I just read that the AMA has acquired the entire catalog of the John Pond Plan Service, over 13,000 different plans. The service had been for sale for many months with no buyers and had closed its doors. There had been rumours that the business would simply be abandoned and a significant record of modeling accomplishments would have been lost forever.

AMA has given Bob Hunt the job of cataloging the plans and the intent is to archive and digitize them, and make them available for sale.

The EC should be applauded for furthering the mission of the organization by preserving a significant chunk of model aviation history, making these plans more easily available to modelers, and also developing a potential revenue center that can help defray the rising costs of the Academy's other operations.

Of course I know that this means nothing to you "I just join for the insurance" guys, but it is significant and positive for the rest of us.

Will that help to get my renewal in less then 7weeks? After which I get two cards within two days. Now I know what happened with the dues increase. It sure didn't go towards faster more efficient service.

But I'm happy for you Chris.

That is fantastic news Christopher, thanks for the heads up.

John

Yup! It's great, isin't it? By the way, the AMA Library is fantastic, and this really goes a long way towards completing the archive. By the way, there were other interested parties.
Thank Joe Beshar, by the way, this whole thing was his idea.

i think it is a wast of money we are supposed to be in bad shape money why buy something else untill we are solid again???????

dennis1943

If this one was allowed to slip through there was a distinct possibility that this fantastic treasure trove would be lost forever, A sad fate indeed. Now additionally this is a very good investment that certainly will make money for the organization.

I would certainly commend Joe Beshar and the AMA for this remarkable acquisition. Now when can I send my backlog of orders?

John

I'm with you Vinnie !!!!!!
My check is always back a month or so before the
card gets here. What's up with that ??
Maybe SOME of the new "increase" that AMA felt was needed could be used to hire some temporary help
to increase efficiency just a little.........

I haven't paid dues since they started the sign three and fly free deal, quess it pays off to promote the hobby after all!!!!!

Great news, good to see the preservation of model history!
Dennis 1943, sorry about your "sour grapes"! If you have an AMA membership card just turn it over and read the back, perhaps your question will be answered!

george
i really do not see any sour grapes in my post all i refered to was if we are in such bad shape money wise i can not really see any reason to be spending sorry if i misrepresented my thoughts,

dennis1943 :stupid:

Dennis, what bug me about your post is that if you are concerned about the financial health of the organization, you ought to applaud the acquisition of a revenue center.

this orginazition does have a cash flow it just seems to me that the timing is not correct, wjat is not good today could very well work next year,

dennia1043

No doubt we will be told what AMA paid for Ponds plans. If they were closing the doors,it may not have had much value to them.Time will tell, to me they would be priceless. At least John can rest easy. To me big business is hard to figure, like our old railroad that used to be here. They said they were going to make 6 million dollars, but they only made 4 million,so they lost 2 million.I wish AMA good luck,hope they can keep prices in line. big max 1935,aka AMA14958.

http://www.modelaircraft.org/templat...2ecminutes.asp

"AMA purchased the John Pond plans service. This consisted of 15,000 plans at a cost of $25,000. It also includes 1,600 engine drawings. The major purpose of purchasing the collection was for archiving in the Museum. However, there is an opportunity to generate income from this acquisition. As Pond ran his service, he generated about $40,000/year in sales since 1995. Two individuals have made proposals to duplicate and fulfill the plans orders. There is also the possibility of setting up the operation in-house at AMA. The President appointed a committee comprised of Charlie Bauer, Rob Kurek, Bob Hunt and himself to recommend the best way to serve the members. The following should be included in the committee’s discussions: the focus should not be only the Pond plans, it should include AMA’s and others which may become available to AMA in the future; the ED indicated she is not completely satisfied with the engineer currently doing the transfers and the goal was to eventually bring it back in-house; look at pricing structure; determine the cost (including equipment, materials, employee). The committee will present it’s finding to the Executive Council prior to anything being done."