Focus on Competition
Technically Speaking ...
Greg Hahn Technical Director [email protected]
Times Are Changing:
As we move into spring and summer, there are a couple of new things at hand we’re all going to be really happy with once they’re implemented. Both have to do with converting what used to be handwritten, snail‑mailed forms to completely online forms that require much less time and effort, save money, and lessen the chance for mistakes.
At the time of this writing, we have just gone live with the new event calendar. It’s completely searchable, with several new search fields and a printable PDF for each listing. It will be much easier to find your specific interest or category and narrow the field, so fiddling through all the listings will no longer be required.
For those who are still attached to the old calendar, it will be left up on the web for a short while until everyone gets comfortable with the new format. But it will eventually go away, making room for more new content. The listings will also eventually be leaving Model Aviation (mid‑summer), but the supplemental ads will remain in the printed version and will also be available as an attachment to the online listing.
The new online calendar was an important first step in the complete change in the sanctioning system that is getting close to completion. This change will revolutionize the entire AMA Competitions Department and how it works with the contest coordinators and contest directors in getting events sanctioned, listed, insured, and reported. I made a presentation to the full Executive Council meeting in January, showing the storyboard and the steps required to complete a sanction. All seemed very receptive to the changes and especially the savings in postal costs. A sanction as completed now requires five full mailings to pass through the system. The new system will cut that down to one mailing or less. We complete between 2,500 and 3,000 sanctions per year, times five mailings; that’s a very significant savings.
Other benefits include:
- Fewer mailings and reduced postal costs.
- Less handling and a lower chance for error or loss.
- Faster processing and reporting for contest coordinators and directors.
- Online support via a Q&A e‑mail address to help with navigation or other questions; it will be listed with the official announcements and available online with the new sections.
By the time you are reading this, both systems should be up and running, God willing and the creeks don’t rise! Considering the snow we’ve had up here in the tundra this winter, seeing the creeks rise wouldn’t be a bad thing.
Just keeping you up on what’s new at the AMA.
MA
Transcribed from original scans by AI. Minor OCR errors may remain.
