Present: Mike Karnes, Gil Major, Samantha McKinney, Adi Kochav, Brad Davy, Steve Sides, Jeff Marsuchek, Doug Pilcher, Clark Hymas, and Alex Dreiling
Absent: Phil Vance
Meeting began 9:00 p.m. EST.
Welcome – Mike Karnes
The reason the BOD meeting was scheduled a week earlier was because this would have put the Worlds meeting during the NATs. Most of the event team for the NATs is on the Worlds staff.
The Passing of John Schroder – Mike Karnes
Mike wanted to inform the BOD that John Schroder passed away last week. Over the weekend, Mike has been speaking with AMA and Keith Sessions and they have an idea that they wanted to run by the IMAC BOD. AMA wants to have an award, just like the Bennett Cup, in John and Tina’s name. The trophy would sit alongside the Bennett Cup at AMA. This award would be calculated based off raw scores, with no drops, and the only NATs participants that could receive this award would be the juniors and seniors. John and Tina have done so much for the youth of IMAC that this award is only fitting. The BOD was unanimous for this award.
Mike informed the BOD that awards of this stature must be donated. Mike asked the BOD to set aside enough money to create this trophy. The IMAC BOD can set a maximum amount and ask for donations. Brad believes that there would be several IMAC members who would like to have the opportunity to donate towards this award. As of right now, this award may not be handed out until 2019, due to the fact we don’t know how long it would take to make a trophy of this size. This trophy will be strictly handed out to the juniors and seniors in scale aerobatics.
The BOD agrees to proceed with the award. A motion was made to set a current maximum amount of $1,000 towards this award by Brad Davy and seconded by Doug Pilcher. The BOD unanimously agreed.
World Championship – Steve Sides
We have another sponsor from Japan. We are currently in the process of auctioning the plane donated from AJ Aircraft. Steve is speaking with Dave with Desert Aircraft. Doug has been speaking with Al Young from JTec.
Shirts and hats are still for sale. Steve encourages the RDs to sell the shirts and hats at their local contests. Mike would like to know the sizes and colors that are sold, just to have a record on hand for the future.
We are in good shape with judges. Roy has been contacted about the trophies and they are ordered. We still need to get the sponsor appreciation awards ordered. These will be handed out at the banquet.
We must make a financial commitment on the coins, which hasn’t been done yet. Adi will order the coins today. Adi thinks we need to order 200 coins. We can order more, if needed. The molds are good for two years. Every time you reorder, it gives you another two years. We will probably give out 150 coins. This would leave 50 to sell. We will put them on the website after the Worlds.
We have three more countries registered to attend, Mexico, Czech Republic, and Switzerland.
Phil has a running list of pilots that have paid. The deadline is coming up for registration.
Samantha showed the picture of the pilot bags to the BOD. Everyone agreed that the bag looked good and to go ahead and order when she hears from the representative of the company.
World Website Advertising – Doug Pilcher
Doug has reposted to the Facebook pages of the regions about the world website advertising, specifically the banners.
NATs – Doug Pilcher
Doug informed the BOD of the changes to the NATs format this year. The NATs this year is a straight 4-day contest, with only 4 unknowns. Before the first round on the first day, Doug would like for everyone to the flight line for an honor flight with David Moser and “Loose Change.” Doug would like for the CCA kids in the air, along with David. David mentioned that John’s favorite song was “Spirit in the Sky.” David would drift off from the rest, and bring “Loose Change” down last. Doug belives that this would be a great tribute to John. He would also like to do something for the banquet as well. Doug has a new caterer for the banquet on Thursday night.
2022 IWC Committee – Mike Karnes
Mike would like to get a couple of BOD members together to review the applications for the 2022 World Championships. We need a more in depth review to make sure these venues can host a championship of this nature, with everything that is needed. The Committee would bring their recommendations back to the BOD for a vote. Gil, Alex, and Clark volunteered to be on this Committee.
International Issues – Adi Kochav
Adi has been to Italy for the Italian IMAC Open. He wanted to help recruit more pilots for the IMAC Worlds and to check on the judging. Manrico did a great job. Adi was not satisfied with the judging. Some of the judges were not familiar with the IMAC criteria. Adi would like to do a Go-To-Meeting with all the International judges to make sure that everyone understands the criteria. The main issue in the judging was the snaps, break penalty, and break-in-sequence.
Treasurer’s Report – Phil Vance
No report submitted.
Regional Issues – All RDs
The Northeast just had their Granite State competition. They had some significant difficulties with the score program, but this was due to working in the zip folder from the download. There is another contest this weekend and the weather looks good.
The Southeast had a contest at Knoxville this past weekend.
The South Central has the second annual NATs warm-up and the NATs after that. They have a rescheduled contest coming up as well.
The Southwest is doing well. They currently have a break due to the 114 degree temperatures.
The Northwest just had a contest this weekend. They flew in 23-28 mph wind, but didn’t lose any airplanes.
The North Central is finally underway, no real complaints. Four contests is under our belts. We are only one participant down from this time last year. Canada is next week and the NATs warm-up is two weeks after that.
Meeting adjourned at 10:36 p.m. EST.