Welcome to the Zoom meetings where the district VP and AVPs are available to discuss and answer questions from members about the status of FAA Regulations, AMA Club Programs, Remote-ID, FRIA Sites, Altitude Limits, TRUST, Pilot Registration, Membership, Events, R/C Products, Building or Flying, UAS STEAM Education, Community Outreach/Advocacy, or anything about Aeromodelling.

We welcome club/member input in advance of meetings on any subjects of interest members might like to have discussed. On occasion, Guest Speakers will be invited and announced in the invitations.

Invitations to the ZOOM  for meetings the last week of the month from 7:30 PM- end of discussions will be emailed to club contacts a week before the meetings and posted on this webpage and the District 1 FB Group along with agenda items and any reference materials. Within a short time after a meeting, a recap/ take aways including: PowerPoint and/or PDF documents, Zoom video recordings of the meetings will be posted on this webpage. We welcome all members and guests to attend the meetings to enhance the discussions.  After the meetings we encourage members to share this page link with their clubs to share the meeting content and videos with those who could not attend. 

Continue to join us as we try our best to provide you all with accurate and interesting information and news about YOUR hobby in YOUR district and beyond! 

* Please scroll down this page for invitations and all previous

meeting "take-aways" and resources including videos of the meetings. 

December 2022 District 1 Monthly Zoom Meeting

Date/ Time: Dec 28, 2022 07:30 PM Eastern Time

Host: D1 VP Andy Argenio, Co- Hosts: D1 AVP Tom Siwek, D1 AVP Daren Hudson

Happy New Year!  We wish all a happy and healthy 2023. Hopefully we’ll meet up at a club or event somewhere.

We held our 7th Monthly District Zoom Meeting on Dec 28th. This closes out the first full official year of our Monthly Zoom meeting initiative.  We hope you will agree that they have been productive and allowed us to gather more members and club representation in one spot than ever physically possible in the same time frame. We intend to continue meetings Oct- Apr and as needed while expanding to offer topics of your interest and those brought to you by AVPs, CDs, SIG representatives, Club Officers, Members and other guest speakers. We want your participation in this district community communication process.

Attendance at this meeting was good for being placed  in between major holidays. We will always provide a meeting video, resources used and any added information for all to share from this page. Please share it with your fellow members and clubs.  Thank you to all who attended. 

Special thanks to AVP Tom Siwek for presenting a wonderful power point on Youth/ Aeromodelling Cultivation and Promotion efforts.  Also many thanks to our Special guest, AMA Education Director Kyle Jaracz who joined us to discuss the state of AMA Education Programming and plans for 2023.  AVP Daren Hudson introduced the new AMA Youth Advisory Board initiative and encouraged clubs and members to provide candidates 12-18 for this exciting new program.  A large amount of valuable information and resources were presented this month, it is all  available below.

Thank you from your District 1 Volunteer leadership team.

TAKEAWAYS:

1. Youth Membership Cultivation/ Promotion-  AVP Tom Siwek

   "Youth" does not only mean youth.  Consider this presentation a checklist for attracting ALL ages to AMA and Aeromodelling. PLEASE share with your clubs!

2. State of AMA Education Department- AMA Ed. Dir. Kyle Jaracz

   AMA has dozens of fantastic programs geared for K- Collegiate student activity. Check them out and PLEASE share with your clubs, fellow members, educators in your local communities and any organizations interested in a productive, effective, safe, and fun activity for learning and recreation. 

*See program direct links below.

3. Youth Advisory Board initiative- Introduction from AVP Daren Hudson

   "Youth leading and teaching youth."  Let's help the youth help us attract them to the many benefits of membership in AMA and our club COMMUNITY! 

4. OPEN FORUM FOR Q&A AND DISCUSSIONS

    Many great discussions in this meeting video.  Use the "chapters" function in the video "Description" section to navigate around the meeting.  One wonderful takeaway brought up by AVP John Yassemedis during these discussions after one of our participants offered a fantastic TESTIMONIAL at  25:28 in the meeting video from Denise, a D1 member's wife, as she describes what modelling has done for her son. We thank her for sharing the inspiring story.  John suggested that we try to collect testimonials (forward  written or video testimonials to your District leaders; VP and AVPs) so we can showcase them in our multi media resources.  Identified or anonymous to honor personal feelings and privacy but to share the inspiration.

*Standing takeaway- Please share what you do as members and clubs in our district community.  Cross sharing on our district multi media resources:  D1 FB Group, Website, YouTube channel and your personal social media feeds allows a greater audience to see your good works through aeromodelling. Your Passion Your Hobby ONE COMMUNITY.  The more we share, the better informed our hobby and general public communities become and the stronger we get to face the many challenges ahead.  Thank you for all you do for the hobby and AMA. Fly Often, Fly safe, Have Fun.  Here’s to an exciting 2023!

November 2022 District 1 Monthly Zoom Meeting

Andrew Argenio, D1 VP, and Daren Hudson, D1 AVP Hosted the scheduled November 2022 Zoom meeting Wednesday, November 30^th, 7:30 PM (ET).  We welcomed 36 members and guests including: AVPs, Club Officers, Leader Members, CDs and EMs and visitors from other districts representing at least 15 clubs.  We welcomed several first time attendees and enjoyed a productive meeting with informative discussions and engagement from the group.  See the agenda, the resource documents and the video of the meeting *Introducing "Chapters" on the YouTube video to jump to your preferred topic.  See "Description" in the video for time links or hover your cursor over the video timeline and click "Chapters" to bring up a chapter list.

Thank you to all who attended.  Please share these resources with your clubs.  As always, if you have ANY questions concerning AMA, District 1 and aeromodeling do not hesitate to reach out to your district volunteer leadership.

TAKEAWAYS: Please share with your club officers and fellow members.

 1. AMA Receives First US FAA CBO AUTHORIZATION- Very optimistic news to celebrate with important benefits:

*Formally Codifies AMA Roles *AMA Safety programming is the Gold Standard * CBO Status Validates, gives Credibility to Safety Programming among Stakeholders and Regulators * AMA gets Formal seat at the table when FAA addresses recreational operations *Opens the door for advocacy efforts, securing altitudes, and creates pathways for FRIAs and *Help members fly as they always have with the same equipment they already use at FRIA sites.  

2. AMA Club Preparation for FAA FRIA.

a) Identifying the Primary Point of Contact (PPOC) club person:  Clubs will determine the best      person for the PPOC position:  Reliable, Tenured, Reachable (email/ phone), pluses- FAA interaction background, club officer, AVP, LM, CD.

*Contact/PPOC email suggested best practice - supply an email address that can also be directed to club officers for redundancy of communications. Servers such as Google Gmail, Dual Rates, and others can provide this functionality.

b) Completing the Initial AMA FRIA Questionnaire/Survey - This is an initial data collection in preparation for a formal FAA FRIA Application Process which will be administered only through AMA HQ on behalf of chartered clubs. Expect communication between PPOC and AMA as the process develops. 

*Note: Members/Clubs are not recognized CBOs and therefore will not deal directly with FAA in the application process.

c) Identifying Flying sites on AMA Questionnaire/survey- Recommended to use “polygon” (via Google Maps) vs radius method (see “FRIA Location” document on “AMA D1 Zoom page of D1 website- below)

Best Practice- We are trying to depict not only the location of our flying sites but the ACTUAL space occupied and airspace used with consideration for any future use (don’t cut your club short with space).  According to the AMA Safety Programming we do not fly over occupied buildings, groups of people, pit areas, or behind our designated flight/ safety lines. Depicting this with a polygon is much more accurate than a simple circle which is not how we operate, generally (few exceptions).

d) Temporary sites utilized for annual or infrequent events should have a process for temporay FRIA status. Examples - Sanctioned AMA Float Fly events at a pond or lake, or Airport outreach events at temporary sites? These will still need to be considered for tempoary events and their flight operations not to require remote-ID. Now that AMA has Authorized CBO status and a “seat at the table” these discussions/requests can take place on a much more productive level. This subject is top of mind for District 1 leadership and AMA HQ.  “Incremental Implementation Process.”  Stay tuned as this develops.

e) Issues for clubs with multiple sites chartered under one location. Example - AMA club sites on large sod farms where the site flight box and boudaries are moved considerable distances as farming of the sod is removed and grass replanted. We are waiting to determine if AMA club site boundaries can be enlarged to encompass mutiple sites within an entire farm/location or if boundaries for each active site can be updated online without having considerable FAA delays to get approved by having FAA pre-approved the entire farm site area locations for flight operations.    

3.  Return of the D1 Sponsored Annual Events – “2023 District Fun-Fly & Airshow Event”- Initial stages are underway to determine a site location and dates. We are currently considering Gardner Airport, Gardner, MA where many different district events have been held over the years as well as other locations offering similar amenities. A district committee has been formed and will be providing progress reports. 

4.   District 1 Outreach Team. Discuss FB Group and increasing interest.  Please contact Daren Hudson or Andy Argenio if interested.  Formed a Private FB Group in Oct to gather interested members and discuss how best to proceed.  For examples of the vision see the 2022 Concord Wings & Wheels event posting recap and these “Reels” at the D1 FB Group.

https://www.facebook.com/groups/amadistrict1/permalink/5460532820698280/

https://www.facebook.com/groups/amadistrict1/reels

5.   Takeaways from Safety Risk Management Panels (SRMP) on club flying sites. Contact Daren Hudson or Andy Argenio if you want any further info on the SRMPs.

6.   AMA Documents/Website Resources- Access, Updates- review, demo (shared screen)- Here is the Pitch! - PLEASE CHECK OUT AND BOOKMARK THE DISTRICT 1 WEBSITE AND THE DISTRICT 1 FB GROUP-

https://www.amadistrict-i.org

https://www.facebook.com/groups/amadistrict1

Please refer to the document links and video of the meeting below for more in depth information.  Thank you.

We always encourage members to contact us in advance of scheduled meetings

AMA Govt Affairs FRIA Process Tutorial-

*Note this link requires log in at the AMA website.

October 2022 District 1 Monthly Zoom Meeting 

Wed. October 26th

Andrew Argenio, D 1 VP and Daren Hudson, D1 AVP hosted the scheduled Monthly Zoom meeting on Wed. Oct 26, 2022, 7:30 pm-9:00pm.

Approx. 27 members representing 10 or more district clubs attended this month's zoom meeting, resuming the successful new communication initiative, bringing clubs and members together with district officers and guests to discuss all things aeromodelling and AMA. Participants included: members, club officers, district officers (AVPs: Tom Siwek, Joel Rosenzweig, John Yassemedis, and Daren Hudson) and our guest, District 2 VP, Eric Williams. 

District 1 VP Andy Argenio reviewed the recently released FAA Advisory Circulars, 91-57 C and 89-3, both linked below along with AMA’s Q & A sheet, and Andy’s short summary.   The AMA HQ Round table video is available on the website home page and at your District 1 FB Group.  Participant questions were answered and discussed. Daren Hudson led a short discussion/ recap of District Outreach activities and initiatives.  Members shared club activities including community and educational outreach. The meeting lasted approximately 90 minutes . 

Next Meeting- last Wed of the month: November 30 at 7:30pm. Look for invitation on this page. 

Agenda:

7:30pm- end of discussions
>State of AMA- AC 91-57C, AC 89-3, CBO, FRIA, Remote ID implementation status
>District 1 2022 season activity recap- events, outreach, District 1 Outreach Team!
>Open discussion