I can contribute to this thread. The information is not secret, it is a published document and applies to ALL AMA supported FAI teams and there are quite a few of them, not just F3B/J AND we constitute some of the largest teams. AMA contributes the following to the FAI teams:
- $400 to the team fund - this typically is allocated towards the airfare, but can be for any team expense - Entry Fees for all pilots, managers and support staff - FAI registration fees - Banquet costs for all team members - If food is prepared and served on site by the organizers, it is paid for - Lodging for the contest days and 1 day prior and after (These expenses are supported as actual expenses up to 900 Swiss Francs ($832 USD) per team member - not counting the $400 for the airfare) The US F3J team is comprised this year of 7 pilots (including Cody R. the returning Junior WC) Junior and Senior Managers, and 4 tow people for an entourage of 13 people. Last cycle the AMA approved funding for the Junior team manager and 2 separate towers for the junior team, and this cycle they waived their normal policy and are also funding the returning junior WC (who competed in the team selections) so you can see that the AMA is INCREASING their overall support for F3J in particular. Unfortunately costs are very high for this trip. Airfares are nearly double what the fares were to Martin last cycle, and since the flying site is quite some distance from both the airport and the hotels we will have very high ground transportation costs - we will need 3 large vans for all the people and equipment. The total budget for the trip looks like about $45K with AMA supporting about $15K which is about the same as last cycle, so we have huge hill to climb. In previous cycles the soaring community has been very generous and we basically broke even on the last cycle. With the generosity of many people we can hopefully raise enough funds to make the final accounting minimally painful to the pilots and team managers (tower costs are fully reimbursed by the team). I also appreciate the offer of clubs adding a fee to their contests to support the F3J team. However, as desperately as we need the funding, I am not a fan of "taxing" pilots to support our goals. People need to support the organizations and groups that they choose to support. I would prefer that clubs solicit donations at their events to support the team. I am all for specific fundraising events where pilots attend specifically to support the team. I will be preparing a brochure that you can print and pass out for raffle sales, merchandise sale and donations at your events, I hope to have that done this weekend. I am very optimistic that our supporters will again come through and help us send a thoroughly prepared team to Turkey with nothing to worry about except winning the golds!!! Thanks to all of our sponsors and supporters again.... Jim Monaco US F3J Team Manager 2008 -----Original Message----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Thursday, January 31, 2008 3:38 PM To: Joe Rodriguez; 'RCSE'; Richard Burnoski Subject: Re: [RCSE] Winter blues and USA F3J fundraising Joe, if we knew how much $ AMA does supply to support our W/C teams we would probably say wow, that much. That info is probably available from many sources, including the team managers and members. Anybody wish to make that info available ? Meanwhile, Joe, I think your suggestion of a $5.00 surcharge for every sailplane contest for support of our F3J team is a GREAT idea. I will propose to our club, GDSHS, that we do this and also that we add a smaller surcharge at our monthly club contests for the same purpose. I am going to try to spread this idea in our area, starting now. How does everyone feel about this ? [Jim Monaco] snipped.... RCSE-List facilities provided by Model Airplane News. Send "subscribe" and "unsubscribe" requests to [EMAIL PROTECTED] Please note that subscribe and unsubscribe messages must be sent in text only format with MIME turned off. Email sent from web based email such as Hotmail and AOL are generally NOT in text format
