Present: Mike Karnes, Gil Major, Phil Vance, Samantha McKinney, Doug Pilcher, Steve Sides, Brad Davy, Charles Lewis, Jeff Marsuchek, and Adi Kochav
Absent: Clark Hymas
Meeting began 9:02 p.m. EST.
Response to Member – Gil Major
Gil has responded with an email to the member that had sent an email to the BOD on a forum post on the website. Gil has tried contacting this member a couple of times by voice and he was out of town. Gil tried today and left a message on his personal phone. This member is currently out of town. Gil sent him an email, and copied the BOD. The email states that there was no preferential treatment and the CD allowed this deviation and it was provided to the entire class and not just the one individual. Gil hasn’t heard back from him. There was an answer already given on the forum post that referred to this situation, but this member needs to know that the BOD was all in agreement on how it was handled. Steve believes that we can’t second guess the CD on this matter. We as the BOD cannot make this call, since we were not there. This was made within the CD’s judgment, due to it being a safety issue. There has already been discussion in the Rules Committee to get this wording clarified.
World Qualifying Rule Explained – Mike Karnes
Mike wanted to clarify the World Qualifying Rule for the Regional Finals. If the top 5 pilots in the region cannot make it to the contest or the top 2 doesn’t want to go to the Worlds, only the remaining pilots within the top 5 in the region for IRPS have the chance to qualify for the World team. Steve had a situation come up in the SE unlimited class. Steve has an unlimited pilot that placed 4th at the 2017 NATS. This pilot will fly at the regional qualifier to try and make the team. Steve’s question is which takes precedence, the regional qualifier or the 2017 NATS. This pilot placed 4th at the 2017 NATS; so if this pilot wins the regional qualifier, this take precedence over the 2017 NATS. If another region does not send a pilot for a given class, then the vacancy rule applies and this spot will be replaced from the 2017 NATS. Vacancy rule states they will fill the spots out of the 2017 NATS. In Steve’s scenario, this unlimited pilot will be sent as the regional qualifier. The top 5 in IRPS are the only pilots who can qualify at the regionals. If any of the top 5 cannot attend or do not want to participate in the qualifier, the RD cannot go to the 6th or 7th pilot in a given region to make a class of 5. At the end of the year, we will look and see who is going to commit and come to the Worlds. There is one in North Central that is going to fall open. Once commitments are given, we will look at filling the rest of the team. If we cannot fill a regional spot from the top 5 in a class from the region, then the vacancy rule applies and we will fill the remaining team spots out of the 2017 NATS. The pilots who qualified for the team must pay their registration fees on time or they lose their spot.
Phil asked if we will be having a team meeting soon. Mike said we will, but we still have a couple of positions to fill. There are some judges on the fence from the United States, along with International judges.
2018 Worlds Shipping Document – Steve Sides
Adi has completed the shipping document for reference to the International teams. Steve was wondering if we could get this posted on the website. This is just an informational document. The BOD recommended a few changes, so Adi will make the changes and send back to Steve. Steve would like to see this posted as a bulletin on the website. The FAA registration part of the rules has already been changed, and Steve thought we should do a bulletin on this as well. Though currently this could be changed or overruled again. The question was raised when they will be ready in Muncie to start receiving shipments. Phil doesn’t believe that they have a specific time. We need to go ahead and speak to AMA about the golf carts. Currently, there are 7-8 pilots coming from Italy. They are shipping their planes across the sea, using a Conex. Phil believes that we should forewarn AMA to know what is coming and where they want to put it. Some of the pilots kept their planes in the farmhouse. Mike will talk with Colleen at AMA. It was recommended to let the countries figure out which shipping companies they want to use. The informational shipping document is the best information on how to pack the plane and what is needed to be done. The main issue today is the batteries. Every airline has different regulations on carrying batteries on board. Batteries must only be carried in their carry-on. The issue with the batteries is the milliamps.
Sponsorships – Steve Sides
Currently, we only have one commitment from one sponsor for the Worlds. It was a cash commitment. There have been several inquiries. We need to start getting some major commitments. Steve will talk with some vendors while he is at Tucson. Steve would like to have Gil and Phil speak with some sponsors from the 2014 Worlds. Steve has contacted everyone on the list with emails; he might have to follow up with phone calls. Mike wanted remind the BOD that we will also take product for sponsorships, not just monetary funds. It was also recommended to talk with pilots who are sponsored to see if their sponsors would be interested in donating product.
2018 NATS – Doug Pilcher
Doug believes that the 2018 NATS head count is going to be extremely affected by the Worlds being a couple of months later. He would like to have an evening of music on the tarmac and purchase some fireworks for a show as well. Doug has spoken with AMA and gotten approval. We can do fireworks as long as there isn’t a burn ban. Doug is able to get them at cost, cheaper than what we can at a stand in Muncie. He is asking for $400-$450 to purchase fireworks for the NATS. We can put this in the NATS budget. This could be a possible incentive for the pilots and their families.
Tee Shirt Fundraiser – Mike Karnes
Mike is wanting to do a T-shirt fundraiser for the Worlds. This wasn’t done in 2014. The fundraiser would earn some money to be put towards different expenses for the Worlds. Mike presented the T-shirts that he had designed just for the fundraiser. These are cotton T-shirts. Mike found a company online that would do these for around $15 an shirt. Mike has spoken to different individuals saying we could see these ranging at $20-$25 a shift. This is a Worlds fundraiser. Team USA could have a different fundraiser. It was asked if we could change the T-shirts to be unique to each country, but this would be too expensive. We would probably need to make more than one order of shirts. AMA also let us sell our product in the museum. There needs to be a non-US logo on the front to sell to the different countries. Mike will come up with something to replace this logo. Adi will come up with a different logo and send it to Mike. We need to think about shirts, hats, souvenirs, etc. also.
Adi asked about where we stand on the coin. He has put up the design on the BOD forum. AMA has an IMAC banner on their website, but we need to do something for the IMAC Worlds. Mike will check on the cost. Colleen hasn’t responded back to Phil. The banners on Flying Giants were too expensive. We don’t want the ad to hit until June in the magazine, a 1/4 page ad.
Go-Fund-Me is setup and at some point there was a 30 day window that we had to link to a bank account and that window was missed. We currently cannot access our Go-Fun-Me account monies. The steps to setting up the account were not completed. Currently, there is $250 in the account. If we delete the account, the money contributed will go back to the individuals. The options are to delete and start over from scratch or just strictly go back to PayPal. If we stay with Go-Fund-Me, it needs to be started and finished all in the same day. Steve would like to start soliciting to AMA members and point them somewhere. PayPal is 2.99% plus .30 each transaction. Go-Fund-Me is 8%. Go-Fund-Me must be connected to the bank account at time of creation. This will take a couple of hours to completely finish setting up the account. Phil and Doug will work on completing this. Free one year membership will take effect when the money is received for their pilot fee. If already a member, than an extension will be added to existing membership.
Phil cannot give anything unless they are registered on the website as a member. We have retained around 20-25 members for a while after the 2014 Worlds. Phil can no longer put members in himself. Phil wants this added to the contact form. Phil has all records from 2014. There was around $6,900 left from 2014. The banquet is not cheap. At the end result, it costs a little over $5,000 for food. The $6,900 should be earmarked for the Worlds cause that is where it came from. AMA didn’t charge us for anything. They setup both sites for us.
Incorporation Papers – Samantha McKinney
Samantha has posted the articles of organization to the BOD forum to review. One recommendation was to add the physical address, and then change the mailing address to the PO Box. She will make this change and post it out to the forum for BOD approval. Once approved, she will get into contact with Phil and get the documentation sent in.
Treasurer Report – Phil Vance
The current balance as of October 16, 2017 is as follows:
Checking $27,410.51
PayPal $ 8,112.32
Total $35,522.83
We have received our first pilot fee for the World Championship. IWC received a $300 donation. Phil has written a check for $159 for part of the IMAC website for Weebly software 2 year renewal.
International Issues – Adi Kochav
Adi is in close contact with Manrico. He is doing a tremendous job in Europe. Poland had their first IMAC gathering and have been talking how to make IMAC better in Poland. We have received some emails from the Sequence Committee saying that they had some requests for Unknowns, although the CD or specific country didn’t have any IMAC members. We need to approach these issues and get them resolved. We need to enforce International countries to have registered members in 2018. IN 2018, Manrico and Adi are going to take more steps to enforce membership, but in some countries, this will not work. Australia has 6-8 members; other countries has 4 members; Scandinavian countries have 2 members, just to list a few. If we want more International members, we need to tell them that they must register as IMAC members. Latin America questions the IRPS. Adi believes that we need to make regional points for the International community. More pilots will register and will give the pilots more ambition to make the contests for the Regional points. Doug mentioned that we had to hit a target to approach this with the webmaster. The biggest reasoning with the webmaster is how you quantify points from different pilots to pilots in different countries. We currently have 73 pilots internationally which is equal with NE and higher than the NW and SC regions. We should be able to give them IRPS for the membership fee that they already pay. This is something that will unite all IMAC members. Adi sees himself as a support member because he doesn’t have IRPS. Regions are split up by the USA 6 regions. The current IRPS system as understood from the webmaster, works based on states. As an International member, they don’t have a state; they have a country. The webmaster would have to change what is designated as International. We have designated regions throughout the International community, which eventually will become their own region. The eventual goal being 3 different International regions. When final goal is reached we will have 1) Latin America, 2) Europe, and 3) Asia. Doug will contact the webmaster to begin creating and IRPS system for the International region and to see what will be involved in achieving this for International region. The BOS is unanimous in moving forward with creating a single International region with all International as one region to start for IRPS system and the target for this is January of 2018. The split to 3 regions for International being the end goal to follow.
Other Regional Issues – All RDs
The NE has completed their season for 2017. The results for the World Qualifier is listed separate on their page. The NC has also completed their 2017 season.
The SE had an issue with some pilot’s score that wasn’t correct on the website. This pilot had 3 out-of-region contests and was all three counted for IRPS. The webmaster has said that it has always been this way and the RDs have to manage it. Steve wants the BOD to have the webmaster fix this issue, along with adding the region field to the member’s profile. Gil had this problem while he was RD. There was a drop-down field where you selected your region to determine your points. Many members don’t fly 2 or more contests outside of their region. It has always been this way, but has always kind of worked out. Steve proposes to the BOD to have the region field added back to get the IRPS to add correctly. Steve wants to propose to the BOD that we get the region field back and get the scores posted correctly. SE has regionals coming up.
The SC has regionals weekend after next in Shreveport.
The SW is going well. They have regionals in the next couple of weeks.
Mike wanted to remind the RDs that if a member moves up before your qualifier, they have lost their chance at the World Qualifier.
Meeting adjourned 11:07 p.m. EST.