District VIII Report - 2012/05

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144 Model Aviation MAY 2012 www.ModelAviation.com
Unfortunately District VIII and AMA
lost a lifelong modeler, advocate for
AMA, and friend to anyone who
flew models. Randy Hammond from
Angleton, Texas, near Houston, will be
missed by clubs and members across
the district. He attended many events
and put on terrific airshows every year.
Randy and his Monster Pitts at the District VIII
celebration of AMA’s 75th Anniversary.
Most of us wish we had his flying
skills and personality. Our condolences
to his family and friends. He is truly
missed and we were blessed to have
had him in the district.
Volunteers! We can’t survive without
them, yet they seem to take a beating
for giving their time and talent to us.
It is impossible for me to estimate the
number of hours spent by volunteers
throughout AMA, from helping local
clubs at events all the way up to your
AMA Executive Council spending
countless hours in staff meetings,
committee meetings, board meetings,
attending events, and writing
documents or articles to ensure that
modeling is safe and fun for everyone.
My local club just had a swap meet
and I can’t even calculate the hours
spent by the kitchen crew preparing
three meals required shopping,
chopping, cleaning, pricing, selling,
reshopping, recleaning, and finally
reporting the results in a useable
format to the club.
Event directors were advertising,
planning table layouts, obtaining
door prizes, preselling tables for two
months, setting up the facility, and
coordinating volunteers to sell raffle
tickets, running the auction, signing
people in at the door, and cleaning up
the building at the end.
The club president made at least
three trips at his own expense to the
club field to pick up needed items
for the swap meet. That sounds
insignificant except it is roughly 100
miles round trip each time, and that’s
significant with diesel for his truck at
more than $3.50 per gallon.
At the swap meet there was
confusion about table assignments and
the ruckus that was raised was quite a
mess. Some were accommodating and
others were out of line.
This is the club’s annual fundraiser,
which is intended to provide the
treasury with ample funds so that dues
increases are unnecessary. Success
was made as more than $2,000 was
deposited, but that was done on the
backs of volunteers.
So if you are a volunteer in your
local area—thanks! If not, try getting
off of the train and help pull it to the
next stop and see how gratifying it can
be.
And if you are one who likes to
complain, take a step back and see
how much good these folks do for you
and the organization before taking
cheap shots.
Concerning volunteers, Lawrence
Harville runs several events in the
Fort Worth area and is my District
VIII Scale Board representative.
He sent this picture of himself and
Darrell Abby, both from the Greater
Southwest Aeromodelers (GSW) club
in Hurst, Texas, with their P-40s.
The GSW club has an active group
of Scale fliers and hosts the Texas
Scale Championships scheduled June
9-10, 2012, at the club’s field.
Associate Vice Presidents: Jack Hogan, Chandler TX; (903) 849-4193; Bill Holland, Edmond OK; (405) 562-1327; Mark S. Johnston, Albuquerque NM; (505) 823-0158; Jim
D. Marshall, Alton TX; (956) 984-9474; Jon Martin, Rayne LA; (337) 783-2759; Jack Matlock, Live Oak TX; (210) 413-4846; Randy Ritch, Magnolia TX; (281) 701-3121; Doug
Staines, Belton TX; (254) 780-3512; Ron Stanfi eld, Maumelle AR; (501) 851-1697; Cliff Town, Dumas TX; (806) 935-3063; [email protected]; Pat Willcox, Kingwood
TX; (281) 358-1750. Frequency Coordinator: Gene Kent, Tomball TX; (281) 255-4805. Safety Coordinator: Randy Brown, Kemah TX; (713) 515-5552; randybbrown@earthlink.
net. RC Contest Coordinator: Douglas E. Powell, Wichita Falls TX; (940) 691-8348; [email protected]. CL/FF Contest Coordinator: Bill Lee, Chandler TX; (903) 852-5599;
[email protected]. AMA Display Coordinator: David Johns, Deer Park TX; (281) 476-4820.
Jim Rice
Vice President
District VIII—Arkansas, Louisiana, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Texas
[email protected]
4810 El Gusto, San Antonio TX 78233
Tel.: (210) 213-0299; www.amadistrict-viii.org