2019 ANNUAL REPORT ACADEMY OF MODEL AERONAUTICS JANUARY 2020 Executive Summary Welcome to AMA’s first annual report. 2019 was a turbulent year with many ups and downs. Initially we faced challenges with 400-foot altitude limits, but through our advocacy work, members began securing the rights to fly as they have before. AMA stabilized three to four years of membership losses and entered 2020 with a balanced budget. Our partnerships are mutually impactful and will move the hobby forward to include work with the Air Force JRTOC, Horizon Hobby, and EAA. We also heard our members’ requests for clearer communication. We are finally starting to make strides in our communication efforts with a full communication audit and plan as well as new communication tools. Yet, as we ended the year, our hobby was thrown new challenges, most notably FAA’s proposed rule on Remote ID released on December 26. Rest assured, as we enter 2020, AMA will champion for our hobby against this deeply flawed rule. Thank you for your support and passion for this hobby. Together we will ensure that this great hobby can be enjoyed for many generations to come. AMA’s Mission The Academy of Model Aeronautics is a world-class association of modelers organized for the purpose of promotion, development, education, advancement, and safeguarding of modeling activities. The Academy provides leadership, organization, competition, communication, protection, representation, recognition, education, and scientific/technical development to modelers. 1 2 Table of Contents 3 Improve Membership Benefits and Retention 4 Improve Membership Acquisition 5 Increase Media Exposure 6 Grow STEAM Efforts 7 Improve Member Communications 9 Celebrate AMA’s Involvement on the 50th Anniversary of the Apollo Moon Landing 10 Promote and Grow Events 11 Increase Nats Attendance and Exposure 13 Advocate for the Hobby 15 Remote ID 17 Build Partnerships to Grow the Hobby 20 Increase the Museum’s Digital Presence 21 Continue to Grow the AMA Foundation 31 Establish a Balanced Budget 2 Goal: Improve Member Benefits and Retention Give Members More Access In 2019 members have more access to data, events, and information. Members will see that AMA retooled many of its online features. Pictured to the right is the improved event listing on www.modelaircraft.org, giving members immediate access to event details, driving directions, event websites, contact information, and club details. Save on Travel Members can now take advantage of AMA’s Affinity Travel Program $109.37 and can pay back their dues with just a few stays. Members simply sign into www.modelaircraft.org $190.00 and access the Affinity Travel link through the Members Only section. To the right is a comparison of a Holiday Inn in Denver for February $171.00 4-5, 2020*. This one night stay alone saves members nearly their entire membership dues for the year! $171.00 *rates effective 11/7/2019 and may not represent today’s rates as prices fluctuate daily. Improve Member Online Experience Members can more easily recover account and login information. AMA also launched an abandoned cart procedure to assist members in completing their application and an auto-renew option so members can easily maintain their membership. 3 4 Goal: Improve Membership Acquisition AMA successfully stopped a four-year decline in membership this year and maintained a steady month-by-month membership count. 200000 180000 160000 140000 120000 100000 80000 60000 40000 20000 0 January February March April May June July August September October November December adult members youth members AMA Enrolls 12,000 New Adult Members AMA completely revised its marketing efforts to include an aggressive digital marketing campaign. The campaign successfully introduced thousands of new members to the AMA and AMA clubs. Approximately 87% of new members are in the adult or senior category. Other (Life, Affiliate, etc..) New Park Pilots 12% New Members New Seniors 88% Renewing Members New Adults 4 Goal: Increase Media Exposure AMA invited Nickelodeon’s hit TV show “Dude Perfect” to fly at AMA’s Richardson Radio Control Flying Club in Princeton, Texas (pictured above). AMA Youth member Rhett Lambert helped arrange the shoot and participated in the episode. The episode debuted May 1, 2019, as 720,000-plus viewers that night were introduced to the joy model aviation on Nickelodeon. 5 6 Goal: Grow STEAM Efforts To build upon AMA’s Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, and Mathematics (STEAM) programs, this year AMA was awarded a $100,000 grant from the Arconic Foundation - double 2018! Thanks to the Arconic Foundation and AMA donor support, AMA can continue to introduce youth the joys of avia- tion through STEAM curriculum and programs throughout the country. 6 Goal: Improve Member Communications Members are the heart and soul of our hobby. When our members, clubs, and special interest groups are empowered to be successful, the hobby and association will be successful. This year, AMA worked to improve our communications to our membership. Content Strategy AMA conducted an audit and established key performance indicators for all of our communication pieces to improve the effectiveness of our messaging. In addition, the strategy creates a methodology to better schedule and distribute content to members. 6 Million Emails Over the course of the year, members received 6-plus million emails with information about the hobby and association. Model Aviation Redesign Members received a complete new Model Aviation this year. The entire magazine was redesigned to provide members with better content, access to information, and an improved reading experience. AMA Podcasts and Live Streams Members participated in new media platforms to include the AMA Podcast hosted by Matt Ruddick. Tune in each week through your favorite podcast provider or at www.modelaircraft.org/podcast. Pictured to the left is a SIG leadership live stream to better communicate with our leaders and members. More Engaging Social Media AMA retooled its social media strategy to better engage our members. This year Facebook exceeded 62,000 followers, comments and messages are quickly responded to and posts are more strategically placed. 7 8 8 Goal: Celebrate AMA’s Involvement on the Apollo Moon Landing During the 50th Anniversary This is more than just a hobby. AMA celebrated the members who made the Apollo mission a success to include Bob Wells who designed the descent engine and Neil Armstrong who commanded the operation. All cited aeromodeling as the catalyst to their careers in aviation. 06 / 2019 BRINGING MODELERS TOGETHER $6.95 JUNE 2019 / VOL. 45 / NO. 06 45 / NO. VOL. JUNE 2019 / PAGE 18 / From Free Flight to Space Flight ModelAviation.com 9 10 Goal: Promote and Grow Events In addition to significant website upgrades for Contest Directors and Event Managers, AMA supported and promoted numerous events this year including these special 2019 events. Tournament of Champions AMA participated and promoted the 2019 Tournament of Champions reunion to include celebrating the event’s historic significance through the National Model Aviation Museum. National Association of Rocketry World Cup In addition to hosting the National Association of Rocketry World Cup at the International Aeromodeling Center, AMA and NAR leadership collaborated on advocacy efforts. FAI World Championships AMA helped facilitate numerous FAI events and championships across the globe in 2019 to include F3P, F3K, F3CN, F3A, F3B, F3D-F5D, F5J, F1E, and F1ABC. 10 Goal: Increase Nats Attendance and Exposure In 2019, AMA implemented a new and competitions to a new generation strategic effort to grow and promote of modelers. Topics included: Hunting the Nats to include more aggressive Thermals, Collective Pitch RC Helicopters, advertising and communication efforts to RC Pylon Callers, and Asymmetrical CL expose competition to new members. As Speed Design. These videos offer other a result, we successfully reversed a 10- members and hobbyists an inside peek into year decline in Nats participation with a the sport and diversity of our hobby. 9% growth, adding 66 more participants than last year! AMA also increased its electronic communication and promotion of Nats. In AMA dramatically ramped up its addition to our regular coverage in AMA communication and promotion of the 34- Air and AMA Today, we distributed 23 mass day event. AMA created 86 blog posts with emails, 4,934 Flickr photos, 51 Facebook event and daily updates totaling 61,189 posts, and 53 Instagram posts all reaching page views by 46,054 individuals. AMA over 100,000 eyeballs. coverage culminated with more than 20 pages in Model Aviation magazine. That’s To maintain this momentum, AMA invited great exposure to our hobby, disciplines, all the CDs and Special Interest Group and SIGs! leaders to AMA HQ (photo above). The goal of the day-long meeting was to AMA created 10 videos as we helped collaborate on new ideas to maintain explain and introduce our SIGs, disciplines, growth for Nats 2020. 11 12 802 23 COMPETITORS EMAILS 20 10 PAGES VIDEOS MODEL AVIATION 4,934 PHOTOS 86 BLOG POSTS 53 61,189 POSTS PAGE VIEWS* 46,054 POSTS51 UNIQUE VIEWS* * Data from May 29-August 31 12 Goal: Advocate for the Hobby LOCAL ADVOCACY 302 state-level bills were introduced in 2019 from 39 different states. AMA effectively tracked and engaged with every bill. As needed, AMA attended hearings, proposed amendments, or mobilized members to positively shape a bill. AMA IS SHAPING NATIONAL POLICY AMA championed in the 2018 FAA Reauthorization bill to mandate that community based organizations such as AMA have a leading role in shaping regulations. This year, AMA has successfully led efforts with industry-led roundtables, the Unmanned Aircraft Safety Team, the Drone Advisory Committee, and other policy efforts. ALTITUDE PROTECTIONS AMA successfully advocated and is obtaining altitudes above 400 AGL for our flying sites in both controlled and uncontrolled airspace.