AMA Associate or Life members must request a ballot by mail to be able to vote in the ongoing election of AMA Trustees, because Associate and Life members are not sent copies of the official AMA magazine containing the ballot. Now that has turned into a problem, as racer and AMA member Clinton Whitehouse relates:

“What’s up with the AMA? The AMA has only one employee who can send out an associate member a ballot for the AMA Board of Directors Election, and she is out of the office until next year.

“This information was obtained from a phone call to AMA on 12/19/01 at 7:29 a.m. PST.

“By the time the AMA processes a request next
year, with 4 to 5 days in the mail and 4 to 5 days return mail, the deadline of January 15 for the receipt of ballots will have passed. Why can’t the AMA hire a temp to process the ballot requests?”


The obvious answer: They’re making it as hard as possible for members to participate in the democratic process, because they know that the fewer people vote, the more likely the incumbents will retain power and be able to continue to run the AMA the same way it has been run for the last 40 years, with no recourse for members.