Executive VP’s Report - 2003/03

IT IS THE early part of December and the
elections are over. I appreciate the vote of
all of you who supported me. If you
supported either of the other two candidates,
I would appreciate your now working with
me to make AMA an even greater
organization. It is the best model aviation
association in the world now, but nearly
everything can be improved.
Instead of giving you a financial statement
this month, I am going to answer some
questions that were asked of me during the
campaign. I appreciate the opportunity to
answer those questions and encourage you
to continue asking about anything that
concerns you.
The answers may be interesting to you
and you may help us by providing points of
discussion we have not considered. We will
certainly change our position if we find
there is a better way.
One question was “How much money do
the members of the Executive Council make
as salary for serving in that position?”
The: answer is “none.” We are voluntary
workers and not employees of AMA. Even
if you do not always agree, it is our
responsibility to represent you and try to
arrive at decisions that are best for AMA as
a whole.
I am sometimes asked why it seems
some men stay on the council a long time.
Some men have served for many years on
the Council. It is difficult to get people to
run for Vice President. Often an incumbent
will run again because there is no one else to
take the job even though he would rather
turn the position over to someone else.
There is, however, a substantial rotation
in the Council. I have been on the Council
for seven years. During that time, there have
been five new members other than myself.
New members bring in new ideas and we are
all constantly looking for support and input
from you, the membership.
We often hear the comment that we do
not communicate with our membership. This
is something we constantly work at, and we
encourage you to write, E-mail, or telephone
any Council member, the Executive
Director, or the president with any question
you have about AMA.
We also write articles in Model Aviation
magazine. The president has a column in the
front, the Executive Director in the back,
and Council members are in one section
called “AMA News.” If you read that
carefully, you will have a much better
understanding of what goes on in the
operations of AMA.
The magazine is like a club newsletter
and it is meant to inform you about what is
happening in AMA. It cannot be informative
if it is not read. I do not mean to be sarcastic
but reading is a very important part of our
communication plan.
Often, people who have not verified
information they hear criticize the AMA
Executive Council and staff. I recently
received a telephone call regarding such an
issue. After explaining the situation to him,
his comment was “That’s all I wanted to
know. Thank you very much.”
He went on to discuss other matters with
me but he did not discuss that issue any
more.
Once you get the right answer there is no
need to continue beating the old information
to death. One of the situations that is so true
in life is that everyone has a right to his
opinion, but no one has a right to be wrong
in his facts.
Another situation that exists is that
people read something in the minutes,
disagree with it, and immediately get on the
Internet and start their own personal
soapbox. It would be considerably better for
everyone if that person would call someone
on the Executive Council whom he trusts
and let that person explain why such action
was taken.
In the event the person continues to
disagree, he has a right to say so anywhere
he wants as long as he does not say anything
negative about another person. When
discussing the issue, it would be better if the
person would include the logic of the
council along with their rebuttal as to why
they do not agree.
I realize that is idealistic, but it would be
much better if the situation was discussed in
private before it becomes a public
“whipping boy.”
That’s all for now. As usual A-B-C,
Always Be Courteous. Until later ..