Originally Posted by
astrohog
This is not true either.
The AMA expanded and grew as the hobby grew with technological advances and as the American way of life became easier and we had more spare time and discretionary money to spend. During that expansion, the AMA DID grow with the hobby and did provide value to the modeler, helping to adapt the safety code, training outlines, competition organization and standardization, they successfully advocated on modelers' behalf by securing frequencies dedicated to flying RC when the FCC threatened to open up the bandwidths, etc, etc. The AMA had absolutely NOTHING to do with the development of the vast majority of existing flying sites, they were almost exclusively bought, leased and developed on the hard work and dollars of the individual clubs and their members.
Astro
That is fair and a much more accurate description. I was looking for a shortcut way to express that the need for the AMA grew as a result of the hobby growing (as your detailed explanation points out). While I agree that the private clubs did the hard work to develop their flying sites, the AMA helped enable the hobby to grow (for the reasons you stated).
I maintain that the AMA is probably not necessary for the continued growth at this point. Technologies have opened up that have made such growth more organic. However, the need for advocacy has not gone away and is likely only to increase. That was what I was trying to say.