Brad brings up some excellent points. "The local clubs each have their own personality, and this is where the sport lives and dies. And this is where the younger generation can be encouraged to participate."

The AMA and most other hobby sanctioning bodies believe "the way of the future is to encourage the younger generations to participate and take the reigns of the existing infrastructure to perpetuate the hobby." That business model is exactly the reason why thier memberhship numbers are stable at best and destined to rapidly decline in the coming years. Younger generations are less inclined to pariticpate in club, league or civic organizations than previous generations, and are even less inclined to pay membership dues to participate in a hobby - unless they recognize and internalize the value of the membership and the sanctioning body that provides it.

"... in the grand scheme of things, $58/year for an OK magazine and insurance coverage, in my book, is an acceptable value."

The AMA is a nonprofit club that helps other nonprofit clubs engage in model aviation activities and works to advance the hobby. Again, AMA is going to be hardpressed to find enough young people interested in club-type activities to maintain its current membership level, let alone increase it. I recently started a thread to ask whether or not I should join AMA and the consensus is that I have no real reason to do so because my homeowner's insurance covers me for the type of flying I do.

Without knowing who I am, how is AMA expected to move me up the membership pyramid? How am I supposed to know about the wonderful world of AMA? If their membership was only $20, I'd pay them $20 and give them my information so they could then partner with companies that have products I'm interested in and offer me exactly what I wanted - and slowly move me out of the park and onto the flying field - and eventually onto the Board of Directors (after my boy goes to college and my life slows down when I reach the stage of my life where giving back becomes a priotiry). Quite simply - that's how it works. And quite frankly, I can't believe I'm giving this information away - I get paid a lot for this type of consulting. Which brings me to my next point.

Everything I want to know about a hobby is available for free online. As far as the magazine goes, younger generations place little to no value on print publications, so using that as a member benefit falls flat. AMA could immediately increase membership by offering a reduced price ($40) membership sans magazine. I'm in the media business and produce two publications that are purchased and distributed as member benefits by two different hobby related sanctioning bodies. Belive me when I say it helps the AMA and the publishing company more than it helps the members. Media is in the business of connecting retailers and customers. I don't know the arrangement between AMA and the publisher of its association publication, but what I do know is someone is making a lot of money by delivering that publication into 170,000 homes.

Look at the number of different sections this forum has devoted to specific interests within the model aviation hobby. A 200 page magazine, with 100 pages of advertising, can't possibly captivate and intrigue the interests of 170,000 members. Eliminating the magazine and generating better partherships with manufacturers and retailers would make the data of each member's interest available with the ability to send specific, individualized, targeted messages to each of their members. This approach is more cost effective and profitable for everyone involved. Before you go nuts about sharing data, they're already doing this with their print publication, but in a different way. For example, would you watch a TV show you're not interested in? Do you want to watch a TV commercial about cat food if you don't own a cat? Why would you want to get a magazine with ads in it about stuff you're not interested in? Yet they send it with articles and advertisements of narrow interest to a large population.

The younger generation is a generation of hyper-consumers. We get bored very quickly unless there is something to keep our attention. Hence, my hobby jumping. I'm not unique, and according to my research, I'm quite the norm for most people today under 40. I'm going to get bored with this Aerobird Xtreme. Unless AMA finds a way to reach, connect and keep me and others like me intrigued, AMA is going to go from 170,000 members to 0 in the coming decades.

Brad doesn't think it's possible, but someone - heck, it might be me - will come along and find a way to lure AMA's younger, current and prospective, model aviation enthusiasts into extrememly profitable customers by providing a product different than what AMA is currently offering. The funny thing about markets is this new product may or may not involve model airplanes.