I would like to share an exchange between myself and Dave Brown - primarily on the subject of the interim VP assigned for the next 6 months for District V. Hopefully it will give you some insight as to how things really work (forget the by-laws etc.)

----- Original Message -----
From: "Dave Brown" <[email protected]>
To: "Red Scholefield" <[email protected]>
Sent: Thursday, June 10, 2004 3:44 PM
Subject: interim VP 5

Red:

You are, probably, not going to like this, but here it is

I finally found the "rules" in regards to LM status.

First, the Bylaws, Article IX section 3 require that an appointee as CC, or AVP be a LM.

Second, the Bylaws, Article III, section 1, paragraph d, gives the EC the authority to determine the qualifications for LM status.

Third, Researching the EC minutes, we found that the minutes of the EC meeting on 10/27/90 contain the following:

"By concensus, it was ordered that Leader Member requirements be consistent with that of Contest Directors, I.E., that a minimum of three years of continuous current AMA membership be required prior to application for Leader Member status. The Vice President of each district may waive this requirement for extraordinary situations and/or conditions."

We, further looked up the application filled out by Judi Dunlap, for LM status, and written on it, and signed by Jim McNeill was a statement that he was waiving the 3 yr requirement.
[Comment-1] He obviously knew she didn't meet the requirements otherwise why waive them!

[Comment-2] 18 AVPs and he couldn't find one that already met the requirements?

I suppose one could argue that this did not constitute an "extraordinary situation", but that would be impossible to define. It is, obviously the VP's call, and Jim made it.

I feel that this puts this subject to bed.

Ironically, part of this problem was created by relying on the "origin date" in the membership records, and a casual review of these, reveals that they are NOT reliable. As an example, The origin date for my own membership comes up in 1981, and I was elected to the EC before that! Reviewing, randomly, other people I know, revealed numerous problems. Obviously, we need to look into what has happened in this area (I, for example, moved in, about, 1981....could that be the problem?) (FYI, your record has you joining in 83, and I know you were a member before that). In part, my looking into this aspect was brought about as a result of a Hq's handwritten, note on the LM application of Judi Dunlap, which indicated some time as a member when she was in Maryland, which MAY have made this whole subject moot.
[Comment-3] See comment-1 above.

Dave Brown
AMA President

And my response:

Dave,

We researched the rules (as published in the Membership Manual) quite
thoroughly. Based on these rules and not knowing that this requirement could
be waived by the VP (but it is not a surprise) we were challenging the
appointment of Judi Dunlap.

Some AMA members are rapidly coming to the conclusion that our By-Laws are a
joke enabling a "creative" VP to do just about whatever serves his agenda.
Which in McNeill's case was to appoint a back-up that wouldn't have a
snowball's chance in hell of ever running against him and winning and yet
garner lots of votes from one of the largest clubs in his District.

His legacy lives on in Judi Dunlap (about as unqualified as one can get and
most people know it) who has stated that she doesn't plan on changing
anything. I expect by the time an elected VP takes office the Frequency Monitoring
equipment disbursed (read permanently assigned) by McNeill will be
untraceable. I guess District V can live with another 6 months of business
as usual, we have survived the last 12 years of it. The circumstances (with
full credit to the EC) whereby Dunlap can serve for another 6 months, sans
any election, as VP and then run as an incumbent ??? will cause a few
eyebrows to be raised never the less.

You stated, " I suppose one could argue that this did not constitute an
"extraordinary situation", but that would be impossible to define. It is,
obviously the VP's call, and Jim made it." Yes, and it is obvious that it be
incumbent on the EC to make sure the VP defined the "extraordinary
situation".
Seriously, are these things ever challenged by the EC as a
body?

What will it take to define the rules under which a VP operates his
district and make sure they adhere to them or at the very least follow the
intent? The impression, at least from our experience in District V, is that
the guidelines in the Membership Manual as to how AVPs were assigned and
used could be ignored by the VP if it didn't fit his personal agenda. Yes,
I know, the membership voted for him as you like to quote. The 10,000
members also couldn't read where to send in their ballots in the last
election also - so much for depending on them to make a knowledgeable
selection of our leadership. Even more to support the argument that the
By-Laws need to honed to effectively reduce manipulation and creative
interpretation.

In the meantime I hope there is an active program to clean up the By-Laws
and get all of the "gotchas" out on the table and in writing.

I guess the Dunlap issue is put to bed as the chances of us getting stuck
with another McNeill in our lifetime is quite remote.

Red Scholefield
Leader Member (and still trying to give a damn about our AMA)

PS
OK you guardhouse lawyers - have a ball!

It is too bad that with all your background that someone did not see fit to nominate you for D-5 VP.

While this may not be a popular position, we need to judge her on her works. Is she now doing a good job. If yes, do we actually care if she is a new member or not? If she is doing a poor job, then maybe the point being discussed is valid.

Do you really want to see another 74 year old EC member? I think not. We need to see some younger people take the leadership roles. Use the older members as consultants, volunteers, whatever that will take advantage of any specific skills for the benefit of the AMA.

Red S.

Ok, here is her on her first response. I'll share it with the group here. Note how she unloads the job on the people at Muncie.

----- Original Message ----- From: "Judith Dunlap" <[email protected]> To: "Red Scholefield" <[email protected]>; "Eric Hammonds" <[email protected]> Cc: "Sherwin Arculis" <[email protected]> Sent: Saturday, May 29, 2004 9:44 AM Subject: Re: Leader Member

Hi Eric:

Model Aviation Magazine, June Issue, Page 159. Middle of page Recognizing Individuals: Leader member: A program designed to recognize leaders in the modeling community. Three classifications exist: Administrative, Industry, and scientific. Members recognized in this program help to administer Academy activities as well as maintain and vote on the AMA bylaws. Information and applications are available from the Membership Department at AMA Headquarters. Eric please contact AMA and ask for the Membership Department and they will send you all the necessary paper work you will need and answer all your questions.

Also Eric, that one page in the magazine is very helpful. I got a lot of information from it regarding awards your club can work towards getting. Please check it out.

The best of luck to you, I think it is so great that you are going to schools and talking to the students. We just went to one yesterday for
4 hours. We had a wonderful time, the children all made airplanes out of wood and painted them. They brought to the show we put on yesterday. When we were done, they wanted to know if we could all come back the next day. It is so rewarding to work with the children. If I can help you in any way please do not hesitate to email me.

Best of luck to you and Mahlep RC Aviation.


Judi Dunlap Vice President District 5

My message after being copied with our VP's.

----- Original Message ----- From: "Red Scholefield" <[email protected]> To: "Eric Hammonds" <[email protected]> Cc: "Sherwin Arculis" <[email protected]>; "Judith Dunlap" <[email protected]> Sent: Saturday, May 29, 2004 4:26 PM Subject: Re: Leader Member


Eric,

You can download the Leader Member application form from the AMA web site: http://www.modelaircraft.org/templat...-Files/907.pdf It is in pdf format. If you can't read an adobe file you can also down load it from the AMA web site. http://www.modelaircraft.org/templates/ama/acrobat.asp

The people at Muncie are very busy this time of the year so we should make every effort to use the tools they make available on the web site. As a Leader Member you should familiarize yourself with the web site and all it offers. It is a great way to answer question other modelers may have or form prospective members. You will find the AMA Membership Manual there also. Great source from which to clip specific items or to direct people to that have not taken the time to read theirs or have misplaced it.

If you need help on any of this, as I said, don't be afraid to ask.

Red Scholefield AMA 952 Leader Member D-V

Original response to member question. ----- Original Message ----- From: Red Scholefield To: Eric Hammonds Cc: Sherwin Arculis ; Judi Dunlap Sent: Saturday, May 29, 2004 7:50 AM Subject: Re: Leader Member


Hi Eric,

You don't need Leader Members, all you need is the referances from Open Members and then the endorsement of the District VP or any of the AVPs.

"These three (3) references must be properly filled in and signed by three
(3) current AMA Leader Members. (If Leader Members are unavailable, three
(3) Open Members and an endorsement by a District Vice President or Associate Vice President may be substituted.)" At the moment it appears that Judi Dunlap is acting as our District VP, you could contact her at (352) 347-5852 e-mail [email protected] to get her mailing address and to see if she would help you. Otherwise the closest AVP is Sherwin Arculis, Huntsville AL ((256) 883-9838 e-mail [email protected].

If this doesn't work get back with me and I'll see what we can put together for you. Lord knows we need more active members to become Leader Members to get our district rolling toward its full potential.

Red Scholefield AMA 951 Leader Member District V

----- Original Message ----- From: Eric Hammonds To: [email protected] Sent: Saturday, May 29, 2004 1:11 AM Subject: Leader Member


Red,

You may not remember me, but we have exchanged emails a few times discussing District V. I need some help in how to go about applying to be a Leader Member. I have looked at the application and feel that I may be qualified for the administrative category. I am the founder and president of a small club. I am active in my club and have conducted demonstrations and talks at local schools. I am also our club instructor and an intro pilot. None of our members are Leader Members, so how do I go about getting references? Is there a list that I would have access to that shows Leader Members in my area?

Eric Hammonds RCU username: depfife Mahlep RC Aviation Alexandria, AL

I see nothing wrong with Mrs. Dunlop pointing to the sources of information. Anyone can find the answers they need instead of being somewhat lazy enough to look.

In the business world "the mark of a good leader/manager is to suround him/herself with experts "so that the job gets done in a more efficient manner rather than waisting a lot of one person time.

Interesting concept. Do you suppose that is the reason Dave Brown wanted Mrs. Dunlop on the EC?

Seems likely, JR. DB is never wrong, ergo an expert is one that supports his position. That's the one thing Mrs. Dunlop's predecessor had going for him. You have said that DB by convention doesn't vote on issues before the EC. Maybe so in form, but not so in fact - he has always had a vote, by proxy. It wouldn't seem a long stretch to suppose that his reason for wanting JM's designee for interim/incumbent D-V VP lies in his expectation for continuity of his proxy vote.

Abel

How can you say that? DB only seeks the most qualified people. I mean look at how he got rid of the previous Executive Director, a person with many years of professional experience running non-profit membership organizations and replaced him with someone far more qualified....

Oh wait. Maybe that's not a good example.

Give me some time, I'm sure there's a good explanation.

Aresti2004

Do you know who the ED was before Joyce Hagar?

Red S.

Abel

Strictly as a point of interest. The last time I talked to DB, he changed his position on voting... just slightly, from what I had heard before. It may not be new, but, I had never heard it before. He said that he did not vote except to break a time... or create one.

hey JR,

yer gona have to explane this one:
"he did not vote except to break a time... or create one. "
now i can kinda understand how one might break a time, but create one??

<BSEG>

sorry mongo

Although some of his powers are rather mystical, I doubt that the control of time is one. It should have been "tie" rather than "time". My bad.

did bring to mind a few rather interesting scenarios

Red settle down and go fly a plane.

BobbyRichardson

This election, as many as 4 EC seats could change hands. Now, you may not be concerned about that. I have no idea of what you fly, or what your interests are, but, consider this: turbines, 3D, autonomous flight, mandated safety programs, teired flying restrictions, mixed flying between 3D and non-3D aircraft at events and risk management are on the table (and those are just a few of the items). If you think any of those items have been put to bed, you are woefully mistaken.

While most of us would prefer to go fly, there are some small few that watch what goes on and are concerned. Red takes the time and makes the effort to TRY and find out what is going on, and that is not an easy task. If you, or anyone else, thinks Red is anti-AMA you are sadly mistaken. If you don't care about who represents you, fine. Some of us do.

Again the sky falls!!

I agree with JR

Oh Woe is me.

How can it be?

I much rather argue, by far!