PAMPA ???

How long does it take to receive pampa? I ordered it several months ago. It was charged to my credit card made the payment a long time ago. 5 months into the year have not received anything yet?

Call Tom Morris and report that you havn't gotten the 1st Stunt News.
He will fix you up. 256-820-1983.

LAST EDITED ON May-05-04 AT 09:38 AM (CDT)
 
Actually, Shareen can check on the membership status and "turns on" the flow of SN.

Curt

Edit: Check your eMail--I fwd msg to Shareen.

Yes, Shareen can get it done too. However, Tom is the one that has the books on hand and can get things done a little bit faster.
I would still call Tom first.

LAST EDITED ON May-05-04 AT 07:34 PM (CDT)
 
>How long does it take to receive pampa? I ordered it
>several months ago. It was charged to my credit card made
>the payment a long time ago. 5 months into the year have
>not received anything yet?
>
>Gary Weaver [email protected]

Gary,

Not quite certain what you mean when you claim to have become a PAMPA member 5 months ago and not received a single Stunt News when I processed your new membership on the 1st of April, charged your account on the 15th of April (exactly 20 days ago)and notified our mailers on the 17th of April (exactly 18 days ago)to send out the January/February 2004 issue of Stunt News, the March/April issue and the 2004 PAMPA Reference Manual. This request was compiled of 23 other new members and late renewals.

The mailers do need to fit my “special” requests into their already hectic schedule since that is what they do for a living as well as printing. That is why I gather more than one name before asking them for this service.

As for sending a request to Tom Morris to get immediate action on missing Stunt News, Tom would need to contact me regarding the mailing of Stunt News since you would not be in the Reference Manual as Jim Pollock is and he would need to verify that you are in fact a member. At that point I would then instruct our mailers to send you the “missing” copies.

If you wish me to see when the mailers managed to put the packages of the three magazines together and mailed them I would be happy to do so. Please send me an e-mail message with that request.

Shareen
PAMPA Secretary/Treasurer

A friend gave me the PAMPA phone number just before Christmas 2003. He told me not to call and place an order until 2004 because if I call in December of 2003 I will be a member for the year of 2003 and I will receive the entire year 2003 supply on magazines in December and the member ship will be over. So about the 1st week of Jan 2004 I called to place an order and got no answer. I got busy and lost the phone number. I called again an placed an order in March. Credit card was charged on April 15 several weeks later. Its been about 6 weeks now seems like a monthly magazine should have arrived my now. I never said I was a member of Pampa for 5 months. What I should have said was, its 5 months into the year I should have placed the order sooner.

Gary, for info it's not a "monthly magazine", it's a bi-monthly news letter.

>A friend gave me the PAMPA phone number just before
>Christmas 2003. He told me not to call and place an order
>until 2004 because if I call in December of 2003 I will be a
>member for the year of 2003 and I will receive the entire
>year 2003 supply on magazines in December and the member
>ship will be over. So about the 1st week of Jan 2004 I
>called to place an order and got no answer. I got busy and
>lost the phone number. I called again an placed an order in
>March. Credit card was charged on April 15 several weeks
>later. Its been about 6 weeks now seems like a monthly
>magazine should have arrived my now. I never said I was a
>member of Pampa for 5 months. What I should have said was,
>its 5 months into the year I should have placed the order
>sooner.
>
>Gary Weaver [email protected]

Hi Gary,

Let me intercept this and see if I can't short circuit a potential finger pointing battle.

First of all, you may not be aware that PAMPA is not a commercial operation. It is a group of volunteers who love control line stunt and/or the people dear to them that do. Shareen fits into that latter group. She is my wife.

What you should know about Shareen is that for all but one of the years since 1975 she (because she likes to share what is important to me) has attended our national championships and worked her tail off as the head tabulator. For the last six or more years she has added to that burden the volunteer work of being the sec/treas and pretty much sole individual responsible for keeping the PAMPA membership and finances on track.

To do that she dedicates large parts of every month to keeping abreast of membership affairs, doing our book keeping and taxes and conferring with our legal council to keep us straight with the Feds. I reiterate, like Tom Morris, John Brodak and the other PAMPA officers and board members she does this gratis and because she likes to be involved.

While I'm sure your friend intended to be helpful with his advice, the advice was incomplete and inaccurate. Shareen takes the time with every new membership application late in the year to specifically contact them to ask if they are interested in a membership for the coming year or if (as many do) they really do want to get in with both feet and get all the back issues for the current year.

She does this (of her own volition) because PAMPA has chosen to run their membership on a calendar year basis; i.e. from January to December, rather than twelve months from the date of membership. It is clumsy to do so but, because PAMPA is an organization rather than a "business" and because our membership and resources are limited, the annual basis is the best way they can budget from year to year.

Lastly, the reason Shareen commented precisely on the dates involved with your particular membership is because she is absolutely, 100% accurate in her record keeping and dedication to doing the job she has accepted properly. Anything you or any other PAMPA member wants to know about his or her membership history is available from either Shareen's computer records or from the hard copies of PAMPA membership and renewal applications which are kept in our personal store rooms.

Gary, we the members of PAMPA welcome you to our organization. Because of the hard work of people like Tom Morris (STUNT NEWS editor) and Shareen it is easy (and often happens) that people think we are something like the NRA or Time Magazine or other commercial enterprises. That there is a host of paid employees who sit around each day collecting checks and social security payments.

That just isn't true. PAMPA is a small group of people world wide who love stunt. Of that small group we have been fortunate to find a very tiny group of volunteers who make the "organization" work. That PAMPA has not only survived but prospered over the thirty years of its existence is a testament first and foremost to that small percentage of devotees who are actually willing to do the work that makes it valuable to the vast majority who benefit from their work.

That that is true is not a derogation against the general membership. Like any volunteer group of devotees, PAMPA is dependent on that small minority to make the organization fulfil its mission. Most of us, myself included, want to build airplanes, paint them pretty and make them fly even prettier. When we find a forum that allows us to celebrate that passion every other month we embrace it and claim it as our own ... as we have done with PAMPA.

That is well and good because every specific interest organization needs a membership which clamors for information regarding that passion. Without the 2000+ members of PAMPA the work of Tom and Shareen would be lost in space. Of course, the corallary is also true, without Shareen and Tom, the membership would be ... well ... flying RC.

So, Gary. I hope this helps you understand the unique nature of PAMPA and how it works. Be a little patient and I can guarantee you your patience will be rewarded. Don't bad mouth the help becuase they are, quite literally, the help ... and not the employees.

Ted Fancher

Ted, when Curt answered at the top of this thread saying, "Shareen can check on the membership status and "turns on" the flow of SN." I was tempted to reply, saying, "And Ted 'turns on' Shareen." (But I thought I had better not.)

Ted, thanks for your input and I hope this puts the whole thing in its proper light. Sometimes we get impatient for our Stunt News, but that is life. Trouble is, even when we get it, we read it and then we get impatient for the next issue.

Thanks to everyone who is responsible to make PAMPA what it is today and for their continuing work to keep it that way and make it even better. And a special thanks to all those who continue to volunteer their services at the Nats and elsewhere to keep the competitions what they are. This is, after all, the reason that PAMPA was organized, and the purpose of its charter, although it has become so much more to so many people since.

I guess I should have said "controls"!

And to Shareen, THANK YOU, for doing such an excellent job.

PAMPA is just a group of slackers that run around in circles, each trying to out-do the other slackers that couldn't make it in the Tinker Toy Hall of Fame - and you want to join up with them?

I think it was Mark Twain (or maybe Saddam Hussein) that said he didn't want to join a club that had standards so low that they'd accept him as a member. Dittos, I say. All they're going to get you is a bunch of material that'll have your head spinning (build light, straight, etc.), and show you pretty pictures of planes that have yet to be backed over by a Biscayne, stumbled upon by my two year old, or slammed in the car door of said Biscayne. You really want that?

I mean, can't you take up combat or something? Knitting? I don't need no stinkin' competition. You'll just be one more needle valve I have to adjust while you're not looking, and one more handle I have to adjust for you as I so politely walk it out to the circle for you.

PAMPA, schmampa. Join the girl scouts. Join AARP. But PAMPA? All you'll get is grief. I know. Nothing but grief. No respect, I tell you (I'm adjusting my tie like Rodney Dangerfield as I type this). Next thing you know, you'll be looking for places to put the ##### trophies, and you'll be changing a tire on your tractor trying to find a way to do it lighter. And straighter. And stronger. It'll drive you nuts, I tell you. You'll be hanging out at the mail box waiting to see if there's some unflattering picture of you and that raggedy Ringmaster you're ashamed to be seen with. Or worse, a listing of contest results with your name at the bottom, and some silly mention of the one guy at the contest that forgot his triangles. Or was out drinking with the local floozies during appearance judging, missed his appearance points, and was made famous by a guy with a camera working for Girls Gone Bad. It ain't worth it. Knitting, I tells you. Think baby booties and sweaters.

And after that? You'll be tied to the computer reading this tripe when you could be downnstairs sanding. Or, my favorite, sniffing glue. Ever noticed that Elmers and Titebond smell a lot like that stuff you spray on your pantyhose to keep the static down? Just curious.

Now then. Stop this silliness, and go frame up that wing. That you're knitting.

Best to all that deserve it...

Actually it was Woody Allen that said in one of his movies, "I would not want to belong to any club or organization that would have someone like me as a member." And Mark Twain said it first.

Actually I thought it might be fun to enter a contest then do a fun fly with my airplane. I might try and see if I can have my name at the very bottom of the list on several different contests. Is there an award for being last place in all the contests?

I believe that quote has also been attributed to Groucho Marx..

[photo not recovered: 3e69bb3870f12ad5.jpg]

"I don't want to join the kind of a club that accepts people like me as members." -Groucho Marx

Whoa, your post and mine crossed in the e-mail, but We are right, they are wrong.

Actually is was Groucho Marx and he said it in a movie way back in the 50's. I was there. Ha.

Clayton, you're not a well man!

Steve,

Clyaton must have been down stairs sniffing, Ambroid, Titebond, Testors, Sigment, and Randolph Dope all at one time. Maybe even some posionous kind of urethane? Clayton, it will be O.K. Buddy, we would send a doctor, but know that's counter productive!

Well Steve,

The up side is that Clayton was booted to Expert. Those glue fumes he carries around are enough to get everyone intoxicated! LOL!!

Clayton, you need help, a lot of it, too!! LOL!!

C ya at Brodak's
Bill <><

I really don't want to know any more about keeping you up, I have to say.

Hope to see you at Brodak this year. As you'll be passing close to get there, perhaps we can get together at the ol' Ponderosa. The dandelions will be gone by then.

I think I read where you're employing an OS 46LA. Perhaps we can talk about that one nite. I've got one that I used in Mr. Happy, and it was just luck that it worked as well as it did (I actually borrowed a prop at Brodak last year, and it just happened to work out). I'd put the 46 on my profile Cardinal, and was never happy with it. Too much power when it came on, in my opinion. Went back to the Tower 40 with the 10.5 / 4.5 APC.

Anyways, I could use some advice on setting it up. Gaskets, prop, fuel, etc. I really don't like the whole package so much, but it's what I have.

As to yoose guys saying I'm not well and that I need professional help and have been sniffing Ambroid - well, that's what I like about PAMPA. Always looking out for each other.

Best...

>As to yoose guys saying I'm not well and that I need
>professional help and have been sniffing Ambroid - well,
>that's what I like about PAMPA. Always looking out for each
>other.
>
>Best...

"That's what friends are for................."
BRODAK'S!! c ya there
Bill <><

P.S. There's a picture of Andrew in it if you can keep Fitton up all night before Classic and PAMPA classes.

It's the Ambroid, It's the gluuuueee, I' ttttssss the St-t-t-uuuu ff-f-f-f we used to deeeeeeeeeaaaaaaaaaaalllllllllll with. No other reason for all of us to be this Nuts!

>How long does it take to receive pampa? I ordered it several months ago. It was charged to my credit card made the payment a long time ago. 5 months into the year have not received anything yet?
>Gary Weaver

Gary,

The facts, as presented in this thread, do not seem to back up your ill-advised assertions.

I suggest to you that, to date, you have gotten off quite easily.

Your credibility has certainly not been enhanced by this episode.

Gary: Some of the best things are worth the wait. Now you have made Dan's list. Was it worth it?

Mike,

Mr. Weaver quickly made it to the lists of some of us. The only noteworthy change to date is that on my list, having taken a whack at the divine Mrs. Fancher, he's at the top.

Redemption is not far away, however. Maybe Gary can once again recite how a neighbor woman is the sole cause of all angst and trepidation within his neighborhood.

Knowing what I do now, I'm betting the woman is a (near) saint who is merely standing up for common decency.

LAST EDITED ON May-10-04 AT 10:23 PM (CDT)
 
Gary, it is always best to be careful to research your complaints carefully before posting. Espescially when they are of the nature of complaints about Pampa. If you didn't read the fine print when you joined and you didn't pay extra for First Class delivery on the Stunt News magazine then you will get it when you get it. Nuff said.

Bill