MAAA Wingspan

27 MAY WING SPAN MAAALogo. The MAAA Annual Conference was held on 15 May, and the State Associations have elected a new committee to lead the MAAA. Your new leadership team is: • Tim Nolan from ANSW as President • Michael Hobson fromMAAQ as the Vice President • Gary Pope from NSWFFS as the Treasurer • Tyson Dodd as the Federal Secretary On behalf of the MAAA and the State Associations I would like to acknowledge the efforts of our past President, Mr Neil Tank from South Australia. Neil lead the MAAA for the past nine years through some very challenging times, including a rapidly changing regulatory landscape. We all owe Neil a debt of gratitude for his dedication and service to the MAAA and aeromodelling. The new team is ready to take on any challenges, and to build on Neil’s achievements. You will see some troubling data in the Safety Section where we had a large increase in accident/incidents. The old story, “it won’t happen to me…, I know what I am doing, don’t tell me” is something we all need to consider. It is no fun for anyone having to clean up after an incident, get you to hospital, arrange for friends to pack up your models and then try to get them returned to you, while trying to explain to your family what happened. Have a look at your Club and ask…when was the last safety audit/review done? The Conference also endorsed a new direction for the MAAA with amendments to the MAAA constitution to recognise the importance of our Clubs. Clubs are the fundamental building block of our sport, the first and primary point of contact for our new and continuing members. We will focus on supporting our Clubs to provide a nurturing, supportive, rewarding and enjoyable environment for all MAAA members. The MAAA will continue to help manage your regulatory approvals/exemptions from CASA, and our own self-administered turbines, heavy and giant model approvals, flight training and other support for our Clubs. We will also be developing programs to support the promotion and growth of membership, help improve Club culture and facilities, and secure the future of our Clubs and our sport. You will start to see changes in the next few months with the new MAAA Website going live. The redesign will make it easier for members and Clubs to find information, load their details, promote their Club activities, and publish events. We are building the My MAAA application, which will help you keep track of wings ratings, instructor currency, heavy, giant and turbine models and your inspector currency. There will also be some changes to the weights and certification procedures for heavy models that will make it easier to manage the reporting that is required from CASA. More details around the changes and recording will happen when the updated MOP/SOP are released. The App will work on your mobile phone, tablet or computer to help you manage the certification, maintenance servicing and records of your larger models. The long process of the review/rewrite and updating of the MOPS has been progressing slowly. This will ramp up over the next few months with a scheduled completion date at the end of the third quarter. If you have any questions or suggestions, I encourage you to contact your State Association Secretary. Together we can all work to grow aeromodelling and ensure that we all enjoy this great sport for many years to come. Regards Tim Nolan – MAAA President management matters: NEW COMMITTEE ELECTED 26