Attendees: Mike Karnes, Charles Youngblood, Samantha McKinney, Phil Vance, Steve Sides, Doug Pilcher, Ron Graham, Rusty Fried, Brad Davy, and Michael Verzwyvelt
Meeting in Session: 8:05 p.m. CST
New Website - Roy Barrow
Roy introduced the new website to the BOD. He began by taking us on a tour of the homepage. This page serves as a welcome to the general public and pilots interested in IMAC. The purpose of this new website is to keep everyone involved. The homepage includes pictures, the basics of IMAC and different articles. The article viewing area will include advertising. Each BOD member will have their own article viewing system. Roy wanted to keep the homepage fairly simple and to the point. The old website will still be out there, but only a few things will be carried over. Nothing in the forums will carry over, but there will be a link to access the old forums in read-only format.
The forum system is very powerful. The general public can view and post on an existing post, but can’t create a new topic. They must be registered to create a topic in the forum. The RDs does not have the ability to delete a thread. The only people that have the ability to delete a thread or post are the forum moderators. Roy mentioned to the BOD that we need to establish a policy for the moderators to have a strict guideline to follow to remove threads or posts. This function needs to stay with the forum moderators and not the RDs. The RDs are in a political position and does not need to come across as censorship. We currently have 3 forum moderators. The current moderators are Curtis Cozier, Wayne Matthews, and Jerry Hailey. The moderators have no authority outside the policy that the BOD establishes. The current policy is that it will be removed if it is indecent, full of profanity, or a personal tirade or attack. It has been voiced that the BOD should approve and appoint the moderators. Roy recommended Curtis and Wayne because of the experiences that he has had with these two gentleman in the past. There currently isn’t a policy in writing.
We currently have some new features. A shout box appears at the top of the page. It is a live chat that any member can see. An open international forum has been opened. Each RD will have a forum and a sub-forum for the ARDs. The international guests have read-only, but have to be members to post. There is also a private message inbox. Forum settings can be changed on how you want things emailed to you. There is a membership and forum profile. Forum profile only affects settings within the forum. All settings are being transferred over to the new website. The IMAC number can no longer be changed. A member can now have 5 photograph albums. Each album can hold 10 pictures. Other people can view your albums. An album image can be inserted with a post. There can be multiple images and they will resize automatically. A member can also insert an image directly from the Internet. When a member deletes their post, the system will ask for a reason. The size limit is currently 1.2. Now when a user logins, they will automatically see information collected on them and will also automatically see the contest schedule for their region. Everybody on the BOD will have access after tonight to test the new website.
Roy walked us through the general layout of the regions. The RDs will have their own article system in their region. Roy will train us on Windows Live Writer to be able to post our own articles. There is also a “Contact Regional Director” and “Schedule an IMAC Event” in each region’s homepage. Contest registration has been simplified. To schedule an event, the street address is very important to drive the Google Map. The unknowns manager is now required. A contest cannot be submitted without the unknowns manager information. The RDs can edit the unknown manager, if needed. Contest will not show up on the system until the unknowns manager is contacted. If the CD doesn’t know who the manager will be, the CD can be inserted twice. Once all information is entered, the system will send out an email to the RD. The RD is responsible for making sure the emails work. When the RD gets a response back, the RD can approve the contest. Also, this automatically sends out an unknown request to the sequence committee. This shows up to the committee ready to go. A few of the BOD believes that this will create a problem when editing. The unknown manager can be the CD. Only the RD or a BOD member can change the unknown manager. We can’t allow anyone to edit the contest schedule other than the RDs or a BOD member. By requiring the unknown manager information, this eliminates two steps, but some RDs believes that it needs to remain a two step process. If the unknown manager is changed. it automatically changes what the sequence committee sees as long as it changes before the unknowns are sent. Any member of the BOD can edit any event. The current systems does not let you change the unknowns manager. The question raised on why does the unknown manager have to be part of the registration. The issue is that contests that aren’t requesting their unknowns and the RDs are not catching it. Then, Mike has to get the unknowns two days before the contest begins. A tickler system was suggested to alert the RD if there is a contest without unknowns being requested. The RD only has to make sure that it is a good email if the unknown manager changes. CDs and unknown managers must reply to emails. Changes are made in the event editor and it assumes the emails are correct. Roy will add a confirmation email to the information for the unknowns manager. BOD recommended that the unknown manager information be removed on the member contest registration. The sequence committee is onboard with the unknowns manager for registration. The problems that the RDs foresee is the event registration is dependent upon the information for the unknown manager. Suggestions were made to create a tab to request for multiple unknowns and for non-flying events. A flyer can be added as a .jpeg or a .png file. The system will automatically resize.
The event editor allows to edit contest and post results. A contest pending approval will show up on the event page in yellow. The scoring tab will upload the zip file from the scoring software. It does not automatically post for RPS points. If there is an error in the score file, upload fixed results and it automatically replaces the prior file. The whole zip file must be uploaded. Dave has generated a contest write-up in the score program. You can also upload up to 10 event photos. After checking event approval, the event is no longer in yellow on the contest schedule. With the Google map, a member can type in their address and get directions directly to the field.
When registering for a contest/event, the system automatically pulls information for the member’s profile. The pilot registration information can be exported to an Excel document and into the scoring program. Once in the scoring program, the pilots will need to be activated. BOD was in agreement that only the BOD has access to the exports of the event registration due to the members not wanting the membership to have access to their emails. Once an event has passed, it drops off the calendar. To post results, the RD will have to go back to the event editor. Each region’s points will be posted on their pages. When seeing event results, the write-up will show up first, along with the images and the scores.
Roy suggested a policy for requesting the unknowns for the international events. Currently, 1-2 members are requesting unknowns for the entire country. Registration is disabled on an unapproved contest. Members will see unapproved events. Non-contest or non-flying events will be distinguishable from other events.
Roy mentioned that the BOD needs to get advertising going on the new website. The current site is not generating enough money from advertising. We are losing by giving away ad space and by not having very many advertisers. Roy proposed to the BOD for charging a monthly fee for each type of ad. it would be priced according to the traffic through the website. He suggested a similar advertising structure, such as Flying Giants, but only charge 1/10 of their prices. This allows the companies to by ads based on their budget. Hobbico and another company currently advertise on our site. We could generate as much money as what we would doubling the membership. The BOD is in agreement that this needs to be discussed in detail during another meeting. The new website could go live now, but the event system will not be ready til the end of the year.
Regional Directors’ Report - Mike Karnes
A contest has turned in scores in the SW region that Rusty didn’t know existed and they are wanting RPS points. Rusty wasn’t aware this contest was on the schedule. There was an unknown request made. Scores are currently being held. Roy has a listing of all contests being submitted and this contest never made it on the database. Roy has went back and it wasn’t on the contest schedule. Rusty is going to ask for proof of the contest being registered. The decision is left up to Rusty as the RD, but he is to keep Mike informed of the situtation.
Meeting adjourned at 10:52 p.m. CST.