I KNOW I’M not the lone ranger when it
comes to wishing for better (warmer)
weather. I keep hearing from everyone that
“spring is just around the corner”; I wish
the corner wasn’t so long!
As I write this, the temps outside are
below 0° and with the wind chill, the feellike
temps are absolutely brutal. I know it
will soon change and all will be well.
Speaking of changes, I thought I’d talk
about the recent changes to the rulesmaking
procedures for the competitions
regulations. Last spring the Contest Board
chairmen, Contest Board coordinator, and
I sat down for the first time in a long while
to not only meet and greet, but also to
begin looking for a way to make the rulesmaking
procedure faster and more
streamlined.
I realized early on that the time
involved and the steps needed to get a
rules change in place were causing things
to be dropped and/or forgotten. With
FAI/CIAM in the mix, we felt that the
two-year cycle was still really the only
option, but a change in the actual timing
within that two-year cycle would be
helpful. Also, a format change in the
submission procedure would help speed
things up.
To explain the changes, I’ll begin with
submissions format. It was mandated by
the Contest Boards that we no longer
accept rules changes in handwritten form.
They will only be accepted by electronic
mail. This will greatly speed up the system
by eliminating the need for a staff person
to transfer the form into an electronic
version and also eliminate many errors in
form and transmission.
We have made available a “Word”
document template of the standard rules
submission form on the “AMA
Documents” PDF page on the AMA Web
site. This page will need to be filled in
with your detailed rules change same as
before, except you now e-mail the form in
to myself or Sanctions Secretary Michelle
Lamb instead of mailing a hard copy of the
form. Hopefully this one change in
submission will make the procedure much
easier to operate and less time consuming.
The timing change will make the actual
voting-cross-final vote segment of the cycle
all take place inside of eight months. The
main reason for this timing change is to
keep the voting, cross proposals, and
interim voting moving along at a good pace.
In years past, the time between votes and
cross proposals was so drawn out that often
the ballots were lost or forgotten, which
drastically slowed the entire system.
The Contest Boards decided to make the
full first year of the cycle available for
submitting proposals. They will first be
initially approved and then published for the
general membership to read and consider. In
February of the second year, the voting
begins and will end up with publishing the
new rule book in November of that year.
If you are interested in submitting a rules
proposal, the form can be found at
www.modelaircraft.org/documents.aspx.
The document number is 333 (Word). You
will need to save a copy of the template and
add your proposal and the details, and then
attach it to an e-mail and send it to either
Michelle or me here at HQ, and it will be
put in the system.
For your convenience, Michelle’s e-mail
address is [email protected] and
mine is [email protected]. If you
have any problems or questions, please email
one of us.
See you at briefing.
Edition: Model Aviation - 2009/03
Page Numbers: 142
