I agree with all of you. But, leadership must begin within the club. A club that does not have dedicated leaders cannot expect to survive if its assets get threatened. I once belonged to a club in a town of 60,000 that had to of been the role model of all clubs. It had thirty members and above the AMA required officers, it also had an office position of Public Relations. This person was in charge of getting radio, newspaper, and other medias set up for all club events. They managed the circulation of the newsletter, set information to prospective members, and also set up to help local charities with their fund raisers. Everything that the club did had a media plan with it. The clubs main objective was to have the best flying site that would be paid and supported by the community. The only way this was to happen was to be 100% involved with the community. Although only a handful ever fly from this site, hundreds to thousands of people were entertained and benefited by the events sponsored at the site. The club used the planes for charity fundraisers, and had won numerous awards for best float in parades and for supporting these charities.

Unless the club has deep pockets to keep the developers and conservationists at bay, a club needs to get involved with the community. The club I referred to worked with the Shriners and Kiwanis clubs, they participated in every parade and community event, and when they had fun-flys, they advertised for the public to come. Other clubs were astonished when driving to hear advertisements on the radio, or see an ad in the paper. When I was in the club, people would ask all year about the airshows and what would we be doing next. This club really did not have many flyers, but had a lot of supporters.

It paid off. When the club went to the city, who owned the land it had the flying site on, to ask permission to pave the runway, the city not only granted the permission, but found that a contractor doing work for the city had a ton of leftover rock, concrete, and asphalt from another project. The contractor donated all the materials and the equipment. Through help by the City's social and economic development office, Our president applied for a grant and won it to pay for the labor. The City then deeded the land as a controlled access puplic park complete with restrooms, BBQ pit, and playground equipment.

Many old timers did not like this change one bit. They resisted because they liked the privacy, did not want families with children hangig out, did not want recognition. However, our site was on top of a bute that overlooked the city, the developers really had their eyes on it and were moving in for the kill. We had to change.

Unfortunately, a lot of flyers do not have time to do all of this work and want to fly in their spare time. This is were leadership comes in to play. This club had a limited number of flyers because everyone did an equal amount of work that was spelled out and dictitated by the officers. We found that a lot of people love to sit back and watch, but do nothing but complain and criticize. The clubs leadership did not tolerate these types and quickly found ways to get them to work or asked them to leave the club.

This was ten years ago, club dues were $55 a year. 1/2 supported the PR budget.

Where I see the AMA come into play is to teach clubs that are struggling with organizational skills to become more efficient. This is why your statements are important. The AMA needs strong leaders to teach others how to win their battles. The AMA should not have to go in a fight for them, but advise them, and if the club still cannot conform, then I guess it would have to be lost.

Scott