Present: Mike Karnes, Charles Youngblood, Samantha McKinney, Doug Pilcher, Brad Davy, Michael Verzywelt, Steve Sides, Ron Graham, and Rusty Fried
Absent: Phil Vance
Guests: Gil R. Major, Jeff Marsuchek, Clark Hymas
Meeting began at 9:07 p.m. EST.
2018 World Championships – Mike Karnes
Brad asked to have this special meeting at the last BOD meeting just to discuss the 2018 World Championships. Wayne Matthews has pulled out of almost everything, including the 2018 World Championships. Mike feels that we cannot cancel the Worlds. We need to get everything in order and start with all the volunteers and workers to see if they are willing to come back on board to do their job. Every country that comes must send one judge, but we also must make sure the judges available. We must review the sponsorship list from 2014.
Doug and Steve agree that we need to go ahead with the Worlds. Doug mentioned it should not be a “if we can do as well as 2014, but that we must improve on 2014 and Wayne’s success.” Wayne has sent the BOD all of his files from 2014 and what he had started for 2018. Wayne had bounced many of his ideas off of Mike and Mike knows exactly what Wayne was up against. Mike has mentioned that he will need as much help as possible, especially with the Worlds planning. This will take a lot of delegating to get all the jobs done. Steve was wondering if Wayne would help with some of the contacts. We do know the 2014 Worlds that was a huge success, so the success of the first Worlds needs to be mentioned to all the sponsors.
The Worlds website information has been emailed to Mike and Gil. It is currently all set up; the administrative controls have been given to Mike and Gil. What needs to be done is to take everyone’s ideas and implement them. Wayne has sent Mike the magazine, which Mike helped him create.
Michael believes that we should go ahead and create subcommittees to start putting all the different areas in place.
Canada is putting together a smaller team then before; currently 18. We have several other countries that have showed interest and will be sending a team. Team invitations have not been sent yet. We do not have the invitations updated for 2018. Mike has not seen a final copy of the rules thus far to put before the BOD for review. Steve offered to contact volunteers to see who is willing to come back and do what they done in 2014. Once this is figured out, we can fill begin to fill in the positions that are needed.. For judges, we need to look at all the United States judges first, to make sure that they are not interested in trying and make the USA competitive team.
Gil wanted everyone to remember that the BOD are looking at IMAC International and we are also the IMAC USA BOD currently. We don’t control how each country picks their teams.
We currently don’t have a nominee for an International Regional Director and Liason. Wayne has not given Mike any information regarding this. Gil has some contacts in South America and the Middle East that he can reach out to. They cannot leave within the United States or Canada. Ron wanted to know if the International RD would have similar powers, such as paying them to come to the National Judging School. Currently, the International region does not have any regional funds. Gil mentioned that we are going to have to get policy going for this.
Steve will contact all the volunteers and judges. Mike’s biggest concern right now is the sponsors; making sure that we have the revenue. There were actually only 30 sponsors that donated prizes of cash. It was estimated around $35,000 for 2014 Worlds was raised. Ron thinks that we should put more emphasis on sponsorship. It will probably take a year to get a commitment from them. Once they are committed, there must be a follow up.
Everything was shipped to the AMA; stored in the farmhouse; and everything was waiting on the event staff. Most vendors have set or are setting their budgets for 2017 and will influence their 2018 budgets.
Jeff volunteered to help Rusty who volunteered with contacting the sponsors. Steve mentioned we could also divide up the list between the BOD members. Gil mentioned that we do not need to limit ourselves to just R/C vendors. A presenting sponsor level was not available in the 2014 sponsorship levels. Mike said that he can make the changes on the sponsorship brochures and we can start getting them out to vendors. Rusty believes we should do one-on-one contact with the vendors that we know, instead of mailing them the brochure.
Charles wondered about r/c clubs that support IMAC. We could have a listing of clubs that donated to support the Worlds. The website had a donate button, but not for sure how much money was donated in that way. We could list them in the magazine as “Sponsoring AMA clubs” by state. We could include points of contact, etc. with the information.
AMA gave us all the tents without charge; took care of all the planes that got shipped to them. They took care of golf carts and radios. We are hoping to get Curtis Cozier back as Event Director.
We get one free 1/4 page ad a year in Model Aviation. Steve mentioned about the gentleman that writes IMAC articles to advertise about the Worlds. Mike will contact him to see what can be done. This article is only done every other month. We could also include a link back to the website. Doug also thinks a link from the IMAC Website to the Worlds Website needs to be on the main menu bar of mini-iac.org and not in the photo show slide pictures.
Jeff mentioned to talk with Flying Giants to see if we can get a banner ad that links right to the Worlds website. Steve mentioned about a Facebook page. Curtis has started a Facebook page for the Worlds. Doug says there is an World’s IMAC 2018 Facebook page. Gil mentioned that we need to figure out who has admin rights on the page, which they believe is Curtis. Jeff will check with Curtis to see if he still wants to run it, or if he would like to add some additional admins to help with the page.
Gil wondered if anyone had looked at the budget that Wayne had started. Mike will send the master lists to Jeff, Clark, and Gil. Steve mentioned that we need to establish deadlines to have things accomplished. Steve said that he would try to get everyone talked to and get back to the BOD as quickly as possible.
Charles said that we need to consider possibly getting a major TV station to cover the event. Gil also mentioned Red Bull. Gil mentioned possibly going outside the R/C industry to sponsor the event.
Mike will talk with Roy and get a forum setup for volunteers, workers, and BOD to discuss the 2018 Worlds.
Meeting adjourned 10:06 p.m. EST.