President's Perspective
"... the system really does need to be overhauled ..."
Over the years, one of the cornerstones of the AMA has been the sanctioning of events. In recent years, the number of AMA sanctions granted has risen to nearly 2,400 per year; ironically, there is roughly the same number of chartered clubs. The system of managing all of those sanctions has evolved, but the basic concept of sanction categories has been pretty much the same for four decades or more.
A recent situation involving an AMA Special Interest Group has raised the question of just how appropriate our sanction system is in today's aeromodeling world. A close look reveals a system that was geared toward the competitive world of organized aeromodeling 40 or so years ago. For example, it refers to the idea that contests in different categories of aeromodeling (Free Flight [FF], Control Line [CL], Radio Control [RC]) should not be in conflict with each other.
After reading a lot of comments on the Internet, I decided to really look into the situation with an eye toward making it more applicable to today's events. First, I looked up the word "sanction" in the dictionary and found the following:
Definition of "sanction"
- The act of a recognized authority confirming or ratifying an action.
- Support; encouragement; approval.
- Something that gives binding force to a law, or secures obedience to it, as the penalty for breaking it, or a reward for carrying it out.
There are no big surprises in that definition, but it does imply that the sanctioning body is a recognized authority and that it gives its stamp of approval to the conduct of the event it is sanctioning. Although the definition does not state it explicitly, a reasonable argument can be made that the sanctioning body assumes some level of responsibility for the conduct of the event.
The numbers
I also had a report prepared (thanks, Greg) showing that the number of rulebook events sanctioned (1,139) is just slightly less than the number of non-rulebook events (1,167). Demos and team selection events make up the remainder of the 2,392 sanctions for 1997.
What becomes apparent from the overall picture is that using the A, AA, AAA, AAAA system for classifying sanctions is of little meaning in today's competitive aeromodeling world.
Problems with the current system
- The present criteria for attaining AAA status is practical only for FF and a few CL contests. Of the list of 48 AAAA sanctions, I can't figure out how at least 13 of them qualified for this status.
- The vast majority of events that qualify for AAA status are FF contests; CL events qualifying are dwindling. It is rare to see an RC event with the required 12 sets of "important" awards. Even the three-ring-circus CL meets of my youth are giving way to specialized individual CL contests.
- Meanwhile, the proliferation of class "C" non-rulebook events (about 1,167) has been overwhelming. These events encompass everything from competitive events for which AMA doesn't have rules, to the swap shop a club is running. I am sure non-competitive fly-ins/fun-flys account for a large portion of these.
- The system is outdated. It makes it easy to get a great big "zone of protection" for FF contests, where it's really difficult to find two decent sites that are closer than even this huge protection distance. It gives minimal protection to those events that are in the majority and draw the largest participation. It also doesn't have any mechanism for those events to attain a "higher" status.
While I am not sure I'd describe it as broken, the system really does need to be overhauled, particularly to enhance its ability to cope with non-rulebook events—but it won't be easy.
Questions to consider
- How do we determine what events conflict with each other when most don't have any common rules?
- Might the answer vary from region to region?
- Would a single person, authorized to decide yea or nay in cases of sanction "conflict," be acceptable?
- What rules should be applied to how that decision is made?
- Should the number of participants in last year's event be a factor in this year's classification?
Lots of questions, and a very complex problem. Your ideas?
Till next month,
Dave
Dave Brown AMA President dbrown@dbproducts.com
Transcribed from original scans by AI. Minor OCR errors may remain.
