Ep 222: Is the AMA Selling Muncie? Our Questions and Concerns

0:00

Hello, everyone. Welcome to the RC Plane Lab podcast. I'm Ron.

Oh, and I'm Tom.

And I'm Dave. Sorry, forgot my place.

You did. This is going to be a quick episode. We wanted to talk a little bit about the possible sale of the grounds in Muncie.

It's a hot topic right now, especially online. If you have been on Facebook at all recently, you will see there has been quite the hullabaloo going on around the newly released information.

Big word.

Yes.

0:42

Somebody got a thesaurus for Christmas.

I did. Word-of-the-day calendar.

There's talk of the AMA selling the International Aeromodeling Center, the IAC, in Muncie, Indiana. Before the email went out, I think the email was a reaction to what was going on online.

For sure.

1:09

They sent out an email on October 9 to all the members. Apparently, I'm the only one that got it, though.

I haven't checked my spam folder yet. I may have gotten it, but Dave didn't.

I have gone through all my folders. Nothing. I got zip. Zero. Zilch.

Tommy, do you want to read the email that came?

This is from Greg Stone, the gentleman who was on our show before he ran for president and was elected the current president of the AMA. I'll read the email. Dear Tommy:

1:36

"We want to reach out to you directly because information about a possible sale involving our property in Muncie, Indiana, the International Aeromodeling Center that has been our home for more than three decades, has started to reach some of you. We want you to hear directly from us.

"We understand that this news raises real questions and concerns. This land has hosted the National Aeromodeling Championships, or the Nats—"

2:00

As we all like to call them.

"—the National Model Aviation Museum, and countless memories for our members and clubs, and we do not take any step involving it lightly.

"Here is what we can tell you today. AMA is evaluating an opportunity involving this property as part of our ongoing responsibility to plan thoughtfully for the organization's long-term future. This evaluation remains in its early stages, is subject to a number of requirements and conditions, and may not move forward.

2:31

"Confidentiality during this stage of a transaction is standard practice in any real estate process. It protects the integrity of the discussions while so much remains undetermined and is not a reflection of how much we value you or this community."

[Editor's note: The supplied transcript is incomplete during the next sentence about AMA's mission and nationwide support. Refer to AMA's October 9 statement for the complete wording.]

"There are no changes to our day-to-day operations. Programs, member services, and our team continue as usual,

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"and our top priority in any planning is preserving continuity for those programs, including the Nats and the museum, and minimizing disruption for our members, clubs, and employees.

"You deserve timely, accurate information, and some of what you're asking cannot yet be shared because key details are still unknown. We are committed to providing accurate, meaningful information, and we will communicate it directly to you as soon as we are able.

3:36

"Thank you for your patience and for the dedication you bring to this hobby and this community every day. We'll be in touch as this process develops.

"Sincerely, Greg Stone, President, Academy of Model Aeronautics."

That's the email. How do you feel?

I'll start. Having never visited the site, I'm not sure how I feel about it. I keep going back and forth.

4:07

On one hand, I think it's important to preserve the grounds, but I've never been there and I don't really have any plans of going there. I would like to go there, because I guess it's a huge facility.

1,100 acres is what I was told.

Okay. I guess I'm reserving—

4:34

I don't want to say judgment. I guess I'm reserving feelings for it based on what happens next. Does this mean the AMA is downsizing because they can't afford to keep the place because their membership is down? It raises a lot of questions that we don't have answers to. When we get those answers, I will be able to further assess how I actually feel about it, if that makes sense.

I get it. I'm also one that usually reserves—

4:57

—judgment until I have more information, but I will say the way this has gone down is sneaky and feels very underhanded and untrustworthy.

I can see why you would feel that way.

Feel the same.

Go ahead.

Here we are. We're going to maybe sell the place. You don't get a vote.

Not only is it, "We're going to maybe sell the place." It's, "Hey, we've had a lot of—"

5:24

"—discussions that we're going to be selling the place," and not a peep to us. You don't get to know about it.

But then again, do we need to know about it? Should we know about it?

Absolutely. We paid for that place.

Well, I didn't. I'll be honest.

You pay every year.

You said "paid." When they bought that, I think it was in the early '90s, maybe 1990 or something like that.

5:43

You still have to pay for the upkeep on it.

True.

You have an investment in it. Maybe not as much as somebody who's been with the AMA for 50 years or bought a lifetime membership, but you still have an investment.

Okay, devil's advocate: do I really? To a building? I don't know. Like I said, I go back and forth, so I could very easily be pushed either way on this one.

6:14

For me, it's a building I've never been to. I'd like to go to it sometime. Also, hearing that most of the people who work there no longer fly or are part of the hobby is disheartening. At the same time, what the AMA, to me, hopefully is doing is protecting the ability of us to be able to fly.

Right.

That has nothing to do with the building. It has to do with what they are doing with the government and all that.

I don't care about the property or the buildings or any of that.

6:45

That can be moved, whatever. It's the underhanded way that they're doing it.

I feel you on that one.

It's the sneakiness.

For me, what does the AMA provide? They provide the insurance that we pay our premiums to receive. They provide lobbying. There's lots of different opinions on how—

But can we believe what they're saying now?

—how successful they've been with that.

7:17

You can see results. You can assess how well they're doing by the results they get or don't get in D.C. for us. That's what they provide: lobbying horsepower, so to speak.

Besides those two things, is the rest of the stuff they provide—the grounds, the building, the museum, the leadership, if you want to call them leaders—

7:48

—as important to me as the two things I really get for my dues? For me personally, as long as I can continue to afford my insurance to cover me in case something happens, and I still get some lobbying horsepower in D.C. to keep the FAA at bay and out of our chili, then I'm reserving judgment. I kind of don't care if they sell, as long as—

8:20

—whatever they make on the property goes back into serving its members. I think that's where I'm at. I definitely think there needs to be more transparency on numbers and the reasoning behind this.

If you look at the minutes that the people online were quoting, they are spending $100,000 looking at the feasibility of this and crafting a message, apparently. What does that mean?

Exactly.

They approved $100,000 with no input from us for that.

8:56

I don't know where to go. I think we need more information. If you can believe Mr. Stone, we will get information when it is available.

When it's convenient for the council to give it to us, I guess.

Apparently not all of it.

Or that they feel like giving us.

Right. Is it one of those things where we should have input? Should there be a—we're voting for a VP right now.

9:28

We just had them on interviews. Do we get to approve or disapprove the sale if it goes through? I feel a little hoodwinked after having them on, to have all this just kind of, "Oh, yeah, we know this is going on. Vote for me."

There's nothing to see behind the curtain.

I can see why you would feel that way.

Specifically asking them questions that would have gone into that: "Is the Executive Council transparent enough with—"

9:57

"—members? What would you change? If membership keeps declining, how should the AMA adapt financially?" We got answers, but they were not concrete. [Brief phrase unclear in the supplied transcript.] "What we could do is, I'll talk to people and have a good time." There was nothing concrete out of any of them. Maybe I should have pushed more.

Even though there were clearly discussions about those topics.

Going way back.

Closed doors.

10:22

That they both were privy to, by the way.

I would like to know: has the AMA been trying to sell the property for some time, and now they finally have a taker? Or were they approached by this developer because they have such prime real estate for this data center? I would like to know how long this has potentially been going on.

That's the other thing. If it's one of those things where you have to look at all options and say, "Okay—"

10:55

"—somebody came to us and they want to buy this. We can't just say no without looking into it." Why are there NDAs? Why are there closed-door discussions? You need to be open with your members.

That should be 100 percent open to the membership.

Absolutely. NDA: that's a nondisclosure agreement, for anybody not familiar.

I belong to a relatively large club with a substantial amount of money involved.

11:20

Every single thing our board does is in the minutes every month. You're welcome to go to the board meeting, but if you can't make it or don't want to, it is published every month, every single line item. There is no hidden agenda.

Even our small little airplane club here—

11:42

—there's a guy taking down the meeting minutes, and they email them to the members. Why should the AMA not be held to that same standard?

The quotes I have from Randy: whether the Executive Council was transparent enough with members, he went on to argue that giving members more visibility into the council—

12:05

—was a good thing. Then he said he does not feel that it is the case, in response to, "Are they transparent enough with members?"

On the opposite hand, I asked the same question to Phil, and his quote was, "I believe that we're as transparent as we can be with ordinary members." He went on to explain that some executive-session matters couldn't be shared.

And there's no reason for that.

But he also said that major decisions shouldn't be secret.

12:32

At this point, that would be a major decision.

This is a major decision that is secret. The only reason this email was sent out is because somebody found it online when they posted the minutes, said, "What?" and started looking into it.

Too early for me to make a decision one way or another, but I still feel hoodwinked.

I feel a little led on. It feels a little slimy, and it could be the best—

13:04

A lot slimy.

It could be the best decision they could make. It could be the best thing for all of us, but the way you went about it is not the right way of doing things.

I agree. Everybody would like more information, but I really would like to know what the impetus was for this. Have they been looking to sell it, and why?

13:32

That's what I would want to know.

I agree. To be honest, we don't even know if they're talking about selling the whole property at this point. We have no idea. Maybe they're going to sell 500 acres. That's still a lot of land. If you still have 600 acres, that's plenty for, I would think, RC flight and all that.

Then who wants to fly next to a data—

13:55

—center? I don't know.

Anyway, the four of you guys listening out there and the one woman listening to us, hit us up on Discord, which I'm still locked out of. We also have email and various other ways to get ahold of us. It's all on our website that has been newly revamped, thanks to Ron. Looks very mice.

Did you say "very mice"?

That's a thing my kids used to say instead of "nice."

Oh.

Sorry. Old habits.

14:24

Let us know what you think. We will keep an eye on this, and if there's anything big that comes up, we'll let you guys know.

Until then, keep flying like normal. This doesn't change anything as far as club operations go.

I'm planning on flying until they tell me I can't.

14:44

That's all I got.

Same.

Same.

Okay. Give them hell. Until next time, I'm Ron.

I'm Tom.

And I'm Dave.

Good night.

Good night.

Good night.

We hope you enjoyed this episode of the RC Plane Lab podcast. For topic suggestions, to ask questions, or to give any feedback, connect with us at RCPlaneLab.com—

15:01

—or email us directly at either Ron@RCPlaneLab.com or Tom@RCPlaneLab.com. You can also text us or leave us a voicemail at 818-351-9846. Please subscribe, rate, and review us on your favorite podcast app. Until next time, may your landings be gentle.