ORIGINAL: J_R
Most AMA members have no idea of what the AMA is or does. They were told by a club that they had to have an AMA membership, and that was it. It is not really their fault.. nor is it the responsibility of the club to explain all the details. Most people just want to fly.
In my experience the AMA does a very poor job in actually communicating its purpose to its members. Yes, the information is likely available. That's got little to do with actually communicating it, though. They're patronizing--always claiming to be fighting for our interests but rarely detailing how. I seem to recall the write up about how the AMA was cooperating with the FAA, and the big news about that was that NOTAMs would be available on the AMA webpage. Whoop-dee-do! I doubt anyone looks for them there, and they were readily available prior to that "accomplishment."
I don't particularly care about $58 a year. What bothers me is that the AMA acts as though it's doing all of us a favor. For the vast majority of us they're simply a secondary insurance provider.
If they really want to promote modeling, why don't the Nats travel?