Flying Site Assistance- 2010/08

August 2010 157
HELLO, EVERYONE! I am Tony
Stillman and I’m AMA’s new Flying Site
Assistance Coordinator (FSAC). You may
recognize me as the former AMA District
V vice president (VP). I have served in
that role since 2004.
When I started in this new position with
the AMA on June 1, 2010, I had to resign
from the VP position. My background of
service with AMA’s Executive Council
(EC) gives me an advantage in that I
clearly understand what the EC is looking
for in an FSAC. AMA bylaws do not allow
a paid employee of AMA to serve as a
member of the EC.
Because I am a contract employee with
AMA, I am able to continue to live in
Brunswick, Georgia, and work out of my
home office. My wife, Genie, will be vital
to my success because she has many years
of experience in office management. She
will help me to stay organized!
I want to thank former FSACs Joe
Beshar and Wes De Cou for their many
years of service to the AMA and its
members.
I will be building on their work to move
the program forward.
My predecessors did a great job of
working with several agencies to make
them aware of the AMA and our need for
land for model flying sites. One of the
best-known success stories came from Joe
Beshar who worked with the
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).
Joe negotiated a Memorandum of
Understanding (MOU) with the agency
that basically stated that the EPA would
contact AMA HQ when a Superfund site
was nearing completion. The AMA would
then work with local modelers and clubs to
try to retain this site as a model flying
field.
This program has resulted in several
flying sites that otherwise would not have
been created.
AMA’s EC wants the FSAC position to
be more proactive. In a number of surveys
of the membership, it was revealed that
flying sites was the number one issue for
most modelers! Armed with that
information, the EC has redefined the
position of the FSAC to better meet the
needs of our members.
I will work with AMA chartered clubs
to help them understand how to safeguard
their flying sites and secure them. I will
also be working to help our members
understand the need to look for another
site—even while enjoying a current site.
Obviously, we will continue to help
clubs that have lost sites by providing help
to locate and secure new ones.
I spent the first two days of June at HQ, to
meet with AMA staff members and define
our direction and goals. I am in the process
of updating more than 100 documents that
are quite old—many are from the 1960s!
Much of the information in the documents
is still valid, but in need of a massive facelift.
In addition to these documents, there
are several videos and our booklet,
Finding and Keeping Flying Sites. The
DVDs are quite dated, and although the
book is still pretty good, it does need
updating.
My priority right now is to continue to
assist clubs and members with flying site
issues while working to rewrite and update
the many documents.
Most of these documents are not in an
electronic format, so they will have to be
converted and edited. This process will
take some time, but I feel it will be vital to
serving the clubs with quality data and
information that they can use.
Part of this updating process will be
included in the massive Web site redesign
that is currently in the works. Our plans
are to have all the documents and videos
available online by later this year so you
can access them. They will still be
available in printed format as well.
Erin Dobbs at AMA HQ will be happy
to supply these for you upon request. Her
contact information is erind@model
aircraft.org; (800) 435-9262, extension
272.
I have much work to do to bring the
program to where the EC wants it and will
be busy!
If you have questions about the Flying
Site Assistance program or need some
help, give me a call or send me an e-mail. I
will be happy to assist you any way that I
can.
AMA News
Announcements, news, and information from the
Academy of Model Aeronautics and the elected district representatives.
Flying Site Assistance Tony Stillman | [email protected]
Tony Stillman
Flying Site
Assistance
Coordinator
102 Cherrywood Ct.
Brunswick GA 31525
(912) 242-2407
[email protected]
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