Is the AMA totally useless??

[Chris Fretz]

I renewed my AMA some time ago, already got my new cards in the mail. Well today I get a letter in the mail from the AMA saying my membership has Lapsed and to renew now to reinstate my membership. My membership doesn't even expire till 3/31/19 anyway so how could it even be lapsed if technically it hasn't even expired yet prior to my renewing already. So anyway I call the number on the back of my new membership card (that had a expiration date of 3/31/20 mind you) and it has the WRONG phone number written on the back. Says (800) 453-9262, so i login to my AMA to look at that and it said RENEW NOW all over the site even though it clearly says expires 3/31/20 on the web site.  Well at least the web site has the RIGHT phone number listed on it (800)435-9262. But they are closed right now to ask what's up with all of this crap.

I guess I'm still bitter with the AMA since the first time I joined my credit card got hacked after I bought my AMA membership. Funny same thing happened to my dad when he joined also.

[Ken Culbertson]

I renewed my AMA some time ago, already got my new cards in the mail. Well today I get a letter in the mail from the AMA saying my membership has Lapsed and to renew now to reinstate my membership. My membership doesn't even expire till 3/31/19 anyway so how could it even be lapsed if technically it hasn't even expired yet prior to my renewing already. So anyway I call the number on the back of my new membership card (that had a expiration date of 3/31/20 mind you) and it has the WRONG phone number written on the back. Says (800) 453-9262, so i login to my AMA to look at that and it said RENEW NOW all over the site even though it clearly says expires 3/31/20 on the web site.  Well at least the web site has the RIGHT phone number listed on it (800)435-9262. But they are closed right now to ask what's up with all of this crap.

I guess I'm still bitter with the AMA since the first time I joined my credit card got hacked after I bought my AMA membership. Funny same thing happened to my dad when he joined also.

Nothing is totally useless - it can always serve as a bad example!

Ken

[Chris Fretz]

Whoa, Chris,  Lightnen up, They do put out a helluva catalog each month.

Lol I just cleaned under the coffee table the other day and threw like 15 of them away.

[Chris Fretz]

Nothing is totally useless - it can always serve as a bad example!

Ken

Humm good point!

[mike londke]

Odd that you have an expiration of 3-31-20. Every AMA card I've had always expired on 12-31 of that year. As I understand it you pay for a calendar year 1-1 to 12-31. If you join in April it's still full price and expires on 12-31 of that year. It's happened to me like that before,when I forgot to renew and I always thought it was BS to pay for the months of coverage I did not receive.

[Dave Edwards]

A while back, I believe membership shifted to 12 months from when you sign up, no longer a calendar year license

[Chris Fretz]

Odd that you have an expiration of 3-31-20. Every AMA card I've had always expired on 12-31 of that year. As I understand it you pay for a calendar year 1-1 to 12-31. If you join in April it's still full price and expires on 12-31 of that year. It's happened to me like that before,when I forgot to renew and I always thought it was BS to pay for the months of coverage I did not receive.

I've heard that from many people. Since I've joined 4 or 5 years ago its always expired on 3/31. When I first joined AMA it was March, I made the mistake of calling them to join and that's when they jacked my card,  they probably have card thieves working the phones there.

[Chris Fretz]

Here its the phone number they can't even get right.

Sent from my SM-G920V using Tapatalk

[Mike Griffin]

Chris to respond to the title in your subject line, yes pretty much.  I dropped them after that Einstein (cant remember his name right now) said that quadcopters (AKA Drones) were the "future of model aviation." That kinda gave me a hint of where they were heading.

Mike

[Chris Fretz]

Chris to respond to the title in your subject line, yes pretty much.  I dropped them after that Einstein (cant remember his name right now) said that quadcopters (AKA Drones) were the "future of model aviation." That kinda gave me a hint of where they were heading.

Mike

The only reason I'm a member is to fly at contests.

[Steve Helmick]

The only reason I'm a member is to fly at contests.

That, and to belong to a Chartered Club are about it. I got an issue of MA yesterday. The CL Combat column stated that their column would only be twice a year. I flung the sumditch into the recycling bin.  Steve

[Ken Culbertson]

That, and to belong to a Chartered Club are about it. I got an issue of MA yesterday. The CL Combat column stated that their column would only be twice a year. I flung the sumditch into the recycling bin.  Steve

They needed to make room for a series of multi page articles on the stability of multi rotor drones using propellers of different colors.

ken

[Gary Dowler]

Odd that you have an expiration of 3-31-20. Every AMA card I've had always expired on 12-31 of that year. As I understand it you pay for a calendar year 1-1 to 12-31. If you join in April it's still full price and expires on 12-31 of that year. It's happened to me like that before,when I forgot to renew and I always thought it was BS to pay for the months of coverage I did not receive.

I joined last year In April. My card shows a date of 4/30/2019

Gary

[Steve Helmick]

I'd bet that your renewal notice will come with the ballot mailing in October (?). You don't have to renew in order to vote, but that's the way it's always been.

I've noticed that AARP starts sending their renewals out earlier and earlier. I wouldn't belong to AARP, but they have a pretty good deal on Rx insurance. I have been wondering if I can still get the insurance without the AARP membership. Finally found out that OptumRx will renew my 'scripts for 90 days, but the local pharma will only do 30 days and co-pay cost me about $30 per month. OptumRx doesn't cost me anything, and comes to the mailbox. The stuff I take has a very low street value, giving me no street creds at all. Bummer, dude! Steve 

[Ken Culbertson]

I think it may be what ever date was in affect when youu joined r in my ca rejoined.  I first joined in 1961 then missed a few years in the 80's and 90's. When I rejoined around 2000 it was 12/31.  I just checked my card and it is still 12/31.  i didn't fly again till 2018 but I wanted to support the organization and Bob Hunt's column kept me up on what was going on.

I want my money back.

Ken

[Mike Griffin]

The only reason I'm a member is to fly at contests.

And I understand that Chris,  you really don't have a choice if you compete.  I haven't flown in a contest in years.  I think the last one I flew in was King Orange.  I think that was 12 years ago.

Mike

[mike londke]

A while back, I believe membership shifted to 12 months from when you sign up, no longer a calendar year license

Good to know and I like that better.

[wwwarbird]

 "Is the AMA totally useless??"

 Anymore? Yes. 

[Doug Burright]

The AMA dropped the ball for its bread-and-butter members, when they decided to include outlaw drone flyers into their insurance plan. The government views the AMA as the know-it-all organization for model aircraft, and when the drone flyers screw up, and cause problems for the public and full scale aviation, the government made a blanket regulation to cover all model flying!  We have to register and pay a fee to be able to fly our model aircraft!

Decades ago, the AMA was a benefit to model aviation. They lobbied the government to expand the available frequencies for radio control models. If you remember, there were only eight 72 megahertz frequencies, plus however many were on the 27 band and 53 HAM operators band. Because of the AMA, 50 new frequencies were adopted, and now the 2.4 gigahertz frequencies are available also! That is where the AMA's legitimacy ended, except for showing municipalities that insurance was available for our flying sites. A lot of good that does, if the government sees all of us model airplane flyers as criminals!

Now, the AMA needs to Drop Drones, and encourage them to start their own insurance and lobbying organization, to get the government off the backs of the modelers who have complied with rules and common sense for many, many decades! When was the last time the AMA provided an actual benefit to you? Do you remember the SFA? Why did they fail? Did the AMA push harder to the government, than the SFA did? The SFA was an organization that was dedicated to its members, not the government.

[Paul Smith]

AMA still does things that we need.

Sure, they accepted some things that we don't fly, but that doesn't hurt us and it gives them the cashflow they need without raising out dues even more.

[Robert Zambelli]

And they need the cash flow for what?

[Dave_Trible]

The AMA dropped the ball for its bread-and-butter members, when they decided to include outlaw drone flyers into their insurance plan. The government views the AMA as the know-it-all organization for model aircraft, and when the drone flyers screw up, and cause problems for the public and full scale aviation, the government made a blanket regulation to cover all model flying!  We have to register and pay a fee to be able to fly our model aircraft!

Decades ago, the AMA was a benefit to model aviation. They lobbied the government to expand the available frequencies for radio control models. If you remember, there were only eight 72 megahertz frequencies, plus however many were on the 27 band and 53 HAM operators band. Because of the AMA, 50 new frequencies were adopted, and now the 2.4 gigahertz frequencies are available also! That is where the AMA's legitimacy ended, except for showing municipalities that insurance was available for our flying sites. A lot of good that does, if the government sees all of us model airplane flyers as criminals!

Now, the AMA needs to Drop Drones, and encourage them to start their own insurance and lobbying organization, to get the government off the backs of the modelers who have complied with rules and common sense for many, many decades! When was the last time the AMA provided an actual benefit to you? Do you remember the SFA? Why did they fail? Did the AMA push harder to the government, than the SFA did? The SFA was an organization that was dedicated to its members, not the government.

The drone bunch already has their own-AUVSA- which provides insurance and about everything else AMA does.  More reason why AMA  should drop drones.  I know they are concerned about surviving long-term since we aren’t growing and the Muncie operation isn’t cheap to operate.  Dilemma.

Dave

[BillLee]

...Do you remember the SFA? Why did they fail? Did the AMA push harder to the government, than the SFA did? The SFA was an organization that was dedicated to its members, not the government.

And, of course, as we ALL know, SFA did NOT include Control Line.

Was a bunch of snake oil salesman masquerading as business men.

[Brett Buck]

Do you remember the SFA? Why did they fail? Did the AMA push harder to the government, than the SFA did? The SFA was an organization that was dedicated to its members, not the government.

   That didn't include you. In the SFA vs AMA battle, the *primary* legitimate beef was that the people forming the SFA were endlessly complaining about the cost of the AMA supporting competition, particularly the NATs road show, because they were "pandering to a tiny competition group over the "Real Members"" . The kicker may have been the (in my opinion, fraudulent) claims associated with the acquisition of the Muncie site ("first of many", which seems to have been a lie from day 1), which may have been the beginning of the end for AMA credibility as a modelers organization.

    In any case, whatever started it, in the resulting acrimony, neither the SFA nor the AMA exactly distinguished themselves. The SFA ended in a series of extremely questionable attempts to dodge court orders, which no matter what you think of their original motives, cannot be accepted by honest people.

     Brett

[Ken Culbertson]

Dilemma.

Dave

It truly is. From Brett's post we no longer have any hope of the AMA protecting us.  Since when do you pay a lobbyist to "not rock the boat"? You can do that for free.  Our only hope is to either get the number or get the FAA to clarify IN WRITING what they are saying.  Maybe both is the right approach.

I am starting to understand, why when I reinstated my membership, they lost both my CD number and regular number. They claimed my "lifetime" CD belonged to someone else even when I showed them the old card.  Then they said my original # was never issued but I could have i if I wanted.  Why couldn't they just admit that they lost a bunch of records when they moved to Munce?  This is what happens when you are no longer at the top of the Totem Pole.  The trick is to not land on the Tucan's beak as you slide down.

Ken

[john e. holliday]

My card says it is good until 12/31/2019.  Of course I try to keep current on my membership.

[Chris Fretz]

Haha

[Randy Powell]

Only reason I have AMA license to to fly in contests. Apart from that, it's useless.

[peabody]

Chris' complaint is centered around a premature redoing of the web site, without adequate testing. The old one worked pretty well, but they opted to change it, sort of like PAMPA.

The result is that a lot of features that used to work don't or suck.
Kids that are learning code can do better

[Skip Chernoff]

Chris the reason the AMA is picking on you is because they know you only as "Liner".......this "formerly known as" stuff has them all confused.   Cheers, Philly Skip....formerly known as Ron Jeremy...(hahaha)

[Chris Fretz]

Chris' complaint is centered around a premature redoing of the web site, without adequate testing. The old one worked pretty well, but they opted to change it, sort of like PAMPA.

The result is that a lot of features that used to work don't or suck.
Kids that are learning code can do better

Thanks for the info Rich!

[Chris Fretz]

Chris the reason the AMA is picking on you is because they know you only as "Liner".......this "formerly known as" stuff has them all confused.   Cheers, Philly Skip....formerly known as Ron Jeremy...(hahaha)

Awe come on don't start that Ron Jeremy stuff again Skip!

[Skip Chernoff]

Sorry Chris,.... but compelled to dust it off from time to time.

One other thing...after the Lebanon swap meet how about driving back to Philly and doing some flying with the Philly crew on Sunday early in the am??

[Bob Mears]

And to chime in here. The combat guys have been informed that we will get only two articles a year in the mag. What a load of crap that is!

[Jim Carter]

" I haven't flown in a contest in years.  I think the last one I flew in was King Orange.  I think that was 12 years ago."
Mike

  WOW!   With all earnest respect to you and your right to do whatever you choose, it seems like your position certainly does more harm to the rank and file than help the age related declining fellowship and growth of the rest of the pilots and modelers who do support the various events, the hobby and those precious personal friendships" !!  And yet, you're expecting their support $$$$ ..............      Is it supposed to be a "one way or two way street??  Please, please don't be angry or upset with me .... I'm confused  

[Chris Fretz]

Sorry Chris,.... but compelled to dust it off from time to time.

One other thing...after the Lebanon swap meet how about driving back to Philly and doing some flying with the Philly crew on Sunday early in the am??

Thanks for the invite Skip but I'm going to have to pass this time.

[Chris Fretz]

I got a answer today from emailing the AMA on Saturday...


Chris,
Sorry about the reminder.
We are working in a new management system and the data for the reminder was pulled prior to your renewal.
You are correct with the expiration date 03/31/2020.
We have caught the mistake on the back of the card with the phone number and the we now have new cards with the correct number.
I will mail you out a set.

Thank you,

[Mike Griffin]

  WOW!   With all earnest respect to you and your right to do whatever you choose, it seems like your position certainly does more harm to the rank and file than help the age related declining fellowship and growth of the rest of the pilots and modelers who do support the various events, the hobby and those precious personal friendships" !!  And yet, you're expecting their support $$$$ ..............      Is it supposed to be a "one way or two way street??  Please, please don't be angry or upset with me .... I'm confused

Mr. Carter:

There are several health related and personal reasons that I do not fly in contests any more and I will not divulge them here or anywhere else because I consider them private and personal.

I am not angry with you but rather amazed by your ignorance that you would even make a statement like that when the way I choose to participate in the hobby is absolutely none of your business.  I choose to contribute to the hobby by producing kits that are not readily available on the open market or have never been offered in a kit form. (See comment by Ty)

You have a lot of gall to accuse me of "harming" the hobby and stating that I expect monetary support because I am no longer able to participate in contests.  For your information, I do participate in the Baton Rouge Contest because it is only a short drive from where I live and even though I don't fly in that contest, I do donate money to help them out.

I do not "expect" anything from my friends in the hobby, I simply offer kits that I think they might like and it is up to them whether they choose to buy one or not.  Obviously you have no idea how little money we make in the cottage kit industry.  Often it is a break even situation or you make just enough to have a little left over to buy some balsa. 

I have no idea why you would even dream up such a ridiculous scenario and question my motives and character when you are clueless and formulated some warped theory to make such stupid assumptions;

Know what you are talking about before you shoot off your mouth and make a fool of yourself again.

Mike

[Jim Carter]

Mr. Carter:

There are several health related and personal reasons that I do not fly in contests any more and I will not divulge them here or anywhere else because I consider them private and personal.

I am not angry with you but rather amazed by your ignorance that you would even make a statement like that when the way I choose to participate in the hobby is absolutely none of your business.  I choose to contribute to the hobby by producing kits that are not readily available on the open market or have never been offered in a kit form. (See comment by Ty)

You have a lot of gall to accuse me of "harming" the hobby and stating that I expect monetary support because I am no longer able to participate in contests.  For your information, I do participate in the Baton Rouge Contest because it is only a short drive from where I live and even though I don't fly in that contest, I do donate money to help them out.

I do not "expect" anything from my friends in the hobby, I simply offer kits that I think they might like and it is up to them whether they choose to buy one or not.  Obviously you have no idea how little money we make in the cottage kit industry.  Often it is a break even situation or you make just enough to have a little left over to buy some balsa. 

I have no idea why you would even dream up such a ridiculous scenario and question my motives and character when you are clueless and formulated some warped theory to make such stupid assumptions;

Know what you are talking about before you shoot off your mouth and make a fool of yourself again.

Mike

I asked you not to get angry and upset, now didn't I!!  I asked because I just didn't understand what seemed, to me, to be a contradiction of intent versus actions.    I don't consider myself a "fool" anymore than you consider yourself a "fool".  True, I didn't know of your medical conditions and I didn't need to know, however you didn't make that part of your "voluntary" statement for NOT participating in events in your area.  As far as cottage industries and the money they make, yes, I am quite aware of the financial returns.  The profits are what they are and we, (you , I, and the others) do what we do because we enjoy what we do.  I can say that because I have owned and operated a local hobby shop in this area and the control line portion was the least profitable section we had over the myriad years we operated even though John and Buzz Brodak, personally helped me.

"Gall",  no, I took YOUR statement about not competing / participating and put it together with YOUR advertising / request for a product YOU are offering for sale and the result gave the appearance of a "one way street".  Heck over the course of my travels, I've known a man in a wheel chair who with assistance built and flew and another who had lost an arm, years before, and still built and flew.  Even when they couldn't fly for whatever reason, they supported the local club events, if only to pay their clubs dues or "kick" in a couple of bucks toward offsetting the expenses of the club.  To me, when I read what YOU composed .... well, it bothered me.

In conclusion, whether you support your local clubs and events, is as I said, YOUR choice ..... your medical issues are yours and yours alone (although I do wish you well).  However, it was what YOU wrote that was the reason for my response.  If it offended you or anyone else, I apologize BUT it certainly is offensive when the response has to involve attacking with trigger words such as "full of gall", "ignorant and "fool".  Over my 70 years, I've often found that the user who resorts to the use of such terms often defines themselves or some hidden agenda, but I'm sure you don't fit that category, right?  Have a good day, I'm finished with this thread.

[Jim Carter]

Hi Jim. What one must consider is some of those in the cottage industry have health problems that precludes them from standing in a circle, going in circles. Thus they try to keep their hand in and add to the hobby by presenting many of us with unobtanium kits. FWIW

Hi Ty!  You are right.  Honestly, I didn't think about the health angle.  Good point!

[Mike Griffin]

Hi Ty!  You are right.  Honestly, I didn't think about the health angle.  Good point!

Jim you should have thought about that before you opened your mouth.

Mike

[Mike Griffin]

I asked you not to get angry and upset, now didn't I!!  I asked because I just didn't understand what seemed, to me, to be a contradiction of intent versus actions.    I don't consider myself a "fool" anymore than you consider yourself a "fool".  True, I didn't know of your medical conditions and I didn't need to know, however you didn't make that part of your "voluntary" statement for NOT participating in events in your area.  As far as cottage industries and the money they make, yes, I am quite aware of the financial returns.  The profits are what they are and we, (you , I, and the others) do what we do because we enjoy what we do.  I can say that because I have owned and operated a local hobby shop in this area and the control line portion was the least profitable section we had over the myriad years we operated even though John and Buzz Brodak, personally helped me.

"Gall",  no, I took YOUR statement about not competing / participating and put it together with YOUR advertising / request for a product YOU are offering for sale and the result gave the appearance of a "one way street".  Heck over the course of my travels, I've known a man in a wheel chair who with assistance built and flew and another who had lost an arm, years before, and still built and flew.  Even when they couldn't fly for whatever reason, they supported the local club events, if only to pay their clubs dues or "kick" in a couple of bucks toward offsetting the expenses of the club.  To me, when I read what YOU composed .... well, it bothered me.

In conclusion, whether you support your local clubs and events, is as I said, YOUR choice ..... your medical issues are yours and yours alone (although I do wish you well).  However, it was what YOU wrote that was the reason for my response.  If it offended you or anyone else, I apologize BUT it certainly is offensive when the response has to involve attacking with trigger words such as "full of gall", "ignorant and "fool".  Over my 70 years, I've often found that the user who resorts to the use of such terms often defines themselves or some hidden agenda, but I'm sure you don't fit that category, right?  Have a good day, I'm finished with this thread.

"To me, when I read what YOU composed .... well, it bothered me."

Well gee Jim, I will make sure in the future that I confer with you before I compose and post anything.

[Chris Fretz]

 So I posted the reply from emailing the AMA in which they said they would send out new cards with the corrected phone  number... Well I got them today.  The new cards are identical to the incorrect cards they already sent.  I found that to be very amusing actually.

[dennis lipsett]

The AMA is the most useless feckless organization that I belong to. I can't even sign into the site. Even calling the AMA and telling them to wipe the info clean and I'll initiate a new id and password gets me nothing because they simply won't do it. I signed up this year and gave them a not too subtle dig at their apparent lack of effectiveness.
After 65 years in this organization I think that I'm going to be done with them. I kept membership  simply because of AMA fields that I flew from and that is not a necessity any longer for me.

[Fred Cronenwett]

I think all of the CL columns were cut back, my CL scale column was reduced to 4 per year from 6. If you didn't notice the magazine was reformatted due to lower advertising income. But Model Aviation is probably the only magazine these days that has any coverage of some of the model types out there. So I don't consider them useless. But you have to realize that the hobby has radically changed in a big way in the last 20 or 30 years. Kit's have become rare, now we have ARF's, and RC foam ARF's are now everywhere. Electric power has taken over to the point that I can't even find an APC prop for my glow powered models anymore in my local hobby shop. The number of people who build a model is low if not a rare item.


Fred

[Dave Hull]

Dennis.

While the AMA has its challenges, and may not be going in a direction old timers want to go, it is not useless.

When they "upgraded" the website, I could no longer log in either. Several calls to debug did not solve it. This past month, I called again and after I uploaded Google Chrome, I can log in and get to any part of the website. They are working on a fix for Internet Explorer based on screen captures we took. The easy way to go if you are not already using it is to upload Chrome and it should work.

When I was having issues, they routed my call to Chris, who was both helpful and patient. He reset several things, checked a few others, and I was off and running. Call them again and ask for Chris.

Dave

[FLOYD CARTER]

AMA member since 1948.  Don't complain about dues.  I've given more money to AMA than probably
99% of those on this forum/