Season Switch

by Dave Mathewson, AMA President

Hello again. I hope everyone has had a good outdoor flying season. As the temperatures get cooler heading into the fall months, for many of us in the colder parts of the country the indoor flying season is about to begin.

With the advancements in small electric models over the last couple of years, especially in the micro RC area, almost any facility of reasonable size can become an indoor flying site. School gyms, community centers, and sports domes make excellent indoor sites. More often than not all it takes to gain access to one of these facilities is to ask.

Facilities managers are always looking to get the maximum use out of their buildings. Sometimes there may be a reasonable fee associated with rental of the site, but in many cases use of the facility is free. There’s one indoor club near where I live that has had the use of a church gym for as long as I can remember. The cost? Each pilot that comes to the flying sessions brings a canned good for the church’s food pantry. That’s a pretty reasonable use fee and everybody comes out a winner.
Give some thought to contacting some of the facilities near you this winter. It might result in getting a place to keep active during the colder months when outdoor flying can become a challenge for many of us.

This is also typically the time of year when many of our clubs hold their annual elections. For a lot of us, new faces will be sitting at the officer’s table. For other clubs the current officers will be re-elected to continue for another year. Regardless, the success of any club lies within its membership. A title doesn’t mean that all of the workload needs to fall on the shoulders of the title holder. In fact, the mark of a good leader is the ability to surround him or herself with good people who can help bear the load of managing a club. As you develop your club’s activities agenda for the coming year, encourage your members to step up and help out. You’ll find that when asked, many will respond favorably. In fact, many members are just waiting to be asked to help out. The end result is that chances are your events will turn out better while at the same time more members become engaged in the club’s activities.

AMA membership renewals will be mailed over the next several weeks. Along with the renewals will be ballots for the AMA Executive Council elections for the period beginning January 1, 2010. This year all of the even numbered district VP positions are up for election, as well as a special election in District IX. Candidate statements will appear in the October issue of Model Aviation. Please take just a few minutes to read the statements and cast your vote. Unfortunately this year, in many districts candidates are running unopposed. If you’re current district VP is running unopposed and you think he is doing a good job, take a moment and vote for him. A VP will use the election results as one barometer as to how well those in his district think he’s doing.

See you next time…Q