franklin_m

Did you know ...

Over period 2008-2018, while membership revenue has declined 14%, AMA headcount has remained flat (60 +/- 1) but salaries have increased 45%? Maybe this is why total spending has remained flat (dropped less than 2/10 of one percent). Also explains why they're selling liquid assets to cover costs.


Note: all in constant year 2018 dollars, from IRS 990s, statement of functional revenue and statement of functional expenses)

R_Strowe

Ahhh, peace! The “Ignore List” is a wonderful thing.

What Mr.Mellot does not realize (and I believe AMA does) is that, due to changes in demographics, combined with advancements in technology, it DOES NOT MATTER what the AMA does, the hobby is declining. Get rid of the magazine. Sell off the Muncie facility. Reduce all salaries to $0.00. None of it matters ( which is what I referenced in an earlier post by ‘you cannot shrink to profitability’). All it will do is prolong the inevitable. When I was in high school there were several teachers who flew, and I helped teach several more how to fly as well. All the schools really do now is MR-type stuff. Little to no fixed wing, with the exception of Science Olympiad (they do Wright Flyer, which is rubber powered free flight). We now have a full generation that a: has poor job prospects and reduced income potential, b: has less Intellectual curiosity and interest in ‘flying things’, and c: technology advancements that allow the remaining few to fly anywhere, with no real assistance, hence no need for AMA.

I’ve thought about opening a hobby shop in retirement, but looking at the retail trends along with the move to purely internet sales, well a much better investment will be to fly for myself until I can’t. If I find newcomers that I can help I’ll gladly do so, but I’m no longer optimistic about the long term future of the hobby or AMA..

R_Strowe

fliers1

I ran a hobby shop about 10 years ago. I wouldn't suggest to anyone to try to open up one. I did ok because I didn't, nay, couldn't depend on the local flying clubs. They either had loyalty to the one other shop 25 miles away or go mail order. So when a customer came in the shop, I would immediately ask if they would like to fly an RC airplane. I would give them a little instruction on my store RC simulator. Then I would get them to come out to our flying field that was all but deserted most of the time, and give them 20 minutes of stick time. They were then hooked and that's how I made the sale. I also helped them transition to advanced aircraft. Constant repeat business.
My point is, I use a teaching method that doesn't use a buddy-box. I'm sure everyone here has heard of it before. No, it's not hugging anyone and not passing the box. I hand the tx to the customer and have her or him fly for 20 plus minutes straight. When I'm at the field, I will insist that any spectator fly my LT-40. I found it very easy to get people into the hobby. AMA is fully aware of this, in fact, my teaching method is on their website. At least they let me get that far, but that's where it stops.

Sooner or later, someone in the industry will take me up on my offer to train others how to use this method. The only flack I get is from those who already know how to fly. Imagine if I had the entire industry and AMA behind my efforts? I've offered to teach other club members how to do this, but only two took me up on my offer and that was a rudimentary 30 minute lesson each, but they did learn enough to throw away the buddy-box forever.
That way, the industry, including hobby shop owners won't have to depend on volunteers to do the hands-on marketing.

Beginners / Newbies - RCCanada - Canada Radio Controlled Hobby Forum

R_Strowe

Fliers, PM me. I would like to discuss this.

R_Strowe

astrohog

My Feedback: (1)

Fliers,
you could fill a really large book with all of the posts you’ve made about nobody wanting to utilize your training method.

I don’t think the hobby is dying due to the learning curve......

Astro

init4fun

And , , , , , I'll second what Astro said , and I'll also say this ;

While I've never myself been one to demand strict "thread purity" , This thread is supposed to be a discussion of why AMA salaries rose 45% during a time period when member generated revenue dropped 14% .

And it took barely THREE posts for the original topic to be sidelined !

Now , if we could somehow push past old grudges , Ignore lists , and wonderful training methods , it would be nice to see some justification as to why we're selling off 30% of our assets , all the while increasing the amount of money we're paying these people to run our organization into the ground ....

Hydro Junkie

And I would have to agree with your last line. It's dying from three causes:
1) Lack of interest
2) Present flyers are, in general, far from accepting of new people
3) ARFs and park flyers
Now, to break everything down:

• Lack of interest is applied to anything that requires learning or practice. I see it in other hobbies as well. If you need to work at something to learn to do it or be good at it, most people don't want to put in the effort. I guess it comes back to our "instant gratification" mentality
• Present participants are not accepting of new people is, again, something I see often. Those that have been in an activity for any period of time gets their little "cliques". These people have known each other for years, associate with each other away from the activity and will tend to set up next to each other. A new person showing up, unless they are already known by someone in a "clique", will probably be welcomed to the activity and the site and, after a few minutes, ignored. Been there, seen that, experienced that.
• ARFs and park flyers should be a no brainer. The person that wants to try the activity goes to the local hobby shop, buys one of the two kinds of planes, takes it out and crashes it. Plane ends up in the trash and the would be flyer ends up going on to something they can "master" in a few minutes while complaining about the money they wasted on "a toy that didn't work". In today's world, the first choice seems to be a multi-rotor that can be flown from, apparently, anywhere. With self stabilization, onboard cameras and no need for instruction, it's the perfect "instant gratification" toy. That is, anyway, until the law "rains on the operator's parade". Now the quad goes into the closet, never to fly again. Once again, more money wasted and no desire to fly anything because "Big Brother Is Watching".

Hydro Junkie

All we have to do to see the problem is look at the latest "Help Wanted" ad the AMA placed. They want to hire a marketing person with a BA, someone that's not going to come cheap. You look at the fact that membership is dropping and then go back on look at how many new "admin" people have been hired in the past few years "due to workload", something that can only be declining with less members to deal with. If the office staff was held accountable for their work and time, the number of employees required to do the job should be dropping or, at least, going to some that are part time only. Then again, when you look at what some of the staff are being paid, it doesn't take a rocket scientist to see where the problem is though, with some of the members, it would take a rocket scientist to figure out why they:
A) Allow the wasted funds on admins and executives that don't actually work or, more specifically, work for the members
B) Defend those that are only on staff for the pay and, in the case of some executives, the power they think they have

fliers1

I sent you a PM

franklin_m

You nailed it!

But wait! They already have one!



Why are we paying Budreau then? AMA's membership has declined, yet staff size is the same and staff costs are up sharply. He's clearly not applying the "management" part of his eduction, so again .. Why are we paying him (so much)?

Then on the marketing thing... So AMA has a guy they're ALREADY PAYING, who has the experience AND education in the area of "marketing" and you're hiring another? Or is Budreau not nearly the "marketing" expert he touted himself to be? My money is on the latter. Why? Because we can see from their financial trends and management of staff processes - that he isn't that hot at the management thing either.


Note 1: https://www.suasnews.com/2018/12/aca...tive-director/