Lamar's Answers to Troy

[Lamar Blair]

Sorry I sent this message out yeasterday I am not sure why it did not go
through.

Answers to Troy's question...


1. Membership numbers are down. I have records as a former District VP from
late in 2000 that we had well over 1300members. Today I believe our numbers
are roughly 1/2 this. What are your (Lamar-Derek) plans to increase
membership

Most of all I think we have a "carrot" problem and need to get our
membership up by giving them a reason to join and re-join. Demonstrating a
great K Factor again, benefits from flying Seminars, judging seminars, and
providing some concrete reasons showing the benefits they get out of being a
NSRCA Member are critical. We also need to find out why we lost so many, and
figure out how to fix the major issues causing the losses. I am sure they
vary from personal problems, other interests, changing priorities, K-Factor
content and delivery, and just no good concrete reasons for them to stay a
member. We need to take every opportunity, or venue to get the message out
at seminars, fun fly's, Trade Shows, school programs, Club contests, etc. to
maximize our exposure. I think a clear aggressive program coordinated from
the top, through the District VP's will really help. District VP's have a
key role in working at it in their  One of the items in my Statement
addressed enabling more open communications between the VP's Board Members
and the general Membership. I hope that the opening of communications, and
more transparency in the Board operations will reduce the misinformation, or
lack of understanding of Board actions that seems to exist. This also should
encourage more Member participation in the processes that go on.

2. Given the current poor financial status of the NSRCA, how do you intend
(Lamar-Derek) to increase the funds in the bank? I see this financial
situation as a serious crisis that has been brewing as membership numbers
fall, and advertising dollars become less visible due to lower circulation.
Low income breeds less products and services offered to the membership which
in turn breeds less members. I consider our society to be strong however, I
feel we are dangerously close to critical mass. Obviously the KF is the
biggest expense we have.

According to Tony the K-Factor expense has been addressed and reduced
substantially. I will give the new publisher a chance to prove himself,
before thinking about further changes there. The advertising needs to be
aggressively pursued, however they will need to see increased distribution
of a better product before we get many new ones, and the old ones buy back
in. Rate restructuring is part of the mix that we will work on. I understand
we have pretty much living off our bank account for a while, and we have to
turn that around. The other major revenue, I am told is dues, and that needs
to be reviewed carefully before making any changes.  Maybe we need to get
involved in setting up Pattern hardware only Swap meets/Seminars across the
Districts early in the spring. Good place to show off Pattern and NSRCA,
pass down old planes and hardware, generate interest, provide instruction,
help with problems, answer questions, and generate some revenue.

3.As an FAI pilot in the USA I am a member of the society. I know that both
of you fly FAI as well. There has been talk of  Masters and FAI being at
odds for presstime and or focus from the society. What are your ideas on the
interaction between FAI and the Masters levels?

I see no reason for FAI and AMA/NSRCA to be at odds for attention or
support. We have a lot in common and can help each other in a lot of areas.
We cover Pattern, and both are an integral part of the mix. However, we have
to recognize that NSRCA is an AMA SIG, and has no specifically direct ties
to FAI. Our only real tie is through AMA, personal influence, and personal
contacts. We need to show AMA where we can be of more assistance to them on
FAI related matters, and maybe get more directly involved where we can. The
Masters discussion usually revolves around "staying in synch" or "following
FAI's direction" on rules or maneuvers. Since they both contain the best
pilots of AMA or FAI, it seems a good idea to keep them similar where it
makes sense, especially in the equipment areas. A lot of recognition comes
to AMA, and down to AMA Aerobatics and NSRCA, as a result of our FAI
Championship Teams results. AMA RC Pattern can only benefit from FAI press.


 4.  What are your plans to work with the AMA on rules changes and how we
work in the process? Do you feel the NSRCA should be a guiding light for the
Or do you think that the AMA as our parent organization is the guiding light
and we should be a sounding board and data collection source for that AMA
contest board

Now that AMA is on a new  two year cycle, we have a unique opportunity to
help them, and demonstrate directly what NSRCA's best role is for
development of new schedules,  maneuver descriptions, and associated rules
changes. We have collectively taken the position in the past, that we should
have a more direct and controlling role in these processes. So far we have
not been able to convince AMA nay sayers of the benefits of this approach.
There is some precedence, and we need to understand what has, and has not
worked for them. Armed with that we should be able to understand and fix any
issues they have had in the past, and ensure their continued responsibility
for control of safety and insurance related issues. We need to immediately
get head first in the upcoming cycle, help them get it done on time, and
demonstrate the benefits to them of that approach. It may be a hard sell,
but I think it can be done as long as we carefully and clearly identify and
resolve their issues. Everything will have to be clearly documented along
the way so we have a plan done, and in place for AMA to approve, and be
ready for the next cycle of changes.



 5.  Since the NSRCA's most visible contribution to Pattern of late is the
AMANATS. What are  your ideas to improve and better relationships with the
AMAand run a better NATS? Knowing   that things have gotten better every
year andthat in reality the NATS is have been a successthere is  still room
formajor improvement. Where do you think this improvement should be made?


Things have continued to get better since I started going to the first NATS
in Muncie. Ron has done a good job getting things organized and year to year
issues addressed. There are always some areas that can be polished up, and
it will take more work to get them done. We will continue to work with AMA
to see if we can find ways to pull some of the burden off them that would
help us. For example control and movement of the frequency pins, to provide
pilots maximum practice time at all the sites during our scheduled days.
Off site pre-event practice is doing better, but more on-site practice time
would sure help. The CD job is a killer, and almost more than one can
handle, but having Co- CD's may not be the answer without a careful split of
responsibilities and authority. It may be better to make it a two year stint
with an assistant the second year moving up to CD the next year. Combining
the World Team selection with the normal FAI events has some potential
drawbacks that need to be worked out. Comments on this list have expressed
concern over "a top pilot missing out do to equipment failures, and other
problems". I think this  needs to worked out within the FAI community to
their satisfaction, and resolution.  Site assignments are a  CD headache,
and are at the mercy of the quantities of pilots in each Class, and
scheduling to provide qualified judges available for each Class. The current
matrix system has worked, but still needs refinement to respond to questions
raised, many on this list. They need to be collected, documented, reviewed,
and responded to across the board. Once major agreement is reached , try it
using past NATS data ,tweak it if needed and try it at this years NATS. I
think there is common ground that can be found for most I have read. Getting
all the entries in early would help the planning process and give more time
to develop alternative approaches.

Lamar Blair NSRCA 475

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Tom Simes" <nsrca at shinymetalass.com>
To: <discussion at nsrca.org>
Sent: Thursday, December 16, 2004 8:19 AM
Subject: Re: Lamar's Answers to Troy


> On Thu, 16 Dec 2004 08:12:50 -0800
> Chris Larson <csl at direcway.com> wrote:
>
> > Hey All-
> > Maybe I missed it, but did Lamar answer Troy's questions?  If someone
> > could repost, or e-mail me offline that would be great.  We're still
> > waiting for our ballots here on the "Left Coast", but I'm sure they'll
> > be here any day. Thanks,
>
> I believe this is Lamar's reply:
>
> http://lists.f3a.us/pipermail/nsrca-discussion/2004-December/024914.html
>
> -- 
> Tom
>
> _____________________________________________________________________
>
>        |  ,  |               Tom Simes
> ---------(@)---------        AMA 230068
>         --|--                NSRCA 3830
>           '                  nsrca at shinymetalass.com
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