View from HQ
Joyce Hager Executive Director
That must mean we are doing something right for the modelers.
WITH the passing of Walt Good, the 11th president of AMA, I want to pay tribute to him. He was a unique and kind individual, always giving to others.
Don Ogren ran across an article published by Walt in the May 1960 Model Aviation. Read it carefully and see how little the Academy has changed.
"Who is the AMA? "How would you answer the question—Who is the AMA? Let's look at some of the answers you might give. One proud modeler would say it's the largest self-supporting aeromodeling organization in the world. Also, it's a division of the nonprofit National Aeronautics Association, and as such, enjoys the FAI modeling franchise for the United States. "Another modeler would say that's a fact, but who means people and the right answer is the membership of 22,000 who compete in contests or sport fly. Incidentally, that 22,000 is split almost exactly half and half between those younger than 21 years old and those older than 21. Okay, so all of these fellows fly models and have fun at contests. Who does the work? "Actually, there are many workers in the AMA, but by and large the core comes from the Leader Members who, surprisingly enough, are only 800 in number. Here is where those hardy souls known as Contest Directors reside. One of my most pleasant surprises in touring the events at the Nationals was to find that most of the Event Directors really liked that job. There's a gang that surely belongs to the who's who list. "Perhaps the organizationally minded modeler would speak up and say, 'Let's not forget those AMA officers we elected to keep things running smoothly.' "The two national officers are the President and Secretary-Treasurer. They're supported by the 11 District Vice Presidents, and as a group form the Executive Council that creates the policies of the AMA. "And then there's the ever-present rule-making body, the 33-member Contest Board. It is now divided into three 11-man sections to handle RC, CL, and FF rules. They carry out their duties in their 'spare' time and are not paid one red cent. We certainly can't leave them off the who list. "So still another modeler says, 'I thought that AMA headquarters ran the AMA. They're the ones who get paid.' "It's true, the headquarters does many things such as issue membership and meet sanctions, organize the Nats, promote overseas transportation and so on, but they are responsible to the Executive Council and carry out the Council's directions. Just how big is the Headquarters staff? "It has a total of seven: two professionals and five secretaries. One of the professionals is Russ Nicholls, the Executive Director, and the other is Cliff Allum, Technical Director, who edits the AMA monthly publication, Model Aviation. Needless to say, this is a very small staff considering the tremendous job they do. "Then there are many appointed positions. For example, the Contest Coordinators who are appointed by the Vice Presidents and monitor the more than 500 contest sanctions each year and try to keep the contest dates and sites from conflicting. "Another group appointed by the Vice Presidents is the Nominating Committee. This is the group that somehow finds all of those willing candidates. I'm sure they would welcome your suggestions, too. "The International Competition Committees in FF, CL and RC are appointed by the president. They have the tough job of selecting the teams to represent the USA at the World Championships in Europe. "You may never have heard of the Nationals Committee. Currently this is a group of four experienced topnotch leaders who generate the detailed operational procedures for running the biggest of all model meets, the Nationals. "Of course, the AMA is not completely self-sufficient because it has many helpful friends in the model industry, volunteers, the government, the military and the aviation industry in general. "However, when you look back over the whole picture, the easiest way to summarize the answer to our question is to say, 'the most important who is you!'" So next time you're tapped on the shoulder by the local CD for a little help at the next contest, just say to yourself, "maybe it's about time I balanced out some of that fun with a wee bit of work!"
AMA is not so different in 2002. The numbers are larger and the ratio of those who are younger than 21 is much smaller, but the basics are the same. That must mean we are doing something right for the modelers.
In my last column I recognized the chartered clubs we have recorded with 200 or more members. This month I want to note those chartered clubs with between 160 and 200 members.
Happy flying,
Joyce Hager Executive Director [email protected]
Transcribed from original scans by AI. Minor OCR errors may remain.
