Executive Director View from HQ
AS WE ENTER the new year, I would like to review some of the Academy's services, programs, and accomplishments of 1997, and most of these will be repeated in 1998: ( Education: 1) Hired a full-time Education Coordinator 2) Continued our relationship with the Indiana Academy (Ball State University) distance learning program with electronic field trips about aeromodeling 3) Continued gathering all educational programs that exist and making the information available to anyone interested
Executive Director View from HQ
This is the first issue of the new membership year. I would like to extend a warm thank you to all members of the Academy of Model Aeronautics for their loyalty to and support of the association. Your AMA staff is here to serve you, and I look forward to a successful 1998 year for the organization and each and every one of you. This is also the beginning of the 1998 trade show season; I hope to see many of you at one of these affairs. Attention Chartered Club Officers: We are planning to have the 1998 Chartered Club renewals in the mail the week of January 12. These kits will be mailed to the club contact, so please ensure that our records are up to date. Club fees have remained the same: $20 for the basic fee; $20 for each additional insurance request; and $30 for a special wording insurance certificate. In order to avoid delays in processing your renewal, please be sure to submit all of the required paperwork with proper fees and signature.
Executive Director View from HQ
Busy, busy, busy. If we are not in the middle of contest season, we're in the middle of getting prepared for the next one. At the end of the very busy flying season at Muncie, all executive staff was involved in preparing their parts of the budget for next year, many are involved in preparing renewal notices, there is the normal daily workload, plus working the bugs out of the new computer system. It never seems to slow down. One interesting fact is that the 1997 membership year ended with a total of 149,700 members. If all of the positions at Headquarters are filled, there are about 50 employees, which means that we have one employee per every 3,000 members. (But that number is really an underestimate since not all of the employees answer the phone or correspond with members on a daily basis.)
Executive Director View from HQ: "This was a good group to host."
By now, some of you may have had a chance to read in the last issue of Model Aviation about problems that occurred with the mailing of the 1998 renewal notice. I want to assure all members that AMA HQ does care about the products we produce, and our goal is to provide the best product and service available. In the past, procedures have been developed to help avoid certain issues; this procedure involves many people reviewing the forms for misinformation, spelling errors, etc. Unfortunately, what happened with the notice was not within our control. As stated earlier, there was a mix-up concerning payment of the auditor's P.O. Box reserved for this mailing. It was corrected on September 26, and a new ballot will be mailed to the open members in district II and VI with a postage paid return postcard. Your vote is important to us.
Executive Director View from HQ: "It sure is nice to get positive comments. . ."
THE FUN FILLED month of July is over, it was called the "Nationals" and actually the official flying ended on August 3rd. I am not going to go into a lot of details since there will be an issue devoted to the Nats, but wanted to say "Thank You" to all the volunteers, especially Ron Morgan, who was here for the entire time. Without volunteers this event would never take place. I would like to bring to everyone's attention one particular volunteer, that is Earl Witt. Earl has held just about every volunteer office there is, he is a life member, past president, has held just about every award and has worked 50 Nationals. I am sure most of you have met Earl at some time or some place during his tenure. Next time you see him, go up and thank him for his dedication to this hobby. There are not many people left that have devoted so much volunteer time to the Academy. Again, the Academy sends a big THANKS to our volunteers.
