Re: The AMA Members have spoken LOUD and CLEAR.

Wow Ed, nice rant!

As a 'club' in control of a favorite flying site is run by a BoD vice the members, according to a set of by-laws they wrote and approved all by their lonesomes with no knowledge of the members of the club they hijacked, I can relate to your perspective.

In case anyone is wondering (Ed knows) why the same people are still there after many years, just rotating positions on occasion..........

*Nobody runs against the incumbents. I don't because I would be one of five, and I don't want to be identified with the rest, don't want to uphold the inane rules they have dictated, don't want the liability they have brought on themselves by making rules they can't enforce or enforce selectively, and so on and so on. I'm sure others have their reasons for not becoming more involved.

But hey,club notwithstanding, it is a great flying site!

Abel

Jeez, I hate coming in at the end of the conversation. That at being said, I disagree but only slightly. A good club officer leads. Leading is not making stupid rules but stopping others from making and trying to enforce stupid rules.

"Six_O'Clock_High" >>thought that someone else might do the job and they would not have the

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There ARE good club officers, Jim. Just not nearly enough of them.

Ed Cregger

Yep, just like there are good club members, just not enough of them. :-) I think you will find that there are more club officers that are officers simply because members won't step up to the bar and serve. These are the people that know a club just won't run on automatic. Decisions have to be made to get things done. I've seen more clubs simply fold because they ran out of people that would serve as officers.

The message from Artisan contains these words:

That I can agree with, the 'they gave their lives so this country could be free' shpiel is just sentimental trash and I want to know when Iraq was thinking of invading Britain or America for that matter and yes i know we do have terrorism and in the UK have had to put up with it for nigh on 40 years but no matter which country you wipe of the map you wont stop that,

regards, Terry

Red, I feel very frustrated because my work schedule doesn't permit me to be a club officer, but certainly would step up if I could. I suspect there are many others who are in similar circumstances.

My club, the Portland, Oregon Barnstormers, is a Portland club in name only. The meetings are held thrity miles south of Portland. From spring through fall, they begin at 6:30 at the field, and I work until six. Getting through traffic, it takes me until at least seven to get to the field. So, it seems that some clubs such as my own are organized in such a way that only retirees and/or those with flexible work schedules have the opportunity to serve. In a way this makes sense, since most of our club officers fit these criteria, and there are plenty of them. Nevertheless, I feel embarrassed when election time comes around and I can't make myself available.

How about in your club? Don't you have several who are in the same frustrating situation?

Geoff Sanders

Hi Six, The problem (or one of them) is who defines stupid? I have heard club members describe the prohibition against flying over the pits, taxiing into the pits, low passes dangerously close to the pilot stations etc. as "stupid rules." In more severe cases the entire AMA Safety Code is called stupid! IMHO, they are essential because we have too many stupid pilots. :)

"Six_O'Clock_High" >>thought that someone else might do the job and they would not have the

On Fri, 2 Mar 2007 10:53:02 -0500, "Ed Forsythe" wrote in :

I'm a believer in a higher power and (in my tradition), there are many other perfect personal beings as well (angels and saints).

Meaning no heresy theologically and hoping not to offend my higher power, I claim that "there's nobody here but us humans" when it comes to organizing the necessities of flying fields and clubs.

Human qualities tend to be distributed through human groups in bell curves:

-- a few are at the top of the scale -- most are in the middle -- a few are at the bottom of the scale

I don't buy the idea that all leaders are either control freaks or humble servants. Some are, some aren't; most are probably somewhere in between, doing the best they can as they understand what "best" is.

We've had four different presidents in our club since I joined it in 1995. I liked some better than others. They all have their admirable qualities and they all had some quirks that I didn't find praiseworthy.

Running a club is an additional hobby over and above the hobby of building and flying RC aircraft. A few are great leaders, a few are wretched leaders, and most are (I imagine) OK.

I've served in my club as secretary, membership chair, historian, CD, and newsletter editor. I haven't been nominated nor have I sought to be nominated to be president. When I ask myself whether I would prefer to have me as president or the four guys, my answer is "them," with no doubt about it. :o)

I believe that in any hobby organization, it will always be 10% or fewer of the club that does 95% of the work. That seems pretty normal to me. If we were all saints, things would be different, but, as I said at the outset, "there's nobody here but us humans." That's OK with me. I'm having fun in the hobby and I thank heaven for all the blessings of the earth and skies.

Marty

The message from "Martin X. Moleski, SJ" contains these words:

if your flying clubs are anything like my email lists for ship model building there are six at the top and six hundred further down letting them do all the work, ask for help and five hundred and ninety four shrink into the shadows and this is why I have lost heart and passed on ownership of the lists to manager groups as I am just fed up trying to help by running email lists. We had an annual model making competition with prizes donated by model making companies such as ModelExpo and it went along fine until we needed someone new to run the show and nobody volunteered to do it so it just collapsed then a few months later when we were getting on toward the usual competition date in August everyone starts asking what is happening about the competition then complain because it has been cancelled. We also had an excellent on-line publication put together by two or three members who had to keep asking for articles to be published and they did it for four years then again we needed new blood to keep it running and everyone wanted it to be kept going but nobody wanted the responsibility or hard work of editing and producing a free magazine for anyone to download in PDF format so the only way out was to create a Wiki, as in all things you have one worker out in front and ninety nine sitting on their butt watching him do it,

regards, Terry

On Fri, 02 Mar 2007 13:37:12 -0500, "Martin X. Moleski, SJ" wrote: sage words not repeated in the interest of brevity

Marty-

I think your bell curve model of human behavior is is accurate, as it applies to what we have been discussing and in many/most other ways. I related an example from the lower tail of that curve, though I do consider it a 3-sigma case. Most clubs I have been associated with, or have only heard of, do fall more toward the center of curve. Those are the ones I really enjoy being a part of - though as I mentioned, the site controlled by the ....uh....statistical outlyers is a great place to fly. 'Saving grace' if you will.

Abel

Lets face it, half of the modelers are below average intelligence. :-)

RS

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Kinda hard to argue with that...

Ed Cregger

Nope, half of them are below the median intelligence!

That is a bit of a scary thought. I just realized from your comment that half the people I meet on the street are likewise below average intelligence. ...that really explains a lot...

Since he didn't say which average (mean, median, mode), his statement is still true. Doesn't intelligence conform fairly closely to a bell curve so that the median is the mean, and also the mode?

Fortunately that half doesn't vote very much on any issue. The scary part is if it is the upper half that votes how did we get in the shape we are in?

Red S.

The message from "Red Scholefield" contains these words:

Maybe not but they all have driving licences and all live within 5 miles of me I think,

regards, Terry

Here in Oregon, I'm afraid it's the lower half the does most of the voting....