Present: Mike Karnes, Gil Major, Phil Vance, Samantha McKinney, Brad Davy, Steve Sides, Clark Hymas, Doug Pilcher, Alex Dreiling, and Adi Kochav
Absent: Jeff Marsuchek
Guests: Ray Morton, Primo Rivera, and Rich Whitlow
Meeting began at 9:00 p.m. EST.
Welcome and Congratulations to the Winners – Mike Karnes
Mike welcomed Rich, Ray, and Primo to the BOD.
Emails from Members about Negative Posts – Mike Karnes
Mike has received several emails about negative posts. Mike did inform the BOD that he did write a post in one of the forums. It was the consensus of the BOD to not respond to any of the negative posts.
Judging School – Alex Dreiling
Alex reminded the RDs that it is up to them on who they are sending to the judging school from their region. He asks the RD’s to let him know by the last week in December. Currently, Gil and Steve will be attending the Friday portion. Adi and Manrico will also be flying in for the Judging School.
Mike is in the process of ordering the Red Books. Currently, he has 200 binders ordered. Phil has sent the proof of the cover for the Red Books to the Executive BOD for approval. The inserts have not been printed yet. We are waiting on AMA approval. They should have it approved by December 1. The price is $5 for the inserts and $10 for the binder and inserts.
Alex informed the BOD that to rent the projector is $400 per day. Mike will bring out a projector for the Judging School.
Alex asked the BOD on what they thought about bringing Leasha Bull out to the International Judging School for social media. Everyone thought this would be a great idea. Currently, a round trip ticket would cost around $250. Leasha wants to come and wants to stay involved with IMAC doing our social media. A motion was made to pay for Leash Bull’s airfare for the International Judging School by Alex Dreiling and seconded by Gil Major. Motion passed unanimously.
Alex has been talking with Shane Snyder and Ty Lyman on doing a video recording of the school. He is talking about a possible live feed or a recording that can be edited. Alex will speak with them again on their thoughts for the project.
Guidelines for RDs and their ARDs – Doug Pilcher
A regional director from 2012 had created guidelines for RDs and their ARDs. Doug is currently rewriting this document, since much of the information is outdated. This is just a baseline of information for the RD’s. Doug will post it out to the BOD forum before next month’s meeting.
The updated Contest Standards is Version 11. It talks about the $20 IMAC member discount. At some contests, a member has the same fee as a non-member. We are not telling the clubs what to charge for registration, but we are expecting a $20 discount to be given to IMAC members. This is another benefit to our members. The hyperlinks to AMA had to be changed and will need to be updated again when AMA completes their website upgrade. Doug is also working on this document and will also post to the BOD forum.
The CD checklist has been updated to also include the $20 discount to members over non-members. This will be posted to the BOD forum for approval to get all new documents uploaded to the website before January 1st for the 2019 season.
Currently, we have contests being approved without all the contest details being provided. The RD should make sure that the contest requested is completed. The contests will still be posted but will be highlighted in yellow to show that it is pending approval. At minimum, the details page must be completed for approval. After the initial request, any additional information in details or addition of flyers for the contest can be added through the region’s RD. Doug said that this will be added to the contest guide.
Novice Class – Mike Karnes
Mike knows that there are some BOD members who don’t like the Novice class. This class is an invitation to try IMAC and build a relationship with the pilots to invite them to join. There might only be 1-2 people show up, but there could also be 10 people that attend. Mike has created an Aresti with 7 figure sequences. They are basic turnaround maneuvers and a loop. The pilot should be able to do any of these maneuvers with any plane that is brought.
If we do nothing, we are going to get nothing. There are very few pilots that might show up if they don’t hear a contest is being held. A CD would go on the AMA site and search for the local clubs in the area. Then, contact the club president or secretary and send them a flyer, inviting their club to come to the contest to see what IMAC is about. This flyer would need to be sent at least 30 days in advance to be read at the club meetings. This would include getting the ARDs more involved.
The Novice class is limited to 97” wingspan or less. The pilots will be scored. There will be 2 judges in the chair and they will critique the pilot, along with the caller, after the sequence is completed.
Brad believes that we are overcomplicating this issue. He doesn’t want to have 6-7 people show up and try to find other pilots that would help them fly a special sequence. They will take up the judges’ time. Brad says that they can fly the Basic Aresti and their scores wouldn’t have to be entered in the score program. He believes that the time to contact and send flyers to the clubs would be very time consuming on the RD, ARD, and CD. He says that some of the clubs have zero interest. Mike asked for an alternative away to invite these clubs and Brad says that it is up to the CD to promote their contest.
Adi agrees with Mike about something needs to be done. He asked when the Basic class became so competitive. With creating the Novice class, this would create another class. He asked how we take the rules from the Novice class and apply them to the Basic class. Currently, Basic class can fly any plane. This would leave our classes the same.
The Novice class would not create a By-Law change. The By-Laws are organizational. We have the Contest Standards, which defines how the contest is run. Mike’s proposal does not require an AMA rule change, it would require a revision to the Contest Standards. There are two proposals in the BOD forums on the potential Novice class, Mike’s and Brad’s.
Brad’s proposal is an alternative approach to the Basic class. Adi suggested restricting the size of the airplane in Basic, but this would require a rule change. It would have to be announced at least 2 years in advance to the membership for everyone to be prepared. If we write an RCP, the Scale Aerobatics Board would still have to approve it.
Mike will take what has been discussed and add it to the proposal. Mike reiterated that if we can’t get new pilots to the contests, how are we going to get them interested in joining IMAC.
Membership Discount – Steve Sides
Primo will be hosting some Basic demos to try and promote IMAC in the South East region. Steve has asked the BOD for approval of offering a $20 membership at these demos for new members. This would be an incentive for new members. Primo’s first demo is December1, 2018.
Brad had discussed this before as an introductory IMAC membership; first year member would receive a 50% discount. This could also include prior members of IMAC who have been away for a yet to be determined period of time. Doug likes the idea of the introductory discount. This would be a one-time, initial/or re-entry after a specified amount of time away from IMAC discount only.
A motion was made to introduce a $20 introductory membership to new members and prior members. Phil asked how this would be handled and how he would verify that they were first-time members or back from an extended period yet to be determined. The mechanics behind this would take some time to get established. Doug believes that the best approach to this is to run the introductory membership through the RD in that region. This lets the RD determine if they are a returning member or a new member. The RD would take the membership fee; the pilot would create the account on the IMAC site; and the fees would be sent to Phil direct from Region RD.
If another button gets added to PayPal, this could create another scenario that we currently have with the international button being clicked, instead of the U.S. button. We still have some pilots who click on the wrong button. With the demos, Primo will take the money and would send the fees to Phil, so he can assign the membership numbers.
The RD could create a spreadsheet of the new members and send them to Phil at one time. If it comes straight from the RD, Phil will know that this is new membership or extended period of time away from IMAC return. This would help Phil out a great deal. The members will still have to create an account on the IMAC site so Phil can assign their membership number. Brad doesn’t agree with the RDs having to send this information into Phil.
Brad says that we should have these options on the site for members or potential members to be able to click. The other RDs have no problem with sending the information to Phil. Brad is trying to put in place a long-term plan by using PayPal via the site. We don’t have to use PayPal via the site when it can be mailed or PayPal’d direct from RD to Phil.
The consensus of the BOD is to have an introductory membership. Doug will get with Primo and Steve will send him an email.
Adi has been talking with Manrico and they would like to have a mass registration in the International region. They want all pilots to join IMAC. He says that they could register more than 100 pilots right now. Adi would like to offer these members a $5=$10 discount. Every International member will be required to join IMAC. They will sign-up every pilot that flies in the contests. Brad questioned why the International members can’t go to the website and become an IMAC member, since they must have an account to be assigned a membership number. Adi says that we can raise their price to $40 per year and this would create a budget for the International region. If the price is raised, it would show them that they are receiving a 50% discount for new membership. Adi believes that even though International doesn’t receive the same benefits, the membership fee should be the same across all regions. Adi suggested the 50% discount, or $20 one-year membership for everyone, but the consensus of the BOD was to only offer the $20 membership to introductory members only.
Possible By-Law Changes for 2019 – Brad Davy
The By-Law changes were tabled until next month for the documentation to be completed.
IMAC Rules and/or Guideline Changes based on tonight’s discussion – Mike Karnes
This item was tabled until next month for the documentation to be completed.
Final Budget Discussion and Vote – Mike Karnes
Phil presented the final budget to the BOD members to review. The BOD thoroughly reviewed the budget presented. Phil said that we have never spent $14,900 for the International Judging School, but that is what is budgeted currently. We are cutting the staff down for the NATS to 6 paid staff members.
The website maintenance fees have been lowered to $200 per month. A questions was asked what IMAC receives for the website maintenance for $2,400 a year. Mike mentioned that if anybody knows someone who would like to do the website, bring in a proposal. This is not a simple website; it has a huge background behind it. With some members continuing to attack the integrity of our current webmaster, we won’t have a website. Doug says that we will not get anyone that will do it for less than $2,400 a year currently charged.
We are not going to do Toledo in 2019. We spend too much money and don’t get much feedback. The show is getting smaller and with less participation. The symposiums didn’t work. We have added Joe Nall to the budget. We would need to talk to someone who is going out there to see if they would oversee a booth. The minimum cost for a booth is $400.
Regional expenses got bumped up to $1,250. Many of the regional judging schools are self-supporting. Each region will keep in their account the funds that they have raised in their respective regions. Mike and Samantha will work on the regional fund accounts to get their accounts back to actual amounts with in region earned funds vs expenditures. There will be no carryover of funds from each year of the budget funding that is not spent, except monies earned in region for that year.
A motion was made to accept the budget as presented by Steve Sides and seconded by Doug Pilcher. By roll-call vote, motion passed unanimously.
Treasurer Report – Phil Vance
Phil has received a letter from PayPal saying that the IRS EIN doesn’t match the EIN that the PayPal has. Phil handles this each year. The IRS must write a letter to PayPal confirming the EIN.
The ending balance for the IMAC accounts form the month of October was:
Checking $25,146.32
PayPal $15,200.20
Total $40,346.52
The current balance in the IMAC accounts as of tonight is:
Checking $19,527.10
PayPal $15,881.08
Total $35,408.18
Phil has been having an issue wiring the money to Manrico and Adi for their approved reimbursements for the International Judging School. Funds cannot be transferred through PayPal due to the laws in Israel. Phil will get with Adi and see if they can get this problem corrected.
We have not given a donation to AMA for the 2018 IMAC Worlds Championship. Phil is still working on finalizing the numbers. He believes that we made a profit of $4,500. All bills for the 2018 IMAC Worlds have been paid in full. Phil is thinking about a donation of $1,200. AMA recommends that we purchase a brick, which would give recognition to IMAC and IWC 18.
Regional Issues – All RDs
The RDs currently have no regional issues in their respective region.
Mike informed the BOD that once minutes are posted for approval in the BOD forum, BOD members will have one week to make changes to the minutes before they are posted to the IMAC site.
Meeting adjourned at 11:25 p.m. EST.