ur League of Cities (LOC) outreach
program will be complete for the
year by the time this issue of MA
reaches you. LOC is an organization
composed of officials from municipalities and
counties within the state. Most, if not all, states
have their own LOC.
The objective of this program, which
began in 2008, is to reach out to administrators
in local communities and promote the idea
that public and municipal lands are
appropriate venues for model aircraft flying
sites. This was the message we took to each of
the conventions we attended this year.
In 2008 we participated in three state
conventions. This year we doubled that effort.
Our booths were staffed by a combination of
the AMA district vice presidents, associate
vice presidents, and member volunteers.
At each event, we received a number of
positive responses from those attending the
conventions. Many visitors to our booth
indicated that they had open lands that they
felt would be appropriate for a model aircraft
flying site.
In each case, we followed that contact with
additional information and alerted clubs in the
area of the opportunity to meet with local
officials to discuss the possibility of creating a
new flying site in their communities. Our
intent is to further expand the program in
2010.
The AMA Expo, held each January in
Ontario, California, is right around the corner.
The dates for the 2010 event are January 8-10.
This year, the show will feature a number
of planned speakers including Robert “Hoot”
Gibson, space shuttle commander and a
member of the Astronauts Hall of Fame, and
United Sates Navy Captain Tom Huff,
commander of the Naval Test Wing. Both of
President’s Perspective
AMA President Dave Mathewson
O
Member participation in the new AMA
online forum is slowly building.
November 2009 5
Mission Statement
The Academy of Model Aeronautics is a world-class association of modelers organized for the purpose of
promotion, development, education, advancement, and safeguarding of modeling activities.
The Academy provides leadership, organization, competition, communication, protection, representation,
recognition, education and scientific/technical development to modelers.
these men credit aeromodeling for sparking
their interests in aviation, leading to
successful careers in aviation and aerospace.
More information about the Expo can be
found on the AMA Web site at www.mo
delaircraft.org/amaexpo.aspx.
Member participation in the new AMA
online forum is slowly building. The forum is
intended to be an online resource to discuss
AMA issues. Although membership is
required to post in the forum, the ability to
read posts is open to everyone. You can get
to the forum from the AMA Web site.
AMA is now participating in a number of
social networking sites that provide
additional methods of communicating with
both members and non members. A toolbar
link at the bottom of the home page on our
main Web site will take you to each of these
sites.
We are in the middle of AMA elections for
2010. Elections this year are to select vice
presidents in districts II, IV, VI, VIII, and X
for a three-year term beginning in January
2010. There is still time to cast your vote if
you haven’t yet done so.
If the current vice president for your
district is running uncontested, it’s still
important that you vote, because the person
currently in office will use the election results
to help gauge his performance. Candidate
statements will be included with the ballot
and were in the last issue of this magazine.
At this time there is nothing new to report
regarding the ongoing Federal Aviation
Administration (FAA) rulemaking effort,
directed toward small unmanned aircraft
systems (sUAS).
As I wrote last month, the effort to present
a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM)
has been pushed back by at least one quarter
and we don’t expect to see anything probably
for another year or so. Meanwhile, AMA
continues to build our standard guidelines
that we will present as part of the process.
The first draft of this document is
expected to be presented to the AMA
Executive Council at our quarterly
meeting held at the end of October. As the
document nears completion, it will be vetted
through AMA’s Special Interest Groups as
well as other segments of the modeling
community.
There is a special section on the AMA
Forum focusing on this effort, and we
have also created a Twitter site where you
can receive updates on the progress of the
Safety Guidelines Workgroup and the
rulemaking process.
As the process moves further along,
there will be an opt-in survey element that
can be engaged to examine new ideas and
concepts as they are brought to the table.
We think this will be particularly useful
once the safety guideline document is
submitted to the FAA and we begin
conferring on specific aspects of AMA’s
safety program.
AMA’s first membership drive is now in
the books. During the next several months
we’ll be reviewing the program and
analyzing its success. At this time, I
expect we’ll hold another drive in 2010.
Congratulations to those who won
rewards this year and thank you to
everyone who took part in the drive and
made it as successful as it was.
Finally, AMA will be participating in the
AOPA’s (Aircraft Owners and Pilots
Association’s) annual convention,
renamed the Aviation Summit, this
November. It will be a great opportunity
for our two organizations to get together
to share ideas and build relationships and
programs that will be beneficial to both of
us.
I plan a report on this event in a future
column after the summit has taken place.
See you next time …
Dave Mathewson
AMA president
[email protected]
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Edition: Model Aviation - 2009/11
Page Numbers: 5