View from HQ
Joyce Hager, Executive Director
Leader Members, send me your e-mail address! This really applies to all AMA members. As we become more electronically savvy, I can see that instances will arise quickly where we would like to have additional input from the membership. What better way to get the message out when it is an emergency than e-mail?
I am going to rehash some old business. When preparing the October 2002 budget, it was recommended to do away with any earned memberships that were awarded to members for meeting certain criteria, including officers of the association, contest directors who submitted the required paperwork and held a sanctioned event, and other individuals who met certain conditions.
This was only one area we looked at to reduce expenses. At the Executive Council meeting, the budget was presented and passed, and a motion was made to reduce the amount of the earned membership and give a 50% credit to those meeting the criteria to receive an earned membership.
After many inquiries, the Executive Council decided that most of the individuals who would be affected by this motion had already fulfilled their obligation in 2002 with the assumption that they would receive an earned membership for 2003. It voted to delay the implementation until the 2004 membership year.
In an effort to get additional opinions on this subject, prior to the July Executive Council meeting I had the opportunity to send a "push e-mail" out to the roughly 1,700 Leader Members of the Academy who have e-mail addresses on file.
I received responses from more than 700 individuals. The first day the responses were overwhelming, but I did take the time to read each one. At least 40 of these responses asked additional questions, and I was able to provide them with the requested information.
This is a wonderful way to obtain feedback quickly, and I appreciate those who responded. I even got the feeling that the recipients appreciated the push e-mail and that they were asked to participate in the questionnaire.
The responses were overwhelmingly in favor of the action of the Council; most felt that they had taken on the role of contest director to support the hobby/sport and didn't mind donating the time to this effort. Others suggested that we consider another type of recognition.
Some who responded made recommendations about how to address the issue, and still others indicated that they had not taken the earned membership in the past. These Leader Members either did not return the required paperwork or donated their membership fees back to AMA.
Those who opposed the issue felt that it was a slap in the face and a small price to pay for the amount of work involved in running an event. The motion that was passed at the October 2002 meeting in no way meant that we do not appreciate our volunteers; we knew that a large increase was expected in the insurance premium and were looking at ways to reduce expenses.
Here is another interesting piece of the pie. I had one of the employees review the Contest Director Reports for 2002 and she developed the following pie charts. I find them interesting.
If you haven't provided AMA with your e-mail address, please do so. You never know when another push e-mail will be needed!
Happy flying,
Joyce Hager Executive Director [email protected]
Transcribed from original scans by AI. Minor OCR errors may remain.
