Jim is right, many of your questions have been discussed at length many times before and to a lot of us it's just rehashing a lot of old conversations.

That having been said, I find the logic of the high cost a little short sighted. The people that balk at the $75.00 for MAAC probably were not going to stay around anyway. These are the folks that think nothing of taking up Golf $1,200.00 for a Club membership, plus $100.00/month bar bill and then you buy golf clubs etc. Plan B is some kid that get his over stressed Mother to buy him a toy that he might maintain an interest in for a week or two... OK that's the NEGATIVE RANT,

Now onto the benefits of MAAC;
Insurance; $5 million, with world wide coverage. Yes you can go to Australia and fly MAAC will cover you. Plus there is the added benefit of a $5,000.00 deductable which MAAC will pay. Don't like it? OK go the AMA, they charge more and their insureance only kicks in AFTER your PERSONAL insurance has been exhausted. (ie a $2 Million claim and you coverage is only $500,000.00 the AMA will kick in the remaining $1.5 Mill)

Then there is all of the hidden stuff like the frequency management for out radios. Few realise that there are people out there that are trying to put pagers, baby monitors, taxi tadios etc onto the frequencies that our radios work on. The Goverment of Canada only talks to nationally recognized groups in order to preserve these frequencies for us - that would be MAAC.

The Magazine - has been legislated but the Corporations Act of Canada, as a method of dispursing information the the members (Not everyone has a computer you know). So it has to stay, and it's not that bad of magazine either.

It's scary I know, but MAAC and it's actions can be explained and justified once you step outside of you own field and look at the big picture. Just like everything from mandatory car insurance to polution controls and education standards.

Welcome to the Fantastic World of RC Modelling!