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Written by: Doug Pilcher

Category: Club Business

Published: 07 December 2015

IMAC Board of Directors Announces Changes to Contest Standards, IRPS

Posted by Mike Karnes

Posted on 12/7/2015

The IMAC Board of Directors approved a couple key changes to the IMAC Contest Standards for 2016. While these changes are certain to be discussed during judging schools, by Regional Directors with Contest Directors, and in the forums, it is important for ALL members to be aware of them.

The first, and most important change, is that we listened the membership and have adopted a recommendation for the Basic class. In the past, most contests flew a single sequence round of the known sequence for Basic during the unknown round. In order to help Basic pilots get used to the extra pressure associated with an unknown, the single known sequence for Basic will be scored as an unknown. In other words, the sequence cannot be dropped, and it will count for 20 percent of the score.

Note to ALL CD’s: The contest must be scored in this format to count as a legal IRPS contest.

The process for doing this is easy when using the Score program. Make sure you download a 2016 copy of Score 4.13 from the IMAC website. When you open the program you will notice that the Basic Unknown has already been added to the list of sequence choices.

A second change involves the handling of the unknowns. In the past, the Contest Standards required the Unknown Manager to  be a “non-competitor.” In many cases, CDs have been using a Basic pilot as the Unknown Manager because that individual was not flying one of the unknown sequences. The Board believed it was appropriate to change the contest standards to permit this practice. For 2016, the Unknown Manager must be a person that is not flying the unknown sequences.

Finally, we revised the Contest Standards to reflect the new contest scheduling function. The unknown request is now integrated with the contest schedule function, so CDs do not need to request unknowns separately. The CD must designate an unknown manager when requesting the contest, or enter “pending”. If the CD does not identify the unknown manager, they must tell their Regional Director who the unknown manager will be at least 10 days prior to the contest. Regional Directors will be monitoring this closely. The Regional Director will edit the contest once the Unknown Manager is identified.

The IMAC Regional Points Series (IRPS) has been modified slightly to add a third level of tie-breakers. Previously, the tie breakers were the number of pilots competed against in the season, and then placement in the Regional Finals contest. There have been cases where these were not sufficient to settle the tie. The new level of tie breaker, if the first two cannot resolve the tie, will be a total of the raw scores in the top 5 IRPS contests, with the highest raw point total winning the tie.

If you have questions regarding these changes, please ask them in the forums. You’re probably not the only one with the question.

Happy Flying!

Details

Written by: Doug Pilcher

Category: Club Business

Published: 06 December 2015

Posted by Mike Karnes

Posted on 12/6/2015

After considerable discussion that lasted several months, The IMAC Board of Directors has selected the host site for the 2018 IMAC World Championships.  They were unanimous on the decision as to where to hold and support the 2nd World Championship. It will again be on US soil in 2018. The AMA headquarters were very accommodating when asked if they would allow IMAC to host the 2018 event at the IAC in Muncie, Indiana on September 4th thru September 8th, 2018.

A Little More . . .                     

Wayne Matthews, the visionary award winner and founder of the first World Championship has agreed to help coordinate this major event for a second time. An International event like this is a huge undertaking.  It takes numerous volunteers and staff to make an event of this magnitude successful. Please  volunteer when asked to become involved with these magnificent festivities.  IMAC is looking to make the 2018 event even larger than the first.  Once the rules and qualification process have been written by the event committee and approved by the BOD, they will be made available on the website They may also be found on the IMAC Worlds website.

Details

Written by: Doug Pilcher

Category: Club Business

Published: 30 September 2015

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

Details

Written by: Doug Pilcher

Category: Club Business

Published: 31 August 2015

Attendees: Mike Karnes, Charles Youngblood, Samantha McKinney, Phil Vance, Steve Sides, Doug Pilcher, Ron Graham, Rusty Fried, Brad Davy, and Michael Verzwyvelt

Meeting in Session:  8:05 p.m. CST

New Website - Roy Barrow

Roy introduced the new website to the BOD.  He began by taking us on a tour of the homepage.  This page serves as a welcome to the general public and pilots interested in IMAC.  The purpose of this new website is to keep everyone involved.  The homepage includes pictures, the basics of IMAC and different articles.  The article viewing area will include advertising.  Each BOD member will have their own article viewing system.  Roy wanted to keep the homepage fairly simple and to the point.  The old website will still be out there, but only a few things will be carried over.  Nothing in the forums will carry over, but there will be a link to access the old forums in read-only format.

The forum system is very powerful.  The general public can view and post on an existing post, but can’t create a new topic.  They must be registered to create a topic in the forum.  The RDs does not have the ability to delete a thread.  The only people that have the ability to delete a thread or post are the forum moderators.  Roy mentioned to the BOD that we need to establish a policy for the moderators to have a strict guideline to follow to remove threads or posts.  This function needs to stay with the forum moderators and not the RDs.  The RDs are in a political position and does not need to come across as censorship.  We currently have 3 forum moderators.  The current moderators are Curtis Cozier, Wayne Matthews, and Jerry Hailey.  The moderators have no authority outside the policy that the BOD establishes.  The current policy is that it will be removed if it is indecent, full of profanity, or a personal tirade or attack.  It has been voiced that the BOD should approve and appoint the moderators.  Roy recommended Curtis and Wayne because of the experiences that he has had with these two gentleman in the past.  There currently isn’t a policy in writing.

We currently have some new features.  A shout box appears at the top of the page.  It is a live chat that any member can see.  An open international forum has been opened.  Each RD will have a forum and a sub-forum for the ARDs.  The international guests have read-only, but have to be members to post.  There is also a private message inbox.  Forum settings can be changed on how you want things emailed to you.  There is a membership and forum profile.  Forum profile only affects settings within the forum.  All settings are being transferred over to the new website.  The IMAC number can no longer be changed.  A member can now have 5 photograph albums.   Each album can hold 10 pictures.  Other people can view your albums.  An album image can be inserted with a post.  There can be multiple images and they will resize automatically.  A member can also insert an image directly from the Internet.  When a member deletes their post, the system will ask for a reason.  The size limit is currently 1.2.  Now when a user logins, they will automatically see information collected on them and will also automatically see the contest schedule for their region.  Everybody on the BOD will have access after tonight to test the new website.

Roy walked us through the general layout of the regions.  The RDs will have their own article system in their region.  Roy will train us on Windows Live Writer to be able to post our own articles.  There is also a “Contact Regional Director” and “Schedule an IMAC Event” in each region’s homepage.  Contest registration has been simplified.  To schedule an event, the street address is very important to drive the Google Map.  The unknowns manager is now required.  A contest cannot be submitted without the unknowns manager information.  The RDs can edit the unknown manager, if needed.  Contest will not show up on the system until the unknowns manager is contacted.  If the CD doesn’t know who the manager will be, the CD can be inserted twice.  Once all information is entered, the system will send out an email to the RD.  The RD is responsible for making sure the emails work.  When the RD gets a response back, the RD can approve the contest.  Also, this automatically sends out an unknown request to the sequence committee.  This shows up to the committee ready to go.  A few of the BOD believes that this will create a problem when editing.  The unknown manager can be the CD.  Only the RD or a BOD member can change the unknown manager.  We can’t allow anyone to edit the contest schedule other than the RDs or a BOD member.  By requiring the unknown manager information, this eliminates two steps, but some RDs believes that it needs to remain a two step process.  If the unknown manager is changed.  it automatically changes what the sequence committee sees as long as it changes before the unknowns are sent.  Any member of the BOD can edit any event.  The current systems does not let you change the unknowns manager.  The question raised on why does the unknown manager have to be part of the registration.  The issue is that contests that aren’t requesting their unknowns and the RDs are not catching it.  Then, Mike has to get the unknowns two days before the contest begins.  A tickler system was suggested to alert the RD if there is a contest without unknowns being requested.  The RD only has to make sure that it is a good email if the unknown manager changes.  CDs and unknown managers must reply to emails.  Changes are made in the event editor and it assumes the emails are correct.  Roy will add a confirmation email to the information for the unknowns manager.  BOD recommended that the unknown manager information be removed on the member contest registration. The sequence committee is onboard with the unknowns manager for registration.  The problems that the RDs foresee is the event registration is dependent upon the information for the unknown manager.  Suggestions were made to create a tab to request for multiple unknowns and for non-flying events.  A flyer can be added as a .jpeg or a .png file.  The system will automatically resize.

The event editor allows to edit contest and post results.  A contest pending approval will show up on the event page in yellow.  The scoring tab will upload the zip file from the scoring software.  It does not automatically post for RPS points.  If there is an error in the score file, upload fixed results and it automatically replaces the prior file.  The whole zip file must be uploaded.  Dave has generated a contest write-up in the score program.  You can also upload up to 10 event photos.  After checking event approval, the event is no longer in yellow on the contest schedule.  With the Google map, a member can type in their address and get directions directly to the field. 

When registering for a contest/event, the system automatically pulls information for the member’s profile.  The pilot registration information can be exported to an Excel document and into the scoring program.  Once in the scoring program, the pilots will need to be activated.  BOD was in agreement that only the BOD has access to the exports of the event registration due to the members not wanting the membership to have access to their emails.  Once an event has passed, it drops off the calendar.  To post results, the RD will have to go back to the event editor.  Each region’s points will be posted on their pages.  When seeing event results, the write-up will show up first, along with the images and the scores.

Roy suggested a policy for requesting the unknowns for the international events. Currently, 1-2 members are requesting unknowns for the entire country.  Registration is disabled on an unapproved contest.  Members will see unapproved events.  Non-contest or non-flying events will be distinguishable from other events.

Roy mentioned that the BOD needs to get advertising going on the new website.  The current site is not generating enough money from advertising.  We are losing by giving away ad space and by not having very many advertisers.  Roy proposed to the BOD for charging a monthly fee for each type of ad.  it would be priced according to the traffic through the website.  He suggested a similar advertising structure, such as Flying Giants, but only charge 1/10 of their prices.  This allows the companies to by ads based on their budget.  Hobbico and another company currently advertise on our site.  We could generate as much money as what we would doubling the membership.  The BOD is in agreement that this needs to be discussed in detail during another meeting.  The new website could go live now, but the event system will not be ready til the end of the year.

Regional Directors’ Report - Mike Karnes

A contest has turned in scores in the SW region that Rusty didn’t know existed and they are wanting RPS points.  Rusty wasn’t aware this contest was on the schedule.  There was an unknown request made.  Scores are currently being held.  Roy has a listing of all contests being submitted and this contest never made it on the database.  Roy has went back and it wasn’t on the contest schedule.  Rusty is going to ask for proof of the contest being registered.  The decision is left up to Rusty as the RD, but he is to keep Mike informed of the situtation.

Meeting adjourned at 10:52 p.m. CST.