Present: Mike Karnes, Gil Major, Phil Vance, Samantha McKinney, Adi Kochav, Alex Dreiling, Steve Sides, Doug Pilcher, and Clark Hymas
Absent: Brad Davy and Jeff Marsuchek
Meeting began 9:00 p.m. EST.
Welcome – Mike Karnes
The August meeting was skipped due to the entire BOD involved with IWC 2018.
Worlds Wrap-Up – Doug Pilcher and Steve Sides
The 2018 IWC is in the books! We still have some IWC product that is still available to purchase. The product that we have left to sell is the coins, shirts and some hats. We need to try and sell the product that we have left. Phil picked up the remaining product from AMA’s museum. Steve believes that we should go ahead and discount the remaining product to get it sold.
The event went great, despite Muncie’s weather. We had one day of freestyle, due to the rain. Everyone that came up to Doug and Steve was genuinely pleased and had very positive feedback. Adi has received a lot of positive feedback for all the pictures, social media, and the event itself.
Steve thanked "Leasha (Pilcher) Case" for the incredible job she had done before and throughout the event!
Mike has had some questions from some pilots on how the 2022 IWC will be run. Adi assured Mike that this championship will be run off the IMAC rules and standards.
Nominations and who is planning to continue – Mike Karnes
Mike informed the BOD that nominations will be opening up for the 2019-2020 BOD. The World’s delayed the starting of elections a few days. Election of Officers will start October 11. Mike asked the current BOD members if they were going to run. Jeff has informed Mike that he will not accept a nomination for NC region. Steve said that he is stepping down if he can find someone to takeover the SE region. If there is no one, he will accept the nomination if nominated by his region. Brad has stated the same, that he would remain if no one else was to step up. Doug is stepping away from RD for the SC region. Currently, he knows of 2 potential nominees. Alex would like to stay RD for the SW region and he hasn’t heard of anyone else that would like to run. Clark would like to remain the RD for NW region and the same for Adi in the International region. Phil would like to run for another two years if nominated. Samantha would like to run another 2 years if nominated. Gil suggested that Doug run for VP. Mike will accept the nomination for President if he is nominated for another term.
The IMAC forum and rules – Mike Karnes
Mike has asked the BOD if they had reviewed the rules and guidelines to see if any changes need to be made. Steve recommended a change to the IRPS. He would like to make a change to the section that says the regionals finals will be a points contest. This is not true for Steve’s region, the SE. The SE regional championships are considered an invitational, due to flying 2 unknowns. The Ocala contest is the last contest that counts for regional points. Mike doesn’t see anything with how the IRPS is currently stated, due to the contest being considered an invitational. Steve will make the change that he is suggesting and submit it to the BOD for approval.
The contest standards were thoroughly gone through in December 2016/January 2017. Steve noticed that the cost of the AMA sanction has increased to $25.
Mike and Aid have been in talks about the sanctioning. In the past, it was written that CD’s sanction AA. It is not written anywhere that we sanction a contest as AA. A sanction of AA is open to any AMA member. The contest guides requires a sanction, but it doesn’t specify what type of sanction is required. Steve sanctions the SE regional championships as B-Restricted. Adi asked why we can’t make it mandatory for all pilots to be IMAC members to fly contests. He says it is because of the AA sanction. Doug says that in the SC, his pilots are IMAC members except for a few of the Basic class. Gil said that a basic pilot is a member by the time they leave his contest. The International region is not required to apply for the AA sanction. The International contests will question why it is mandatory for them, but not for the United States and Canada. Mike suggested we start sanctioning as a “B” sanction. This would allow us to choose to restrict or not to IMAC members only. The rest of the BOD was not in favor of this at this time.
Clark suggested that this might be easier to enforce if the members receive an IMAC Membership Card. Mike doesn’t know what kind of costs there would be to get a machine to print the members’ cards. Currently, there is a link on the website that provide this. In the past, if a member requested a card, Phil would print, laminate, and send them one. Mike will look into getting pricing for the machine and cards to be able to create this. Along with the membership card, we could also send each member a decal. One of the things that are mentioned in the forums is that members don’t receive anything for their membership. Mike will report in the BOD forum on the costs.
This will need to be added to the contest guide to check for IMAC membership. The CDs should actually be verifying IMAC Membership.
It was mentioned that we could re-word it in the contest guide to give a $20 discount for IMAC members. Many of the CDs don’t charge the additional $20 for non-IMAC members. If the CDs won’t control this, we can take the fee decision out of the CD’s hand and set one price for contest fees for IMAC as a whole.
A question was raised about the alternate unknowns. If one contest requests alternate unknowns, does every contest for that weekend receive alternate unknowns? That was answered with a yes.
2019 Budget – Mike Karnes and Phil Vance
In 2015, we raised the membership dues to $40. Mike had drafted a budget where all the regions would start the year with the same amount of funds. At the time, it was out voted. Each region was to receive $10 per member, plus retain their current fund; which was unfair to the smaller regions with fewer members.
Over the past 4 years, the regions have only spent regional funds on trophies and judging schools. This created such an excess of funds in some of the regional accounts, that the combined regional accounts could have more money than the IMAC general fund if this was to continue. We must get back to a reasonable budget.
The Executive BOD have been talking about this issue over the last 4 years and it’s time to change. All regions basically have the same expenditures. There will be no carryover from the prior year. If the region raises their own funds, their region will retain those funds. Steve agrees with this budget, due to the fact that we have a few regions that are not financially stable.
Mike presented an estimated budget to the BOD. Phil will need to create the final budget for approval. Each region has a budget of $1,000. Steve believes that with the SE current costs from prior years, that this amount should be raised to $1,500.
Samantha suggested a way to find out what each current region would have without the regional funding from 2015-2018. This would bring the regional accounts back to actual. If the account originally was in the negative, in 2019, the region would revert back to zero.
Phil will present a final budget and submit to the BOD at the next BOD meeting for approval.
Basic Split to Basic/Novice – Mike Karnes
Mike proposed his plan to the BOD to split the Basic class and allow a Novice class. Adi created a proposal and shared it in the BOD forum. The Novice class would fly on Saturdays. It would be like a Basic boot camp, except it would be on a weekly basis. With the Novice class, this would potentially eliminate the “size” and fear factor. This class could be restricted 80cc or less.
Steve spoke with his ARDs in the SE region and they are not interested in splitting the Basic class. Steve suggested instead of taking out the intimidation factor, lets limit the size of the airplane. Then, grandfather-in the members who are already flying the bigger planes. If you want to fly Basic, you have to fly a 50cc airplane. The Basic class would remain the same, but limiting the size would eliminate the intimidation against flying bigger planes.
Adi believes that this proposal is reasonable. Let the pilots fly what they want to fly. The Basic class would remain the same. Mike said with the creation of the Novice class, the pilots will not receive IRPS. If it is the pilot’s first contest, it is free. The Novice class would participate in the contest just like the rest of the classes. They will be judged like any other competitor/pilot. Clark suggested rotating the Novice class competitors in amongst the Basic class competitors.
The “Mini-mac” scoring in the score program will change to the Novice class. If they don’t fly the Basic sequence, they will receive a zero. They cannot jump backwards between classes. One question raised was since they don’t receive IRPS, we couldn’t charge them the same registration fee. We could limit the number of contests they fly in the Novice class. This would make it to where a contest must offer all 6 classes.
This costs nothing to IMAC to try. Adi believes that we should proceed. We will need to get some rules and guidelines ready to present at December’s BOD meeting. Steve reiterated that the SE region is opposed to splitting the Basic class. The SE believes that there should be a size lime on airplanes for Basic. Gil believes that this is what everyone was opposed to. Steve said that IMAC requires investment, dedication, and a work ethic to fly IMAC. Adi believes that the Basic class was never meant to be competitive; it has turned out to be that way. The majority of the BOD believed that we should just try the split for one season. We have got to get pilots interested and the Basic class is the foundation of IMAC. If we don’t do anything, IMAC will fade away. We are on the BOD and it is our responsibility to make every effort available and able to keep this organization going.
International issues – Adi Kochav
Adi shared with the BOD some issues that have been going on Internationally. Mike addressed a concern that some pilots have shared about the 2022 IWC being run to F3M standards. Adi assured Mike and the BOD that the 2022 IWC will be run using IMAC contest standards and guidelines.
Adi presented to the BOD about splitting the International region up into three separate regions. We already have ARDs in these regions: Europe – Manrico, Latin America –Luiz Bosch, and Asia Pacific – Michael Hobson. Adi will be talking with more Pacific countries into flying IMAC. One question raised is that with splitting the International region, would they need to be included in the BOD meetings and have the same benefits as an RD.
Manrico and Adi are starting to plan the 2020 European Championships and the 2022 IWC. Adi informed the BOD that the XFC is going to happen in 2019. Adi is the International coordinator. There will be 24 pilots from the USA versus 24 pilot from the International.
Treasurer’s Report – Phil Vance
Phil reported that all the bills for the IWC have been paid, except for the banquet. Phil has spoken with the Horizon Center and they will be sending it within the next week. Current balance in the IWC account is $11,306.91. Preliminary numbers show that we have taken in more income compared to the 2014 IWC. We also have some funds coming from AMA for merchandise sold in the museum during the IWC as well as remaining merchandise sold on the Website.
Phil assured the BOD that the Worlds’ funds have been kept separate from the General Operating Fund. Phil contacted his local bank a few years ago to open up a separate account for the IWC. The bank would not allow us to open a business checking account without paperwork from the State. In the July 2018 meeting minutes, the breakdown of the IWC and the General Operating was shown separate due to membership questions.
Listed below is currently a rough analysis of the breakdown of the 2018 IWC account:
Income $57,214.56
Expenses ($45,907.65)
Total Profit $11,306.91
Phil will present a financial statement of the IWC when all the expenses have been paid and other sales revenue added.
A question was asked if we had made a donation to AMA yet. In 2014, we purchased a brick for the Wall of Fame with the donation that we made.
As of today, the current balance in the IMAC accounts are as follows:
Checking $36,018.03
PayPal $12,515.52
Total $48,533.55
With the breakdown of the General Operating Account:
IMAC General $37,226.64
IWC $11,306.91
Total $48,533.55
Phil also wanted to reiterate that the 6 regional funds are also kept separate within the IMAC General Operating. We also have received our funds from the 2018 Nats.
RDs reports – All RDs
The RDs present reported no issues in their respective regions.
Meeting adjourned at 11:25 p.m. EST.