RE: OUTLAW no more...
I belong to the Omahawks RC Club, a long-established flying club that stayed independent of AMA chartering for 53 years.
We used to buy our own annual liability policy and maintain our own insurance for about $250 per year. The company that had underwritten our policy for the last dozen years or so decided to quit doing it. We had to find another insurance company that would issue our club a general liability policy.
The best deal we could find was to pay $1,000 per year for $1 million in coverage, and the policy wouldn't cover an incident where one club member caused harm to another club member or a member's property.
We voted to charter the club with the AMA, and our annual cost is $90 instead of $1000.00. We were the only club out of six in the area that didn't require AMA membership before we decided to charter, but a full 66% of the members were already card-carrying AMA members. Why?
-$25,000 in supplemental medical coverage
-$1,000 in anti-theft coverage for planes and RC equipment
-National lobbying efforts to protect the rights of RC enthusiasts
-AMA membership requirements for contests and fun flies at other clubs across the city and accross the country
After 53 years, we chartered as an AMA club and have been completely happy. Our insurance coverage is much better and our pilots are able to mingle with other clubs at fun fly events and contests. We've worked hard at using AMA resources such as the TAG program to enhance our training efforts and our club's public profile.
In the fall of 2007, about 9 months after we chartered, I was standing next to a fellow club member who was tuning the MDS 1.48 turning a big APC prop on his Funtana 90 ARF when he absent-mindedly put his hand right through the prop in an attempt to adjust the needle valve. He basically cut off the thumb on his right hand, except for the outer skin that hadn't been sliced by the propeller.
The pilot was taken to the hospital for emergency care. He later underwent surgery and physical rehabilitation. He doesn't have full feeling or motion in the thumb (and probably never will), but happily enough he was back out flying again with us late last spring.
His medical insurance picked up the majority of the medical bills from the emergency room, the surgery, and the rehabilitation, but he and his wife were faced with thousands in deductables and non-insured expenses. The AMA's supplemental medical coverage picked up every last cent that their regular medical coverage didn't pay. They had to fill out plenty of paperwork and provide documentation and receipts for the expenses involved, but thanks to the AMA, their final out-of-pocket expenses were $0.00.
If all the AMA had to offer us was "just insurance" then that would be a great reason to join. The AMA offers a great deal more, however, and paying up my $58 is the first thing I happily do every year. I try to kick in $20 extra with every renewal, offering $10 for the field acquisition fund and $10 for the museum fund. The AMA offers us a simple, collective way for model aircraft enthusiasts all across America to work together and help each other out in a wide variety of different ways.
I've pissed a lot of money away since I first got involved in our sport about a half a decade ago, but I've never regretted one cent I've spent on my AMA membership or supporting AMA efforts. It costs $58 for 18 holes of golf and half of a cart rental for one afternoon; buying one year's worth of AMA membership is a much better investment.