Attendance: Mike Karnes, Charles Youngblood, Samantha McKinney, Phil Vance, Brad Davy, Rusty Fried, Ron Graham, Steve Sides, and Doug Pilcher
Guest: Roy Barrow
Meeting in session: 8:01 p.m. CST
New Website and Regional Pages - Roy Barrow
The advertising page is up and running. The pricing part has been added. There are examples for the advertisers to view. Before next Thursday, we need to reach out to our existing advertisers. Roy has been in contact with Hobbico. Currently, there is some Fromeco and JR ads running. We will have to figured out what has already been paid for ads. Hobbico would like to do a product placement on the main page where the pictures scroll through.
The new sequences that have been approved are on the site. The latest version of the score program is on the site. The new version will hopefully be ready for the 2016 season.
Several have been very active in testing the regional pages. Need to make sure that we have the 2016 events only on the regional pages. No event results will be posted on the new site. Everything in 2015 will be on the old site. Please remove test posts that were on the site. By posting all the events, it did uncover a problem that would occur when posting in 2016. Currently, the site is using the member’s home state to define the region that they are assigned to. The region association is defined by state and is updated every night. As of now, we cannot change which region that is assigned to that member. Membership profile cannot be changed. Roy will find a way to make the points show up in the region that the member decides to participate in. Roy asked that we make a list of members that fly out of a different region for it can be changed on a case by case basis.
Everyone needs to have training on the Windows Live Writer. The blogs are more for stories and photographs, not for announcements. The announcements should be put in the forums. Regional homepages need to be kept interesting. The system will use the first image in the blog out on the list with the article. This needs to look professional to make it where the advertisers want to advertise. Do not hesitate to call or email Roy with any questions that you have.
We will go live on October 1. Phil and Roy will take care of the mass emails, password, and current membership listing. Nobody needs to be notified by the regional directors. All the Windows live writers will need to remove the dev. and changed to www. Roy will send new connection strings to the BOD forum. You can copy and paste into live writer. The connection strings are connected to the username and password. If there are any issues, call or email Roy and he will be taken care of.
All RDs need to have their pages cleared up and ready to go live on October 1. If RDs need a mass email, send Roy the email and he will use their system to send them out.
If you don’t have an unknown manager, please insert “pending” in the box and add the CD’s email. This informs the RD that there is currently no unknown manager for the event. Must be in the format of an email address.
2016 Sequences - Mike Karnes
The 2016 Intermediate Known sequence has been sent to all BOD members to review for approval. BOD approved the 2016 Intermediate Known Sequence.
2018 World Championships - Mike Karnes
Some countries have talked to Wayne about hosting the Worlds. We have never setup the host country requirements to hold the Worlds. The deadline was October 1. We have heard from Bruno and Alvaro from Mexico. Ron mentioned a country submit a Google Earth image to the BOD or World Director of the flying site to make sure it is compatible. The minimum flying sites needed would be 2. If we don’t feel these countries can hold, are we willing to hold it again in Muncie? We had discussed reserving the facility at Muncie and let the country be in charge or the U.S. being in charge of the event. The whole venue must be considered other than the flying area, such as hotels, restaurants, etc. The BOD was concerned about a security issue of having Mexico host the Worlds. They have the ability to host, but the safety is the main concern. The question was raised if Wayne would help with the next Worlds. He said that he would work with us, especially with the judging. The date cannot be pushed back and be ready to go in 2018. The BOD decided to decline Mexico’s bid due to the safety concerns. Mike will get with Wayne to see if he has talked to anyone else about the Worlds from Brazil.
AMA Contest Board Replacement Members - Roy Barrow
There are some openings on the AMA Contest Board. They are 2 people short on the Contest Board. Roy needs the SW District 10 and Northwest. Mike filled the one out of the South, but has had no luck with Northwest. There are several on probation that hasn’t been active. They must be active has part of the criteria to be a part of the board. Please make Roy aware if there isn’t an increase in activity. AMA looks to IMAC for input and recommendations to fill these positions. The AMA Vice President of the District makes the appointments. Rusty made a suggestion of Dean Bird.
The RCP’s – Mike Karnes
Mike asked the BOD if there is anything else that we would like for the rules committee to look at for the 2016 rules cycle. Mike sent an email to the BOD for review of the current suggestions for the next rules cycle. The committee will look at the suggestions to see what is worth writing an RCP. Once the RCPs are written, they will be presented back to the BOD. One suggesting was changing the way that we score using normal points versus the current way of 1,000 points per round. Many felt that we would fall backwards if we go to raw scores. Plus, the score program would have to be rewritten. Brad suggested to clarify the corrective maneuvers, break, and break-in-sequence. These are very confusing rules, which are hard to clarify. The question is how to educate the pilots to make these decisions quickly, but there are several different instances where the break and break-in-sequence can occur. It was mentioned to eliminate the break penalty, unless there is a break-in-sequence. Currently, these are two different things. Mike is going to add this to the list for the rules committee to review. It was raised if the pilots should be required to call “back in the box.” The should vs shall definition was also suggested to add to the list for the rules committee. Brad will look for his notes that he has already tagged for clarification. The BOD also needs to start reviewing the rule book and will have a forum started for rules suggestion for it can all be reviewed by each BOD member. Another suggestion is having a page in the front of the book that has definitions.
2016 NATS – Mike Karnes
The date scheduled for the NATS was June 20th- 23rd, 2016. Yolanda, from AMA, has responded and they have went back to the original date, July 4th – 8th. AMA still has to approve this date. Moving date causes turmoil in the NC region. If we make them change, we sometimes lose contests due to rescheduling around the NATS. A concern was raised about the attendance due to the family vacations over the holiday weekend. Mike has been working on this issue for a few years.
2017 National Judging School – Mike Karnes
This is the highest amount in our budget. It has been raised to have the national instructors have an online meeting on how to teach the new rules once they are released. Then, the national instructors would go out and teach the regional instructors. We would actually just be reimbursing the national instructors. This year IMAC spent $7,100 for the judging school, which was less than the budgeted amount. We should be able to do a go-to-meeting online for the national and regional instructors. The instructors currently get reimbursed up to $700 for airfare and hotel. We are supposed to be sending new instructors each time. Instead, we are having the same ones each year just to bring them up-to-date on the new rules. A full meeting would take about 8 hours. Roy mentioned recording the meeting and they can be posted on the website. The ones who can’t attend can still listen to the seminar. Steve believes this would work for the current judges, but the new judges would have questions. Phil would like for us to mention this to the Education Committee to see what their thoughts are on this matter. One idea was mentioned to have a weekly session, about an hour long, for about 6-8 weeks. Each session would just cover one topic. Charles had an idea of having a national instructor train a new instructor in their area.
Regional Issues – RDs
The NE region is completed. The regional contest had 31 pilots, with several new members.
The SE region is starting to look at judging schools for next year. Currently, there are 5 judging schools scheduled.
The SW region 2016 calendar is looking well for next year. In December, there will be a Basic/Sportsman judging school. He is also working on judging schools for 2016.
Meeting adjourned 10:00 p.m. CST