View from HQ
The 2007 AMA membership survey has been completed and the results are in! Past projects of this kind have included a general membership survey using the consulting firm Axiom in the fall of 1999. A detailed reader survey for Model Aviation was performed in March 2004, and in late 2006 the Academy conducted a Web page survey.
Of the more than 62,000 emails sent to notify the membership of the most recent survey, more than 8,100 members—or roughly 13%—responded. In the arena of polls and surveys this is considered an excellent response percentage.
During renewal time we ask permission to send email to you. If you opted not to receive email communication from AMA, you would not have received the survey notification. If you wish to receive future email from your organization, please contact the Membership Department.
To reward those who took the time to fill out the survey, gift certificates to the AMA Online Store (www.modelaircraft.org/site/default.aspx) for $100, $50, and $25 were offered as incentives. I'm pleased to announce that Krzysztof Szal of Wheeling, Illinois, won the random drawing for the $100 certificate. Franklyn Perry of East Aurora, New York, was the recipient of the $50 prize, and Marvin Weber of Alamogordo, New Mexico, won the $25 certificate.
The Web and the ease of being able to compile information from the membership is a real asset to AMA's leadership. In times past, to conduct a survey of this type cost thousands of dollars and required hiring an outside firm to develop the survey, test it, administer it, and compile the results.
I hope to be coming to the membership on an annual basis seeking their thoughts on various aspects of the Academy. Don't worry! We promise not to spam your mailbox every month, and we respect the time it takes to complete these inquiries.
One of the hardest parts of any survey is the development of the "instrument," or the survey itself. It is a balancing act to determine the questions that will provide the answers or information you are seeking and cover all the areas needed without making it so time-consuming that people won't take the time to fill it out.
A few members contacted me about areas they felt were ignored in the survey. In all cases they were right. The omissions were not by plan or intent. I guarantee that the next time we conduct a general membership survey, Soaring will be mentioned.
By setting time limits and careful wording in the questions, we acquired the information we needed. In a future issue of Model Aviation we will publish highlights of the survey, but I am including some items of interest until the full report is published.
- Over the past two years, 49% of respondents have increased their participation in aeromodeling; 14.5% have decreased their level of participation; and 36.5% have remained the same.
- The greatest percentage of respondents—32%—have been members for one to five years; 24% have been members for 21 years or more.
- A full 32% of respondents fly at least one or two times a week; many indicated that their flying was seasonal but with a higher frequency during that time.
- The largest percentage of respondents fly at AMA-chartered club fields; private property ranked second.
- The availability of suitable flying fields, insurance, and membership growth were the three most important issues to the respondents.
Jim Cherry Executive Director [email protected]
Transcribed from original scans by AI. Minor OCR errors may remain.
