I'm a long time member for a few reasons. AMA club members took the time to teach me to fly for free, our flying fields are owned by the parks dept. and they require AMA, notice I said fields there are two flying field within 20 minutes of my house they would not exsist if it were not for the AMA. I could drive to the middle of nowhere by myself and fly but this would take 45 minutes of drive time one way and there would not be a groomed runway when I get there.
So the way I look at it I'm saving more than 58 bucks in gas by not driving to country and alot of time. Besides every event with a 100 miles requires AMA membership and I have won more than 58 bucks worth of stuff at big events.
WYLDMAN