President's Perspective: Expo a Success
AMA held its first Modeling Expo at Muncie June 7-8 in conjunction with our three-day Homecoming 1997. Focusing on youth and model hobbies, it was a big success despite weather that was far less than cooperative.
The focus was on all forms of model hobbies — airplanes, rockets, boats, cars, and trains — along with kites. We even scheduled hot-air balloons, but the weather washed that out.
Some will ask what AMA is doing promoting anything other than model airplanes. The theory is that if we get a youngster into any form of modeling, he or she is much more likely to eventually try aeromodeling. The comments I heard were overwhelmingly positive on this approach.
A Teachers' Resource Center provided materials to those teachers valiant enough to brave the weather. The Make-and-Take 1/2A CL booth had a steady line of kids waiting, in spite of the rainy weather. Midday Sunday, a plea went out over the PA for more help in the Delta Dart booth — the lines were getting longer.
The really poor weather may have been a blessing in disguise — with good weather we might very well have been overwhelmed. I never did make it down to the boat pond, but judging by the number of cars in that parking lot, it must have been pretty active. If the response I heard was any indication, this will be an annual event.
Getting youngsters involved
I can't say that I know why the sudden surge of interest, but I have gotten quite a few letters lately on the subject of getting more youngsters involved in aeromodeling. Most lament the lack of a future for aeromodeling if we are unable to get more kids involved. Some are very critical of AMA for not focusing a lot more effort in this direction, and some express the thought that AMA's entire focus should be toward education and growth of aeromodeling.
One thing many of these letters have in common is the fact that they lament the good old days, when the Baby ROG was king, and airplanes held some mystical spell on every kid in the land. I got infected with enthusiasm for aeromodeling in that era, and I had many of my fellow school chums similarly infected.
I came from a small town in New England that had a population of about 3,000, but I can still name more than a dozen kids of my age who were heavily involved in aeromodeling. I can also think of at least twice that many more that I can't remember their names — I guess I'm getting old!
We tend to look at our problems through 50-, 60-, and 70-year-old eyes and suggest that what worked for us would work for kids today, but it won't. As hard as we might try, and as much as we want to, we can't turn the clock back. Those days are gone forever. If we are to turn our lack of kids around, we must recognize this, and quit wasting time trying. We must acknowledge that the majority of our members now are not modelers in the old traditional sense, but are, rather, pilots of miniature airplanes.
It seems that nearly everyone has the definitive program; such a solution doesn't exist. No one program will serve all situations; each situation will require at least some tailoring, if not a dedicated program.
Bob Underwood recently attended the Indoor Nats in Tennessee, and at the banquet he asked a few questions. FF and indoor modelers are typically considered the modelers most likely to get kids involved, although the CL guys might have an argument with that.
When asked if their clubs had a youth program in place, only about 10% answered yes. When asked how many had ever taken a youngster to a contest, only about 30% answered yes.
To me, the most telling question was how many youth (Jr./Sr.) contestants were not related to an adult competitor present — none! Identifying the problem is easy, but doing something about it is another story. Many have written; some have even written about what AMA should do about it. The main problem is that it is almost always what AMA can do about it, rather than what can I do about it.
What you can do
I have a suggestion! Go into the bathroom and look into the mirror. Ask yourself, "What can I do to get more kids involved in aeromodeling?" If you come up with something, do it. If you don't, go to your next club meeting and propose that your club start a youth program. Volunteer to chair a committee to set up a program.
If you simply can't come up with ideas, I'll give you some:
- Run a club contest for simple models in which you must bring a youngster in order to enter. Throw the adults' names into a hat and let the kids draw a "partner" to form a team (to avoid any "ringers"). All results depend on the team score. Count the scores toward the club championship, if you have one.
- Place an ad on the supermarket bulletin board recruiting kids to build and fly model airplanes.
- Sponsor a scholarship for your local high school. It might get some kids exposed to aeromodeling and do your club a lot of good in the eyes of the local people. It doesn't have to be a great big scholarship — $250 or $500 is enough to make a difference for some kid, and most clubs could afford it. Who knows, it might someday save your flying field.
- Put on a demonstration or a program for one of the local grade schools.
- Provide transportation for a kid to the flying field each week.
Many things to do, all lacking only one element — you!
Till next month,
Dave Brown AMA President
Transcribed from original scans by AI. Minor OCR errors may remain.
