ECHO24

At last count approx. 700 AMA had not applied for a FRIA. That almost 1/3 of of clubs. That was over a month ago so that number has changed but even 500 clubs could mean AMA ends up in financial trouble down the road..

It’s not so much that a club doesn’t get a FRIA. It’s the reason. The initial estimate was that 10% of AMA clubs would not qualify. For the rest, why not? I asked Barracuda a couple times about it and he’s not privy to that or isn’t saying.

A handful of people typically do 90% of the work keeping a club going. If people responsible are not applying because they just don’t want the hassle anymore that’s a bad sign. A FRIA is a lot easier than requiring RID modules.

It’s not clear however many of AMA’s 165,000 paying members (numbers are all over the place AMA’s Linkedin page shows 190.000) are active, but 49.4 members per club is 122,857, with many of those inactive. A lot of people keep an AMA membership for the insurance or on the chance they might become active again. Remote ID is going to cause many of those to quit entirely.

scale only 4 me

My Feedback: (158)

Not every club has a fixed field location either, School groups, some use public park locations, etc

Many are not radio control either, some are Free Flight and Control Line clubs.

mongo

My Feedback: (15)

and it was said a few days ago in a post, that the number of AMA members that are not members of even 1 club has been hovering around 50% or so for a while.

so those average club member numbers may not be an accurate estimate of total AMA membership, anyway..

"A handful of people typically do 90% of the work keeping a club going. If people responsible are not applying because they just don’t want the hassle anymore that’s a bad sign. A FRIA is a lot easier than requiring RID modules."

and just who is supposed to be responsible for insuring everyone at a non fria location is using some form of RID, i will certainly not be attempting to be that enforcer for the FAA or the AMA.

scale only 4 me

My Feedback: (158)

I first became a Member in 1975,, I didn't join a Club with it's own field until 2009

Before that, the only club I was a part of was a "club" in name only,, we had a small group put together just so we could get a sanction so we could apply for a permit to put on 1 annual Warbird Race at an Open to the Public Field..

so Yeah, Many just have AMA so they can attend Flying Events or Races without having Club affiliations,,

ECHO24

It was around that same time I first joined AMA. It was like getting a fishing license, just something you did if you wanted to participate.

It wasn't until AMA sued the FAA over FPV that it was apparent there was something very wrong at AMA. And then the forced membership scheme, AMA's fights with FAA (over everything), etc., and things like the Patrick Egan article and that serious money was involved.

franklin_m

What's driving it are two very negative trends. First, the money coming in the door is decreasing at a consistent rate. Second, their personnel costs continue to increase at a consistent rate. Those rates intersect in less than 20 years - sooner if you assume the magazines keep losing money (about $500k a year) that aren't even included.

With each passing year, as those lines converge, the EC will spend less and less on members as the "Taj-Muncie" staff consumes more and more of every membership dollar.

Does anyone really think it's a coincidence that the CFO is stepping down? Now?

BarracudaHockey

My Feedback: (11)

CFO served several terms and wants to spend time with his grand babies. Don't make anything more than that out of it.

franklin_m

Down market, losses likely, sustained adverse revenue and cost trends (see above), etc. .... yeah, the timing is pure coincidence!

Tailspin

Move along, nothing to see here. LOL
Too bad the CFO is leaving. His monthly column was about the only one in the magazine with a ring of truth in it.

BarracudaHockey

My Feedback: (11)

I really wish you wouldn't presume to speak for someone else.

You want to throw your stats around fine, but how about you keep your speculation about other people, whom you don't know and probably never interacted with, to yourself.

speedracerntrixie

My Feedback: (29)

Of course the commander can turn any thread title into a Financial debate. Shawn: that scratch in my car is going to cost $600 to repair. Franklin: $600, did you know that AMA has had a steady decline for 20 years now? Look here is a chart I whipped out in just 3 minutes……

tedsander

My main club, due to the sudden death of the guy that handled all the paperwork with the AMA, was pretty delayed in applying for a FRIA, but is now waiting a response.
One of my clubs does not have a flying site - they are made up of members from other clubs. If they want a flying event, they ask one of the local clubs with a site if they can "borrow" it for a shared event, that they provide all the manpower for.

franklin_m

Funny thing, when others were doing it to me, your silence was deafening.

You fit right in on RCG, one set of rules for the "in" kids, another for everyone else.

ECHO24

Hey Barracuda. Patrick Egan emailed me last week and said he offered to take the executive position at government affairs to help AMA clean up the mess. He included that link to his AMA "A Gilded Trough of Advocacy" article to make the point that AMA was burning through boat loads of money for nothing (the hobby anyway).

It was over me challenging him on being partners with Gary Mortimore and that "Just Say No" article about Lawrence Tougas as AMA president. It ended with me calling him a Big Drone hack and a sellout and a few other choice words. He was saying, "Don't blame me. I tried".

Patrick Egan also said something else I had not thought about. He said AMA sold out model aircraft hobbyists AND the droners, the drone hobbyists. My takes has always been AMA's (Hanson's) downfall was that he flushed RC modelers down the toilet for the drone crowd and FPV. But it makes sense, Hanson calling 700,000 mostly drone owners criminals who needed to be punished if they didn't join AMA. Rich Hanson is a lunatic. Not figuratively. A bona fide certifiable lunatic.

Hooray! Can't say that over at the other place. The big controversy there today (you know you just posted there) is someone said something off-topic AND GOT AWAY WITH IT.

A forum crime was committed. And he was not banned, not put on a time-out. Not even a point! Time for a moderator pow-wow and a flurry of PM's. "Mike" needs to be punished one way or another. Just like franklin_m.

ECHO24

Hey Franklin. That's why I closed that FAA thread with my post to you about being a teenage girl for PMing "Bob". You of all people, after dealing with that at RCG.

And you know it's nothing personal. It's on the issues. I've defended you so many time at RCGroups I've got a few free passes left.

ECHO24

Everybody is "trolling". Even the moderators at RCGroups when they suspended Franklin's fake account "Lokai". The moderators added 'franklin_m" to the suspended account name, "Lokai (franklin_m)". There are a lot of suspended accounts there and that's the only one I've seen with such special treatment. Correct me if I'm wrong. They wanted to make sure everyone else knew it was Franklin.

Franklin's Lokai I think is the character from Star Trek that is half black half white split right and left down the middle. Loki in the video is a character in video games and the god of mischief in Norse mythology, the Lego with the green cape and horns..

ECHO24

How's about another off-topic ERB video. Who doesn't like Breaking bad? (Bob please. I'm just hogging up space and everyone else here are just dying to post some compelling RC topics)