Present: Gil Major, Samantha McKinney, Phil Vance, Brad Davy, Steve Sides, Jeff Marsuchek, Doug Pilcher, Clark Hymas, Charles Lewis, and Adi Kochav
Absent: Mike Karnes
Meeting began at 9:02 p.m. EST.
International Changes – Adi Kochav
Adi sent Mike, Gil, and Doug an update referencing IMAC / F3M and the International ARDs. The International ARDs are: Europe – Manrico, Latin America is Louis, Asia is Dan Carroll, with Henny heading up the International
judges.
Henny (FAI BOD member) and Manrico managed to convince FAI there is no need for two set of criteria for the same discipline; FAI has agreed the IMAC criteria/rules will be the governing force in F3M; F3M is now F3M IMAC. France and Belgium, the creators of F3M are flying, judging, and scoring to the AMA Scale Aerobatic Rules. Freestyle is a separate event. All European countries participating in F3M IMAC will register the contest on the IMAC site, and will be requesting Unknowns from the Sequence Committee.
The European countries are requiring IMAC membership to participate in a contest, and have requested to become part of the Regional Part System. The question came up how can Europe require IMAC membership in Europe when we do not require membership here is the USA. The answer was the RPS, regional point system, mandates membership to receive points.
The European Region would also like to hold a European Championship contest every two years like the USA does with the Scale Aerobatic National Championships. With that being said, we need to look at holding the 2022 IMAC World Championship in Europe.
Embracing the European community potentially will add upwards of 300 new members. This leads into the argument of expending the manpower to add Europe to the IRPS, which should probably come with some commitment. The BOD agreed 100 international members would be the magic number for the international member regions to be incorporated into the IRPS. There is not only some programming work required to have the IMAC site show the International Region’s points, but a learning curve on the part of the Internal CDs utilizing Score.
Should we consider having a representative from the FAI as a non-voting member? The consensus of the BOD was to leave things as is, and see what time will tell. We need to focus on the European region. They have very skilled pilots. Doug has been working on this and has created a timeline for the website.
2018 Worlds – Steve Sides
Steve has posted the brochure to the BOD to review. Steve would like to get the BOD approval for the brochure for what we will use for advertising. The advertising levels have been corrected. The advertising values are assigned the same dollar values as discussed in April’s BOD meeting. The wording has been standardize and the links are all functional. Most of the changes were on the second page. The brochure was changed trying to get everyone’s attention, especially those who are not familiar with IMAC. Currently, emails sent from the Worlds website to both Steve and Mike. Steve will take on all website inquiries. Steve will have the flyer finished and ready for BOD approval in a couple of weeks.
Along with the list of 2014 Sponsors is a list of potential sponsors never contacted in 2014. Please pass on the Steve the contact information for any potential sponsor. Steve will need a company name, a contact name, their position, an email and phone number with extension. There will be a magazine in 2018, and Mike was planning to put the magazine together. Steve is going to ask all the BOD and Marketing Committee members to divide duties to sell advertising. IMAC should start fundraising this summer. Most companies are already establishing their 2018 budget. Phil will have an account setup with a link to the account from the website. The World’s website Go Fund Me page will also need a link established. We also are going to approach all of the AMA clubs to see if they would like to donate to the Worlds.
The brochure is tabled for now, and Gil will call for a vote in about a week. Also, look at the list and see whom you would also like to contact personally. The BOD needs to look at the list to see which companies need to be removed, Aeroworks, for example.
With the advertising brochure going out, Steve mentioned we need to get the separate Worlds’ checking account opened and ready. Doug made the motion to authorize IMAC general funds to seed the IMAC Worlds’ account; the Worlds’ account will then reimburse the general IMAC account when funds are available. Gil seconded the motion. Motion passed unanimously.
Move Down Waiver – Age/Failing Skills – Brad Davy
This topic came up at a NE contest. The rules are currently structured so a competitor may not move down without permission of the regional director. Brad’s concern is someone claiming a valid reason to move down only to sandbag in a lower class to qualify for the Worlds. Brad is thing we should allow a competitor to move down with reasons that are agreeable to the regional director. There should be some disincentive for a pilot to move down. Some BOD members asked if there should be a penalty for moving down a class. Some feel that they cannot move down, so they move out of IMAC. Several have left IMAC thinking they could not move down.
We could have an accelerated move up rule. We do not want this to be taken advantage of, but we do not want to lose pilots at the same time. Charles had 4 pilots contact him about moving down, some said they moved up too fast or they have no one to compete with. There is a wide range of opinions and what the consequences should be for moving down. This is something the BOD needs to think about; the subject was tabled until a later date. There will need to be a policy where there is consistency across all regions.
Regional Boundaries – Gil & Clark
Clark asked the question on how the regional boundaries were created in IMAC. Gil has spoken with some of the original IMAC members, and it was geography. Such as South Dakota, there is only one contest and only 5 members. Clark wondered if North Dakota, South Dakota, and Nebraska would be better suited in the North Central region just because they are so far east in the North West region. Kentucky was changed in 2007 to North Central from the South East. We might want to consider this. Clark sent emails to these five members. Clark will try and get one of these members to become an ARD; none of them have been to a judging school.
Brad and Phil have been having this discussion with Virginia. Members in Northern Virginia more than likely attend North East contests. Some of this is due to the weather difference and contest availability. Gil would like for Steve and Clark to discuss this at the next BOD meeting.
NATs – Doug Pilcher
Doug Pilcher will be the 2017 AMA Scale Aerobatic National Championship Contest Director. Mike, Phil, and Samantha have been bringing Doug up to speed with lessons learned from the precious NATs. Doug is talking to several of last year’s team for inclusion on this year’s NATs team. Alan Batts and Skip Kixmiller have agreed to work as Line Bosses. Samantha, Rhonda, and Terri will be back for the scoring. Doug’s wife, Rosie, will also be helping with scoring and picking up Doug’s slack as needed. Steve Sides will be Chief Judge. Phil Vance has the banquet setup and the NATs team shirts ordered. One minor change is after the first pilot draw at the pilots’ meeting, the staff will use an automated drawing system each morning, so Steve may work the following day’s judging matrix and have it posted hopefully by 6:00 p.m. each evening.
Treasurer’s Report – Phil Vance
Current balance as of May 22, 2017 is as following:
Checking: $29,057.42
PayPal: $10,706.38
Total: $39,763.80
As of May 22, the income for the month is $1,141.10, with expenses of $330.99.
Regional Issues – RDs
North East completed an online judging school. Brad had 11 participants attending all the sessions. There was good feedback about the online course. The course was over five weeks, with each week having an hour and a half session. This is something well worth considering for future judging schools. Steve would definitely consider if for the Florida school. Brad had great success over the last 2 years. Brad won’t be doing anymore this year. Brad mentioned doing it on a quarterly basis, and have a different judging instructor take one class for each seminar.
South East is good.
North Central just had their first contest. This was Mike’s contest. Kurt Koelling ran this contest as CD. The weather was not great, but we got the contest in.
South Central is doing well.
The North West just had their third contest. The number of pilots has doubled from last year.
South West is good, except for the crazy weather.
A question was asked if someone wants to be on the Sequence Committee, who would order the software. The committee member would need Visio and software applications to add to Visio. Microsoft offers Visio to veterans at a significant discount. You have to also buy the Aresti libraries from Aresti. Gil will get with Curtis and work it out. To get on the Sequence Committee, a potential member must go through Curtis Cozier.
Meeting adjourned 10:58 p.m. EST.