AMA GROWTH AND RETENTION
By Mark Feist, AMA District III Associate Vice President | mfeist329@gmail.com
WHILE THE HOBBY of model aviation remains vibrant, we recognize the importance of strengthening our clubs and growing the model aviation community. By doing so, AMA can enhance member services, expand our advocacy efforts, and fulfill our mission to inspire and engage the next generation of hobbyists.
At the request of AMA President Rich Hanson, District III Associate Vice President Mark Feist has been leading a membership growth initiative to better understand and address the challenges that face our hobby. Mark brings an extensive business and consulting background, combined with years of experience in promoting model aviation events. Working closely with the AMA Executive Council and AMA staff, Mark has established an AMA Growth and Retention Plan and team.
The team started with a club survey in the fourth quarter of 2024 and has since developed several resources designed to promote the hobby, AMA, and help chartered clubs drive membership growth and retention. They include the AMA Value Brochure, a social media guide, a new member email campaign, partnership guidance, a model aviation presentation, and more. These resources and others can be found in the new AMA Club Toolkit that was launched in February in AMA publications (see the February 4 edition of AMA This Week) and can be accessed at www.modelaircraft.org under Programs.
The AMA Club Toolkit provides a single point of access to content, programs, and services available through AMA. Information has been gathered from multiple sources and combined into a single website portal. Key components include event-planning resources, promotional materials, educational outreach tools, advocacy information, and safety guidelines. The AMA Club Toolkit is a comprehensive resource designed to support clubs in their operations, outreach efforts, and promotion of model aviation.
The AMA Value Brochure is a simple, single-page piece that can be distributed to hobby shops, museums, other partner organizations (such as EAA and Civil Air Patrol) and can be used at events and shows. We recommend using this brochure along with informational flyers about your local clubs. Both electronic and printed versions are available. You can download the brochure from the AMA Toolkit or contact Mark Benson, the senior director of marketing, at markb@modelaircraft.org.
The Social Media Guide for AMA clubs can also be accessed from the AMA Club Toolkit under Chartered Clubs and Flying Sites. Clubs can leverage social media in various ways to engage with their members, attract new ones, and build a community.
The Partnership Guidance document covers how AMA chartered clubs can work with potential partner organizations to share our passions with like-minded individuals. Partnerships can come from a wide range of organizations that are spelled out in the Partnership Guidance document.
The AMA Growth and Retention team carefully selected the new and consolidated existing resources, programs, and assets in The Club Toolkit to support our clubs and help with membership growth and retention. If you have great ideas and best practices within your club that we can include, please contact Mark. (His contact information is located in the District III column every month.)
We hope that you will utilize what is available to host events, promote the hobby, and help grow AMA and model aviation in 2025 and beyond!
sound of a full-scale helicopter, added realism.
In the 1970s, Mattel copied the Childs & Smith model, releasing both a helicopter (the VertiBird) and airplane (Dareplane). VertiBird sets were themed as crime-fighting, search-and-rescue, and space exploration, while the Dareplane featured barnstormers, with wing-walker figures and a tow-behind streamer. Sets also often included accessories such as cardboard buildings.
If electricity (even supplied by batteries) was a bit much for a parent to trust their child with, they could opt for child-powered models. Louis Marx & Co. offered its Remote Control Helicopter and Mattel had the Hairy Canary. Both toys were powered by turning a crank.
The last addition, the U-Fly-It, was released by the Schaper Co. in the 1970s. This toy suspended an airplane from a line stretched from a control stick to a post six-plus feet away. A catapult launched the model from the runway up the line, at the top of which it rotated 180°. The pilot then
tried to land the model back on the runway. The inventor, Joe Becker, demonstrated the toy for Johnny Carson on The Tonight Show in 1974, with both Johnny and Ed McMahon taking turns.
Walking the toy sections of large box stores today might make these toys seem simple by today’s standards, with some toys now even having cameras, but to thousands of kids (myself included), this was the first experience of “flying.” Just as riding a bike offered our first taste of freedom exploring the neighborhood, these toys opened up our imaginations.
With the magic of YouTube, today we can watch many of these toys in operation, either through original commercials or from collectors willing to “fly” their models. For example, type in “Aircraft Carrier Toy Crashes on The Tonight Show.”
