ORIGINAL: Luchnia
ORIGINAL: Tony Iannucelli
Most members don't care about competition, most don't want ''power'' within the organization, and most don't have any axe to grind. They just want to fly. But when they join a club, they have to have AMA, for INSURANCE purposes. I don't know anyone who doesn't have that as their #1 reason and I've met a lot of fliers over the 38 years I've been in the hobby.
Very good post, sir and I appreciate your information.
I have been emphasizing the fact that insurance has been the main reason many times throughout the threads on AMA.
If you took the insurance away, how many would drop their memberships within the first year? The numbers would be catastrophic to the AMA and I bet they know this, too. I would imagine about 80% of the four clubs within a reasonable driving distance from me would drop the membership completely within a year, and certain within two years at most. The majority ONLY need the insurance because the AMA chartered clubs
require it.
One of my local clubs was a long-time hold out against AMA chartering. We remained, as a club, independent of the AMA from 1953 to 2006. Over 60% of the individual club members were AMA members also, but we bought our own liability coverage annually so that new pilots didn't have to pay $58 for AMA membership plus $55 for the annual club membership and flying permit.
What we found out was that our independent insurance was crap. Our liability coverage wouldn't cover member-to-member accidents, nor would it extend liability coverage to club officers or board members named as co-defendants in any litigation. The corporation (Omahawks RC Inc.) would be covered by our policy, but the club president or secretary would only have their own homeowner's policy to protect them if they were named in a lawsuit.
The icing on the cake was that our existing provider decided to quit taking our money after 2006, and we had to search around for a similar policy from another underwriter. We were faced with paying $1,000 a year for crappy insurance, or $75/$90 (I don't remember which) per year for AMA Chartering. It was a no-brainer.
We had lived independently of the AMA for 53 years, and it just wasn't sustainable any more.