Details

Written by: Doug Pilcher

Category: Club Business

Published: 31 August 2017

Attendees:  Mike Karnes, Gil Major, Samantha McKinney, Steve Sides, Charles Lewis, Brad Davy, Doug Pilcher, Clark Hymas, Jeff Marsuchek, and Adi Kochav

Absent:  Phil Vance

Meeting began 9:03 p.m. EST.

501 (c) (3) Progress and Discussion – Samantha McKinney

Samantha has spoken with Vicki at AMA.  AMA is a 501 (c) (3) organization due to having the museum, hosting educational events, the simulator trailers, etc.  Vicki informed Samantha that Joyce does allow us to use their status for the Worlds, but in reality,  we are supposed to have our own status.  She couldn’t help with the information on incorporating.  Samantha spoke with Roy about the tax identification number.  He wasn’t aware of anything that could point her in the direction to get the original paperwork. 

To become incorporated in the State of North Carolina, we must choose a name that isn’t taken.  Currently, the IMAC name is not taken.  We should stick with the name spelled out and not use the abbreviation.  The IRS letter has the name spelled out and the abbreviation of IMAC.  With Phil in North Carolina, he would have to be our registered agent.  Articles of Organization must be filed with the State of North Carolina and is able to be filed online.  If we are looking at the 501 (c) (3) organization, the Articles have to have exact language for the IRS.  We must have By-Laws and establish officers, which is already done.  Samantha can do the paperwork and have an attorney review it if the BOD requests.  This will take some time to proceed.  Mike believes the incorporation is the most important.  We are seeking to be tax deductible due to the Worlds, but most of the corporate donations are written off.  AMA believes that we would be more qualified for the 501 (c) (7) and they are not tax-deductible to the donor.  Vicki is concerned that we haven’t received a letter stating where our Federal 990 returns are for each year.  We could possibly have to go back and file previous years.  A 501 (c) (3) organization has more paperwork that is required.  Phil mentioned at an earlier meeting that he is having problems establishing a bank account specifically for Worlds because we do not have a tax identification number with the State of North Carolina.  The incorporation will protect our organization and the governing body.  Mike believes that it would be impossible to get the 501 (c) (3) organization tax exempt status.

Doug makes the motion for Samantha to proceed with incorporating IMAC and Gil seconds the motion.  Motion passed unanimously.

Membership and Marketing Update – Clark Hymas and Gil Major

Gil was invited to sit in on the last meeting.  Gil informed the BOD that this a very passionate group.  It all came back to one question; what does IMAC provide their members for $40?  Gil is wanting to see the last couple of year’s budgets.  Gil and Clark have been discussing that the BOD should have a mission statement.  Gil said that Section 2 of the By-Laws has our mission statement and he will get it to the committee.  Once they have this, they are going to start a thread of tangible items that you get from IMAC.  A majority of the committee members attended last meeting, there was a lot of involvement and kicking around a lot of ideas.  What can we tell our members on what they will received for their membership?  One big suggestion is a monthly newsletter through IMAC, possibly electronically.  There hasn’t  been much support by way of volunteers in putting this together.  An item that came up a couple of times was the survey or questionnaire that was talked about a few months ago.  It was mentioned that the best way to get responses from the membership is snail mail.  Gil will work on reviewing the financial statements and report the findings back to the BOD. 

2018 Worlds/Go-Fund-Me Vote – Steve Sides

Steve and Adi have been researching the Go-Fund-Me site and Steve has posted all the answers to the questions that we discussed in the BOD forum.  It will cost us 8% of all the contributions and donations that we receive and IMAC will receive the rest.  We can ask for the money anytime; we can change the graphics; basically, we can do anything we want.  If we do not meet the target goal, we will still get all the monies contributed less the 8%.  This was sent to the BOD for review.  Once question asked was how this compares to PayPal.  Go-Fund-Me can be linked to a social media site.  This is a social media platform that is a website that is dedicated to funding different organizations, events, etc.  PayPal is just another avenue of accepting money.  Registration will still go through PayPal.  Go-Fund-Me is just a different means of individual contributors who might want to contribute.  Doug says that you can go to the Go-Fund-Me page as an admin, and we can do splash announcements.  It will post it out to any Facebook page that it is linked to.  We could attach to the Worlds Facebook Page or the new IMAC International Facebook Page.  Then, it can be shared anywhere else we want it too.  This can only be done in the United States.  Go-Fund-Me is a reputable site.  This will keep track of everything and visitors can see what is being raised.  Steve doesn’t see any reason why we should not do it.  We cannot predict how successful it will be.  Doug already has it active and needs to attach the link to the Worlds Facebook page or the IMAC International Facebook page.  They only give you one Facebook account to attach it too.  Then, everyone else can share it.  All we lack is Phil’s phone number to attach to account to complete treasury side.  Steve motions to vote and accept the Go-Fund-Me page and attach it to the IMAC International Facebook Page. Gil seconds the motion.  Motion passes unanimously.

Steve got some feedback from a potential sponsor.  Some of the information on the brochure wasn’t clear.  They thought the dollar limits meant cash only.  They didn’t understand that this could include merchandise.  If it is read or interpreted this way, we might need to change wording and add merchandise also in verbiage.  Some vendors have emailed back and asked if they can donate product.  These are domestic vendors.  The BOD didn’t see any problem.  The BOD suggested to make needed changes to get more sponsors.

It was mentioned that Bill Larsey has declined on judging.  A suggestion was made for Peter Nesbeda and he would be willing to be a judge.  He was a judge at the 2014 Worlds.  He is a NE region member that helps run the judging schools.  We are still needing photographs of some judges for the magazine and the website.

Promotional Video/Slogan – Adi Kochav

Adi is working on the video that Manricco did, the video “What is IMAC about?”  They are working on the promotional video and the Red Bull sponsorship.  The Red Bull video will be a 90 second video.  Adi thought that the BOD could make it an official video.  Some of the contest is Adi’s, Jase Dussia, Janey, Kal Reifsnyder, and Avery Johnson.  We did receive their approval to use their video.

Manricco and Adi thought about changing the logo to the 21st century.  Manricco did a logo with a slogan and more convenient for all the social media sites.  Adi will post it to the IMAC BOD forum.  This can be changed, but the main thing that you can see is IMAC.  Adi suggested a short slogan that can fit the logo.  This will help with the branding of IMAC.  The IMAC Worlds is the same logo and used some mirror images.  It is written above it “Scale Aerobatics.”  He added IMAC to the tail of the plane and made it bigger on the vector.

Mike has talked with Ashley from Flying Giants.  She doesn’t know how to get a hold of “Sleepy C” in reference to some footage he shot to be used in the 90 second splash video.  She said to contact Flying Giants or Giant Scale News.  Ashley thinks that we should go ahead and use it.  We can show that we made numerous attempts to contact him for release.

Int. Forums Registered or Paid Members – Adi Kochav

Currently, the Spanish forum is not open to everyone.  It is only open to IMAC members.  The webmaster said that this is something the BOD needs to vote on.  Adi believes that we need to open to all participants and not just IMAC members.  Steve questioned how we can do this to just Spanish non-members and not the rest, such as the United States.  They would need to be a registered member of the IMAC site.  The difference is registered member versus a paid member.  Where Latin America is located on the website is in a “Member’s Only,” which is for paid members.  The only way to achieve making it available to everyone would be to move it back into the General Forums.  We can’t setup permissions for non-paid members on an individual basis to be able to post and read in the “Member’s Only” forum.  The webmaster can put the Latin America forum in the General Forums, as long as they can write.  The only requirement is to be a registered member on the IMAC site.

All the General Forums are open to the non-member registered participants.  A regular user can read and post to these forums, but can’t see the “Member’s Only” forum.  We discussed a Latin American forum would be an advantage to get membership increase from Latin America.  This may or may not become an incentive to become a member.  Adi believes that this will convince them to join IMAC.  We probably should have a Spanish forum on both, General and “Member’s Only” forum.  Doug will contact the webmaster to let him know.

Treasurer’s Report – Phil Vance

The Treasurer’s report was not presented at this time.

Other Regional Issues – All RDs

Clark is wrapping up the season within the month in the North West.  Charles says things are going well in the South West.  He still don’t know how many will try and qualify for the Worlds.  He sent the top 5 point leaders an email to put a buzz in their ear.

The North Central has contests in Cincinnati and Canada this past weekend.  We have been having a lot of scoring problems.  Jeff is not receiving the files need to post scores.  He had a really close call with the scoring program at a contest.  Regionals is read and Kurt Koelling is the CD.  We only have 3 more contests.  Canada has their own qualifier for the Worlds, so Canada will not be included in the top 5 qualifying pilots for the USA fly off.

South Central has 4 contests left and it is going to be quite an interesting finish.

The North East has 2 contests left before regionals.  There are several people who hasn’t met the 3 contest rule.  The rules state that they have 3 contests in this year (2017) to qualify at regionals for the World Team.

In the South East, the CCA contest is up next.  Steve has about 6 contests left before the qualifier at the Sod Farm.

Mike wanted to remind everyone that the regional contest itself does not count as a contest going into the World Qualifier.  The pilot must have 3 contests before entering regional finals.

Meeting adjourned at 10:31 p.m. EST.

Details

Written by: Doug Pilcher

Category: Club Business

Published: 31 July 2017

Present: Gil Major, Phil Vance, Samantha McKinney, Doug Pilcher, Steve Sides, Brad Davy, Charles Lewis, Clark Hymas, and Adi Kochav

Absent: Mike Karnes and Jeff Marsuchek

Meeting began at 9:00 p.m. EST.

501 (c)(3) Discussion – Samantha McKinney and Phil Vance

Phil has talked with a local lawyer in his hometown about this issue.  The attorney said that we can apply for a 501 (c)(3).  She didn’t understand why we would want this since we fall under AMA protection.  We would have to fill out the appropriate paperwork to begin the process for the 501 (c)(3) and then must be reviewed by the IRS.  We could qualify for the 501 (c)(7), but this doesn’t make the contribution or donation tax deductible.

If we want to be a non-profit, we will be subject to all the filing requirements, such as a yearly tax return.  The problem that we have right now is that we are taking money directly in, and not through AMA.  AMA does not have the reports to make the filing on their behalf.  Other than the Worlds, the only income would be dues.

Samantha spoke with an accountant and to apply for a 501 (c)(3) we have to submit a couple years of financial data, 2 years of proposed budgets, along with incorporation documents and IRS forms.  The incorporation is not for the non-profit status, it creates a single legal entity.  The BOD would be protected under the incorporation.  We should incorporate before we apply for the 501 (c)(3) organization guidelines.  We would have to demonstrate being under the educational or scientific organization.

The first thing we need to do to protect the BOD is to incorporate.  The only determination is to decide which state to incorporate under.  After this process, we need to review to see if we are even eligible for a 501 (c)(3).  We need to find out the actual protection that we have through AMA.  Samantha will talk with AMA and find out the information through them.  She will also look at what we are needing to do the incorporation, and what is needed if we decide to apply for the 501 (c)(3) status.

2018 Worlds – Steve Sides

We have 12 pilots qualified for the Worlds, based on the 2017 Nats.  Doug has been working on the website.  For sponsorship, Steve has contacted all of the sponsors who contributed to the 2014 Worlds.  Some sponsors want some paperwork and are asking for a request on corporate letterhead.  There will be various hoops to go through with some sponsors.  Another sponsor asked about installments for cash payments.  If sponsorships are like this, their sponsorship level will be their balance contributed at the time of Worlds.  Steve sent the BOD a current staff listing.  We currently do not have a chief judge.  Mike has said that he will handle the judging matrix.

Adi, Phil, and Steve is working on the Go-Fund-Me site.  All we need is a PayPal account to send the money to.  Phil had trouble with the bank to open another bank account for the Worlds.  We must have a letter from the State of North Carolina that we are authorized to do business in that state.  A Go-Fund-Me page has been mentioned as a way of getting sponsors to contribute to the Worlds.  One of the questions that arose is if w can transfer money or can receive a check from the Go-Fund-Me when requesting funds.  A question has been raised that if we don’t reach our goal by the date, will we still receive the funding that has already been given.  Adi said that changes can be made during this time period.  Steve found on the website that reaching the goal is not required to receive the funding.  Steve will put a document together concerning the rules and regulations of having a Go-Fund-Me page and will email out to the BOD to review before proceedings with setting this account up.  This will be tabled til next month’s meeting.

Adi has been looking into medallions as a participant award for the Worlds, but Steve believes that we should just hold on this for a while, to possibly look for other options.  All trophies came from Roy Barrow in 2014 and he would do it again this time for us.  The amount for the 2014 trophies was $3,976.00.

The Worlds website has changed administrator controls over to Mike, Doug, and Gil.

Nats Wrap-Up – Doug Pilcher and Phil Vance

Phil stated that the Nats went over very well.  They didn’t order as many carts for us.  We were short 3 golf carts.  Yolanda, with AMA, has been advised of a minimum of 6 for contest staff for next year.  Doug and the team did a great job!  A lot of wind and a lot of great flying! Banquet went over well, but they did raise the price a little.

Yolanda is already asking about next year; if we want to stay at the last of June or the week of the 4th.  We are always the first group there.  A lot of the AMA staff is not there on the 4th of July weekend.  Overall impression of the BOD is to stay with the last week of June.  It has come up as discussion in the forums to move the Nats to a different location.  If we should decide to move, the AMA will not support us with monetary needs, trophies, camping facilities, etc.  The BOD went into discussion on the advantages and disadvantages of moving the Nats.  The major disadvantage would be to lose the funding and amenities received from the AMA.  We also need to remember that this isn’t an IMAC sponsored contest.  This is the AMA National Championships for Scale Aerobatics.  Years ago, the Nats wasn’t run well, so the Sigs started picking up and running their own Nats events.  Doug believes we are cutting our own throat if we move the event.  For the Sigs that have moved their Nats event, it hasn’t worked well for them.  Gil has been researching some fields in Colorado, Salt Lake, etc. that look like it can take care of us.  Gil can start making up a list to get an idea of cost if we should pursue moving to a different location.  Another idea being discussed for the Nats is paid judges.  It will cost a lot of money.  We will need a minimum of 10 judges, at least $1,000 a judge.  Mike went down this path a couple of years ago, and had problems getting judges to do it.

Treasurer’s Report – Phil Vance

Current balance as of today, July 17, is the following:

Checking         $19,731.90

Pay Pal           $13,152.77

Total               $32, 884.67

For the month of July, the current income received is $955.40 and expenses are $6,589.31.  The current balance is after the expenses for the Nats was paid.  Monies from AMA registrations are received usually at the end of August after all Sigs Nats are completed. 

Regional Reports – All RDs

Clark just got back from an IMAC contest in Alberta, Canada.  This is the first contest where they had all classes accounted for.  The NorthWest region is going good.  The Marketing and Membership Committee will be having a meeting shortly.  We just had Nall, Nat’s, and Toledo.

Brad has been having some issues with uploading contest scores.  The updating of the RPS doesn’t seem to be working this evening.  Other than that, the North East region is going well.  Everything is going fine in the SouthEast region.  Doug has been at the Nats, so the ARDs have been handling things in the South Central region.  He has not heard of anything.

The SouthWest region has been going well.  There are some problems with some Basic members having problems moving up due to the unknowns.  They have recommended wanting to only have 8 known maneuvers and 2 unknown maneuvers.  Currently, the Sequence Committee is having problems populating unknowns for all classes.  With the change suggested, this would require a rules change.

With the International Region, we are needing to make forum for those who don’t speak English.  Many are requesting a Spanish sub-forum to be added to the International tab to be able to ask questions of the membership.  Adi has been talking with Manrico about the 2022 Worlds.  Manrico says that he has a field that will accommodate a 4-line field in Italy.  He has also sent Adi some sketches of some changes to the IMAC logo.  Adi will post on the BOD forum for us to view.  Adi and Doug has also been working on the Red Bull 90 second splash video. Doug has found some video from the 2014 Worlds to possibly use for the splash video.  We need to track the individuals down to see who has rights to the video and if they would allow us to use their video for Red Bull.

Meeting adjourned at 10:52 p.m EST.

Details

Written by: Doug Pilcher

Category: Club Business

Published: 30 June 2017

Present:  Gil Major, Phil Vance, Doug Pilcher, Steve Sides, Jeff Marsuchek, Adi Kochav, Brad Davy, and Charles Lewis

Absent:  Mike Karnes, Samantha McKinney, and Clark Hymas

Meeting began at 9:05 p.m. EST.

501 (c)(3) Discussion – Phil Vance and Samantha McKinney

Samantha has been looking into this issue and will get back with the BOD at next month’s meeting on what she has found out.  Phil has looked into this with an attorney and has an appointment with them tomorrow.  The lawyer is needing the paperwork that was used from PayPal.  Phil has been told that he is not for sure if IMAC can get the 501 (c)(3).  All the information that we have is the EIN number and that IMAC is registered with the Internal Revenue Service.  Phil will also ask about incorporating IMAC.  Samantha has mentioned that we will want to incorporate first before starting paperwork for the 501 (c)(3).  This will be tabled until next month’s meeting.

2018 Worlds – Steve Sides

Steve advised that the advertising is approved and no other changes will be made.  Phil mailed the 2014 World’s magazine to everyone last night.  The brochure is published and has been approved.  The current version is version 7.  All contact information is in the brochure.  Steve wants to keep a listing going to who we have sent information to and who we need to follow up yet.  Adi gave us a link to look at the medallions.  This is on the BOD forum.  There is a front and back side for the coin.  The price includes a standard design, but not for sure on the graphic.  The price is between $7-10 each and depends on the quantity ordered.  The consensus of the BOD doesn’t think the price includes the finished product.  For a bag, it is .45 cents and for a box is $3.00.  We are estimating on ordering 100-150 coins.  Gil will take a picture of some of his coins and get it posted for everyone to see.  Steve has been looking at some different items.  The BOD needs to decided how much we are going to spend.  Most of the display cases for coins accommodate the smaller coins.  When we decide, Adi will have the company send him a price quote.

For judges, we have had a couple of judges out there that needs to be approved.  They are on the current website under 2018 World Judges, Emilio a Spanish Judge, and Peter Bryner from Australia.  Steve has a resume on the Spanish judge.  Gil found some information on Peter Bryner from Australia.  Adi knows the Spanish Judge.  He runs the IMAC in Spain.  He also judges the XFC and is a well-known judge in Europe.  Peter has been an advanced pilot for 4-5 years and just recently moved up to Unlimited class.  The consensus of the BOD is to go ahead with these judges.

Steve is going to start advertising and calling on the vendors for sponsorship.  He would like the BOD to be in contact with the ones that they know and have personal contacts with.  The tax deductibility is okay through AMA and their 501 (c)(3).  We will have tents, carts, and the rest of the equipment that the AMA provided last time.  The ones coming over from overseas will have a temporary membership to be able to fly on the AMA grounds.  With the recent change with not registering with the FAA, our rules state that they must be FAA registered.  Steve is going to confirm with AMA on this issue.  If we don’t have to, Steve is going to post a bulletin on the World’s website.

The question was raised if the vendor wants to donate product and not cash.  Their sponsorship level will be base don the value of their product.  Red Bull is currently at a standstill.  The only pictures that have enough quality is Adi’s and it is all freestyle.  The one that Jenny offers is on the Flickr site.  Even downloaded at the highest resolution, they don’t work for scale of production desired.  We were going to try and put a splash video for Red Bull with a request for a sponsorship.  Phil has a 30 second video with a Red Bull airplane in it from the Nat’s.  Bill James has created them.  One of the SC guys is strictly coming to the Nat’s to try and use some pictures to put this video together.  Gil will also check with Ashley with Flying Giants.

Move Down – Possible Penalties – All BOD Members

The BOD has discussed in prior meetings about members asking to move down a class, due to health issues, etc.  Gil has thought that if it is a World qualifier year, you wouldn’t be able to qualify in the lower class.  Brad was thing that the year you move down that you wouldn’t be eligible for regional points.  Phil has had maybe 4 people who has moved down.  The ones that moved down were approved by the regional director.  It is more to move down due to health conditions and/or flying abilities, instead of qualification and regional points.  This does create a loophole for potential sandbag in a class.  Many people have not moved down because they just move out.  For members who are forced to move up, they can compete for the class they qualified in.  This decision would be on the regional directors, but there needs to be consistency across the regions.  This is not an AMA rule.  The rules permit a competitor to move down with permission from the regional director.  We as a BOD, should have a consistent policy for a competitor moving down.  An idea was mentioned that the member couldn’t go down to Basic.  A competitor won the region, because he showed up for contests every weekend.  This competitor didn’t need to move up.  Gil doesn’t think we should limit the move down to Sportsman class.  Consensus of the BOD is that a competitor shouldn’t be able to move down more than one class per year.  Only exception is the Nat’s, a basic competitor can compete in Sportsman since the Basic class is not offered and this is an AMA contest, not an IMAC event, even though RPS is awarded for the first 3 days.  We are needing to establish an IMAC policy regarding this issue.  This would potentially need added to the RPS policy, then when the rules are reviewed for the 2022 Worlds, it can be added there.  Brad believes that more places it is, the more complex it is to try and change it.  There are currently other rules and policies, such as for the committees, that aren’t posted on the website for the membership to be seen.  Brad believes that everything should be posted on the website under “Rules and Guidelines” for the membership to see. Being consistent would help the membership.  Brad will write something up on what he is thinking and post to the BOD forum to see what everyone thinks.

Website – Membership Search – Doug Pilcher

Doug brought up a suggestion to enhance and change the membership search.  We are trying to make it easier for a member to find another member.  This has been started in the forum posts and needed and wanted by membership.  It is extremely hard to get a hold of a member directly or in an email.  Many do not understand how to send a private message on the website.  The only way the membership can find another person is to stumble across a post from someone.  Doug is proposing a membership lookup button.  Gil seconds the proposal to submit this request to the webmaster. “As long as he is a member of the website, we should be able to find him.”  The old and new website allows members to use aliases and different avatars.  There is a search function in the private message function.  Doug wants the system to search for names and hopefully link the avatars when a name or alias is typed in.

On another note, the member’s lookup listing that the BOD has access to, on a smartphone, you cannot scroll right on the membership listing.  The screen isn’t wide enough on Mobile version and you cannot scroll to the right to see the IMAC number.  This is being used to check IMAC numbers at local contests.

Gil seconds the motion to add/change the membership search items.  Motion passes unanimously.

NATS – Doug Pilcher and Phil Vance

There is a pretty good handle on the Nat’s.  Skip Kixmiller and Alan Batts are the line bosses.  Steve and Doug have been working on verifying which members had 3 contests in from April 2016 to the June cutoff before Nat’s as to being qualified to “World’s Entry” via Nat’s route.  Steve has also been working on the judging matrix.  The goal is 4 known and 1 unknown schedule each day except for Saturday.  Gil believes we should be able to do more than that.  These will be single sequences rounds with two lines.  Announced on the Nat’s Forum, we will do the pilot pin draw Tuesday night.  The remainder of the week will be compiled on an Excel spreadsheet and do a random pull of pilots.  Then, the judging matrix will be posted earlier each day.  Gil tested this process at Clover Creek’s contest.  It worked really well.  We only have site 3 for practice prior to June 26.  We only have one day available for site 4, starting June 27.  We currently have 39 registered pilots and had 4 registered on the IMAC site.  We are thinking on a 50/50 raffle possible for regional trophies.  No one stepped up and donated this year.  Samantha had an idea this morning about each region kicking in $50 per region and do a 50/50 raffle and try to get the money back to the regions.  Doug informed the BOD that there are no more golf carts available to rent.  There are a couple of carts available for the IMAC officials.  The late fee for registration has been waived.

Treasurer’s Report – Phil Vance

Currently in the month of June, our balances are:

Checking account     $29,996.36

PayPal account         $12,106.36

Total                           $42,102.72

Current expenses for the month is $1,280.95 and income of $910.29. 

Gil brought up that we currently have a relationship that is free to IMAC.  Diamond Cloud is being used from Doug’s company.  This is where Doug is hosting all our files that have been needed to add to individual committees.  In the Education committee, the documents come from Diamond Cloud.  This website’s original design wasn’t to host large files, such as the educational videos, Redbook series, space for the Sequence committee, etc.  Doug says we currently can go to 10 TB but can be expanded if need be.  Doug actually set it up on the previous BOD, shortly after the new website was running.  Doug assigned usernames for everyone on the committees.  Everything unable to be housed on IMAC site, has been moved to Doug’s servers.  Doug allocated a couple of servers to IMAC.  Doug is not asking for anything monetary.  We need to establish a contractual agreement with Diamond Computers to keep our server storage going.  Gil is concerned that if someone buys out Doug, and we don’t have something in place it could cost quite a bit of money to maintain or get something else in place.  This would protect Doug and protect IMAC.  This will be tabled till the next meeting.

Phil advises that there are still a few members a month that are hitting the International region button for renewals.

Regional Report – All RDs

With the International region, Adi has been talking with Latin America.  He has been asking for a Spanish forum.  This way the boys can call and ask questions and have answers in Spanish.  It could be a sub forum under the International region.  Dan Carroll is from Australia and would like to nominate him to be the Asia ARD.  The main benefit is his ability with computers.  Dan is currently working on the score program and working on some changes.  The main change is the percentage is added under points and percentage of perfection under every sequence.  He would like to change the scheme, etc.  It’s the same program we have now, but with the changes that he has.  Doug showed the changes to the BOD.  Dan knows how to write programs and update Score! and is more than willing to help us.  There is also a guy from the UK that would like to be on the Sequence committee.  Doug is wanting to create a test contest with the revised score program.  We have found someone who is willing to work with the score program.  Roy has got the script setup so that it look at these files that will update regional points.  Steve mentioned that we might want to generate a listing of things that we would need to update the score program from Roy and Dave Smith.  These would only be brought to the BOD and one person will be in contact with them.  Then, once changes are made, we will test them before anything is done.

Manricco sent a file that lists all the countries flying IMAC.  There is about 75% of the countries flying IMAC.  Adi uploaded a lot of the contests from those specific contests and he also wrote an article about the country.  IMAC is growing enormously in the International region.  There were 69 International contests and currently 66 International members.

In the SouthEast region, there is 5 members in that currently live in Virginia.  One sent a response and said that it doesn’t matter to them.  We need to find a way to get more contests in Virginia.  Changing the region boundaries won’t do anything.  One recommendation is to allow as many out-of-region contests and this wouldn’t pose a threat to the members.  We currently allow 2 out-of-region contest.

In the North Central region, Jeff has been speaking with Hitec and they have donated some stuff for their regional contest.  He will also be talking with him on the Worlds.

Meeting adjourned at 11:16 p.m. EST.

Details

Written by: Doug Pilcher

Category: Club Business

Published: 31 May 2017

Present:  Gil Major, Samantha McKinney, Phil Vance, Brad Davy, Steve Sides, Jeff Marsuchek, Doug Pilcher, Clark Hymas, Charles Lewis, and Adi Kochav

Absent:  Mike Karnes

Meeting began at 9:02 p.m. EST.

International Changes – Adi Kochav

Adi sent Mike, Gil, and Doug an update referencing IMAC / F3M and the International ARDs.  The International ARDs are: Europe – Manrico, Latin America is Louis, Asia is Dan Carroll, with Henny heading up the International

judges.

Henny (FAI BOD member) and Manrico managed to convince FAI there is no need for two set of criteria for the same discipline; FAI has agreed the IMAC criteria/rules will be the governing force in F3M; F3M is now F3M IMAC.  France and Belgium, the creators of F3M are flying, judging, and scoring to the AMA Scale Aerobatic Rules.  Freestyle is a separate event.  All European countries participating in F3M IMAC will register the contest on the IMAC site, and will be requesting Unknowns from the Sequence Committee.

The European countries are requiring IMAC membership to participate in a contest, and have requested to become part of the Regional Part System.  The question came up how can Europe require IMAC membership in Europe when we do not require membership here is the USA.  The answer was the RPS, regional point system, mandates membership to receive points. 

The European Region would also like to hold a European Championship contest every two years like the USA does with the Scale Aerobatic National Championships.  With that being said, we need to look at holding the 2022 IMAC World Championship in Europe. 

Embracing the European community potentially will add upwards of 300 new members.  This leads into the argument of expending the manpower to add Europe to the IRPS, which should probably come with some commitment.  The BOD agreed 100 international members would be the magic number for the international member regions to be incorporated into the IRPS.  There is not only some programming work required to have the IMAC site show the International Region’s points, but a learning curve on the part of the Internal CDs utilizing Score.

Should we consider having a representative from the FAI as a non-voting member?  The consensus of the BOD was to leave things as is, and see what time will tell.  We need to focus on the European region.  They have very skilled pilots.  Doug has been working on this and has created a timeline for the website.

2018 Worlds – Steve Sides

Steve has posted the brochure to the BOD to review.  Steve would like to get the BOD approval for the brochure for what we will use for advertising.  The advertising levels have been corrected.  The advertising values are assigned the same dollar values as discussed in April’s BOD meeting.  The wording has been standardize and the links are all functional.  Most of the changes were on the second page.  The brochure was changed trying to get everyone’s attention, especially those who are not familiar with IMAC.  Currently, emails sent from the Worlds website to both Steve and Mike.  Steve will take on all website inquiries.  Steve will have the flyer finished and ready for BOD approval in a couple of weeks.

Along with the list of 2014 Sponsors is a list of potential sponsors never contacted in 2014.  Please pass on the Steve the contact information for any potential sponsor.  Steve will need a company name, a contact name, their position, an email and phone number with extension.  There will be a magazine in 2018, and Mike was planning to put the magazine together.  Steve is going to ask all the BOD and Marketing Committee members to divide duties to sell advertising.  IMAC should start fundraising this summer.  Most companies are already establishing their 2018 budget.  Phil will have an account setup with a link to the account from the website.  The World’s website Go Fund Me page will also need a link established.  We also are going to approach all of the AMA clubs to see if they would like to donate to the Worlds. 

The brochure is tabled for now, and Gil will call for a vote in about a week.  Also, look at the list and see whom you would also like to contact personally.  The BOD needs to look at the list to see which companies need to be removed, Aeroworks, for example.

With the advertising brochure going out, Steve mentioned we need to get the separate Worlds’ checking account opened and ready.  Doug made the motion to authorize IMAC general funds to seed the IMAC Worlds’ account; the Worlds’ account will then reimburse the general IMAC account when funds are available.  Gil seconded the motion.  Motion passed unanimously.

Move Down Waiver – Age/Failing Skills – Brad Davy

This topic came up at a NE contest.  The rules are currently structured so a competitor may not move down without permission of the regional director.  Brad’s concern is someone claiming a valid reason to move down only to sandbag in a lower class to qualify  for the Worlds.  Brad is thing we should allow a competitor to move down with reasons that are agreeable to the regional director.  There should be some disincentive for a pilot to move down.  Some BOD members asked if there should be a penalty for moving down a class.  Some feel that they cannot move down, so they move out of IMAC.  Several have left IMAC thinking they could not move down.

We could have an accelerated move up rule.  We do not want this to be taken advantage of, but we do not want to lose pilots at the same time.  Charles had 4 pilots contact him about moving down, some said they moved up too fast or they have no one to compete with.  There is a wide range of opinions and what the consequences should be for moving down.  This is something the BOD needs to think about; the subject was tabled until a later date.  There will need to be a policy where there is consistency across all regions.

Regional Boundaries – Gil & Clark

Clark asked the question on how the regional boundaries were created in IMAC.  Gil has spoken with some of the original IMAC members, and it was geography.  Such as South Dakota, there is only one contest and only 5 members.  Clark wondered if North Dakota, South Dakota, and Nebraska would be better suited in the North Central region just because they are so far east in the North West region.  Kentucky was changed in 2007 to North Central from the South East.  We might want to consider this.  Clark sent emails to these five members.  Clark will try and get one of these members to become an ARD; none of them have been to a judging school.

Brad and Phil have been having this discussion with Virginia.  Members in Northern Virginia more than likely attend North East contests.  Some of this is due to the weather difference and contest availability.  Gil would like for Steve and Clark to discuss this at the next BOD meeting.

NATs – Doug Pilcher

Doug Pilcher will be the 2017 AMA Scale Aerobatic National Championship Contest Director.  Mike, Phil, and Samantha have been bringing Doug up to speed with lessons learned from the precious NATs.  Doug is talking to several of last year’s team for inclusion on this year’s NATs team.  Alan Batts and Skip Kixmiller have agreed to work as Line Bosses.  Samantha, Rhonda, and Terri will be back for the scoring.  Doug’s wife, Rosie, will also be helping with scoring and picking up Doug’s slack as needed.  Steve Sides will be Chief Judge.  Phil Vance has the banquet setup and the NATs team shirts ordered.  One minor change is after the first pilot draw at the pilots’ meeting, the staff will use an automated drawing system each morning, so Steve may work the following day’s judging matrix and have it posted hopefully by 6:00 p.m. each evening.

Treasurer’s Report – Phil Vance

Current balance as of May 22, 2017 is as following:

Checking:     $29,057.42

PayPal:        $10,706.38

Total:           $39,763.80

As of May 22, the income for the month is $1,141.10, with expenses of $330.99.

Regional Issues – RDs

North East completed an online judging school.  Brad had 11 participants attending all the sessions.  There was good feedback about the online course.  The course was over five weeks, with each week having an hour and a half session.  This is something well worth considering for future judging schools.  Steve would definitely consider if for the Florida school.  Brad had great success over the last 2 years.  Brad won’t be doing anymore this year.  Brad mentioned doing it on a quarterly basis, and have a different judging instructor take one class for each seminar.

South East is good.

North Central just had their first contest.  This was Mike’s contest.  Kurt Koelling ran this contest as CD.  The weather was not great, but we got the contest in.

South Central is doing well.

The North West just had their third contest.  The number of pilots has doubled from last year. 

South West is good, except for the crazy weather.

A question was asked if someone wants to be on the Sequence Committee, who would order the software.  The committee member would need Visio and software applications to add to Visio.  Microsoft offers Visio to veterans at a significant discount.  You have to also buy the Aresti libraries from Aresti.  Gil will get with Curtis and work it out.  To get on the Sequence Committee, a potential member must go through Curtis Cozier.

Meeting adjourned 10:58 p.m. EST.