Originally Posted by
mr_matt
From the January EC meeting minutes:
• Dues: In July 2014 Council talked about a dues increase and why it was needed. In 1997 dues were $48; since then there has been one dues increase (2003). The Academy has spent over one million dollars just on government relations; this is expected to continue and the need for resources is huge.
Sessions explained how the government measures inflation. Using the inflation adjustments from 1997, this would put our dues at $70.92; if we adjusted from 2003, the dues would be $74.44. (This goes through 2014, a dues increase would not take effect until 2016.) It was recommended that dues be increased to $75; it has been 13 years since dues were reviewed. Sessions believes this subject should be put on a cycle and reviewed every few years. In 2003 membership numbers were about 172,000; we are 175,000 now. When the dues change was made in 2003 AMA lost 5,000 members. Today, AMA is viewed as an advocate for the modeler, much more along the lines of government relations and education; the value statement AMA has is much stronger.
G. Fitch stated from a marketing perspective we can provide the reasoning and justification to prepare our members for this ahead of time. He brought up the need for a dues increase during a meeting at the NEAT Fair. He told members that AMA cannot keep spending millions of dollars protecting model aviation from the federal government, and hundreds of thousands of dollars developing a PR campaign without some additional source of revenue; an adjustment is logical and is needed.
M. Radcliff stated that if we do it now it will give us time to market it with all the reasons why an increase is needed
1 million spent trying to influence the government.
BTW we sent at least one person to the CES show in Las Vegas.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EETm...e_gdata_player
Gary is a good friend of mine.. We,Gary and Dave had a conversation about this very thing and i suggested and told them i support and encourage a dues increase. You can't counteract any legal action without enough income . I felt it was a good "investment" in the future of our hobby.