AMA News: Education Through Aviation-2011/12

THE DESIRE TO LEARN is the catalyst
for most true understanding. Curiosity
didn’t kill the cat—curiosity created a
learning environment for the cat. As
modelers, we seem to be the curious, the
inventive, and the creative people who
learn. We learn from internal instinct that
we must recognize the value of knowledge
and the place it holds in our understanding
of all things aviation.
Last month I wrote about the value of
clubs and the bridge a club can create to the
community, and from the community to the
flightline. This month I want to discuss the
role of education in your club.
I would guess that most clubs consider
training new modelers, and possibly the
occasional educational outreach to a local
school, as educational components. I
applaud these efforts, and yet offer the
following suggestion.
How do you engage your club
membership educationally?
There are countless lessons learned
every time we go to the field and talk with
other fliers. Have you considered a formal
schedule of instruction, well-planned and
advertised, to be delivered at upcoming
club meetings? If you don’t think it’s
necessary, rewarding, or of interest to your
members, refer to this month’s quote.
Be warned—most people enjoy the onehour-
maximum meeting. Plan the itinerary
of your meeting, cover the usual necessary
business items as quickly as possible, and
make sure it takes no more than 30
minutes. Then, have a presentation that
lasts 30 minutes covering any subject that
you think members of your club are curious
about.
Seek out subject matter experts in your
area. Use technology to avoid travel; setup
a webinar for your meeting. Keep it
moving, interesting, and fun!
Which subjects? What materials? Don’t
do this yourself—ask the members of your
club two questions: What would you like to
learn? What would you like to teach?
I recall the days of being the president
of a large club and looking forward to the
meeting that had a moment of learning
scheduled; a guest speaker or
demonstration—anything that I thought
members might enjoy. Then, for the
meetings without programming … well,
ouch!
If you run out of ideas, look to the past.
How many of your club members know
how to MonoKote? Has it become a lost art
with the new people? Probably.
If you’re aware of something being
built, ask the builder to bring it in and show
some basic building techniques. It might be
news to some!
ARFs? Sure. Have a couple in various
stages of assembly brought to the meeting
and discuss some of the unique things we
need to do to make sure an airplane built by
someone else is truly airworthy. Sometimes
a simple “Show and Tell” session from
someone with a recently finished airplane
is a great presentation and will stimulate
good question-and-answer time. Meetings
are dreadful—unless they’re fun!
Look around at your membership and
chances are there’s someone willing to take
on the responsibility of meeting
programmer or whatever title you want to
assign … club educator? That’s a great
title. Maybe you have an educator who’s a
member?
Give it some thought. Most of the best
lessons I’ve learned in model aviation have
been from the people I fly with. The AMA
is fortunate to have publications, online
information, industry partners, and
countless other resources. Don’t forget
about the person in the folding chair next
to you.
To the many of you who have taken the
time to drop an email my way, thanks. I
always enjoy hearing from everyone and if
you ever need any assistance with
something I’ve written about or you’ve
wondered about, please don’t hesitate to
contact me. I will answer!
It would be a pleasure to assist an
individual or a club putting together a
MASC, TAG, CAP, or any type of outreach
or program. Heck, I’ll even make up some
programming for your upcoming winter
club meetings!
Finally this month, I would like to revisit
my column from the October 2011 edition
of Model Aviation. I named people who
stepped up to help make the 75th
Anniversary Celebration a special moment
here at the International Aeromodeling
Center. I’m sure I left off more than a few,
but I want to be sure and mention Shawn
Grubbs, our Director of Membership. He
organized all volunteers, who were critical
to our success.
Ilona Maine, Director of Safety and
Member Benefits, took on the
responsibility of the workshops and
presentations in the Claude McCullough
Education Facility in our museum. The
programs were well-attended and wellorganized.
And running our flightline—a busy
flightline—were Travis McGinnis and
Frank Granelli. Many modelers have
attended both contests and fun-flys with
various levels of attendance and know what
a challenge the flightline can be. Frank and
Travis were absolutely the best!
For all that everyone did and continues
to do, thanks!
Fly and have fun!