Executive Vice President Report - 2010/06
Mark Smith; [email protected]
Hi, folks! As I write this, March has been an extremely busy month. I flew to Phoenix, Arizona, to attend the Electric Flight Expo, and then drove to Torrey Pines, California, to meet with the RC club president and learn the great history of this AMA landmark. I finally wound up in Pomona, California, to attend the RCX show.
I will share my experiences over the next couple of articles so I don't miss any of the interesting activities of the trip. Before I begin, I must thank AMA employees Erin Dobbs, Rich Hanson, and Wes DeCou for their help in making arrangements and contacts for my trip. Without their collective assistance, my trip would not have been nearly as productive.
West to Phoenix
My bride of 40 years retired in mid-February and was able to tag along with me. We spent a few days on vacation sight-seeing, but our main focus for the next 13 days was the EFX and the RCX show.
It was agreed that if we went to the Botanical Gardens in the morning, we could visit the Commemorative Air Force Museum (CAF Museum) in the afternoon. (I'm assuming you don't want me to share my cactus pictures here!)
Commemorative Air Force Museum
Upon entering the museum, I was greeted by an AMA member who also volunteers for the CAF Museum. We were given first-class treatment by the volunteers and even got to crawl through a B-17! This was very interesting to me because my father was a tail gunner on a B-17 that was shot down over Germany in World War II. He spent 19 months as a prisoner of war.
There were numerous WWII airplanes on display, and I was told all were in working order. Please don't miss the opportunity to visit the museum if you are in the area.
Next month I will share more of my travels out west.
AVP Initiative
Before I close, I wanted to let you know about the great work one of our staff members, Chris Brooks, is doing with our volunteer associate vice presidents (AVPs).
Chris has organized a representative group of AVPs to address ways in which these volunteers can more closely connect AMA with our membership. One of the outcomes of his work will be to develop communication tools specifically for AVPs. Chris is starting this by issuing challenging questions to the AVPs via e-mail and then categorizing individual responses for the AMA Executive Council. He and they are focusing on the following objectives:
- Energize the relationship between vice presidents (VPs) and their AVPs.
- Help AVPs identify and understand key operational and marketing concerns.
- Make AVPs feel heard; give them a voice.
- Work toward developing a baseline of duties to evolve a more common job description across the board as each VP sees fit.
- Develop an ongoing communication vehicle and/or forum for all 200-plus AVPs to participate in.
- Identify key training opportunities and issues.
- Cultivate grassroots volunteers for the pipeline of national leadership.
- Open channels of communication between national leadership, staff, and the field.
I fully support Chris in this worthy endeavor. I strongly believe our AVPs are key to ensuring effective communications with our membership. If you see Chris at one of the events or when visiting AMA Headquarters in Muncie, Indiana, please take time to shake his hand and provide a word of encouragement.
Keep in touch, have fun, and don't forget to slather up with sunscreen!
Executive Vice President Mark Smith; [email protected]
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.
