ORIGINAL: coolbean
It's not the clubs who write out the insurance policy. As far as where the costs are,
"it means you have to keep track of every single member and every single plane, and every single component in every single plane. You have to have a set risk factor for every combination of components. You have to assess the area in which they will be flying for public risk etc etc etc.. And you have to have people on call to input changes to that database and figure rate quotes. Huge technology and administrative costs would be involved."
You bring up annother cost though. The club has to somehow make sure you do have the proper insurance for the plane you are flying. So instead of the AMA issuing you gerneric AMA member card, it will have to list exactly what you are insured to fly.
"I dont know. But some people without brains do an awful lot of talking, don't they?" -- Scarecrow, Wizard of Oz
Coolbean, your signature says it all. Most of those involved in these discussions have no club experience other than pay the dues and fly when convenient. They have no concept of finding a field, negotiating for the field, preparing the field and maintaining the field, keeping the club up-to-date with the local officials and their requirements, AMA, membership roster, current club rules, etc., etc. In addition they think of AMA as an insurance only company which certainly places them in Scarecrow's group.
Now all the club's administrative things can be accomplished, HOWEVER WHY SHOULD A TOY-AIRPLANE CLUB MEMBER HAVE TO SPEND HIS LIMITED TIME WITH SUCH LABOR WHEN IT IS TOTALLY UNNEEDED? The time takes from his recreational time just because some computer geek thinks making rules and setting up different folders with different files is everyone's idea of fun.
AMA is simply an organization that
provides insurance from a real insurance company so as to assist modelers in their ability to find and keep flying facilities plus provides a measure of protection for those doing damage and for those being damaged.
Now as the administration staff is enlarged to keep up with all the possibilities that a non-productive bureaucrat behind a key-board can dream up, then someone is going to pay for that. Just who will it be? Look in the mirror!
Personally I don't care if AMA membership goes up a few $$. For myself it makes no difference. For the club it makes a _ell of a difference, and then I get concerned. A tiered membership, which I at one time believed in, but later realized my foolishness and stupidity, is just the beginning of destroying the club functions. Without the Charter Clubs, AMA will go down the tubes as there will be no one requiring AMA membership, and with no clubs making such requirement, then no AMA.
Park fliers are, as individuals, just one of the big fads, although a fair amount will stay for many years. Like all of us before them, enough will find their way and the torch will continue to remain. The AMA has NEVER amounted to more than 2-3% of the people within the USA that build and fly model airplanes.
If only AMA Leaders could just grab those ears and pull, and return to serving the membership, things like big help for flying sites, education of all governmental agencies and news media about model aviation, reducing the $$$ losses of the magazine staff, down to simple things such as renewing the issue of membership manuals and competition rulebooks, providing the clubs with the simple tools clubs need to administrate a club, and assuring literate productive staff administration within AMA, then chasing park-flier rainbows would take care of itself. Oh well, I can dream too.