So I looked at the tax filings. In CY2021, the last year I have data, the AMA declared $261,835 in "CHARTER CLUB FEES" (Part VIII, Statement of Revenue, line 2c). According to AMA's website, the charter fee is $40. So $261,835 / $40 = 6,545. Now even AMA doesn't claim they have that many clubs, so what else goes into the "Charter Club Fees" bucket? Clearly NOT just the fees to charter the clubs. And before anyone jumps on the event sanctions, that's already listed as a separate line "EVENT SANCTION" (Part VIII, Statement of Revenue, line 2d).

It does lead one to wonder how many clubs they actually have. Certainly don't make it easy to find on the website ... by splitting among 80+ pages ... which also tells us something.

back in the 80s-90s, there were clubs/fields entirely dedicated to scale modeling only.
do they still exist, damnedifiknow, and i really do not care, but it was something that could be done back then.

no idea if it ever changed.

i am thinking that, there used to be additional fees on a charter, for additional insured and such, that may account for a portion of the overage, probably a stretch to get it to account for all, though.

Hi Mongo, Echo, and Speed,

There is an AMA chartered club that allows RC helicopters only in my area. Since this club has been in operation for some time it appears that the AMA is OK with clubs dedicated exclusively to one type of RC aircraft ;

"The New England Heli Crew" , AMA charter #4780

https://www.nehelicrew.com/a/r/szz/rc/home

Sure. There's helicopter clubs, electric only clubs (due to noise abatement in some cases, size constraints in others), glider only clubs, quad racing clubs, I know of an all jet club with a capped membership at 100 and a waiting list to join so that the flight line isn't so crowded every weekend all the members and their guests can fly enough.

Finally a straight answer.

Was that really what you meant though? You did use the example of someone not being allowed to join the club due to having a foam airplane. That is a different scenario than a club being helicopter only or race plane oriented etc.

"can they limit membership ... for example no foam planes". You need to print out posts before answering and tape them to the monitor.

If the game is "having" vs "flying" foam planes you can argue that one all by yourself.

Ya know,, you guys sure like to argue about some silly stuff,, LOL

It was a straight question. Can clubs decide whoever can join? Apparently so.

Going on an on about anything can become a tedious, meaningless exercise, including opinions from the bleachers about it.

Edit. Before being accused of ignoring my own advice, this response is to ONE disparaging (un-silly?) post directed at ME (and some other guy). The End.