Dave, Some of us 'old geezers' live in too far from AMA headquarters to ever visit, don't do competition flying and never even hear from an AMA VP, or official other than our club officers. If we don't have AMA on the top of our minds, how can the younger 'newbie'? The introductory membership is a great step, now we need to follow it up by selling (I know it doesn't sound politically correct) AMA membership and modeling to the 20 to 40 year old generation. We seem to focus on the kids and then forget to sustain the dream through the following years.

What's the image of our hobby at that age? The ‘RC Hobbies’ program on TV? A national flying site that they don't know about? Programs for the benefit of existing members, unknown beyond our membership? Maybe the occasional (usually bad) media coverage of modeling? - I don't know. Then again, I'm not running for office either. I talk to fellow workers who seem interested, teach at our club and try to encourage the new members at our club. Come to think of it, if each of us generated one new hobbyist under 30 years of age each year, we would be talking about expansion rather than growing old. My 2¢ worth.

quint