Last year I ran for President of the AMA on a similar platform. I believed then and I believe now that the majority of members in the AMA have been and always will be traditional modelers; whom I define as pilots of fixed and rotary wing models whether they be free flight, control line, or radio controlled. This is opposed to the newest segment of modeling, drone modeling.
I do not believe we should ban drone modelers from the AMA, far from that, I think as long as they fly responsibly and follow our safety code they are welcome to join. My issue is the irresponsible drone modelers who have caught the media’s attention. Their actions must be stopped before more harm is done.
The number of drone modelers in the AMA has plateaued at 8% of total membership. As the current District X VP I have access to our membership numbers and have been observing this trend for some time. One issue I see is that we spend much more than 8% of our staff’s time on issues associated with drone modeling. The Executive Council has spent the last several years addressing drone issues well out of proportion to 8% of our time.
I think there should be more or less a balance of our time and resources spent between the various modeling disciplines. The claim that drone modeling will be a great source of future membership is simply not being reflected in our membership data. That fact has to be recognized and the AMA’s time and money need to be rebalanced to support our core constituency which is overwhelmingly traditional modelers. Elect me as your EVP and I will make that my goal.
I have served as the AMA’s District X Vice President for almost 7 years. During this time I have worked on our Finance, Election and Insurance Committees. During my time on the Executive Council there have been times when I have disagreed with programs that we were developing. When those times come I am not afraid to speak truth to power. You can count on me to keep what is best for our membership as my number one priority.
I have made it a point to travel the district attending events and meetings with as many clubs as possible. I fly competitively. I currently fly Precision Aerobatics in the Advanced class and have attended the last 4 NATS. I have spent 26 years working as an Engineer with a major U.S. airline. During that time I have dealt with the FAA extensively. I have over 23 years of experience in the FAA rulemaking process. I am the only candidate with this much experience with the FAA.
Please follow my campaign at, www.tougas4evp.com.
Like me on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/tougas4president
Follow me on Twitter at https://twitter.com/tougas4pres
Sincerely,
Lawrence Tougas
AMA 232
P.S. Remember if you want the AMA to be balanced in the way it treats its members then I am the right choice for AMA EVP.
District III
Mark Radcliff
St. Marys, West Virginia
I’m Mark Radcliff from St. Marys, WV and I am the current District III VP. My father instilled my love for aviation by starting me with free flight, u-control and RC. I began flying pattern competition when I was 15 and flew on 4 US Aerobatic teams representing the US in World Championships in Switzerland, USA, South Africa, and Mexico. In 2007 I began to give back to modeling and became an AVP for District III. In 2012 I became the district VP and am very active on the Executive Council. We must embrace multirotor technology and reach out to this new generation of modeler to join AMA without forgetting the traditional modeler, the core AMA member. One of my goals as district VP is to meet as many of the modelers in the district as possible. I believe it’s important to attend club fly in’s, competition events & be a participant. I started the District III meeting at the Toledo show which has become a success. We rebuilt the DIII web site and created a Face Book page as social media is a vital part of communication today. I started a District III newsletter utilized whenever it’s important to communicate quickly with members in the district and added three new district AVP’s for better communication in the field. I am an active CD, fly pattern, scale, LMA inspector, a member of two clubs and several SIGS. In 2014 I fulfilled a lifelong dream of becoming a private pilot and I utilize this license to visit clubs and events when practical. I am a member of EAA, AOPA, and IAC and have opened lines of communications with officials in these organizations to advocate our model interest in the full scale aviation world. I believe my varied aviation experience translates to helping you being represented within AMA. I would sincerely appreciate your vote in this election so I can continue to advocate for you and keep model aviation as a great activity for all AMA members.
District VII
Tim Jesky
Monroe, Michigan
Dear Fellow District VII members: Having again received the honor
