President’s Perspective
See ya at the flying field!
This is my last column and I’ll miss writing them. Not really! It is difficult to come up with something to base a column on each month.
Among the gems of wisdom I remember is from the late Jeremiah Courtney, AMA’s general counsel many years ago. He said that conventional wisdom has it that to show someone how short a month is, commit him to making a large monthly payment on something. Jeremiah also said that conventional wisdom was wrong, and that if one is to really show someone how short a month is, commit him to writing a monthly column.
I can tell you how true that statement is. Jerry was but one of hundreds of people who were a part of the AMA during my time on the Executive Council (EC). There are many who deserve mention in my last column as people without whom AMA would not be what it is today.
People who shaped AMA
- Jeremiah "Jerry" Courtney — AMA’s general counsel; shared the memorable insight about monthly columns.
- John Worth — took over as executive director during a difficult period and pulled AMA through those times.
- Johnny Clemens — epitomized AMA with his upbeat attitude and jovial style; served the organization extremely well.
- Don Lowe — my predecessor as District III vice president and later AMA president; a cool-headed mentor during years of growth.
- Bob Underwood — consistently stepped in to serve modelers in any capacity asked, well beyond the call of duty.
- Joyce Hager — served as our executive director during most of my time as president and was a godsend to the organization.
- Sally (my wife) — supported me, literally and figuratively, throughout the 28 years I spent on the council; without her support it would not have been possible.
There are many others—some close friends and some with whom I never did become friends—who have had a huge impact on the organization. Frankly, I learned much more from those with whom I disagreed than from those with whom I agreed. There were few with whom I dealt who didn’t fall into both categories at one time or another.
During the last 28 years I have seen an enormous number of EC members come and go. To a man or woman, they have all had an impact on the direction your organization has taken. AMA is a democratic organization: you vote for your representatives on the council and those representatives dictate the policies that AMA will follow.
If you do not like the direction the Academy is going, then you can elect someone else or even run yourself. That is how I got started in AMA’s leadership; I didn’t like what was going on and decided to do something about it. The only way I could have my say was to run for office, so I threw my name into the hat.
Now, 28 years later, I am leaving the EC after having held all of the elected offices: district vice president, executive vice president, and president. I leave much wiser than when I arrived. I’m leaving with a slightly different perspective and only history will tell whether I leave the organization stronger than it was when I arrived.
What am I going to do once I am no longer on the AMA EC? I expect to remain involved with some AMA committees and hope to remain involved with the FAI representation. But mainly I hope to get back to doing some flying. That’s a novel idea! It has been nearly impossible because of time constraints during a large part of my time as an AMA officer.
I have flown more in the last 10 months than I did during the previous 10 years, and I intend to fly even more once I no longer have as many AMA responsibilities.
In short, I’m not going anywhere. I will still be involved in the sport I have loved for almost all of my life.
Whoever is elected as the next AMA president I will support completely. As an AMA member, it’s my organization and that president can accomplish much more with my support than if I try to undermine his efforts.
See ya at the flying field!
Dave Brown AMA President [email protected]
Transcribed from original scans by AI. Minor OCR errors may remain.
