Originally Posted by porcia83

So why limit this to active duty, and enlisted only? Are there not first lieutenants with large families struggling to make ends meet as well? How about Senior Master Sergeants? You take huge liberties here and elsewhere talking about young teens (are you one of those grouchy old men who yell get off my grass?). I'll throw out some broad strokes too...I distinctly remember lots of younger airmen, specifically those in barracks, who had top of the line cars, clothes, and most importantly stereo equipment. They all had the latest and greatest stereo gear, and speakers too. I remember them clamoring at for the Bose 901's at the BX when then came out, they all had to have them. Oddly enough, not that much different now. $700 phones, top of the line sneakers (actually more popular now than the stereos), and of course cars. Living paycheck to paycheck half of the money going to a lease/car payment above their means, and most of the rest going to the BX credit card account. And they should get a discount?

Of course it's great to want discounts for the military, who could possibly say no to that and not feel unpatriotic?

But why stop at the military. Why not open this up to law enforcement personnel too. Should it be state cops, or should city/local officers get a discount too? How about Federal LE agencies, CIA, FBI, DHS, TSA, NSA, ATF, and Marshals too!

Civil Air Patrol?

How about first responders? Firemen, ambulance, paramedics. Perhaps the docs that work the ER, and nurses too. And paraprofessionals.

The special interest groups, and subsequent requests would open up the door to a very slippery slope.

Rather than ask the AMA to decrease it's income for the whole of the organization to allow some to get a discount (you've provided no suggest number for how many are currently members or could/would take advantage of this), why not apply pressure externally. How about you put this kind of request into a veterans group like The Wounded Warrior Project? I'm sure you're aware of the almost $400 million dollars they raised in 2015. About 1.1 million of those dollars were raised "renting" and actually selling donor information, despite requests NOT to do that. Always nice to make a donation to one entity, then have 5 or 6 more bury you with direct mail and phone solicitation too. The 400k the president of this org makes is nice too. Why not write to them and ask them to earmark about 1% of that money they earned selling donor names to fund low..or better yet NO cost memberships to both active duty and retired vets? You won't of course, but I can only imagine the response you would have if they said no, as the AMA has done in the past. I'm guessing the AMA will catch the grief, not anyone else.

A more productive solution might be to ask for people who donate to the AMA Foundation (do you?) to earmark their donation for something like this idea, ie a hardship or special consideration membership. The foundation took in $219,000 last year, and it looks like there was the potential for another 300k to get moved into that. Along the lines of what I mentioned earlier, a suggestion could be made to earmark a certain percentage of that, say even one percent. Then...and this I think is the good part....the AMA looks for a matching "grant" from the Wounded Warrior Project...and boom...about $5,000 can be earmarked for that initiative. Take a look at the most recent EC meeting notes, specifically Old Business, #9. Certainly seems like this could be something that would fit one of the goals to "build programming with the AMA".

I do believe your intentions are good, but candidly it seems like you already know what the answer is going to be and you just want to force the issue and have something else to vilify the AMA over. Do you think there is any other way you can approach this?

I think there is a more gradual way to approach this...in a not so confrontational manner....that has a better chance of getting legs....and perhaps achieve a more positive outcome.

Are you going to the WRAM show in NJ this weekend by any chance?