Attendees: Mike Karnes, Gil Major, Samantha McKinney, Steve Sides, Charles Lewis, Brad Davy, Doug Pilcher, Clark Hymas, Jeff Marsuchek, and Adi Kochav
Absent: Phil Vance
Meeting began 9:03 p.m. EST.
501 (c) (3) Progress and Discussion – Samantha McKinney
Samantha has spoken with Vicki at AMA. AMA is a 501 (c) (3) organization due to having the museum, hosting educational events, the simulator trailers, etc. Vicki informed Samantha that Joyce does allow us to use their status for the Worlds, but in reality, we are supposed to have our own status. She couldn’t help with the information on incorporating. Samantha spoke with Roy about the tax identification number. He wasn’t aware of anything that could point her in the direction to get the original paperwork.
To become incorporated in the State of North Carolina, we must choose a name that isn’t taken. Currently, the IMAC name is not taken. We should stick with the name spelled out and not use the abbreviation. The IRS letter has the name spelled out and the abbreviation of IMAC. With Phil in North Carolina, he would have to be our registered agent. Articles of Organization must be filed with the State of North Carolina and is able to be filed online. If we are looking at the 501 (c) (3) organization, the Articles have to have exact language for the IRS. We must have By-Laws and establish officers, which is already done. Samantha can do the paperwork and have an attorney review it if the BOD requests. This will take some time to proceed. Mike believes the incorporation is the most important. We are seeking to be tax deductible due to the Worlds, but most of the corporate donations are written off. AMA believes that we would be more qualified for the 501 (c) (7) and they are not tax-deductible to the donor. Vicki is concerned that we haven’t received a letter stating where our Federal 990 returns are for each year. We could possibly have to go back and file previous years. A 501 (c) (3) organization has more paperwork that is required. Phil mentioned at an earlier meeting that he is having problems establishing a bank account specifically for Worlds because we do not have a tax identification number with the State of North Carolina. The incorporation will protect our organization and the governing body. Mike believes that it would be impossible to get the 501 (c) (3) organization tax exempt status.
Doug makes the motion for Samantha to proceed with incorporating IMAC and Gil seconds the motion. Motion passed unanimously.
Membership and Marketing Update – Clark Hymas and Gil Major
Gil was invited to sit in on the last meeting. Gil informed the BOD that this a very passionate group. It all came back to one question; what does IMAC provide their members for $40? Gil is wanting to see the last couple of year’s budgets. Gil and Clark have been discussing that the BOD should have a mission statement. Gil said that Section 2 of the By-Laws has our mission statement and he will get it to the committee. Once they have this, they are going to start a thread of tangible items that you get from IMAC. A majority of the committee members attended last meeting, there was a lot of involvement and kicking around a lot of ideas. What can we tell our members on what they will received for their membership? One big suggestion is a monthly newsletter through IMAC, possibly electronically. There hasn’t been much support by way of volunteers in putting this together. An item that came up a couple of times was the survey or questionnaire that was talked about a few months ago. It was mentioned that the best way to get responses from the membership is snail mail. Gil will work on reviewing the financial statements and report the findings back to the BOD.
2018 Worlds/Go-Fund-Me Vote – Steve Sides
Steve and Adi have been researching the Go-Fund-Me site and Steve has posted all the answers to the questions that we discussed in the BOD forum. It will cost us 8% of all the contributions and donations that we receive and IMAC will receive the rest. We can ask for the money anytime; we can change the graphics; basically, we can do anything we want. If we do not meet the target goal, we will still get all the monies contributed less the 8%. This was sent to the BOD for review. Once question asked was how this compares to PayPal. Go-Fund-Me can be linked to a social media site. This is a social media platform that is a website that is dedicated to funding different organizations, events, etc. PayPal is just another avenue of accepting money. Registration will still go through PayPal. Go-Fund-Me is just a different means of individual contributors who might want to contribute. Doug says that you can go to the Go-Fund-Me page as an admin, and we can do splash announcements. It will post it out to any Facebook page that it is linked to. We could attach to the Worlds Facebook Page or the new IMAC International Facebook Page. Then, it can be shared anywhere else we want it too. This can only be done in the United States. Go-Fund-Me is a reputable site. This will keep track of everything and visitors can see what is being raised. Steve doesn’t see any reason why we should not do it. We cannot predict how successful it will be. Doug already has it active and needs to attach the link to the Worlds Facebook page or the IMAC International Facebook page. They only give you one Facebook account to attach it too. Then, everyone else can share it. All we lack is Phil’s phone number to attach to account to complete treasury side. Steve motions to vote and accept the Go-Fund-Me page and attach it to the IMAC International Facebook Page. Gil seconds the motion. Motion passes unanimously.
Steve got some feedback from a potential sponsor. Some of the information on the brochure wasn’t clear. They thought the dollar limits meant cash only. They didn’t understand that this could include merchandise. If it is read or interpreted this way, we might need to change wording and add merchandise also in verbiage. Some vendors have emailed back and asked if they can donate product. These are domestic vendors. The BOD didn’t see any problem. The BOD suggested to make needed changes to get more sponsors.
It was mentioned that Bill Larsey has declined on judging. A suggestion was made for Peter Nesbeda and he would be willing to be a judge. He was a judge at the 2014 Worlds. He is a NE region member that helps run the judging schools. We are still needing photographs of some judges for the magazine and the website.
Promotional Video/Slogan – Adi Kochav
Adi is working on the video that Manricco did, the video “What is IMAC about?” They are working on the promotional video and the Red Bull sponsorship. The Red Bull video will be a 90 second video. Adi thought that the BOD could make it an official video. Some of the contest is Adi’s, Jase Dussia, Janey, Kal Reifsnyder, and Avery Johnson. We did receive their approval to use their video.
Manricco and Adi thought about changing the logo to the 21st century. Manricco did a logo with a slogan and more convenient for all the social media sites. Adi will post it to the IMAC BOD forum. This can be changed, but the main thing that you can see is IMAC. Adi suggested a short slogan that can fit the logo. This will help with the branding of IMAC. The IMAC Worlds is the same logo and used some mirror images. It is written above it “Scale Aerobatics.” He added IMAC to the tail of the plane and made it bigger on the vector.
Mike has talked with Ashley from Flying Giants. She doesn’t know how to get a hold of “Sleepy C” in reference to some footage he shot to be used in the 90 second splash video. She said to contact Flying Giants or Giant Scale News. Ashley thinks that we should go ahead and use it. We can show that we made numerous attempts to contact him for release.
Int. Forums Registered or Paid Members – Adi Kochav
Currently, the Spanish forum is not open to everyone. It is only open to IMAC members. The webmaster said that this is something the BOD needs to vote on. Adi believes that we need to open to all participants and not just IMAC members. Steve questioned how we can do this to just Spanish non-members and not the rest, such as the United States. They would need to be a registered member of the IMAC site. The difference is registered member versus a paid member. Where Latin America is located on the website is in a “Member’s Only,” which is for paid members. The only way to achieve making it available to everyone would be to move it back into the General Forums. We can’t setup permissions for non-paid members on an individual basis to be able to post and read in the “Member’s Only” forum. The webmaster can put the Latin America forum in the General Forums, as long as they can write. The only requirement is to be a registered member on the IMAC site.
All the General Forums are open to the non-member registered participants. A regular user can read and post to these forums, but can’t see the “Member’s Only” forum. We discussed a Latin American forum would be an advantage to get membership increase from Latin America. This may or may not become an incentive to become a member. Adi believes that this will convince them to join IMAC. We probably should have a Spanish forum on both, General and “Member’s Only” forum. Doug will contact the webmaster to let him know.
Treasurer’s Report – Phil Vance
The Treasurer’s report was not presented at this time.
Other Regional Issues – All RDs
Clark is wrapping up the season within the month in the North West. Charles says things are going well in the South West. He still don’t know how many will try and qualify for the Worlds. He sent the top 5 point leaders an email to put a buzz in their ear.
The North Central has contests in Cincinnati and Canada this past weekend. We have been having a lot of scoring problems. Jeff is not receiving the files need to post scores. He had a really close call with the scoring program at a contest. Regionals is read and Kurt Koelling is the CD. We only have 3 more contests. Canada has their own qualifier for the Worlds, so Canada will not be included in the top 5 qualifying pilots for the USA fly off.
South Central has 4 contests left and it is going to be quite an interesting finish.
The North East has 2 contests left before regionals. There are several people who hasn’t met the 3 contest rule. The rules state that they have 3 contests in this year (2017) to qualify at regionals for the World Team.
In the South East, the CCA contest is up next. Steve has about 6 contests left before the qualifier at the Sod Farm.
Mike wanted to remind everyone that the regional contest itself does not count as a contest going into the World Qualifier. The pilot must have 3 contests before entering regional finals.
Meeting adjourned at 10:31 p.m. EST.