Hi Jerry

If you have been watching this forum, you know that I, also, think much more information on the operation of the AMA, in all aspects, should appear in Model Aviation Magazine. Having said that, lets take a basic look at the constraints and the actions placed on the Council in general and the EVP in particular and see what they do provide to us.

First, the position, as defined in the by-laws.

Section 4. The Executive Vice President shall be the Chief Financial Officer of the AMA, shall monitor the financial and corporate affairs of the AMA, make an annual report to the membership regarding the financial affairs of the AMA; and shall make periodic reports, not less than quarterly, to the Executive Council regarding financial matters of the AMA, and shall assume the duties of the President in the event of a vacancy as described in Section 2. until such vacancy is filled.

Second, the entire EC operates under a set of rules that I posted for discussion here: http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/How_...2215801/tm.htm

The operative information here is: The Executive Vice President shall write primarily about the financial news of the Academy and secondarily about National concerns.
The separate District Vice President's columns shall primarily contain information about modeling within the individual V.P.s own district.
The individual V.P. may delegate the actual writing of the column.

Third, by EC motion, at some point in the past, it was decided there was insufficient interest by the membership to print the EC Minutes in Model Aviation Magazine.

Fourth, During the period from about 1979 up through about 1983, the use of the AMA News section turned into something very different than it was ever intended for. Everyone that wants to understand why the EC changed things need to go back into the digital archives on the AMA site, in the Members only section and do a search on "AMA news" and read through the history. Most won't, but it is at the least, entertaining.

*****

What Doug Holland puts into his column is what the guidelines limit him to. I don't agree with it, and I am not positive he would write more if he could. At the same time, his reports in the EC Minutes provide a substantial amount of the fodder for the discussions that take place in this forum. His reports in the minutes do give a fairly complete view of the financial reporting, excluding the things discussed in executive session. If I had my way, those EC minutes would be published in MA for all to read and all VP's would be allowed to comment on the actions taken in the EC meetings. That is not the case. IMHO, you can thank the abuse of those from the late 70's and early 80's for the current situation (and it was not limited to any one person, IMO).

I believe that between the Financial Statement, the EC Minutes, and Doug's column, we get a pretty accurate view of the financial happenings involving the AMA. Should the information be more easily accessed? I believe it should.

At the same time, the membership at large appears to be much more concerned with having pictures of themselves published in the AMA News section, with local reports. As it stands now, the information is there to read, IF you are willing to go to the Member's Only Site and read through the EC minutes. In many cases, discussions are taking place in closed executive session that do not appear anywhere. The concept of executive session is a legitimate one, but, again, IMHO, it has been abused by a few.

One of the things Koranda is doing is to have Model Aviation Magazine become a better communications device. Time will tell.