WOW... Nice post! You may have hit the nail on the head.

I was at a club meeting recently and one of the members (whom I believe is a real AMA advocate) asked the attending members on how to get these park flyers and outlaws to join AMA. He suggested to us if it would be OK for AMA to give them membership at half price for the first year. I had no problem with it however I like your idea better... I would even offer it to them for free until they soloed. You are right, I doesn't cost anyone anything. And if the newbie finds out the hobby/sport wasn't for him then all is not a loss and there are no hard feelings. Also I see that a lot of these so called "outlaws" are experienced pilots who want freedom of choice.

When someone says it's an expensive hobby, I tell them that it costs about $600 for nitro to start from, having nothing, and that also includes club dues and AMA. I then ask them to compare other hobbies and sports costs.... I work part time at a hobby store and encourage newbies to go to a club and get help before they attempt to fly a plane. What I am finding for the most part is that they have a few bucks and a credit card in their pocket, see something and "hard-headedly" say I can do that and I want it, they get it, crash and burn, get pee'd off and then give up right away. If I see that type, of person I try to discourage them from buying a plane and tell them to buy a car instead. For the most part I've been successful. Should we be persistant and force them join AMA too? What could AMA have done for them to prevent that from happening?

Anyway, am I going off topic here?