Several folks that I know have been sending me this info, so I give it to you to look at and decide for yourself:

In February I told Bill Lee that I was not going to run because I was having too much fun being a modeler. That seems to have allowed some legal but immoral activity surrounding the nominations in District VIII. Horrace Cain nominated a pair of his friends to run for the District VIII VP slot against him and Sandy Frank nominated Bill Lee and Doug Powell to run against him. Those actions should not have happened because they clearly indicate that those candidates are more interested in their own power than the future of the AMA.
I feel that the leadership of a $10 million dollar organization should have significantly higher ethics than was demonstrated by two of the candidates who are on the ballot have shown. I made that opinion known to more than one person on the Nominating Committee before the meeting on 12 July. I was embarrassed for the AMA EC who were among the victims of this low moral activity when the ballot was set. The Nominating Committee hands were tied and they acted within the confines and scope of the rules in place now. I suspect that those rules may change based on the actions of most of the candidates in District VIII.

My write in campaign is an attempt to move the AMA from a few who seem to feel they own the organization to something more resembling a democracy. One of the two folks who has tried to corrupt the nomination process hides from the public and has yet to even try to explain his action and it is clear he expects to be elected since he is the incumbent. Meanwhile the other brags about how he tried to use the system to improve HIS situation rather than discuss how his immoral action would have helped the AMA. The third candidate is a poor communicator.

Sorry folks, neither of the first individuals represents the morality we need running the AMA. I have expressed this opinion everywhere I can and have yet to find other AMA members who disagree with me on that point. The third guy probably is not going to be effective.



If you agree, please write my name and AMA number in on your District VIII AMA ballot.

Jim Branaum AMA 1428







Jim Branaum

AMA 1428 [email protected]



The choice is yours so make the choice wisely.

Jim, I have a vested interest in this maater and am interested in what you have to say. However, I had a very tough time figuring out which "he" or "him" refers to which candidate in your writing.

Can you please clarify?

Which one did which and what it means? Let me see if I can sort it out for you.

First the process.

The AMA ballot process starts with nominations and ends when the Nominating Committee selects no more than the three best qualified candidates for the ballot. What has happened in District VIII is that two candidates tried to provide nominees to fill the ballot slots to force the Nominating Committee to make choices. The incumbent is assured a slot unless 3/4 of the Committee (which EXCLUDES the President and the ED) vote to refuse, however the incumbent does have a vote.

Now what happened.

HC provided enough nominees to allow someone to force voting SF off the ballot since there would be more nominees than slots on the ballot. SF provided enough nominees to prevent many lesser qualified but well known folks from getting on the ballot. using the same mechanism. Unfortunately for both (but NOT us) their nominees had higher moral standards than they did and all 'tainted' candidates withdrew in one manner or another. The time it took for the addendum to be adopted was a big wave in the process because the Nominating Committee wanted to be fair to all who really wanted to be on the ballot. Some of Mike's paperwork was almost not timely enough.

Would either have taken that action had they been aware of an additional strong candidate? Your guess is as good as mine, but I don't want folks who demonstrate low ethics trying to tell us what to do.


Hope that clears it up for you.

What was one of the old cliches when computer first started getting popular? Garbage in garbage out. I think was one that I remember.

Ever play an old party game where some message was started by whispering in someone's ear, then hearing the final outcome after a dozen or so people repeated it? Of course the message was totally different, some by simple paraphrasing the message. Most was changed because those in the chain thought of cute things to change to.

Here we have a combination of the above in JB's message. I have no clue to what was placed in, however plenty of garbage comes out and, IMO, mostly by choice of the individual making the output, to assure that that output is slanted to whatever advantage he perceives.

Definitely I nominated two other individuals, both leader members. One became very ill and in hospital and did NOT submit the required paperwork. The other submitted his paperwork 8 days prior to the deadline, but alas, by snail mail without certification. I learned long ago that mail not desired at the other end, simply will not arrive unless certified. Only checks made payable to the addressee never get lost in the US mail system.

I previously announced that the D-VIII slate would be full. SF got nervous and nominated 2 of his buddies. So what?

It provided the Nominating Committee with something to do. It is far past time that the election procedures of the AMA are placed on trial. If the other districts had people willing to make a difference, just maybe the AMA itself may be brought to task for their total lack of real interest in promoting model aviation as a worthwhile recreational sport, and hobby, along with the good-ol'boy politics and what I perceive as insurance consortium building.

Now JB is running on the plank that he thinks actions by Sandy and Myself were less than ethical. I disagree.

JB has coat-tailed on my plank of National Recognition of the Sport/Hobby, which I think is our one real road to MORE FLYING SITES. IMO he should have something more original to base his campaign on.

In addition, the accumulation of rules in the AMA Safety Code is slowly strangling several events to death, plus making the jobs of competent Club Officers a full time job. (NOTE: the term COMPETENT CLUB OFFICERS). I believe that this run-away Safety Code must come to a halt. LESS RULES!

One of my strongest points is that I have no fear of personal confrontations. I can stand up, be counted and let all know my position. OTOH, if that position can be shown as in error, I will change to the majority's rule. EXAMPLE: I was dead against the mandatory "Model Aviation" mag. with AMA membership when I was a D-6 VP. Eventually, the majority of those willing to state an opinion went for the mag. so after much work, I backed off on that issue. IMO, our current DVP is afraid of confrontation, and that insecurity makes him almost totally ineffective. I certainly have no clue as to what his objectives are and I wonder if he does.

Therefore for those that want a strong personality, yet one willing to listen and adapt, one that is a veteran of the political battles, and one with a background of ALL modeling then you have only one choice: ME

Background: CL / FF / RC

a person that belittles people, does not acknowledge them even if standing next to him,threatens to sue if he does not like what he hears ,has a general nasty attitude. does not get along well with others,and has a belief that loop holes were made for people to get around rules. Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmm