AMA News District VII - 2007/07
District update
The past few months have been quite interesting. I attended the Weak Signals show in Toledo and spent some time with District VII members discussing various issues. Two major issues included:
- What to do about keeping a flying site.
- What programs are available for getting youngsters involved in aeromodeling.
The latter was interesting since MA has had articles explaining some of the programs. My first impression was that the individual who asked the question had not read the whole magazine. Then I thought about how many AMA members actually read the district vice presidents’ columns — I don’t know how that number could be tabulated.
District VII has its own website that was set up to communicate information to district members more quickly than waiting for MA, which has a publishing lead time of three months. The purpose of our columns is to show what clubs are doing to answer the first two questions of this column. I doubt if anyone realizes the time and energy required to write the columns and put all the information together for a magazine. That’s where the staff at AMA comes into play to make it all work and come out as well as it does.
The bottom line: if you want to be informed, spend some time reading MA and check out www.amadistrictvii.org.
Club internal issues
Another issue addressed was internal problems within a club. I have been asked to intervene in some of these matters. As representatives of AMA, district officers are not a police agency. We do not make decisions to discipline a club member. That type of action is strictly a club issue and the officers and members have to decide how to deal with the problem. That is the purpose of a set of club bylaws.
As district officers, we can offer advice on how other clubs have handled similar situations, but the final answer rests with the club.
Field photos and reports
Jack Cottington sent in this picture of a recent visitor to the field from which he flies. Would this be considered Free Flight or come under the classification of soaring? Hmmmm.
Dennis Goodrich, editor for the Central Iowa Aeromodellers, sent in a picture of the club’s flying site after some spring rains and just before the field was scheduled for the opening of the 2007 season. Normally the site is used for land-based models, but this looks as though floatplanes might be the order of the day.
Youth involvement — K.A.M.P.S.
Guy Barber, former District VII associate vice president, forwarded this report about the Kalkaska Area Model Pilots Society (K.A.M.P.S.). This is what I’ve been talking about with clubs getting involved with kids.
Brad Barber (K.A.M.P.S. member), and Doug Madsen and Tom Johnson (Scout leaders of Troop 629) put this together. This was the first time that any of the Scouts actually built something, let alone a model airplane. Parents and Scouts were proud of the accomplishment. The bottom line is that the troop will now start building a trainer aircraft to be used to teach the Scouts about flying RC aircraft. The pictures tell it better than words.
There are no excuses for a club not to get involved. If we want our hobby/sport to continue, we all have to get with the program — not “let George do it.” There are groups of youngsters all over that you can work with:
- Boy Scouts
- 4‑H
- Civil Air Patrol
The K.A.M.P.S. club got involved, and so can you. Prove me wrong if you can.
Closing
Till next time: get involved, fly safely, have fun, and introduce a youngster to our hobby/sport. C.A.V.U.
Transcribed from original scans by AI. Minor OCR errors may remain.
