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É you might be saying hello to your newest
friend.
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My Fact or fiction?
There's strength in numbers. We've all heard that saying.
Frequently it's used when referring to membership
organizations such as AMA and how the power of the
organization to effect change that impacts its membership is
directly related to the number of members the organization
has.
The larger the organization's membership, the louder the
organization's voice. Strength in numbers relates to how an
organization represents and advocates for its membership to
political leadership.
AMA launched its first-ever national membership drive on
April 1, 2009. Virtually all member-based organizations have
such drives. Increasing any organization's membership is the
key to its strength and its future. AMA's membership drive
will last until September 14, 2009.
Your membership dues are used to fund the various programs
that AMA has developed to support our members and clubs. Our
Flying Site Assistance Program grants have helped many of
our chartered clubs improve their current flying sites and,
in some cases, help purchase new sites.
The Take off And Grow (TAG) program has helped chartered
clubs introduce model aviation to their friends and
neighbors. The net effect is building aeromodeling's
credibility within the community. Becoming an asset in your
community can only pay dividends when you go to the
community looking for help and support.
AMA's Charles H. Grant Scholarship Program has awarded more
than $1,000,000 in scholarships to our younger,
college-bound members. Many of these recipients have gone on
to successful careers in the aviation and aerospace
industries.
Our structured liability insurance program helps provide
many of our chartered clubs access to thousands of public
and private flying sites throughout the country.
All of these programs are important, but as important is
that your dues also support AMA's ongoing efforts to
advocate for our members. Whether it's being the voice of
our members with the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA),
the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), the Department
of Homeland Security (DHS), the Environmental Protection
Agency (EPA), or even before Congress, your dues give us the
ability to do that.
Although your dues allow us to provide these programs and
services, our membership numbers help make our efforts
successful. Increasing our membership can only increase the
level of influence we have when advocating for you.
In several of my columns during the last year, I've written
about the FAA's Aviation Rulemaking Committee (ARC). It was
created in 2007 to make recommendations that will eventually
be used as a regulatory basis to determine how small
unmanned aerial systems (sUASs) will operate in the National
Airspace System. If you've read these columns, you know that
model aircraft, by their very nature, are considered sUASs
by the FAA.
The ARC's work will be complete in the near future (and may
be complete by the time you read this). We don't know at
this time how or if the final recommendations of the ARC
will have an impact on what we do as model aviation
enthusiasts, but it's more important now than ever before
that we do all we can to grow our membership to give us a
stronger voice in helping keep model aviation as unregulated
as it has been for the last 70 or more years.
We need your help to make that happen. More information on
our membership drive can be found in this issue of MA and on
the AMA Web site at
www.modelaircraft.org/membershipdrive.aspx.
You only get one chance to make a good first impression. Is
that fact or fiction?
I received an interesting e-mail from a longtime AMA member.
This person has remained a member, although circumstances
prevented him from actively flying for the last few years.
The situation changed and this man decided it was time to
return to model aviation.
To get rid of the rust, he put together an RTF
electric-powered model and headed to the local field. The
members at the field didn't know him and were unaware of his
extensive modeling background.
What happened next is why this member wrote. The reception
he received at the field was, in his estimation, more than a
little cool. Here he was, a potential new club member,
visiting a local club, hoping to make new friends who share
a similar interest, and he felt unwelcome. Although he was
allowed to fly, he wasn't offered assistance from any of the
others. (Fortunately he didn't need it.)
He is convinced that if he wasn't an experienced modeler, he
would have left at the end of the day totally discouraged.
Chances are he would have then sought another hobby that
might have been slightly friendlier.
When someone new shows up at our fields, even if it's only
to watch, it's a pretty safe bet that the person has an
interest in what we do. If he or she shows up with model in
hand, it's likely that the club is looking at a potential
new member.
It doesn't really matter what type of model he or she has,
or how it is powered. It's a model aircraft and that's the
common denominator between all of us.
When a new person comes to your field, consider that
individual an opportunity. He or she is a potential new
member to your roster and an opportunity to promote model
aviation and to put your club and members in a good light
within your community.
Take a minute from whatever it is that you're doing to say
hello. You never know—you might be saying hello to your
newest friend. MA
See you next time ...
Dave Mathewson, AMA president
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