Originally Posted by
Hydro Junkie
It's not really that difficult. Lower the fee. If you make all the cuts I called out in my last post, the overhead will drop and then rates can be lowered to all present and prospective members. Obviously, you need to keep a bit of a profit margin, say between 5 and 10% at most, between income and costs but, when you really look at it, when you cut the overhead and, with it, the expenses incurred by said overhead, it's really a no brainer. The problem beyond that, which is not in the AMA's control, is that most places are now only selling foamie's and park flyers. Unless people can be lured back to conventional aircraft and hobby shops start selling them again, the hobby that we've known won't be around after the last of the builder/flyers from the past are gone and, with that, the AMA will also die.
For the sake of discussion, I'll approach the AMA's membership problem from the other direction. A bottoms up review if you will.
Based on the current law, which gives a choice of recreational under 349 and existing AMA Safety Code, or recreational under 107. If you fly under 349, and have a turbine powered anything, you have to be an AMA member or they won't bestow their blessing on you to fly. Same for something over 55lbs. On the other hand, you can fly recreationally under 107 with any type of power source, though you have to stay below 400 feet, below 100 mph, or be less than 55lbs - unless you have a waiver from FAA. It's probably not practical to fly a turbine FW under 107 w/o a waiver, but a turbine heli is easy for example.
So ultimately, the the only people that
must be members of AMA are FW Turbine or LMA flyers AND who are unwilling to get their 107 AND who are unwilling to petition FAA for speed, altitude and/or weight waiver. I won't quote numbers from AMA's members only documents, for those who are members, you can go online and count the number of FW turbine waiver holders and LMA operators. Then multiply that number by $75 full membership, and what you get is CONSIDERABLY less than what AMA needs to operate.
So if AMA is going to close the gap between what they can get from those above who MUST be members and what they need to survive, then AMA needs to create a reason why these folks WANT to join. I argue that for many, it's a rational value decision ... do I get more perceived value than what it costs? What is AMA doing to capture that group? Talking about "advocacy" that was so impactful that it couldn't prevent 349? Or is insurance that only kicks in AFTER your own homeowners? Or is it a magazine? Or is it that prestigious ID card? Or is it access to club fields if you're willing to spend even more? Or is it the ability to compete? Or is it knowing there's a site in the center of the US where you can fly for free if you're willing to travel there?
So, the MUST JOINs are the FW Turbine and LMA folks. For the rest, it's optional. And that means creating perceived value. Something that based on the decade of declining membership revenue, AMA seems to struggle doing.