District XI—Alaska, Idaho, Montana, Oregon, Washington
Chuck Bower
Vice President
cbower@whidbey.com
6075 S. Coles Rd., Langley WA 98260
Tel: (360) 632-9211; www.amadistrict-xi.org
I recently received this letter from a club president in District XI that caught my attention enough to share with you.
How I Became a Reluctant Club President
I became an AMA member and RC pilot in New York, in approximately 1985. I was content simply having RC buddies and flying with them. Eventually, I felt like a “taker” who should give something back to the club (that did not involve real work or responsibility—who wants that?). So I created and moderated a Yahoo chat group for the club so its members could communicate with each other. (They still use it today.) I even became an instructor pilot at that time. I thought, great! I’ve contributed, so leave me alone.
I moved to District XI in 2004 and set myself up doing the same thing—a club Yahoo group moderator and instructor pilot. My conscience was clear. Not much responsibility and I could claim contribution and be left alone to fly without guilt.
At that time, and really much earlier, this club had a revolving group of club officers (four or so) flip-flopping positions every couple of years. It seemed like a clique, but I didn’t care since I was left alone. But it wasn’t just a clique—it was the same people because no one else would step up to take responsibility.
Finally, the old guard gave up. They were burned out, and did not want to do it anymore, and no other members volunteered. I believed the club would have dissolved without any leadership—we even had in the bylaws how to get rid of our treasury balance to the AMA. I was going to be out of the country on election eve and told a former president that if no one stepped up, to put my name forward for nomination as president—but only if no one else stepped up. I did it selfishly because there are no other clubs and flying fields close enough to interest me, and I needed to keep this going as a place to fly.
Taking over the leadership of the club, I decided to do it as well as I thought it could be done. I told the club I would not do the work by myself and that if they did not volunteer, it would not get done. I did implement some fun activities during the meeting, like an airplane trivia contest that would result in prizes at the end of the year. I also organized a tour of a local naval air station for our members.
Our membership is stepping up to take care of our pizza nights and coffee and cookies for our meetings. Other members are now volunteering to create the trivia contest for several of our meetings, taking that burden off of my shoulders from time to time. Members are stepping forward to get or become guest speakers on interesting related subjects at each meeting.
We now have a volunteer executive advisory council consisting of the past president, two people I chose because of their institutional knowledge, and one person elected by the membership. This has helped me to make better decisions than I might have on my own and has eliminated a lot of the nonsense voting and endless debate that takes place at meetings involving the full membership.
Yes, all of this takes time, energy and responsibility—none of which I wanted to have to give back to the club. I am lucky that the real jobs of secretary, treasurer, and newsletter editor have dedicated volunteers. I still would refuse to do those jobs and I am still a reluctant president.
I am not allowed the space here to acknowledge all of the other club volunteers who help to keep this group going, but I guess like all clubs, they know who they are and they are the backbone of the club. However, it seems as though it is always the same people. The new members and the old ones who never did anything and have been around for a while need to step up next—for even if reluctantly!
—The Reluctant Club President
I see this as a symptom of our aging hobby. It’s our lack of drawing members into the leadership of our clubs. One of the main reasons to form a club is to do more than can be done alone. In addition to the idea that it takes a group to support a flying site, we share the joy of fellowship with our modeling friends. We encourage each other to improve our modeling skills.
As club members, we should encourage each other to grow our social skills within the club structure. It benefits all of us to encourage each other to invest ourselves in our organization.
See you at the flying field. ️
Associate Vice Presidents: Darrell Anderson, Great Falls MT, (406) 899-6438; d.anderson@bresnan.net; Bryan Batch, Spokane WA, (509) 467-7870; bbbhobbies@qwestoffice.net; Del Herring, Wenatchee WA, (509) 679-8402; del.herring301@gmail.com; Tom Koprivna, Eugene OR, (541) 484-6048; freeflyer723@comcast.net; Mike Mosebroeker, (360) 679-9139; mosebroek@comcast.net; Chris Rankin, Bend OR, (541) 593-3294; Missle63@rocketmail.com; Jay Schoening, Lynden WA, (360) 201-0407; jjschoening@msn.com; Robert Stephens, Anchorage AK, (907) 440-0478; rfstephens@hotmail.com; Al Watson, Anchorage AK, (907) 346-0458; alwatsn1@aol.com.
RC Coordinator: Michael Ingram, Wenatchee WA 98802; (208) 573-5542 frrcc@cs.com.
Webmaster: Chris Rankin
