ORIGINAL: elenasgrumpy
Actually, according to our club president of 30 yrs. You can fly one time without having AMA with an AMA member with his plane & a buddy box, with the trainer master radio in the AMA member's hands. As in he can flip the switch on you & take control of the aircraft at anytime. This is a one time deal, from then on you need to be an AMA member to join or guest fly at our club. Now I haven't personally looked this up in the AMA rules, I'm just going by what I was told by our president. Who I assume wouldn't allow anything to go on that might endanger our club.
What you're describing sounds like the Introductory Pilot Program. The way it works is the club designates a person as an Intro Pilot. That person is then permitted to instruct non-AMA members on a buddy box. For the student, it is a one-time deal. However, they actually can fly as often as the instructor is willing within 30 days from their first flight. By that time they need to either Join AMA or stop flying.