Executive Vice President
Contact
Mark Smith [email protected]
Hi, folks! This month I want to share something I feel is vital to a club’s health and prosperity: your brand.
To illustrate how important this is in the business world, a guest speaker at one of my MBA classes presented the following about Microsoft. Microsoft’s book value is approximately $31 billion (before the recent drop in the market). That’s the stuff the company owns—its tangible items.
The things Microsoft is known for and the compelling reasons people seek its products make up the company’s market value, also known as its brand, and that’s valued at a whopping $239 billion!
Some of you may think this is a business term that has nothing to do with our local hobby, but nothing could be farther from the truth. Each club has a book value—we own mowers and shelter houses—however, our market value is what those around us feel about our personal brand.
Why would anyone be compelled to seek a person out? Our market value needs to be stronger than our book value. This is what a brand can do. IBM is not known for its machines but for its solutions.
Our AMA logo is a visual representation of our brand. Please be mindful that every action and deed we do is a direct reflection upon our AMA brand.
How the AMA brand relates to us
Here are just a few examples:
- Taking care of our flying fields
- Club participation in community events
- Making charitable contributions sponsored by your club
- Training students
- Educating youth about model aviation
Another example of being mindful of our AMA brand is these three members of the Kansas Barnstormers: Ed Reynolds, Pat McGhee, and Darrell Watts. Their field is located near Hillsdale Lake, south of Kansas City, Kansas.
These are great guys who love the hobby. One of the club’s spark plugs is longtime friend Darrell Watts. He was the contest director of the Midwest Regional Float Fly in the Detroit area for several years before relocating to Kansas City. Darrell was also an integral member of the Chrysler Camp Jeep team, where he exposed thousands of spectators to our hobby. Now Darrell is in the KC area assisting Pat McGhee, who is building a great event named the Heart of America Float Fly.
These three gentlemen are painstakingly building a beautiful model to raise money for their club and to show off our great AMA brand. The model is a Spectra II, which was featured as a construction article in the June 2008 issue of Model Aviation.
The event is June 6–7 and will surely be a hit. Super job, guys, and thanks for your hard work!
Until next month, have fun and stay in touch!
Mark Smith Executive Vice President 14632 W. 50th St. Shawnee, KS 66216 Tel.: (913) 568-4347
Transcribed from original scans by AI. Minor OCR errors may remain.
