President’s Perspective - 2005/02
Dave Brown, AMA President
Hey, it’s me again — I’m back. The AMA election is over and the membership has elected me to another term as AMA president.
My opponents in the election were strong supporters of AMA and conducted themselves appropriately during the campaign. However, the runner-up, Dave Mathewson, said he was sending lawyers to Florida and Ohio; I guess one wanted to go to Disney World and the other wanted to spend Thanksgiving in Ohio.
I was able to spend Thanksgiving with my family for the first time in several years because we convinced CIAM (the International Aeromodelling Commission of the FAI) to schedule its meeting during the week after Thanksgiving rather than conflict with this American holiday.
With the election and the recent hiring of Don Koranda as Executive Director, we will have four new faces sitting around the table at the next Executive Council (EC) meeting. This is healthy for the organization.
New vice presidents
- Andy Argenio — District I
- Tony Stillman — District V
- Mark Smith — District IX
Welcome aboard.
Thanks to outgoing vice presidents
- Don Krafft
- Judi Dunlap
- Russ Miller
We owe a debt to those outgoing VPs who have served the members well. The next time you see Don, Judi, or Russ, thank them for their hard work on your behalf.
RC Scale Aerobatics, or IMAC (International Miniature Aerobatic Club), events are growing by leaps and bounds. Scheduling for the Nats has been changed to accommodate a greater number of contestants.
In the past, entry in Scale Aerobatics was limited to 60 contestants — 15 in each of four classes — but that number had already been exceeded well before the end of 2004. Last year a number of people were left out by the limit, so contestants registered early for this year’s event. Increasing the entry limit was not possible because of conflicts with other events scheduled on the same days.
Cooperation between categories is one of the highlights of the Nats, and this situation was no different. The solution was to swap the dates between the Scale Aerobatics events and the RC Combat events, allowing Scale Aerobatics to use more flightlines. This permits an increase in the number of contestants in each class of Scale Aerobatics. It’s great to see how well the different event planners cooperated to make the Nats work. Thank you to all who worked out this solution.
New dates:
- Scale Aerobatics: July 5–8, 2005
- RC Combat: July 13–16, 2005
If you plan to fly in either of these events, please note the date change from the original schedule.
I seem to be getting more e-mails from people who are encountering restrictions on what types of models are allowed at their club flying sites. Often this involves clubs that exclude helicopters from flying at their field, but occasionally gliders are restricted as well.
I encourage clubs to try to provide for all of their members’ interests in aeromodelling by exploring ways in which the incompatibilities between disciplines can be overcome. Sometimes a slight adjustment in the field layout can accommodate the “minority” categories. Scheduling specific days on which those activities are allowed can be another potential solution. Working together to effect a solution is the best remedy, but for a variety of reasons this is sometimes impossible.
It’s interesting that if the number of club members involved in the “different” activity is just one or two, it seldom creates a problem; nor is it a problem if half the club flies that type of model. The problem seems to lie between those two extremes.
Restricting a flying site to certain types of models is a common requirement in order to allow use of that site. Many sites are restricted to sailplanes, electric models, or control-line models, and some to helicopters. This is a matter of practicality and is often a necessity.
In any case, it is not a matter of discrimination. AMA does not support any form of discrimination, particularly those involving federally protected categories of people. Restricting a site to certain types of models is common, and it is not a violation of the nondiscrimination requirements for an AMA charter.
’Til next month...
Dave Brown AMA President [email protected]
Transcribed from original scans by AI. Minor OCR errors may remain.
