Originally Posted by
porcia83
It's a loaded question about a loaded premise, with no answer that would suffice for you.
That is a covenient way to avoid a simple question, to avoid taking a stance that may not be convenient to your agenda to continually spin these threads from having any real purpose and impact.
"Ideals" are great, how about reality though. Anyone who joins the ama does so willingly, because they WANT to.
That is an absolutely untrue statement. There have been NUMEROUS members here in this forum that have stated they joined because they HAD to join in order to fly at their club. their ultimate WANT was to fly, NOT TO JOIN
.
If you want to start second-guessing the motivations for people joining well then I think you would find According to some folks here everyone just joined because they have to in order to fly in a field. Folks just love absolutes.
Haha! You want absolutes? I have heard some members state they joined because they had to, NEVER did they say "everyone" joined for that reason. WORDS....they DO have meaning, and if used incorrectly (on purpose), they can have a whole different meaning (but you know that, right? ; )
Your ideal is impossible to quantify. Sustainable growth, active members, what does that even mean? Growth is growth, and like most groups, will ebb and flow. We are on an upswing now (no doubt disputed), is that sustainable, who knows. Active membership...what is that, and who sets the definition. There are 214 active members at a club I belong to, I might see 90 of them throughout the year...are the others inactive? They all pay their dues, so they are active.
you know full well what an active member looks like because it has been discussed ad naseum by yourself and others on these threads. In fact, you use it to berate folks all the time by telling them to run for office or spend their time doing research to become more informed and involved. You know full well it would be impossible to put a definitive picture to the phrase "active member", as it manifests itself differently in each one of us depending on our individual circumstances (time, family, work, $$, experience, etc.). Don't use that as an excuse to diminish the fact that a majority of our members are apathetic when it comes to any activity other than flying.
You've spoken of ideals, but not about a plan or suggestion on how the AMA is supposed to do what you suggest. In this thread, as in others the standard complaints about what happened in the past are popular, but no realistic plan.
See my previous comments. A good start would be for the AMA EC to proactively reach out to its membership and ask their opinions more often. One can surmise that a slent membership is a content one, but it is clear to me that in this case, a sent membership is simply an apathetic one.
Building and kit building is down, giant scale planes and accessories are down (per Tiano himself)...arf, and and rtf are popular, as is the dreaded f word...foamies. an aging membership, a small portion of which is completely against Mr of any kind (except the occasional oh I have one too but still keep them out), apathy to some degree within the membership, and oh, an explosion of interest in drone and mr technology. Let's not forget the warm welcome some clubs and members show to the foamies and mr guys....so ya, it seems like an easy situation to deal with.
Nobody claimed it would be easy.
Could be why these threads are barren when it comes to actual suggestions....other than "ban them".
Yet another untruth!! I have not seen one person make a suggestion to, "ban them", That is simply your way of making it, shall YOU say, "absolute"
Astro