President's Perspective
Dave Brown, AMA president
FIVE HUNDRED thirty-four? What is the significance of that number? Read on!
It has been a good month for AMA, and I have been basking in pride in the association as a number of things have come together.
Early in June I was privileged to watch as Wes DeCou, Flying Site Assistance Coordinator (Western Region), presented our case for the use of wildlife, conservation, and parks land for model airplanes to the Congressional Resource Committee.
Although the focus of our presentation was the loss of access to the site at Galeville, NY, the presentation should have a positive overall effect.
Being realistic, our case is small potatoes in the overall sense of recreational access, and that could be an advantage or a disadvantage. On one hand our case is so strong that it should require minimal thought, but the overall subject of recreational access is so complex that it would be quite easy for our request for access to be lost in the shuffle.
It's not an easy subject to deal with, as even the conservationists don't seem to agree about what level of protection is necessary.
To give you an idea of how far some would go, the use of bicycles—yes, the ones with pedals and not engines—are banned in some parks under the rule that prohibits "mechanized transportation."
I did learn a few things during the trip, and the visit will have an impact on our future.
It was obvious that the people testifying on behalf of other groups (personal watercraft, snowmobiles, etc.) were known by the members of the committee present, and that familiarity created an advantage for those people. They need it, though, as theirs is a much more controversial problem.
Every time I end up dealing with Washington, D.C., I become further convinced that we need to have someone there as a full-time lobbyist on our behalf. This would be a big project and would cost a lot, but it would be beneficial.
Expenses would include a place for that individual to work and secretarial/reception support. Our relationship with the National Aeronautic Association (NAA) may be a big asset in making this possible.
Next on the agenda was the Indoor Nationals in Johnson City, TN, where I was thrilled to see so many kids participating.
Several schools were invited to take part in the Science Olympiad's Wright Stuff event, and the young people's performances were incredible, with winning times exceeding five minutes.
I'll tell you this: there is little that will give you a better feeling about aeromodelling than seeing a group of kids enjoying themselves with model airplanes, and there is little that is more humbling than to realize they may be able to beat your best performance.
A side benefit of the Science Olympiad is that many of those kids are getting involved in the Fédération Aéronautique Internationale (FAI) F1D (Indoor Rubber) class. We have six kids in the FAI team-selection program for Indoor. I expect more news about this later, but this is really great to see.
The Gathering of Eagles/Homecoming/Grand Event was the next event on my schedule, and it began with the official ribbon-cutting for the new Headquarters building. Even I was surprised at the number of people who attended the ceremony.
During the afternoon we had arranged for tours of the building. We thought we had planned for those guests and visitors who wanted tours, but we were overwhelmed with people, and several groups had to suffer through my services as a tour guide!
After I conducted two groups through the building, I got a copy of the "official" tour outline and discovered that I hadn't missed too many items on the list.
We received many compliments on the building, and, more importantly, on the staff members who did a great job during this series of events.
It was great to see all of the "Champions" present for the Gathering of Eagles banquet, and the members seemed to fill up all of the flying time available.
The Grand Event saw a large number of kids build and fly model airplanes, rockets, and kites, as well as use Radio Control (RC) flight simulators and fly on buddy boxes. They also got to experience running RC cars and RC boats.
There were many compliments from the general public who attended. I can't even count the number of parents who thanked me for AMA's efforts.
The real kudos go to the volunteers and staff members who offered their time and skills to help make the event a success. Great job!
Me? I spent most of my time running from meeting to meeting. Such is life as the president of AMA.
Five hundred thirty-four?
That is the number of youth members we need to sign up to reach 20,000 in youth membership! As of the May 25, 2001 membership report, AMA had 19,466 youth members.
Although I don't have exact numbers from the early days of AMA to compare with this figure, logic would make me believe that this is the largest number of youth members in the history of AMA.
I'm basing that statement on the fact that AMA had only grown to approximately 30,000 members in the early 1960s, and certainly more than half of those members were adults.
Prior to 1960, AMA's membership would have been too small to have more than this number of youth members, and since that time the growth has been primarily in the adult-dominated RC categories.
The overall membership numbers show a 2.9% growth when compared to last year. If this growth continues at this rate, we'll have slightly more than 170,000 members at year's end—also a record.
It is great to see that membership record being set, but—call me sentimental—I think the 20,000 kids are more significant. That is our future.
'Til next month.
Dave Brown AMA president [email protected]
Transcribed from original scans by AI. Minor OCR errors may remain.
