- Details
- Written by: Doug Pilcher
- Category: Club Business
Present: Mike Karnes, Doug Pilcher, Samantha McKinney, Phil Vance, Alex Dreiling, Brad Davy, Toby Silhavy, Manrico Mincuzzi, Rich Whitlow, and Primo Rivera
Absent: Clark Hymas, Jorge Guzman, and Michael Hobson
Meeting began 9:01 p.m. EST.
June Minutes – Samantha McKinney
The BOD received their June 2020 BOD meeting minutes. Mike called for the vote. Motion was approved unanimously.
Regional Reports – All RDs
Alex reported that the SW region has its next contest in Arizona at the end of August. Contests in California are currently cancelled, due to the state being shut down to the pandemic. The rest of the region’s contest are in the fall.
Rich cancelled his contest in the SC at the end of the month. Kansas has a contest on August 8th and Abilene at the end of August. School starts the first week of August and several schools are having in-person learning. Louisiana is currently in the middle of a spike in Covid. Rich reported that they aren’t going to have enough contests to justify Regional awards.
The NC region was supposed to have their contest this last weekend. Due to low attendance and a spike in Covid cases, they ended up having a primer instead. Will and Marion are having their contest in August, along with Toby. The Covid cases are spiking in Ohio and the state might possibly shut down. The Canadians are closed down and can’t cross the border. Toby also can’t justify spending the money on regional awards.
The NE region has had 3 successful contests. There is a contest in Maine that has been held for the last 25 years; Brad believes this is the longest standing contest in IMAC. Plum Island is planning on proceeding with their contest, as well as the Maryland contest. Brad has been getting questions from club members on hosting their contests. Brad told them not to cancel til at least a few weeks before the contest due to guidelines constantly changing. Attendance is definitely down at contests.
Brad has only been to one contest and hasn’t heard any issues on social distancing. The only concern is the food concessions. Some of the clubs are asking pilots to wear masks while waiting on food. His region is allowing the pilot and caller to make the decision on wearing masks at the flight line. There really hasn’t been any concerns about being exposed. Brad hasn’t heard of anyone getting sick after a contest. The rural contests don’t seem to be too concerned. The pilots who are concerned about the pandemic have been staying away.
The SE region has Mocksville and Ocala coming up. A lot of pilots are interested in going to Mocksville. Primo had 7 basic pilots at one contest and are pretty sure they will sign up to be IMAC members. Everything has been kept clean at the contests. The restrooms were cleaned every hour. The judges were 6 feet apart, along with the pilot/callers were kept away from the judges. Primo believes the guidelines can be done at contests. Many clubs are giving them options on eating. Primo suggests spacing out the parking area and letting the pilots know about the food and leave it up to the pilots to choose.
Manrico reported the contests listed on the European region website are what is still scheduled to proceed. The only International contest is in the Czech Republic. There are some contests in Italy. The 2020 season came to a halt due to the Covid pandemic.
Adi reported that there is a PanAmerica contest being discussed, with North and South America. They have been working on judging schools. Every Thursday is online judging school. Oliver Soto is coming to IMAC Europe judging school. Many of the questions are on break and break-in-sequence. They are also working with Primo on converting the Red Book into Spanish. Currently, the IMAC criteria is now published in Spanish. Chile has now joined IMAC.
Oliver Soto was invited to report on the Latin America region. He has been helping out for the RD for 10 months now. There are several updates on the region on the forums. They are getting a good response from the Latin American pilots.
They are using a different approach to judging. They are using slides to explain the maneuvers in excruciating details with no grey areas. The Red Book is pretty clear; but there are some points in the grey areas. They want to make sure there are no mistakes in judging and how pilots practice at the field. In March of 2021, we will be hosting our first International camp.
For the PanAmerica contest, they are recruiting as many pilots as possible; getting sponsors to donate flights with their own planes. They want to have pilots come from abroad and then lend the pilots planes. This will save the pilots some money.
Currently, the Latin American region is not having any contests. Contests should start around September as long as everything is okay with the pandemic.
Oliver gave the BOD a presentation on how the Covid-19 virus can be spread through contests and how to keep guidelines at the contests.
Regional Awards – Should We Spend the Money – Mike Karnes
Many of the regions are still having contests. There hasn’t been enough contests and attendance to have regional awards for 2020. Due to the Covid, there have been several pilots who have not been able to participate, and the RDs feel it wouldn’t be fair to have regional awards for 2020.
Membership Renewals – Mike Karnes
Mike has been reviewing the membership list, and several members have let their membership lapse. Mike will send the list out to each RD. Mike suggested that each RD talk with the members to remind them to renew their membership.
Website Future – Doug Pilcher
An agreement was made with our current webmaster until early 2021 to keep the current website going, as long as we moved the forums to a different site. Forums are currently hosted on V Bulletin. V Bulletin doesn’t keep up with expired members.
Doug will talk with the webmaster to see if the website can be moved to another server that can host it.
Rick recommended in the forums about starting a committee on how to proceed with the website in 2021. Rich suggested Manrico to be on this committee. Manrico says that all the website providers are American. Brad nominated Doug to be the head of the committee, due to the understanding of what goes on with the back end of the website. Rich volunteered to be on this committee. Adi suggested Dan Carroll to be on the committee.
Mike has been working with the Wix website builder. It is a little hard to work with. It has been working with it for the past year, and have taken it as far as he can without paying money to proceed further. He had duplicated a majority of the website. There is a fee to work with the contests and listings. With Wix, you must pay for upgraded modules. It is around $800 to upgrade the modules for 2 years. This fee only allows for Mike to work further on the website, than what he already has.
Brad says that the problem we are having is that we are using our website more than what most companies use them for. Our website is used to integrate scoring, membership, regional listings, etc; we are running the “company” on this website. Before, many members complained about the price we were charged to upgrade the website back in 2014. We were given quite a discounted price for our current website. Brad suggests either we drop some functionality from the website, or spend the money for a website to do what we need it to do. Adi believes that we should keep our current functions of the website.
Manrico created the European and Italian websites. They were both created in a few weeks. The cost is about $300 Euros per year, which includes PayPal feature, which is most expense. The websites are pretty simple. They are only used to share information and collect registrations for the competitions. Manrico says that Wix is the best choice.
Adi believes we need to do regional points on the website. We don’t want to use Facebook to post the contests results. We need to look professional, with the website being IMAC’s best presentation for this.
Toby suggested that we get a list together of exactly what we are wanting in a new website. Also, we need to let the companies know what we currently have and ask them the cost level to keep what we got.
Brad says that he will not support any approach that doesn’t offer options and pricing on a website. We need to have a comparative list of pros and cons that shows the best direction to go.
2020 Known Sequences – Mike Karnes
The Sequence committee has been talking about the 2021 Known sequences. Their opinion is to repeat the 2020 Known sequences for 2021, since there hasn’t been a committee to create Known sequences for 2021.
Brad suggested that there be a second look at the 2020 Advance Known sequence. One of the maneuvers drives the plane way down on one end of the field. Primo also suggested that Unlimited has a maneuver with the same issue.
Adi mentioned doing a poll to see about keeping the 2020 Known sequences for 2021 season. The U.S. RDs doesn’t see an issue with keeping the same sequences and to “tweak” them if necessary. Mike will have the Sequence committee look at the Unlimited and Advance sequences.
Treasurer’s Report – Phil Vance
At the end of June, the balance in the General Operating account was:
Checking $ 2,755.28
PayPal $35,483.42
Total $38,238.70
The balance in the General Operating account as of tonight, July 20, 2020 is:
Checking $ 2,488.30
PayPal $36,642.32
Total $39,130.62
Phil reported that there have been several International memberships, especially from the Czech Republic.
2020 Nominations in September – Mike Karnes
Nominations for the 2021-2022 BOD will open up in September. Mike said to keep your region informed if you would like to run again, or would like for someone else to run.
Meeting adjourned 10: 52 p.m. EST.
- Details
- Written by: Doug Pilcher
- Category: Club Business
Present: Mike Karnes, Doug Pilcher, Samantha McKinney, Phil Vance, Primo Rivera, Brad Davy, Toby Silhavy, Rich Whitlow, Alex Dreiling, Clark Hymas, Jorge Guzman, Michael Hobson, and Manrico Mincuzzi
Meeting was opened on the IMAC BOD forum on June 12, 2020
Approval of May 2020 BOD Meeting Minutes – Doug Pilcher
A motion was made to approve the May 2020 BOD meeting minutes by Doug Pilcher. Seconded by Rich Whitlow. With no objections, the motion passed.
IMAC Website – Doug Pilcher
Doug informed the BOD that we have until February/March 2021 until we lose our current website. Doug has floated around several ideas. One idea is migrating the current website over to Diamond Computers’ servers. Diamond would have 330 Down and 30 Up. Rich does not like this idea unless we pay Diamond for fair market. Doug has also mentioned looking into leasing a virtual server, such as Amazon Cloud.
Doug would like to see the forums possibly back to the main site. V Bulletin is more time consuming with matching members to membership status automatically instead of manually. If the forums are moved back to the main site, IMAC members would then get upgraded and removed from Members Only forums as determined by their membership status. Also, an accurate accounting of voting without verifying each vote as they came in manually.
Rich recommended getting a committee formed to look at costs for potential ideas.
Treasurer’s Report – Phil Vance
At the end of May, the general operating account is as follows;
Checking $ 3,047.26
PayPal $34,173.82
Total $37,221.08
As of June 25, the general operating account is as follows:
Checking $ 2,755.28
PayPal $35,984.23
Total $38,739.51
Regions Report – All RDs
Rich reported that South Central has their first contest, Broken Arrow, in Tulsa, OK. The event ran smoothly.
The NC held a virtual judging seminar, hosted by Mike Karnes. It went over fantastic. Our first contest is KRAM in July. There are still several cancellations. The border between the States and Canada is still closed. Our region is still selling T-shirts. Toby is asking about RPS trophies; he doesn’t see that the cost is worth for the number of contests that we have.
The SW will hopefully start up at the end of August.
THE NE has had 2 contests. There have been several cancellations, but the clubs are hoping to have their contests rescheduled later in the year. The attendance is low. The upside, the intermediate and advances classes have an increase in participation.
Meeting was adjourned on June 30, 2020.
- Details
- Written by: Doug Pilcher
- Category: Club Business
Present: Mike Karnes, Doug Pilcher, Samantha McKinney, Phil Vance, Primo Rivera, Brad Davy, Toby Silhavy, Rich Whitlow, Alex Dreiling, and Manrico Mincuzzi.
Absent: Clark Hymas, Jorge Guzman, and Michael Hobson
Guest: Adi Kochav
Meeting began 10:04 p.m. EST.
Covid Direction Thoughts/BOD NATS Thoughts – All BOD Members
Doug asked the BOD their thoughts about the Covid-19 and the 2020 NATs. Texas has begun a limited reopening. Schools are shut down. The states have different reopening plans. There still isn’t a whole lot of flying going on.
Doug suggested that we make our decision on the NATs and get it out to the membership and to AMA.
Rich conducted a poll on attendance for the 2020 NATs. There were a total of 60 votes, with 47 “no” and 13 “yes;” with 9 of the “yes” votes being staff. Only 4 pilots voted that they would attend the NATs. Rich’s recommendation is to cancel the NATs. It will not be a good turnout for the amount of money that has to be spent on the event. There are too many members that said they wouldn’t attend due to the Covid-19 virus, financial restrictions, mandatory quarantines, etc.
AMA isn’t making a decision on the 2020 NATs until June 10th. Pattern cancelled their NATs last week.
Brad wanted to know what is the driving factor to cancel the NATs now, instead of waiting on AMA’s decision. Many of the pilots/staff must schedule their vacation ahead of time. Some companies won’t let employees take time off or won’t allow time off if they only have 30 day notice.
Right now in Indiana, the parks aren’t open yet and not quite sure when they will open. Currently, there are no facilities at AMA that are open. They are requiring pilots to social distance.
The logistics are too great to handle for the NATs. The judges, pilots, and callers would have to be six feet apart. There would have to be social distancing in the pit areas. The bathrooms would have to be cleaned after each use.
Rich has gotten some feed back on why we are even considering having the NATs. He hasn’t gotten any positive feedback. The risk is too big to have the NATs. On top of the Covid-19, it’s not worth the money to host a national event for 10 or less pilots.
Rich also said that we have lost our sponsorship, due to the companies also hurting during this pandemic.
Manrico cancelled the 2020 Europeans in March, when the contest was going to be held in August. This contest had 150 pilots registered. After the contest was called, within the next few weeks everyone was very happy that the decision to cancel was made early. Manrico suggests that we make a decision now.
Toby informed the BOD that Scale and Pattern have cancelled their NATs. He says we have to protect our membership.
A motion was made to cancel the 2020 NATs by Rich Whitlow and seconded by Doug Pilcher. Motion carried unanimously.
Treasury/Membership Renewals – Phil Vance
As of tonight, the balance in the general operating account is:
Checking $ 3,317.26
PayPal $33,307.70
Total $36,624.96
Regional/Covid Issues/Directions in Region – All RDs
Brad said the NE cancelled their season opener. The Canadians wanted to cancel their Quebec contest, but Brad asked them to wait until it was closer to the event. The region still has their fingers crossed for the July contest. The local jurisdictions still have more restrictions in place. They are discussing going to 50 people or less within the next 2-3 weeks. Restaurants have been open through the closings with take-our or curbside. A lot of pilots in their region camp at the fields, and very few stay in hotels.
The SE has had one contest in Miami and events have been cancelled since then. There is a contest scheduled in North Carolina next month, and Primo is checking with the CD on the state/local guidelines. As far as he knows, there is still 10 or less people required for a gathering. Georgia is slowing reopening.
Toby reported that the NC has cancelled all events up to the NATs. Ohio is in Phase 1 of quarantine. People can go out a little more. They are letting a few areas open to Phase 2, where restaurants can have 1/3 capacity. Toby’s employer is predicting that as soon as everyone goes back to work that more cases will arise. Toby is concerned about the rest of the NC season. Currently, we can only have 10 or less for gatherings.
Rich has cancelled 11 events in the SC. A good portion of the season is gone. There will be an aerobatic fun day in Kansas, with a restriction of 10 or less pilots. The Broken Arrow contest is on the books for June 6th, they are waiting to make a decision. The next contest is June 27. Rich is predicting by early July, their contests will be going. Louisiana won’t be out of Phase 1 until mid-June. They still have limitations on out-of-state travel. If they go East, there is a mandatory 14-day quarantine.
The SW has cancelled everything. California is on lock down. Los Angeles has extended their lock down for another 3 months, which affects 3 contests. Arizona has a few things going on. They have rescheduled contests from September to November, every other week. The Tucson Shootout was cancelled.
Manrico said some Europeans countries are coming back. There will be 2 open International competitions, Switzerland and the Czech Republic. There are both held in August. There was originally 8 scheduled and they are down to 2 remaining. Many countries are still shut down. The UK is open. The contests on the website are the ones still happening. Israel is having a couple of events. Most of Europe is still grounded. They are hoping to fly in September, but there won’t be a National Championship this year.
Adi informed the BOD that the online judging school had 30 pilots from around the world. Israel is having a contest in June when they will start their season. The Nationals will be in November. Adi is still working with Facebook and social media to show the pilots that IMAC is still going strong.
Primo asked what we do for the RPS system. Brad says it’s whatever points you got. Rich set a minimum of 3 contests to qualify, due to the restrictions.
Manrico said that there is no danger in IMAC going away. There is a lot of expectations and excitement on what will happen next year.
Mike asked to keep your regions informed and busy with IMAC. Everyone needs to keep their attention and focus on IMAC.
Meeting adjourned 10:45 p.m EST.
- Details
- Written by: Doug Pilcher
- Category: Club Business
- Details
- Written by: Doug Pilcher
- Category: Club Business
Present: Mike Karnes, Doug Pilcher, Samantha McKinney, Phil Vance, Alex Dreiling, Primo Rivera, Brad Davy, Rich Whitlow, Toby Silhavy, Manrico Mincuzzi, and Michael Hobson
Absent: Jorge Guzman and Clark Hymas
Guest: Adi Kochav
Meeting began at 9:04 p.m. EST.
Approval of February Minutes – Mike Karnes
The February minutes are out for approval. There is a duplicate sentence that will be removed. A motion was made to approve the February 2020 meeting minutes by Mike Karnes and seconded by Doug Pilcher. Motion passed unanimously.
IMAC and the Coronavirus in the U.S. – Doug Pilcher
Doug has been contacted by several members on our stand with the coronavirus. Primo has also received several emails with questions and concerns. Currently, President Trump has suggested no more than 10 people in a group and social distancing. Primo will be deciding on Wednesday on whether to cancel the Ocala contest. There are several pilots registered for this contest. Rich believes along with the issue of transmission; will the pilots be able to find a place to stay and eat. Some companies are requiring a self-quarantine of 14 days if an employee has traveled.
The BOD and IMAC must adhere to state and local guidelines. The decision to cancel contests will be left up to the CD, who must adhere to federal, state, and local guidelines.
Rich has contacted AMA to see what their policy is. AMA was having a meeting today and didn’t get back with Rich. A question was raised on if the clubs will be refunded their sanction fee. Alex says they are refundable with sanctions through April 30. Doug says that AMA has always allowed the moving of a sanction date, even if a contest or event is re-scheduled without an additional fee.
IMAC’s stance is for all RDs and CDs to adhere to state and local regulations/guidelines for their contests. Brad recommended IMAC put out a statement to the membership. Doug will write up and send an email to our membership. The BOD recommends that they wait until at least 7 days out to decide on whether to call a contest.
March 15th Deadline for RCPs – Doug Pilcher
Mike checked and no one outside of IMAC has sent in an RCP. There won’t be no new rule changes for 2021-2022.
International Judging School Update – Primo Rivera
Since there will be no rule changes for the next cycle, Mike asked if we should be having an International Judging School. Primo believes we should have something for the instructors, not necessarily a massive school. He has been calling venues and many seem to be expensive. He is currently looking at a place around I-85. This venue does displays with airplanes and it seems promising. They are about 45 minutes from the airport, and close to Hinesville. Primo is also trying to get in touch with Jerry Hailey to see if he would be interested in Childers Racing to host the school. One concern is the weather in North Carolina in January.
Primo was asked if he has checked with any of the local EAA chapters, along with checking with colleges that have aeronautics programs.
It was asked if it was practical to having an online judging school for the instructors. Brad thinks we could do it, just wouldn’t have the visuals. There wouldn’t be as much interaction between student and instructor. This class teaches instructors how to teach the class. He doesn’t necessarily believe it will be effective online. It is something to consider if we don’t' have any other options. We might possibly get more participation but cannot predict that.
NATs 2020 Update – Rich Whitlow
Currently, we have three committed judges, which includes Doug and Mike. Rich has emailed Yolanda to see what they are thinking about the NATs in general over the coronavirus. The T-shirt sizes are in and Rich will be getting with Rosie to talk over preliminary plans for the banquet.
Regional Savings vs. Regional Budgeted Funds – Mike Karnes
The Executive BOD is currently working on this issue. The plan is to separate regional budgeted funds from their actual regional’s funds. This has never been done; it has always been reported with the IMAC General Operating account. Currently, the regions have more money saved up than what the General Operating account has.
It was discussed last month to currently only use the budgeted funds for awards and regional judging schools. Alex asked if we should lower the IMAC budgeted funds, thinking the $1,250 is too high. With the savings in each region and what is budgeted for each region, the current money owed to the regions is over $20,000.
2019 Year-End Financials – Phil Vance
Brad would like to see a comparison of the 2019 Budget versus 2019 Actual Financial Statement before releasing to the membership. Phil will get these numbers together and get it out to the BOD.
Treasurer’s Report – Phil Vance
As of tonight, March 16, 2020, the General Operating Account has:
Checking $ 5,248.65
PayPal $31,032.38
Total $36,281.03
Regional Issues – All RDs
Alex just cancelled the contest this weekend for the SW. The governor just put a 50-person limit on group gatherings.
The Toledo Show was cancelled in the NC region due to the coronavirus. The T-shirts were not Toledo Show theme-based, so Toby will be selling them throughout the region this month. The next thing up is the judging seminar in Muncie in a month. Toby has been working with Dan Carroll from Australia on an electronic scoring system.
The SC region has a skills clinic schedule for this weekend. Rich predicts it will be cancelled, but the decision won’t be made until Wednesday. The following week was supposed to be a clinic in Kansas, but they are already cancelling it.
Primo will speak with the CD of the Ocala contest on Wednesday and decide on the contest. He will follow Florida’s state and local guidelines. After that, there is a judging school in the SE region, but will wait and see what happens.
The NE region doesn’t start their season until the end of April.
NE is keeping their fingers crossed. End of April is when the schedule starts.
In the European region, Manrico has postponed the Europeans until 2021 due to the coronavirus. The plan is as of now to continue with the first addition of the Euro Cup.
In the Asia-Pacific region, Michael is in the process of signing up 50-60 members. Australia is trailing the U.S. by a month or two on the coronavirus. The restrictions will possible mirror the U.S.
Meeting adjourned at 10:22 p.m. EST.