This was posted this evening by Mike Moss on RCU. Mike is on the ballot as a candidate for D8 VP.
"beginning of a platform (post # 43)
I am sitting at my computer typing out my campaign platform for the AMA magazine I am running as a candidate for change.
greetings to my D-VIII friends
i guest i will start by telling you a little about my self. i have been in RC for over 15 years and have been involved in several areas of RC. bigbirds, helicopters, pylon, & scale. some of my duties in our club are teaching new members to fly, CDing our clubs 5 events, building and maintaining our club website and i am also the grounds keeper for our club. one of the greatest joys that i get out of RC is teaching new pilots how to fly. its like raising children. you can feel their excitement when they are learning and it gives me a feeling that i have some worth by passing along something that they will have and enjoy for ever. in my time in RC i have had many experiences with the people that lead and the ones that are effected by their leadership. my platform will be simple. i hope to build a feeling in the D-VIII that the members are encouraged about their future in D-VIII and that every member should feel that he has the right to have a VP that is open to his suggestions and that he should feel that he could make a contribution to his club or the district by running for and office. normal when you see or meet a leader any were they will never ask you what do you think i am doing wrong and do you have any ideas on what i should be doing. how often do you think any of your leadership wakes up in the middle of the night worrying about how things are going or can't get back to sleep worrying about if they are doing all they could be doing for the members. it's hard to say that i care more or know more that my appnote but i do know that if you asked a newly wed couple if their is any thing they wouldn't do to make things better by sacrificing their time or energy they would say they would do anything. if you asked a couple after 9 to 12 years that's like 3 or 4 terms in office if they are trying as hard as when they were first married they would say no!
With what I have learned from running our flyins is that if you want to satisfy the pilots you need to ask them what they want out of your flyin. under my 3 year leadership CDind our flyins. They have grown from 2 events and a combined attendance of 65 to 5 events and the total attendance for
2002 of 380 pilots. with our 2003 numbers up 35% over last year so far. I do not want this job for life I only want one or two terms if need be to see if I can bring a feeling of unity back into district D-VIII and the AMA. I believe that as a VP that every flyin you attend you should announce to the pilots that you are their and you want to know what's wrong with the district or your performance. you will always have time at your house to tell yourself how good things are going. we had a president quit because every time he went to the field the members would complain to him about how things were going. that was his job he just didn't realize it and try to take their complaints and use them as building blocks to move forward on. I under stand what my job should be as D-VIII VP. to get a sense of what the members want and to us my best judgment on accomplishing it.As to my chances of winning the D-VIII VP election. I was talking to Joyce hager the executive director of the AMA and she say that in all the time that she has been with the AMA that only 2 VPs have been voted out that she knew of. It's amazing to me that with over 100,000 members that their are only 12 that are worthy or capable of doing the job. "in all that time." That in it self should be enough to think about a change in thinking from the bottom up because it does not seem to be coming from the top down.
this is our time to make a change for D-VIII & the ama members of the future.
your friend Mike moss"