ORIGINAL: Red Scholefield
The purpose is for AMA club secretary to determine in an individual is in fact a paid up member. You get all kinds of people claiming that they are members when they are not. It takes no talent whatsoever to phony up an AMA card changing the date of expiration or to make one up totally from scratch.
And that's a perfectly legitimate purpose. The AMA member's only area can differentiate between those who are and are not club officers, so that sort of query should be restricted to club officers and CDs. Horrace is abusing the database by using it to vet people's identities here.
I strongly dislike that sort of abuse. The willingness to engage in it here makes me question what such a person would do if more data were available to him. I intend to make an issue of this with the AMA. It's time to take the toys away from the children.