Model Aviation Online - View from HQ (November 2009)

Improving our support of and service to the membership is always our goal.

November is the month in which we celebrate Thanksgiving and the beginning of the holiday season. It’s the time of year of family and friends coming and going, the true realization of the year coming fast to a close, and the awareness that a new year is soon going to be here.
     I have just gotten in the habit of writing 2009 and now it will be soon time to write 2010. Wasn’t it only yesterday when we were all worried about the Y2K bug and the end of the world as the century changed?

Your Academy has been developing plans for the coming year since July. The advance preparation has been completed and now the execution aspect begins.
     The staff has begun laying the groundwork for the implementation of the AMA 2010 Program of Work (POW). This is AMA’s business/membership services roadmap outlining the goals and objectives the organization wants to accomplish in the coming year.
     Supporting the POW is the budget for 2010. AMA has not implemented a dues increase since 2003.
     If you go to http://data.bls.gov/cgi-bin/cpicalc.pl, you can use the US Government Consumer Price Index program. This inflation calculator uses the average Consumer Price Index for a given calendar year.
     The data represents changes in prices of all goods and services purchased for consumption by urban households. Index values have been calculated every year since 1913. For the current year, the latest monthly index value is used.
     If the Academy had raised dues just to stay with the purchasing power of 2003, 2009’s dues should have been $67.88. Because of cost-containment programs, streamlining of operations, and other factors, no dues increase is proposed for 2010.
     For many of the operations that serve the membership, we are relying more on utilizing the Internet and Web site. One AMA function requires a certification form to be mailed as many as five different times before the process is complete. Placing this procedure in a Web-based process will save thousands of dollars each year in postage alone, not to mention the cost of labor reductions.
     For all of these changes to be successful, the membership needs to be agreeable to necessary changes in decades-old processes. I ask for your understanding and patience as we introduce these new procedures through the AMA Web site. Improving our support of and service to the membership is always our goal.

One of the more enjoyable duties I have as the executive director of the Academy is being asked to present the Hall of Fame (HOF) recognition to a fellow member. On September 14, 2009, it was my honor to make such a presentation to Warren Kurth while he was participating in an FF event here at the International Aeromodeling Center in Muncie, Indiana.
     The most touching point of the presentation was when Warren took time to make a few acceptance comments on his induction into the HOF. His entire response was dedicated to the support he had received from his wife, Norma. He said that his modeling success was due in large part to her encouragement of him for more than 50 years. Well done, Warren!
     Details of his accomplishments, as well as the biographies of the other 2009 inductees, will be in the January 2010 issue of MA. MA

Left: Warren Kurth and his wife, Norma, relax and watch the event.

Below: Jim Cherry (R) awards Warren Kurth the Model Aviation Hall of Fame award.

In the spirit of flight.

Jim Cherry, Executive Director

Comments on the magazine?
or call Model Aviation Editorial offices: (765) 287-1256, ext. 224.
(8 a.m.-5 p.m. weekdays). Fax: (765) 289-4248.
Address: 5161 E. Memorial Dr., Muncie IN 47302