Written by AMA Staff (07/1991); Reformatted by JS (04/2011)
AMA National Newsletter Club of the Month By Jim McNeill
This month we honor the Fresno Gas Model Airplane Club in Fresno, California. Club Senior Advisor, Russ James, claims it is the oldest club in the United States. If you apply Russ’s yardstick – continuous uninterrupted meetings and newsletters all the way through World War II, then maybe it is. It says on the Fresno Model News it is USA’s oldest newsletter. I’m not going to argue with that either. Boasting 60 active members, the club consistently helps neighborhood kids get involved in model airplanes by giving them hand launch gliders and then encouraging them to build their own gliders. In Free Flight, the builder-of-the-month rule prevails in all contests. Entrant must build his own planes. Generally, the club hosts a contest monthly for members and others. Russ James is a public relations person for the club [and] a Senior Advisor. Jim Crockett, President; Jim Lebda, VP; Ron Booth, Secretary; Luther Simonian, Treasurer; Contest Coordinator, Bill Morgan; Editor and Points Commissioner, Bill Booth, Sr.; Assistant Director, Mrs. Corky Mullen. We are secretly mailing Russ James a framed plaque honoring the Fresno Club as our AMA Club-of-the-Month.
Our Editor-of-the-Month is Mr. Bill Booth Sr., editor of the Fresno Gas Model Club. We are mailing him, via Russ James, a framed plaque inducting him into our AMA Aero Honor Society for newsletter editors. Bill’s excellence as an editor is what drew our attention to the fine club in the first place. Bill edits the Fresno Model News. In the May issue, Bill has a full page of photographs. Fourteen pictures, properly screened so you can see them.
The newsletter has another editor. A lady who adds a page each month called “Corky’s Corner.” A woman’s viewpoint no less. Corky Mullen contributes a great deal to the interest and sustaining value of the contents. An “Aero Honor Society” plaque for you, too, Corky.
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