Originally posted by Matt Kirsch
I read lots of rants about how the AMA should change its sales pitch from "insurance" to something else, but nobody has any suggestions what that sales pitch should be.
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Matt
You just hit the nail on the head. Not only can it not be done at the club level, sending reading material such as membership manuals and rule books does not work either. The AMA Web Site does not appear to get the job done. Maybe a video tape, CD, or DVD produced by the AMA and sent to new members might be the ticket. I think it needs to be something with video. Maybe the members will watch a presentation on TV in the comfort of home.
Not a high dollar production. Maybe some well-spoken staff member doing interviews with the key people explaining what it is that the AMA, EC, and HQ staff do. A quick view of Muncie at the end. Don't waste the attention span of the member.
Send a copy or two to each club so that they have it available. It could be shown at a club meeting, or given to the press. If the truth be known, most clubs do not have anyone that really knows what the AMA is. Make something that explains the AMA, not another aeromodeling presentation.
Another thing that needs focus is for the AMA to get correct e-mail addresses at re-newal time. The list they have is always poor. Maybe a way to change e-mail addresses on the AMA web page? It seems like a lot of members change ISP's every year or so. Use e-mail for urgent issues where a member response or action may be required. Maybe just sending an e-mail to each new member with a method of changing his e-mail address in the future would work.
There are so many misconceptions that can never be straightened out except by the AMA. As MustangFan shows us, the concept of Muncie is not clear to the membership. The flying site is one entity. The Headquarters Building is another and needs to exist somewhere, even if there was no flying site. The people in the HQ building attend to the business of the AMA, with only a couple of exceptions that attend to the flying site. The third, of course is the Museum, which, again needs to be somewhere, flying site or no flying site (assuming that we want a history of modeling and I think we do).
Anyone have a better way to get the message out?
JR