Present: Mike Karnes, Doug Pilcher, Phil Vance, Samantha McKinney, Primo Rivera, Toby Silhavy, Adi Kochav, Rich Whitlow, and Alex Dreiling
Absent: Clark Hymas
Guest: Rick Crow
Meeting began 9:00 p.m. EST.
The BOD approved for Rick to sit in on the BOD Meeting to give the region report for the SW.
Annual Meeting – Brad Davy
On May 1st, the annual meeting was opened and the agenda was posted. The meeting was opened for discussion. On June 1st, the current thread can be locked or a new one created. Doug says that the poll should be on a separate forum thread. This thread will emphasize that the annual meeting is open and the proposed amendment to the By-Laws will be announced. This thread will include a poll of three options: Option 1 – For the proposed amendment; Option 2 – Against the proposed amendment; or Option 3 – Abstain from the vote. Option 3 is available for those who want to be counted present at the annual meeting, but did not want to cast a vote on the proposed amendment. There must be a 2/3 vote of members present for the amendment to pass. We are not amending the proposed amendment.
The poll will be open till June 12. After the vote is closed, the results will be verified and we will announce the results of the vote on June 14 and close the annual meeting.
Newsletter Article Sharing – Rich Whitlow
Rich was approached at a Pattern contest this past weekend. The pattern “K Factor” newsletter has been opened up to non-members. They are currently bringing in other disciplines as introductory articles. Rich was asked if we could share each other’s links and newsletters. Rich is interested in doing this. Currently, you don’t have to be a member to access our “Download” tab.
One of Pattern’s initiatives is to start mixing into the other disciplines. Rich will write an article on how to get into IMAC and include an introductory article. Rich will be doing a forum post, which will include a link to the “K Factor” Newsletter. Pattern will be doing the same for IMAC. Several of our IMAC members are members of both disciplines.
2019 SA NATS – Doug Pilcher
The NATS are coming along. The NATS team is in place. Rick Crow is coming to be line boss, along with Alan Batts. Rich is coming and will be wearing many hats. The shirts are ordered. We have received a commitment from a sponsor, but haven’t heard anything back from them.
Doug is printing the unknowns. Phil has the banquet and meeting rooms reserved. Rosie has been in contact with the banquet caterer from last year. They are changing the meal up just a bit. As or right now, there aren’t many pilots, but several pilots signed up through the last month last year.
Guidelines for IMAC International – Adi Kochav
Adi would like to establish a set of global standards and guidelines for all the countries. He doesn’t believe we can have a separation of standards per region, due to the possible misinterpretation between countries that want to fly IMAC. Should IMAC split the International region into three separate regions, IMAC will have 9 regions in total. He believes that we need a set of unified standards for all the regions. These rules are already being applied in the contest guidelines. These guidelines can then be given to a country that wants to affiliate with IMAC.
The second thing that Adi suggested was to make it mandatory for all International pilots to become a member of IMAC to fly in a contest. He wants to use a mandatory registration for the members of the International region.
Brad says that we can’t have a dual standard for IMAC membership. Brad’s recommendation is that we establish were a country can become an affiliate. One thought being they would become an affiliate member by paying a flat fee from their country based on the number of IMAC participant’s. Second thought, having a certain percentage of their pilots that are competing in an IMAC contest must be IMAC members. After the initial first year, if one of the standards is met, you can continue your affiliation membership with IMAC. To validate that they have complied, the countries must provided us with the contest, the contest results, and the IMAC numbers for those people. We would establish a process that their first year they would request affiliation, so they commit to meet the one of the standards. Next year, we will review your performance in the prior year. If you did not meet the standards, the second year you do not get to affiliate. To receive unknowns, they must be affiliated with IMAC. Any country that doesn’t meet the standards of flat fee or membership performance standards, you don’t get to affiliate the second year. Then, to receive the unknowns, the country must be affiliated with IMAC.
Adi doesn’t care much for the flat fee idea to affiliate; he wants the membership to be mandatory because we need the human factor, i.e., the pilots. Brad says that any individual can join IMAC at any time. Brad said that in years past it was stated that as long as you had a certain number of members in IMAC you could use the resources available, including the unknowns. Brad says that this was never voted on by the BOD and never made official policy. Brad says that we need to establish an official policy that creates standards for affiliation by country for the International region. If people of that region become members, they get to vote for RDs and enjoy all the benefits of the IMAC organization. If they don’t want to join IMAC and still want the benefits, the country will have to affiliate with IMAC. Brad has heard complaints that they are enjoying the benefits without providing the resources. We make it more advantageous to join individually, not as a group.
Adi is with the membership percentage standard and this is where the resources are. Brad says that we need to give them two options, and let the country decide what they are doing. Mike agrees with Brad’s recommendations. Adi and Mike agreed that for the next Worlds to possibly require that they must be an IMAC member to participate not at IMAC’s expense this time.
Manrico and Adi said to fly in the IMAC Europeans, the pilots must be IMAC members. The United States required the pilots that flew in the World Qualifiers to be IMAC members.
Brad will work with Adi and get a proposal together that will state the two recommendations and will post to the BOD forum to review. The goal is to have this ready to go by August or September.
Treasurer’s Report – Phil Vance
The balance of the IMAC General Operating account as of May 20, 2019 is:
Checking $21,914.30
PayPal $15,651.56
Total $37,565.86
We have been having issues with the website on updating renewal dates. Phil has spoken with the webmaster and has gotten this fixed. PayPal sent them an receipt, but the website still sends an email saying their membership is about to expire. If the RDs have been having any issues with this problem, please let Phil known for this can be fixed.
Impact software is now being debited from the IMAC General Checking, instead of the PayPal account.
Mike and Doug has been ordering stamps and sending packages through Stamps.com. Phil asked the BOD if we should get another credit card for Mike and Doug to use to purchase stamps through the website. The card is assigned to the Stamps.com website. Some of the BOD members thought this was a good idea.
We haven’t decided what we are doing with the 2014 and 2018 profits from the World Championships as of yet and still needs to be discussed.
Phil asked why not all the staff was being paid for the 2019 NATS. A budget was approved for the NATS. Mike says that there is no reason to pay a bunch of people for a 25 pilot contest. Rich says this is short- side if you want to keep the NATS. If you want to keep the staff, they will need to be paid. A lot of guys will have to pay to come to fill the spots that are vacant, but we need to keep the NATS financially supported.
Regional Issues – All RDs
The NE region has started with the season opener at the end of April. Brad had the region’s first contest in Pennsylvania. As of right now, he hasn’t heard of any problems with the FAA.
The NC region had their first contest of the year. There were 12 pilots. Toby says he has hit the ground running and thanked Ray for his time as RD. Doug has spent a couple of days of training Toby on the software. Toby reported that the next contest is this weekend in Columbus, Ohio and there will be a judging seminar in Canada. Toby encouraged everyone to use their region’s page for promoting contests/events in their region.
Rick Crow reported that the NW region has had three contests this year. Boise had to complete their contest in one day. Canada will be hosting the next contest. Rick reported that they are struggling to get Basic and Novice pilots to attend the contests. They have been using Facebook to promote these classes.
The SC region has held their El Paso and Odessa contests. Rich reported that next week is the Mississippi contest. After that, their contests are every other week. The region is running good. There have been no other issued except with some renewal issues. Rich reported that he is getting good feedback from their region’s Facebook page.
Rich reminded everyone that they have till the end of May to submit their articles for the next newsletter. Rich has been posting pictures of contests, along with the results, and many seem to like this.
Alex reported that the SW region is doing well. There is another contest this weekend and will be moving north for the summer.
The SE region is doing very well. Primo says that they have 4 contests, and have had 18 basic pilots from these contests. Some of the pilots have tried the Novice class and have enjoyed it. The clinic that was held prior to the contest had a very high success. Primo would like to continue to do the clinics on Fridays before the contest. There are several contests on the schedule. We just need to promote them and see if we can get more participation. At Joe Nall, IMAC had some exposure. An IMAC pilot did a noon-time demo.
The International region had four contests last weekend. Within the next week, there is four more contests. The region is getting ready for the IMAC Italian Open, being held in Venice. They are expecting around 18 pilots from 16 different countries. The contest in Venice will host all classes, except for Basic. Most of the pilots are in the Unlimited and Intermediate classes. Adi will see if Manrico can get some live feeds posted on Facebook. There was a contest held where the 2022 Worlds will be hosted. There are pictures on Facebook for everyone to view the field. The IMAC European Cup is expecting around 160 pilots.
Rich asked should the IMAC Worlds be made official with the sanction through FAI. Adi says that once you make FAI do the IMAC Worlds, according to their standards, you will only be able to use the Unlimited class. Rich wants to post that we are the Official IMAC Worlds. Phil says that the purpose of the IMAC Worlds was that every class could participate, except for Basic. The question raised on the website with the FAI is that FAI is the recognized organization for aerobatic competition. The forum is saying that we cannot call it a World Championship or conducting a World Championship without the FAI sanction. It says that if it isn’t with FAI, it is not a recognized international competition for aerobatics. Toby also mentioned that if the FAI was to be included, a representative would have to attend their annual meeting and present this to the FAI Board. There are several things that must be done for FAI.
Meeting adjourned at 10:32 p.m. EST.