is a culture among the staff and past/present EC that has only their best interests in mind. A culture that says basically "what's good for Muncie is good for All."

But what interests me is the general gullibility displayed by the membership. You see more and more members regarding Muncie as some kind of sacred cow leading the charge. And when presented with hard facts, they turn a blind eye and directly attack the messengers. Pretty stupid if you ask me. Not to mention immature. But in a way they demonstrate the same attitudes towards the AMA that many, many people demonstrate towards the nation. Especially on voting day when they sit at home.

As has been said many times in many places, the AMA simply does not offer me any value. And just like there are corporations out there whose stock I wouldn't own, I won't join the AMA for the same reasons. No benefit in it for me.

Apparently, AMA saw the writing on the wall in 2009. The current problems were for the most part inevitable.

I don't think the AMA saw the writing on the wall, just Jim Rice. I do feel that he was spot on as to the issues that were rearing their heads back when he wrote his paper. He specifically pointed out the following, which I am paraphrasing for simplicity:

1. Fees are too high
2. Club meetings rehash the same things over and over
3. CLIQUES
4. Old timers running off anyone that disagrees with them
5. Bad behavior/language at the field
6. Officers/instructors that belittle others rather than helping them
7. Not welcoming spectators
8. Not holding events that anyone can participate in
9. ARGUMENTATIVE POSTS IN ONLINE FORUMS
10. Running off people that don't fly what old timers do
11. Blah newsletters

How many of these do we see happening today. You have to remember that Jim Rice wrote this back in DECEMBER 2009!!!!!!!
That said, I see some of these same things happening in the R/C scale hydroplane club I'm a member of. We have cliques, old timers that try to run the club even though they may not be officers, running off possible new members, etc. I see this, as well, in my other hobby, that being square and round dancing. New dancers are treated like children rather than as adults, cliques form that won't associate with others, belittling of those that don't dance at the same level as others, etc. Sound like the same things Jim wrote 11 year ago?

Happens at clubs, happens on Forums, happens anywhere 2 or modelers are gathered together.

Let's face it, we modelers are real SoBs. :)

NOT ME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I'm a sweet and lovable person. Just ask me;)

https://www.
youtube.com/watch?v=VW5TWYbg MGQ

Remove the space between the www. and youtube to see the scene

A favorite scene to be sure! :)

Русский сукин сын