And that, in a nutshell is why I won't join the AMA, you get literally nothing for your money.
I do like Franklin's posts in that thread, however, since he's one that will call a spade a spade:
(Post 1)Originally Posted by franklin_m
Wow. Go figure. FAA following the law that Congress wrote. And AMA, for MONTHS, painting an unrealistically rosy picture. Let's see, has that ever happened before? Let me check. Oh yeah...
- Registration requirement for AMA members
- Preserving 336
- No impact from new FAA bill
- Continue flying "as always have"
(Post 2)
My point in this is that AMA has a well established pattern. Something happens related to laws, regulations, etc. They meet with the FAA, lawmakers, etc. repeatedly. For months the AMA communicates to members how much they're accomplishing, how they've been assured, etc. And then, REPEATEDLY, what actually gets published, written into law, etc. is considerably different than the picture AMA painted for members.
As I've said before, government does not do these things w/o clearly communicating their intentions beforehand. So it's my opinion that there are two possible reasons for this:
Reason 1. Those AMA officials meeting with government reps are not perceiving the signals the FAA and others are sending. In other words, they're in over their heads. Big picture, that means that membership dollars are being given to someone, in the form of a salary, for work they're clearly unable to do. The money is effectively wasted. Or...
Reason 2. Those AMA officials meeting with government reps are properly perceiving the signals, but the EC and other AMA leaders are deliberately choosing to communicate something different to members. To me, that is much more serious. These "negotiations", talks, etc. have been ongoing for MONTHS, and yet the EC is about to drop this info now? AFTER the flying season? AFTER the spike in renewals they probably see in the spring? And why is that important? Think revenue flow to Taj-Muncie.So pick one ... either incompetence or deceit.
Now that I've pasted this, let's see how long it will be before the AMA faithful start to bash me and/or Franklin.