Originally posted by danman1947
I have been a CD since 1985 AMA # 9650 and had NEVER heard of the Free membership for CD's program, so I was amazed when I received an email from headquarters asking if it would be a hardship for me to have to pay my yearly dues. I told them that I had always paid my yearly dues and asked them if I was going to receive a refund for all of the years that I had been paying. Needless to say I have heard nothing. In the mean time in the last 4 years I as president of our local club have developed a world class flying site here in the lower desert of S. Cal. What about a free membership for the officers of clubs? I do think that spending all of that money for the national flying site in an area with the crappiest weather in the world and I know I am from Indiana was a waste. I think that the AMA has to provide insurance, radio frequencies and a national contest period. Enough of the soap box for now. Dan 
Have you ever sanctioned an event and turned in the paperwork? That is required to have received an earned membership. A CD that does not sanction an event each year was never entitled to an earned membership. He does, however, maintain his status as a CD if he pays his dues.
I am somewhat surprised that you didn't know that. It was required reading to become a CD in the first place. You can find the information in the Membership manual that AMA sent every year until this year. It is available on the AMA web site if you want to peruse it. The EC perceives the CD program as a whole, to have flaws in it. Your not knowing what the program is makes their point. Why did you become a CD in the first place? Apparently, it was not to sanction events.
The reason you got the e-mail was to solicit your opinion about the move by the EC to reduced the earned membership to half credit on your dues, taken last year. Personally, I support it. If I were to have a say, I would eliminate earned memberships for CD's and, instead give them to club presidents.
It seems everyone has something of a different view of what the AMA should be. You want contests, others do not. Some want a national flying site, others do not. The AMA is, and will be, what is stated in the bylaws. That makes some happy and some unhappy. That's usually the sign that something is being done right.
JR
AMA 732
CD/LM