2021 NAMBA Nats Race Program

became popular. New rules had to be written for the new power sources. And with the rapidly changing technology in gas and electric power plants, rules had to quickly be updated. This was indeed a handful for the membership and the District Director. Cathie Galbraith decided to step down as NAMBA Secretary/Treasurer. About that time Al Waters resigned as NAMBA President and to this day is NAMBA’s Executive Secretary/Treasurer. Vice President Robert Holland stepped in to fill the vacant term and became the next NAMBA President, following Al Waters. Russell Stark won the 2015 election to become the next NAMBA President. In 2017 I ran for the office of NAMBA President again, and, once again became NAMBA President. The NAMBA President’s Office had changed dramatically since the 1990’s. We needed to improve our insurance policies. Threats of lawsuits intimidated some District Directors who would not be able to pay for legal representation. NAMBA added protection for NAMBA Officers if they were sued by individual members. Most of the threats stopped. The organization ran smoothly until early 2020 with the Pandemic. Across the world, organizations began shutting down the world’s social activities. Races were cancelled. Public parks shut down the use of their ponds. With no racing and/or practice available many members did not renew their memberships for 2020. Here we are today. While Covid is still a concern, so many responsible adults have been vaccinated that public areas began to reopen. Some districts were able to schedule races again. Membership began growing to pre-pandemic numbers. And, today we can celebrate NAMBA’s 50th National Championship, together as a large group. Over the past 50 years, NAMBA has had both good and bad situations. We can look back at the dark days when the membership split between APBA and NAMBA. In reality, that was something that had to happen for NAMBA to move forward. NAMBA made the changes necessary and we became one whole organization again. While we can remember some difficult times in the NAMBA history, the good times certainly outnumber the bad times. This is because we are one organization made up of model boaters, managed by model boaters, and we work together to improve the hobby/sport for model boaters. The big question is: Where do we go from here? That is up to you. If you care about this sport/hobby you will become involved as a volunteer. You will take the time to help others enjoy model boating. You will step up to help the leadership and become a leader yourself. If you do this, you will enjoy the 75th NAMBA Nats and, someone will enjoy the 100th NAMBA Nats. Yes, NAMBA’s past was in our hands. NAMBA’s future is in your hands. I followed Doug Twaits as NAMBA President. Cathie Galbraith had been the NAMBA Secretary, following Myrtle Coad. NAMBA was dependent upon the Coads to buy our insurance. The Coads controlled almost all of the membership funds. The money we had in a NAMBA account was small. To make NAMBA strong independently and financially, we decided that we had to move NAMBA out from under the Coads’ control. And, that is what we did. Don Coad was not ready to accept that scenario. He continued to say that he owned NAMBA. In a long conversation I told him that we could change the name and then he would own nothing. It was difficult trying to get one of NAMBA’s founders to step aside. But, that is just what happened in the early 1990’s. For the very first time, the NAMBA leadership found its own insurance coverage. We spoke with Traveler’s, a multi-national insurance giant. Our costs per member actually dropped. Plus, we were able to improve our liability coverage. Immediately, NAMBA’s bank accounts began growing. We used the money to advertise the organization and led to even greater membership growth. The next goal was to bring everyone back from APBA to rejoin NAMBA. This took longer. Slowly District 19 moved from APBA to NAMBA. District 19 was followed by District 8, District 9, and District 16. By 2001, we were back together again. NAMBA’s membership steadily grew from a low of around 500 members to more than 1500 members. NAMBA added an accident policy to cover members that were hurt at a NAMBA event. This was secondary insurance. If the member already had a health policy, NAMBA would pay the deductibles. If the member had no personal coverage, the NAMBA policy would cover the medical bills. This was done to insure that members without personal insurance coverage would not be afraid to enter NAMBA events. NAMBA was whole again. The hard feelings of the late 1980’s and early 1990’s seemed to melt away. We were all running our model boats together again. As we look back at those difficult years, it is important to remember that without Don and Myrtle Coad, there would not have been a NAMBA as we know it. There would probably been a new organization, but it would not have been NAMBA. Once Don and Myrtle Coad passed away, we were notified that they had kept a bank account with both WAM and NAMBA funds intermingled. WAM wanted the money as they were the older organization. NAMBA wanted the money as we were the larger organization. Eventually, the two groups settled with NAMBA getting a larger share of the funds. During the late 1990’s, Al Waters stepped up as Scale Chairman, then as District Director, and Vice President. He ran for President and won the election of 2005. The late 1990’s and early 2000’s were difficult times as weed whacker engines began appearing in model boats. Electric power 2021 NAMBA Nationals Page 63