[cf100]

Plain and simple - if MAAC did not offer insurance would you still pay your $80.00 per year and join MAAC?

POLL: No Insurance would you still pay MAAC Dues

[pianodude]

Let's compare apples to apples... A good friend of mine is one of Canada's premier aviation insurance providers. Yesterday, I asked hime to come up with a quote that would insure our club as a whole with the same coverage that MAAC supplies. I will present the findings to my club at the first meeting in January for further discussion. I will also post the info here. 90% of the members (myself included) do not fly IMAC or attend funfly's( not anti- social, I just don't have time), so this may be a financially viable option with a club of about 65 members. Personally, I only join MAAC for the insurance.... John.

[Trumpetman]

The problem with a Yes or No poll is that the real question is usually not that simple. I voted yes because: the fields where I can safely fly my planes are MAAC fields; the contests and Funfly events that I want to attend are MAAC events; the contests in the US that I plan to attend this year let me fly because they recognize my membership in MAAC. I would also pay the dues (which would be less without the insurance component) to have a national voice lobbying for the freedoms we continue to enjoy in this hobby.

[MikeCam]

35% for and 65% against. I'm thinking that it wouldn't be close if more sport flyers out there knew that the insurance portion of their membership costs $15.

[d_orgera]

wasn't worth the effort....delete!

Merry Christmas!

Den

[bigguy]

Originally Posted by trumpetman

the problem with a yes or no poll is that the real question is usually not that simple. I voted yes because: The fields where i can safely fly my planes are maac fields; the contests and funfly events that i want to attend are maac events; the contests in the us that i plan to attend this year let me fly because they recognize my membership in maac. I would also pay the dues (which would be less without the insurance component) to have a national voice lobbying for the freedoms we continue to enjoy in this hobby.

+1 ......

[bigguy]

Originally Posted by d_orgera

Yes I would support MAAC. The hobby needs a governing body to fight for our best interests. The insurance isn't the only benefit. If you don't have MAAC to keep the CRTC, Transport Canada, local governments, etc informed and off our backs, we'll be flying little foam air-hogs in our basements for fun and not much else.

I work in telecom and I can assure you the CRTC won't hesitate to take our 72 MHz band from us and cut our power output on 2.4 GHz by 90% if there's no organization to lobby on our behalf.

Have any of you read about the feeding frenzy that occurs every time the CRTC releases a frequency spectrum for bidding....it's insane. The CRTC knows it can make a fortune selling off low power 72 MHz licenses for industrial use. Furthermore, as the 2.4 GHz band gets more congested, the first place they're going to look to cut congestion is with unnecessary "toys," like our RC stuff. We'll be cut down to 10 mW in a heartbeat, which is ok for ground level RC and, perhaps, park flyers, but little else.

How quickly do you want your flying fields turned into soccer pitches or nature trails?

If you don't want to support MAAC, get another hobby!

Cheers
Den

+1 ...........

[reo]

Originally Posted by d_orgera

If you don't want to support MAAC, get another hobby!

Cheers
Den

Are you actually suggesting that if someone chooses NOT to buy a MAAC membership that they should NOT even consider the RC hobby?.....you can't be serious!....maybe too much egg nog?

btw, before you light the flame throwers, I have been a MAAC member for 30+ years.

Ron

[Sharpy01]

Originally Posted by Trumpetman

The problem with a Yes or No poll is that the real question is usually not that simple. I voted yes because: the fields where I can safely fly my planes are MAAC fields; the contests and Funfly events that I want to attend are MAAC events; the contests in the US that I plan to attend this year let me fly because they recognize my membership in MAAC. I would also pay the dues (which would be less without the insurance component) to have a national voice lobbying for the freedoms we continue to enjoy in this hobby.

It's a nobel sentiment, but fields, events and cross border flying is based on MAAC carrying that liability coverage.

If you consider the question honestly, without insurance our membership takes a dramatic decline.

With such a decline, a decline in influence would follow. (assuming the association would survive the membership decline )

"decrease in fees "? LOL, yeah that will happen.

As long as MAAC kept direct representation with T. C. , I'd stick it out for a while, but I suspect it's a moot point as I don't think it survives the membership crash.

[Sharpy01]

Originally Posted by reo

Are you actually suggesting that if someone chooses NOT to buy a MAAC membership that they should NOT even consider the RC hobby?.....you can't be serious!....maybe too much egg nog?

btw, before you light the flame throwers, I have been a MAAC member for 30+ years.

Ron

Clearly there are many more hobby flyers than MAAC members. The retail industry that exists certainly does not survive on 9 - 10K notoriously cheap modelers?

.... A conservative ratio estimate I once heard from a hobby retailer was at least 1:4 (MAAC members to active flyers )