progress

Keep screwing around with the county and they may decide that it is just too much of a hassle for them to bother with. It is much easier to post signs, NO MODEL AIRPLANE FLYING.

Red S.

Robbie-

First, re where you stand now with the parks board. Good News! When I need to buy something, I want to have options rather than be pushed into dealing with a sole-source provider. Also, as an AMA member through periods when there was competition and when there was not, I prefer the former state. AMA was, as a general observation, more "user friendly" when the user had a choice. That might earn me the epithet "AMA basher," but I can find a way to live with it. Model aviation is a cause for me, AMA is a tool that can support that cause. Modelers having choices seems to help keep an edge on the tool.

Secondly, the part about insurance regulators getting involved, I have some (a lot of) reservation about that. Public entities are charged with serving the public, and tend not to favor privatization of public resources. Examples are the insurance requirements in the use permits held by two AMA-chartered clubs I currently belong to, and others that I have associated with in the past. Requiring AMA membership/ provided insurance was not allowed by the public entities we dealt with (yes, I know some do), so the ruse of specifying the terms of AMA's insurance was incorporated, knowing full well that AMA was the only source, wink, wink. I've never felt right about scamming public officials that are supporting us, yet AMA's operating plan appears totally dependent on it. Can AMA continue to operate in it's current form without having clubs draft members? I think not, but I have never seen any hint that AMA has even considered a Plan B.

Abel

Yeah, that's the way we see it, too. By default somehow one organization came to be the only way to go, and it seems really unscrupulous to tell public officials that you just have to have an AMA card. I wonder what would happen if the playing field were leveled? Perhaps everybody would have to offer more and better options.

The strangest thing to me is why the club guys are so adamant about hitching their wagon to AMA. Seems like they would want more options, too. The AMA needs the clubs a lot worse than the clubs need the AMA.

Who's screwing with the county? One guy presented a logical case, they saw it his way, and now we have options. Objectively, you have to figure that the county is quite open to suggestions. Nobody is screwing with them. Sounds to me more as if you are unhappy that we got what we wanted.

Incidentally, I need to correct the story because I didn't get all of the details until later. When Randy called the county and was told that AMA membership was required, that was incorrect information given by somebody who didn't know any better. After I posted to the group I talked to Randy again and he told me that he called them back this week, ready to threaten to involve insurance regulators, but he was told the correct information right up front, which is that the requirement had already been changed to $250,000 months ago. As it turned out, the whole thing this week was a non-issue, and for the past few months the requirement has been right where Randy suggested that it should be. So he went ahead and got a park permit today.

Our county parks and rec. board is quite friendly with the modeling community, they have enough common sense to understand risk, liability and reasonable common sense, and they like spending a few bucks out of their parks budget to improve the field. I don't think we'll be locked out any time soon.

You are lucky. You have county officials that apparantly are capable of intelligent thought. It is not uncommon when faced with having to make a decision regarding the use of public property that bureaucrats will avoid making it by just a blanket no. Many years the local gun club established a nice firing range - open to the public as long as they were NRA members.The local bureaucrats were given the opportunity to secure a police academy at the local Jr. College on the condition that a firing range would be available. The gun club donated their range to the college under the condition that they could still use it when police training was not, which was most weekends and evenings after 5 pm. Along comes new director of the police academy who didn't like having civilians using the POLICE range.Even when it was explained that experienced range officers would be at the range whenever the public was using it, and that NRA insurance would cover the users and the College, use was denied. Now that range stands abandon as big bucks of taxpayers money went into building a new police academy and range to the glorification of a local politician who it was named after.

The Lovely Reynolds:

You might wait with your posts until you get all the facts straight. Actually when dealing with any government entity, you may never get a clear answer.

Also considering the true problems that state and local governments have to deal with, I don't blame them for putting models airplane issues on the back burner or totally out of sight. If I were an elected official, I'd eliminate any consideration of this issue by banning it. I doubt that you'd receive any sympathy from the public.

However, on the other hand, you have the AMA! A friend is sending Mr Akimoto copies of their magazine, and I was just reading about the trials and tribulations of Zomby! I can't find one useful bit of information in this dimwitted collection of articles! This baby is headed straight for the recycler!

So model aviation is between a rock and a hardplace when it comes to insurance, i.e., the AMA or who? Mr Akimoto is thankful many years ago he bought his land, so he doesn't have to put up with a pack of fools.

Mr Billy

This guy is still the same fool - whichever alias he is currently using.

K select From: score -9999

Thats it, disinfectant applied and the slimy sod is bag in the bin again. Quick,painless and effective.

Reg

(snarf.... chuckle)

Pretty good troll, Mr A. Might get a bite with that one.

Abel