Hi Dave,

I have spent most of the summer on business travel and am now catching up on tons of email and posts so forgive me if this subject has been previously broached.

Your availability, candor, and willingness to communicate are refreshing and according to other posters are typical of your watch over D II. Inasmuch as the AMA is much larger than D II, do you intend to communicate general membership as frequently and freely if elected?

Due to the time constraints of the publishing biz, most of what appears in MA is at least a month (or more) old. What are your ideas on maintaining your communicative style, in a timely manner, without being overwhelmed by the magnitude of the task?

Good Luck!

Steve Kerrin
San Diego Wingmasters
(where we already have a president named Mathewson....maybe a trend???)

Hi Steve,
In answer to your first question, “That’s what I intend to do.” In District 2 we’ve made making ourselves available to the members in our district a priority. All of my contact information, and that of every one of my AVP’s is available on our district website and in Model Aviation. We have a district newslist and a forum on our website for members to use.

The ability to communicate electronically is a technology we should take advantage of. It’s timely and cost effective. I’ll continue to rely heavily on this form of communication. I know the members in my district appreciate it and I’ve got to believe that most every member would feel the same way.

I agree that Model Aviation isn’t the best tool to share information with our members in a timely manner. But it can still provide an important service here. One of the ideas I’ve been kicking around would be to change the format of the presidents column and call it “Ask The President”. Members would submit questions, similar to Bob Aberle’s FAQ series, and the column would consist of answers to those questions. This is similar to what I do when I’m invited to speak at club meetings. I always suggest the club have their members work up a series of questions for me. This way I can talk about what’s important to them as opposed to what “I think” is important to them. The concept works well in that environment and I think it would work well for a column in Model Aviation, too.
Dave