Present: Mike Karnes, Doug Pilcher, Samantha McKinney, Phil Vance, Brad Davy, Alex Dreiling, Primo Rivera, Toby Silhavy, Manrico Mincuzzi, Clark Hymas, Rich Whitlow and Michael Hobson
Absent: Jorge Guzman
Guest: Adi Kochav
Meeting began 9:00 p.m. EST.
Approval of December 2019 Minutes – Mike Karnes
The December 2019 minutes have been posted in the BOD forum. A motion was made to approve by Mike Karnes and seconded by Doug Pilcher. Motion passed.
SE Region Hosting International Judging School – Primo Rivera
Primo has started preparing the International Judging School. Primo has sent an email to his ARDs. He has a couple of venues in Jacksonville in mind to host the school. The last judging school in Jacksonville was very expensive. Primo mentioned looking into Atlanta, since there is also a major airport.
Continued: Increasing Membership Fees Outside the US Establishing a Committee for IMAC Affiliation Fees – Mike Karnes
Manrico is still wanting to have the mass registration of $20 available to the International regions. This amount has already proved that it works. Manrico is afraid that if we go back to the $30, or $40 that the U.S. pays,we will lose several of the memberships. Manrico suggests staying at $20 for several years, then slowing increasing the membership dues.
One of the problems Manrico is encountering is getting the $20 to work in each country. The International regions have signed several members, but still doesn’t have members from the bigger countries.
Michael agrees with Manrico on the $20 membership dues. If the membership fees go up, we won’t be able to keep their membership. Many International countries have national organizations that keep things running on the ground. They must have money to do what they need to do. IMAC provides the unknowns and the rule book, so many of the pilots are questioning what they receive for their membership. For many of the contests or major championships, IMAC does not contribute financially. The International dues would be used to run things in the United States. The $20 in U.S. dollars, is $30 Australian.
If the fees increase to $40 U.S. dollars, the membership won’t happen. Internationally, IMAC is perceived as a U.S. body. Michael believes that IMAC should have national based organizations in each country. Another concern of Michael’s is that we might fall victim to our own success. If the International region keeps growing in numbers, it will surpass the U.S. in members. With this, the focus of the organization would move away from the U.S., with a potential of the BOD being more International members. Michael believes that there should be a separate domestic body for IMAC in the U.S. Adi said that we shouldn’t be afraid of globalization and we should look at the next five years.
Rich and Alex agreed with Manrico on the $20 mass registration. Manrico believes that in Europe, the members will multiple by 3 to 4 times. The International region has a huge number of participants. If we go after them one by one, it won’t work. Brad commented that we had the $20 mass registration last year and we didn’t pull has many members as predicted. He also asked that if they didn’t do the mass registration last year, why would they do it in 2020. Manrico stressed that the national directors of each country says this needs to happen. Many of them promised they would do it this year, but some will not. The countries that did last year, now have a procedure established. The $20 membership fee is the only change to make reoccurring membership happen.
One of the issues is getting them used to paying an IMAC membership fee. Currently, they get everything for free, which Michael disagrees with. Currently, there are around 5 IMAC members from Australia. Michael has around 40-50 member that have signed up with the $20 mass registration; he will get with Phil. they are thinking about using the championships for the mass registration. They are also throwing around the idea of having a little bit from each contest entry fee that would go towards an IMAC membership. Australia is also looking at the affiliation fee.
With the By-Law change, this allows the BOD to set the affiliate country membership fee. The plan is to give the countries 2 choices: to join IMAC under an affiliation fee, which would be a flat rate; or give them the option to register a percentage, 70-80%, of their pilots into IMAC. Michael agrees with giving the country the option to decided.
Manrico believes that mass registration will work and make the pilot feel they are a part of the IMAC organization. For this to work individually, we cannot take them away from what they are used to. Rich and Mike are in favor of extending the mass registration until we get the affiliation standards are in place.
A committee needs established to present the options to the BOD. We will need Michael, Manrico, and Jorge’s input, since they will be the ones that implement these fees. Mike appointed Adi to put this committee together.
A motion was made to extend the mass registration of $20 up until we have and the BOD approved an International strategy for affiliation and membership choices by Rich Whitlow. An amended motion was presented to extend the mass registration process in the International regions until we have approved affiliation standards in place by Brad Davy and seconded by Rich Whitlow. Motion passed unanimously.
Adi will keep Mike notified on how the committee is coming.
Posting of the By-Laws – Brad Davy
We are good to go ahead and post the By-Law changes. The AMA membership requirement has been dropped for required IMAC membership.
Manrico believes that IMAC should be a part of FAI. He says it would benefit our organization in many countries. Manrico says that FAI is looking at supporting IMAC. It’s a discussion that we can have at any time.
NATs 2020 Update – Rich Whitlow
Rich has a group email out to the staff. We established a good portion of the staff. We currently have 3 judges in place, looking for 5 more. Yolanda said that we have the camping spots. We have the meeting room and the banquet room. We are on the back site, site 4. We can also camp on the back site if anyone wants to. There is electricity and water back there. There are currently 5 guys that have signed up for the competition.
RCP’s due by March 15th – Doug Pilcher
Doug hasn’t heard of any RCP’s as of late last fall from Ty Lyman. There was some discussion of centering lines/maneuvers. This would take a great deal of work to get this done by the sequence committee. Brad has had discussion on airspace control and whether we want to establish more of an end box criteria or an outward criteria. March 15th is the deadline to get he RCPs in.
2019 IMAC Year-End Financials – Phil Vance
Phil presented the 2019 IMAC Year-End Financials. This was posted to the BOD forum for the BOD members to review. Brad wondered if Phil could break out individual dues versus the mass registration. Adi said the countries that were in the mass registration were Poland, Czech Republic, and Italy, which was around $1,300. The total income for 2019 was $27,519.53. The total expenses for 2019 were $31,817.94. There was a total net loss of $4,298.41.
Brad wondered if we could line this up with the budget versus what we actually spent.
We didn’t receive any money for the judging manuals are inserts.
Treasurer’s Report – Phil Vance
At the end of January, the General Operating account is as follows:
Checking $ 6,935.10
PayPal $27,264.58
Total $34,199.68
As of tonight, February 17, the General Operating account is as follows;
Checking $ 6,907.12
PayPal $28,492.46
Total $35,399.58
Phil sent out the regional funds to all the RDs. There is a disagreement on the regional funding for each year. The Executive BOD was under the impression that regions that had excessive funds would have to spend down their account before they received additional funding from IMAC.
Brad remembered that each region would get $1,250 from IMAC on a yearly basis. If they didn’t spend it, the remaining balance would return to IMAC. If they went over the budgeted $1,250, it would be taken out of the regional accumulated fund. Some regions are saving towards electronic scoring. Phil was concerned about the IMAC liability that is due to the regions and being spent each year. Eventually the regions would have more than what IMAC has combined.
The point was for the reserves in the funding would be used because the budget couldn’t sustain the reserves. The money agreed to be held over was the money that was raised by each region. Many RDs thought that each year they would get $1,250 for their regions; if they went over, it came out of their accumulated regional funds.
The RDs want it to be kept separate, the $1,250 allocated budget and the reserves (savings) that is in their account. Rich had a question if you had a fundraising, where would the money go, general operating or regional account. Many agreed that this would go into the regional funding.
Brad suggests that we need to better define what are the allowable expenses the RD can spend with the allocated budget. In Brad’s mind, the budgeted funds should only be spent on regional awards and regional judging schools. Alex believes that banquet style for food should come out of the regional funds. Rich agrees that the $1,250 should be used for the regional awards and judging schools. Primo agrees to put limitations on the allocated budgeted funds.
Mike showed the numbers if the RDs would happen to empty their regional funds and use the allocated budgeted numbers. IMAC General Operating would be hard to self-support if the region retains funds. This paints a grim picture. We’ve carried their funds in with IMAC budget for too many years. IMAC only has $12,000 to work with, not $31,000.
Rich asks that we bring this into the forums to be discussed. We don’t want to destroy the budget, but we can’t have IMAC go broke. We will get together and see what we are going to do. We need to split it out and see what is accurate, along with what is guaranteed to the regions.
Regional Issues – All RDs
There isn’t much going on in the NW. Clark reported their judging school is in 2 weeks. The first contest is scheduled for the first of April.
The first contest in the SW was last month and had 36 people. There are three contests coming up next month.
The SC has a boot camp on the 22nd. There is a judging school in a few weeks. Some members are going to Clover Creek to help with their judging school. First contest is in Odessa. There is a skills clinic coming up as well. We get started on the 28th of March.
The NC has several things going on. Toby wants to ask the BOD about the Toledo show. Last year, the BOD allowed people to join as new member or expired member for $20. We got 18 people signed up last year. We would like to continue that, which is currently at the discretion of the RD. In the booth, there are dedicated volunteers. We will have T-shirts for sale. We are going to have simulators there with IMAC models. Bert Garrison is going to do a monitor with all the pictures from the last year. We also have several primers this year in the region. We have 2 on the schedule now, and will be another in the Chicago area.
The NE scheduled is coming together; waiting on April to get things rolling.
The SE will be having a contest in Miami. There is 17-18 pilots signed up, none for basic. Primo is struggling to get people to show up to judging school. Primo is looking for a South Carolina ARD.
The European region has a lot of boot camps going on. They are working on the Europeans. Everything is ready, except for a few things.
Meeting adjourned 11:18 p.m. EST.