District VIII Report - 2012/05
In Memoriam
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. 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
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 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 usable 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, run the auction, sign people in at the door, and clean 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, intended to provide the treasury with ample funds so that dues increases are unnecessary. Success was achieved 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 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.
Scale Flying
Concerning volunteers, Lawrence Harville runs several events in the Fort Worth area and is my District VIII Scale Board representative. He sent a 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 Stanfield — Maumelle, AR — (501) 851-1697
- Cliff Town — Dumas, TX — (806) 935-3063 — [email protected]
- Pat Willcox — Kingwood, TX — (281) 358-1750
Coordinators
- Frequency Coordinator: Gene Kent — Tomball, TX — (281) 255-4805
- Safety Coordinator: Randy Brown — Kemah, TX — (713) 515-5552 — [email protected]
- 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]
Transcribed from original scans by AI. Minor OCR errors may remain.
