Present: Mike Karnes, Samantha McKinney, Phil Vance, Brad Davy, Steve Sides, Jeff Marsuchek, Doug Pilcher, Clark Hymas, and Adi Kochav
Absent: Gil Major and Charles Lewis
Meeting began at 9:02 p.m. EST.
Toledo – Mike Karnes
The Toledo Show was last weekend. Overall, there was a better show then what it has been the last few years. This year was mainly RC groups. Symposium was on Friday and Saturday. Several interested individuals showed up. There were two new members who joined IMAC. Several old members renewed their membership. Some of them are coming to Muncie for the judging school. Mike believes that it was worth going this year. He has talked with Andrew Jesky and he is starting to promote IMAC to the people who are buying, due to some of his sponsored pilots and several pilots buying his plane.
Also, there was a SIG meeting with AMA. Mike had brought up the Survey Monkey that the Marketing Committee had mentioned. They did not want to mail them out, but they didn’t refuse to do so. If the committee comes up with something in way of survey, we can approach them again. They actually wanted to do it themselves, but don’t know at what cost.
Marketing Committee – Clark Hymas
Their last meeting was held three weeks ago. There are several ideas being floated around, and possibly need some refocusing of a few ideas. There has been a lot more interaction on all the different IMAC pages. There are several new followers on the IMAC Facebook page. The committee is still working very well together. One of their ideas being discussed is to have more experienced IMAC pilots being paired up with first-time or second-time pilots at the contest.
Mike has spoken with Matt Komar at Toledo about Freestyle and 3D. If IMAC wants to generate something in Freestyle, an ideas was mentioned that we put together a traveling Freestyle series across the regions. This would involve putting together a Freestyle contest that would go along with IMAC through the different regions. This would also include assigning Regional Points. These contests would have to fly Scale Aerobatic Freestyle Rules. Jase Dussia thought the idea was awesome. Jase would like to promote Freestyle more in IMAC. Currently, the Freestyle pilots have the Shootout and Clover Creek; and these contests are invitation only. These pilots would be required to be IMAC members to receive Regional Points. Steve also mentioned that several have mentioned to him that we need RPS for Freestyle. We could possibly have Freestyle and incorporate IMAC in it. A Freestyle contest would be held, with a few IMAC rounds in it.
International Regions – Adi Kochav
Adi has been thinking of some things to help promote IMAC International. Currently, Adi has 3 IMAC members from his country and is hoping to have everyone by the end of the year. Then a year from now, it will be a requirement. Adi has talked to Doug about there being a commitment between flying IMAC and being an IMAC member. Adi mentioned that maybe the U.S. needs to say that to fly IMAC that you must be an IMAC member. There needs to be a definition of being an IMAC member and how does the BOD want to approach it internationally.
The European countries want to join IMAC. The key countries are France and Germany. In 2022, there will be another IMAC Worlds. Manrico Mincuzzi in Italy would like to host the next IMAC Worlds in Europe. The key countries have very strong foundation behind the RC communities. This would pretty much convince them to join IMAC. They have huge facilities and airfields, some from WWII. The BOD needs to consider this before announcing in 2019. This would give the countries a long time to approach and make arrangements for the IMAC Worlds. Mike would like to announce it by the 2018 Worlds. Phil mentioned that we could have a ceremony and pass it on to the next country.
In the last Worlds, their entry fee included a one-year membership, which very few renewed. IMAC members are supposed to get a discounted IMAC fee, around $20, at local contests. Adi agrees that we should make it to where there is a certain amount of international IMAC pilots at a contest to receive the Unknowns, which was discussed in last month’s meeting.
Adi discussed ARDs for the International Region. Europe has several countries and each one is trying to pull to his direction. He wants to make ARDs for the European continent. If we put a member there that knows the region and knows the members, it would make them commit to IMAC. Adi wants to make Manrico Mincuzzi an ARD. The BOD agrees with Adi that he needs ARDs to help him. The protocol is to make sure that they are a member and are on the same page for growing IMAC.
2018 Worlds – Steve Sides
Adi has asked Steve for a high resolution logo for marketing. Adi is looking over the image and has posted it on the forum for the BOD members to approve. Currently, there is a lot of stuff that has gone out that we can’t change. We are getting to the point where we need to approach advertisers and sponsors. The BOD needs to be in the agreement on materials that are posted on the forum. JTEC is a big sponsor and the MX-2 is on the cover, which cannot be changed. We have mentioned a Go-Fund-Me page and Adi needs approval to proceed. We need to have an account established for the money to go into a separate account. We currently have no funds or expenses for the Worlds. The BOD requested a change for the VIP pricing for the advertisers to: Platinum level – $5,000; Gold level – $2,000; Silver level – $1,000; and Bronze level – $500. These changes will be made to the advertising flyer and posted to the BOD form for approval.
We have a couple of judges that need to be looked over, the Spanish and Australian judges. If everyone approves, we will get them on the judges’ list. We are starting to get photos in for the judges. We have not got any response from France and Germany, and Manrico Mincuzzi is working on them. Austria is sending a delegation. We have mentioned having some sort of a medallion for each participant. Steve has been looking around at the options available. Adi will send Steve information on the companies that he knows of that do medallions. Adi mentioned that IMAC World logo and a slogan on the back.
Adi has volunteered to come up with a document that would have instructions on how to ship everything to the United States and be successful. Steve doesn’t think we can address each individual’s country’s needs. We can only specify how the United States handles these situations. The problems are the connecting flights. The crate was too big and the plane was too small. There has to be a connecting flight to get to Muncie. Everything had gone to Chicago at the 2014 Worlds.
Website Changes – Doug Pilcher
The Education page is in place. The Archives tab has disappeared and been moved to the “Information” tab and that is where the Education page is currently residing though not visible to the membership as of yet. Ty and Doug are getting some articles posted, such as the RedBook reviews. Doug has been trying to recreate the Arresti training videos and Judging Techniques. They are hoping to go live in the next couple of days.
Restructuring Education Committee – Doug Pilcher
Currently, the new Education Committee is Ty and he will be carrying the brunt of the load. Ty would like for the new Education Committee members to represent each of the 7 regions of the Education Committee. Doug asked the RDs to post out on their regional forums to see if there is any interest to be on the committee.
Treasurer Report – Phil Vance
At the end of March, the current balance in the accounts is:
Checking: $31,251.69
PayPal: $ 7,689.08
$38,940.77
Total income for March was $3,315.92 and total expenses were $2,546.39.
Current balance in the accounts as of April 17 is:
Checking: $30,165.33
PayPal: $ 8,639.33
$38,804.66
Income for the month of April as of the 17th was $1,335.24 and expenses were $1,471.35.
The regional fund reports have been sent to the RDs individually.
Regional Issues – All RDs
Many BOD members have mentioned that the season contests that have started have had bigger attendance than usual. Phil’s contest offered free entry fee for first-time basic pilots. The North West had their first contest. There were 3 new IMAC members at their contest. The next contest is in about 10 days. The North Central has a judging school this weekend in Muncie. The season kicks off on May 6th in Seymore, Indiana. The North East is ready to start the last weekend in April. The online judging school has been going very well. There will be a one-day judging school in Baltimore. There are also some basic-only contests. The South East had to drop a contest in Virginia. Virginia contests are very lightly attended. All the judging schools have finished. The South Central opened a few weeks ago with a very well attended contest in Arkansas. The judging schools were poorly attended, which one had to be cancelled.
Samantha mentioned that there are some emails coming in for RPS points not posted. She has been forwarding the emails to the RDs. There are some pilots that still do not have their profile completed. The BOD believes that we should have required fields added to the IMAC registration. It was also discussed about having a membership card available to print out for each member. Samantha has been creating and sending IMAC members some cards off a template that Mike had created. Adi has designed an IMAC card and posted in the BOD forum. Phil will speak with the webmaster about adding required fields for the profile and to see if we can make a membership card available.
Meeting adjourned at 11:00 p.m. EST