Originally posted by s3nfo
Horrace is close, but not quite right. The first 100 numbers are reserved for Presidents of the AMA:
AMA 4 Irwin G. Ohlsson Sr
AMA 8 Frank B. Bushey
AMA 9 Keith H Storey
AMA 10 Claude McCullough (1957 – 1958)
AMA 11 Walt A Good (1959 – 1960)
AMA 12 Peter J Sotich (1961 – 1963)
AMA 13 John Worth (1963)
AMA 14 Maynard L Hill (1964)
AMA 16 Cliff Weirick (1967 – 1968)
AMA 17 John E Patton (1969 – 1970)
AMA 19 Earl E Witt
AMA 20 John Grigg
AMA 21 Don Lowe (1987 – 1995)
AMA 22 Dave Brown (1996 - )
4 and 5 digit numbers are either someone who's been a member for a long time OR someone who has become a Leader Member or Contest Director and chosen to get a lower number. Life members can be distinguished because their number starts with L (as in L101) and I believe they can duplicate an open number (so you can have a member with the number 1234 and another member with the number L1234). And I also believe Life member numbers start at 101.
And given that AMA will issue vanity numbers, you can have any number you want. AMA numbers are NOT unique! There are quite a few that have been issued to more than one person.
Bill