- Details
- Written by: Doug Pilcher
- Category: Club Business
Attendees: Mike Karnes, Gil Major, Samantha McKinney, Phil Vance, Brad Davy, Steve Sides, Jeff Marscuhek, Doug Pilcher, Clark Hymas, Charles Lewis, and Adi Kochav
Meeting began 9:01 p.m. EST.
Committees – Mike Karnes and Gil Major
Mike began with an overview in what is happening in the IMAC committees. With the Sequence Committee, Tom Wheeler,Committee Chairman, and Wayne Matthews has stepped down. Tom isn’t necessarily gone, but doesn’t want to chair it anymore. There are only a few on this committee that actively participate and Tom hasn’t received much help. There is a dashboard that tracks all members’ participation. The committee has 18 members; only 12 of the 18 have contributed anything in the last 14 months. Of those 12, the work load has not been very balanced, causing a few of the committee to carry most of the load. Gil is currently working on a committees’ member listing and will get it out to the Board. Doug will do a follow up with the potential members in the SC region. The Sequence Committee is the biggest committee that IMAC has.
Steve mentioned that the Sequence Committee is quite a learning curve and experience. Adi mentioned having a Sequence Committee member from every region. The Sequence Committee has around 18 members. Each member is to write somewhere around 9 sequences per class. These members are all the time looking at sequences. Adi said that he would talk with Sweden, Italy, U.K., and Australia to see if there is any interest. IMAC normally keeps 1 or 2 software purchases in the budget for new committee members. The software currently used is Visio to write the sequences. Each member also will receive the Arresti families packet. For new members, a meeting can be setup to get them familiar with the software. Jeff asked that the criteria and information on the software be posted in the BOD forum. Brad mentioned about posting a forum to the membership to see if we would have anyone interested. Mike said that he has done this before and has received a few responses.
Roy Barrow and Fred Johnson has resigned on the AMA Contest Board. In their districts, we will need to find some members interested. With the Rules Committee, they have lost Pete Castine as Chairman. The Education Committee is currently on hold and Ty Lyman is working on this. Mike asked the Board to keep your ears open for new members in the United States or Internationally. Charles would like to get more SW region participation in the committees.
Gil also mentioned that we should begin thinking about formalizing a Marketing Committee.
2018 Worlds – Steve Sides
Steve asked the Board if they have all had a chance to review the 2018 IMAC World Championship Rules posted on the BOD forum. This is based on all the input from the Board. The only difference is if we are doing a majority rules in the case of zeroes. The Board needs to decide if we are doing this or not. Once this is done, Steve is wanting to get this posted on the Worlds website and get invitations sent out to the countries. Adi was wondering how many flights on the freestyle, which is currently only one round. The more freestyle rounds will take away from the knowns and unknowns. In 2014, we had two flights and separated into two days.
In 2014, if there was one zero out of three judges, then the zero was changed to the lower of the two scores of the scored judges. If there was two zeroes and one scored, the score from the third judge was changed to a zero.
A motion was made to count all judges’ scores, including zeroes, at the 2018 Worlds Championship. Motion passed unanimously.
Marketing IMAC – Gil Major
Gil has sent Tony an email to see how AMA can help us with our marketing. Gil mentioned that we should establish a marketing committee to manage the ideas being mentioned from members and non-members. Jeff, Clark, and Adi are interested on being on this committee. The main goal of this committee is to market IMAC. The biggest issue is that we don’t offer our members anything. The Board was in consensus that the Marketing Committee needed to be a made up of members of IMAC. Jeff wanted to know the BOD’s thought on advertising with Flying Giants. Jeff will bring a proposal to the next meeting on costs. Adi mentioned advertising with Giant Scale, such as Extreme Flight, where we could include flyers in their products. Other ideas were mentioned of trading a banner on our website for a banner on another website and sending a survey online and by snail mail with a postage paid envelope.
Membership Drop Solutions – Mike Karnes
Mike wanted to discuss limiting the size of aircraft for the different classes, since this is one of the concerns of the decline of membership. Some of the BOD members mentioned that our aircrafts have outgrown us. Some mentioned that we need to limit the size of the aircrafts and bring in more electric planes to compete. The vast majority at shows are drones, and not airplanes. We could start limiting the size of aircraft for Basic being 50-60 cc,Sportsman 120 cc, Intermediate 150 cc, and no 200 size motors in Advance. Many believe that the Unlimited class should be protected and regulate the other 4 classes. Some of the BOD believes that we will lose pilots if we start limiting the size of aircraft.
Mike mentioned creating a 5-year plan, based on the life expectancy of our planes. The rules wouldn’t be hard and fast for 5 years. Aircrafts can be replaced with what is needed for that class as needed. Doug said that he could get behind the 5-year plan on the Basic pilots coming in. Brad disagress on limiting others to what they are willing to fly or buy. Clark mentioned that 60 cc size and down fly off the shelves at hobby stores. The 35% and up aircrafts aren’t selling. This may not become an issue if the manufacturers stopping making the bigger aircrafts. Jeff believes where it drops is the 35-40% aircrafts, which is currently the airframe to have. Jeff has heard other pilots say that you need a 40% aircraft. He also believes that the 40% aircrafts are falling aside. With this plan, there could be an RD deviation for ones already with 40% aircraft.
It was also mentioned that we could create a different class, such as Mini-mac. Phil mentioned that our sequences are too hard for someone walking in. If sequences are the problem, they can easily be fixed. The contests do not have to fly 2 sequences per round. IMAC is what it is. Adi mentioned dropping some of the classes. IMAC is not just the Unlimited class. Adi mentioned having 2 categories, standard and open.
Some of the membership decline can be attributed to intimidation. Brad believes that we don’t gain new members at contests. The most effective events for new pilots are the Basic boot camps and the Basic-only contests. It is more worth the pilot’s time and are more productive. Gil and Phil says that we could lower the K factors on the maneuvers in the sequence.
We are currently in a unique situation. We need to start somewhere on addressing the membership decline. Brad is opposed to size restrictions. The Board needs to be thinking about size of aircraft, marketing IMAC, a possible committee, etc. to address these issues head on. We need to grow our membership.
2017 National Judging School – Doug Pilcher
Everything is in place. Doug decided to cancel the van rentals. Instead, he has people picking up everyone from the airport when needed. He has reserved a meeting room at the hotel just in case of inclement weather on Sunday. Everything else is in place.
Treasurer’s Report – Phil Vance
Phil has allocated each regions’ funds based on their membership numbers. Each region varied in the amount they received. Eventually, the Regional funds will have more money than the General IMAC fund. The NorthWest and International regions do not have much. The intent on allocating $10 per member to each region was so the CD wouldn’t have to send money in from each pilot at the local contests. Samantha mentioned that she has been getting several questions from the membership and when she looks up there membership, the members doesn’t have their city and state listed. If they join the website as a user, the information required to register is minimal. If they take the next step to join IMAC, they don’t finish filling out the information needed. It was mentioned that even if they sign-up as just a user, it should be mandatory to list location information. It was decided for Phil to go with the numbers that he currently has.
Since the International Region doesn’t receive funds, the BOD believes they should at least get a place to post their scores for their contests.
The BOD also mentioned needing membership cards for the members and new membership/renewal forms that can be downloaded to send in with the paper checks to Phil. Doug will contact our webmaster to see if these changes can be put in place.
Phil mentioned that are advertising revenue is considerably down. Back in 2013, we received around $9,000 in advertising. In 2016, we only received $860. Our maintenance fee on the website has also gone up.
Phil has had an issue with PayPal within the last month. PayPal sent a letter requesting our TIN number. When Phil sent this letter in, he received a letter that it didn’t match the IRS records. Phil called the IRS and verified the TIN. With this issue with PayPal, Phil decided to withdraw a majority of the account just in case PayPal decided to shut down the account, which in turn they did. Phil got a hold of the IRS and they faxed a form to PayPal confirming the TIN. Phil finally got a hold of the compliance department with PayPal and got our account reopened. Phil asked the BOD if he should deposit the money he withdrew from PayPal originally and put it back in the account, or leave it in the General IMAC fund. PayPal would not charge a fee for moving funds. Currently, when a member renews through PayPal, PayPal keeps $2.03 for commission. The Board decided that there was no reason to move the funds back to the PayPal account.
Our current funds balance is:
Checking $40,178.86
PayPal $ 801.22
Total $40,980.08
Phil also mentioned that we still have members chosing the International button when renewing, which is the $30 fee. Phil is only renewing their membership for 9 months, unless they send in the other $10.
NC Region Issues – Jeff
Jeff reported that they had just had an ARD meeting and it was discussed about having 2 Unknowns, instead of 1, at the Regionals for the pilots trying to make the World team in 2017. He didn’t want a pilot to not be able to qualify due to a malfunctions. Jeff believes that all regions should do the same thing. The chances of having problems twice is slim to none. Only the top 5 pilots trying to qualify for the Worlds will be flying the 2nd Unknown. The pilot’s other chance of making the World teams is at the 2017 NATS. Brad mentioned that the NorthEast Region only has one day and doesn’t believe they have the logistics to be able to do 2 Unknowns. Steve doesn’t see a problem with it in the SouthEast. It was the consensus of the Board to let the format be decided by the RD of that region.
Other Regional Issues – All RDs
Adi has been in talks with Mancuzzi from Italy and they would like to host the World Championships in Italy in 2022. The Board mentioned that we would need a submission packet created with all the information possible on venues, hotels, etc. in this packet. It should be submitted by 2019. The more information he can include, the better.
Meeting adjourned at 11:41 p.m. EST.
- Details
- Written by: Doug Pilcher
- Category: Club Business
No December Meeting Held
- Details
- Written by: Doug Pilcher
- Category: Club Business
Present: Mike Karnes, Charles Youngblood, Phil Vance, Samantha McKinney, Rusty Fried, Michael Verzwyvelt, Doug Pilcher, Steve Sides, Ron Graham, Brad Davy, and Adi Kochav
Guests: Clark Hymas, Charles Lewis, Gil Major, and Jeff Maruschek
Meeting began at 9:02 p.m. EST.
2018 Worlds – Steve Sides
Steve posted a forum to get the opinions of the judges on time spent in the judging chair. We had 3 judges per class at the 2014 Worlds. By doing that now, we need 24 judges, which we currently only have 12. Many of the judges said that it was too long. He received an answer of anywhere between 1 to 4 hours to still be effective. Steve believes that we need to come up with a way to give the judges a break to keep them effective. Pilots will be flying single sequences, with at least 25 pilots per class. Ron questioned if this varied between classes when effectiveness came into question. Steve suggests that we at least give them a break in the middle of each class, around 5-10 minutes. Then, we would possibly stagger the start times, such as 30 minutes, before the judges have to be back in the judging chair.
We need a minimum of 24 judges to run 4 lines for 4 days. This means that there will be 3 judges per class. Steve says we currently have a few international judges. He isn’t pushing too hard until he finds out which teams are committed to the Worlds. Currently, we have a conflict with some due to wanting to fly in the 2018 Worlds. Steve believes that we will get a judge from Italy and Adi is working on a judge from Israel. It was suggested to have a few on “standby” just in case a committed judges cannot make it.
We will pay the judges for the 2018 Worlds. The judges will be paid the same as the 2014 Worlds, $1,000 for an international judge and $800 for the U.S. judges. International judges were paid cash on site for there weren’t any currency exchange issues. Steve believes that all judges should be paid the same amount. the last Worlds had a total cost of $17,200 for judges. The entry fees collected was just over $29,000.
Last time there were 22 judges. Steve would like to have help from the RDs for the folks that he doesn’t know. He would like to have input from all regions on qualified judges for the 2018 Worlds. Steve will send a list of judges/volunteers that have confirmed for 2018. The list won’t be finalized until we know who makes the team.
Steve has talked with Phyllis Youngblood about being head scorekeeper. There will be Rhonda Vance, Terri Foster, and Jenna Youngblood is also available as scorekeepers. Phyllis has also been asked to be a judge, if it is absolutely necessary. Steve will talk with Phyllis about the rest of the scoring team.
Steve would like to start sending out team invitations in January 2017. He will have the invitation letter updated and out on the forum for the Board to approve before it goes out. Adi has been helping out Steve with the International contacts. Steve had a question on where to send the invitations for the International countries. Adi mentioned that they had seen the letter on the website and then called the BOD to tell them if the country was coming. Wayne handled all the invitations last time, so Steve is going to follow up with Wayne. It was recommended to post to the IMAC website and the Worlds website.
Steve would like to have permission from the BOD to approach IMAC members via email for donations. He would like to have permission to go to all the AMA clubs to ask for donations. It was the consensus of the BOD that this is a good idea. Steve would like to add to the World website that will list the AMA club as a sponsor of the Worlds. Mike says that we can add a page to the magazine for the list of AMA club sponsorship. Steve is going to ask the RDs for help in contacting their local AMA clubs. The BOD is in agreement on this approach. Steve is going to create a brochure to send out as an email attachment. The BOD will approve before it is sent out. Adi mentioned if we would want to use PayPal or a “Donate me” website, such as a GoFundMe page. You can use PayPal or credit card. There is a link on the Worlds website that is linked to the PayPal account. The GoFundMe page is very popular and people know it. The brochure can be included on this page. Adi will find out how to setup the page. Currently, the registration is set up to send a check to Phil. We need to make sure that PayPal is still linked on the Worlds page. Adi mentioned doing both, PayPal and GoFundMe page.
Steve will need to know when money is sent in to IMAC. GoFundMe is attached to an account for funds to be deposited. This will only be used for donations or sponsorships. There is about an 8% overhead. It was discussed about mixing the funds between the Worlds and the General IMAC account. It must be kept separate. Last time, no IMAC treasury funds were used. The incoming money was kept in the general fund, but was kept separate in the accounting books. It was suggested to keep everything separate to know exactly what was spent on the Worlds. Ron made a motion for the “accounting of the Worlds be kept separate from the IMAC budget or any IMAC money and that there will be regular accounting of that.” This was seconded by Steve. By roll call vote, motion passed unanimously.
Charles questioned how we would initially fund this account. One fee has already been paid for the initial costs of the website. Phil is going to check with the bank to see how much it costs to open up a new account. We could possibly be out a few hundred to open the account, which will be paid back to IMAC.
The 2014 Worlds brought in a total of $54,328.16, which includes entry fees, donations, etc. The entire expense of the Worlds was $47,394.24, which left a profit of $6,933.32. Phil doesn’t foresee any upfront costs before receiving fees/donations in the account. How will the expenses be covered, if any? We may have to borrow funds from the General IMAC account and have to pay back once funds are received from the Worlds, but his will only be done if approved by the BOD. Ron raised the question that we cannot use money from the IMAC to fund the Worlds because the line could get blurred. Phil said once money starts coming in that he will not need any IMAC funds. Phil has already paid bills for the Worlds, which includes the website cost. Phil will look into setting up the account for the Worlds and see how much money is needed in the account before the Worlds. Phil doesn’t believe that there is a monthly service charge on the account.
Marketing IMAC – Mike Karnes
The BOD has been discussing marketing of IMAC a couple of months ago. Brad gave Mike the name of the company that AMA works with. Mike is going to contact this company and will get ideas from them on a survey. It has not been forgotten. Ron said that Spark has contacted him about a response on their marketing proposal. We will send them a letter with our decision.
National Judging School – Doug Pilcher
Everything is in place. Doug had to fill out extra paperwork for the extended insurance that the college required. The only thing he has left is getting arrival/departure times from everyone to get his transportation schedule finished. As of now, we are going to use one 15-person van. The cost of the van rental should be around $420. Many of Doug’s guys are willing to shuttle everyone. The flight field for the practical could possibly change to a different field that is closer to the college. The hotels are directly across from the campus. We have two classrooms available, if needed. Doug would like to have the RDs contact their participants for Friday portion that they are sending with arrival times and gates that way he can get all the transportation lined up.
Treasurer Report – Phil Vance
October Balance: Checking - $ 2,754.65
PayPal – $36,365.94
Total - $39,120.59.
Total income for the month was $1,506.19 and total expenses of $1,854.42.
November Balance: Checking – $ 1,416.66
PayPal - $37,472.41
Total - $38,889.07
Total income for the month was $1,156.46 and total expenses of $1,387.98
Balances reported up through November 30, 2016. Phil will be moving funds out of PayPal to cover expenses for the National Judging School. Phil and Mike are currently working on the 2017 IMAC budget. Once completed, Phil will send to the BOD for review. The allocation of the regional funds issued per members will be done on January 1. Phil will get the regional reports sent to the RDs this week. Mike reported that the RDs are still trying to get all their members to complete their profiles for the region can be allocated the money for that member. Doug recommended that city and state needs to be added as a “required field” in the profile process. Phil is going to ask Roy if we can get a paper registration form to be added to the website cause there are still members that are paying registration fees through the mail.
Regional Issues – All RDs
SC is currently working on 2017 judging schools. Mike asks that the outgoing RDs to please work with the incoming RDs. Doug will be working with the incoming RDs on Live Writer training and Event Manager. SE is going to have their CDs provide callers at their contests for advanced and unlimited unknowns. He has also asked for the CDs to take a few minutes to discuss a particular rule for the first few minutes of the pilots’ meeting. The SE currently has judging schools setup in North Carolina, Triple Tree, Clover Creek, and South Florida.
Brad mentioned that in a forum, the members are questioning the cost of the “old website” compared to the current website. He wanted to know if we should respond to this question, due to not being able to make a valid comparison because of the change in technology. He has researched the prior BOD forums and meeting minutes that he has found and has not found any information. Phil will send out an email of the costs of the “old website.” Phil mentioned that on the 2015 Financial Statement the monthly maintenance fees of $300/moth ($3,600/year) was included in the website costs. For 2016 financials, he is going to split this out separately to give a more accurate cost of the development of the website.
IMAC Forms – Mike Karnes
Mike wanted to make sure that the BOD approved the IMAC forms for the 2017 year. Many had already approved on the forum. The Contest Standards Guide and the CD Checklist had some changes, whereas the Regional Point Series and the Seniors Points had no changes. Mike has sent the webmaster the AMA rule book to be posted to the website, along with the updates to the scoring program for the 2017 sequences. A motion was made to approve these forms by Doug and seconded by Steve. Motion passed unanimously. Mike will send these forms to the webmaster to be posted to the IMAC website.
Meeting adjourned at 10:46 p.m. EST.
- Details
- Written by: Doug Pilcher
- Category: Club Business
Back in August of 2016 the Board of Directors under the power given by
the By-Laws to create a new region had moved forward in regards to
the "International Population of IMAC". For some time the International
members were voicing their request for action to be recognized as a
region. If we are to become truly an International Organization, then
now was the time to let them have a voice on the BOD. A motion was
made to create an International Region and would have an “RD” assigned
to said International Region and also have a seat on BOD. Motion was made
and passed unanimously.
For the past 3 months since the creation of the International Region, the BOD has looked at appointing someone to this first time RD position. To have a place on the BOD, and have a say on the future of the International Region and how to possibly expand it.
We felt this candidate had the passion for IMAC not only in his country, but was also willing to travel to other countries to share his knowledge and promote IMAC. He has also traveled several times to the USA to complete and learn what Scale Aerobatic is about.
The BOD is happy to appoint Adi Kochav to be the first International Regional Director.
- Details
- Written by: Doug Pilcher
- Category: Club Business
Present: Mike Karnes, Charles Youngblood, Samantha McKinney, Doug Pilcher, Brad Davy, Michael Verzywelt, Steve Sides, Ron Graham, and Rusty Fried
Absent: Phil Vance
Guests: Gil R. Major, Jeff Marsuchek, Clark Hymas
Meeting began at 9:07 p.m. EST.
2018 World Championships – Mike Karnes
Brad asked to have this special meeting at the last BOD meeting just to discuss the 2018 World Championships. Wayne Matthews has pulled out of almost everything, including the 2018 World Championships. Mike feels that we cannot cancel the Worlds. We need to get everything in order and start with all the volunteers and workers to see if they are willing to come back on board to do their job. Every country that comes must send one judge, but we also must make sure the judges available. We must review the sponsorship list from 2014.
Doug and Steve agree that we need to go ahead with the Worlds. Doug mentioned it should not be a “if we can do as well as 2014, but that we must improve on 2014 and Wayne’s success.” Wayne has sent the BOD all of his files from 2014 and what he had started for 2018. Wayne had bounced many of his ideas off of Mike and Mike knows exactly what Wayne was up against. Mike has mentioned that he will need as much help as possible, especially with the Worlds planning. This will take a lot of delegating to get all the jobs done. Steve was wondering if Wayne would help with some of the contacts. We do know the 2014 Worlds that was a huge success, so the success of the first Worlds needs to be mentioned to all the sponsors.
The Worlds website information has been emailed to Mike and Gil. It is currently all set up; the administrative controls have been given to Mike and Gil. What needs to be done is to take everyone’s ideas and implement them. Wayne has sent Mike the magazine, which Mike helped him create.
Michael believes that we should go ahead and create subcommittees to start putting all the different areas in place.
Canada is putting together a smaller team then before; currently 18. We have several other countries that have showed interest and will be sending a team. Team invitations have not been sent yet. We do not have the invitations updated for 2018. Mike has not seen a final copy of the rules thus far to put before the BOD for review. Steve offered to contact volunteers to see who is willing to come back and do what they done in 2014. Once this is figured out, we can fill begin to fill in the positions that are needed.. For judges, we need to look at all the United States judges first, to make sure that they are not interested in trying and make the USA competitive team.
Gil wanted everyone to remember that the BOD are looking at IMAC International and we are also the IMAC USA BOD currently. We don’t control how each country picks their teams.
We currently don’t have a nominee for an International Regional Director and Liason. Wayne has not given Mike any information regarding this. Gil has some contacts in South America and the Middle East that he can reach out to. They cannot leave within the United States or Canada. Ron wanted to know if the International RD would have similar powers, such as paying them to come to the National Judging School. Currently, the International region does not have any regional funds. Gil mentioned that we are going to have to get policy going for this.
Steve will contact all the volunteers and judges. Mike’s biggest concern right now is the sponsors; making sure that we have the revenue. There were actually only 30 sponsors that donated prizes of cash. It was estimated around $35,000 for 2014 Worlds was raised. Ron thinks that we should put more emphasis on sponsorship. It will probably take a year to get a commitment from them. Once they are committed, there must be a follow up.
Everything was shipped to the AMA; stored in the farmhouse; and everything was waiting on the event staff. Most vendors have set or are setting their budgets for 2017 and will influence their 2018 budgets.
Jeff volunteered to help Rusty who volunteered with contacting the sponsors. Steve mentioned we could also divide up the list between the BOD members. Gil mentioned that we do not need to limit ourselves to just R/C vendors. A presenting sponsor level was not available in the 2014 sponsorship levels. Mike said that he can make the changes on the sponsorship brochures and we can start getting them out to vendors. Rusty believes we should do one-on-one contact with the vendors that we know, instead of mailing them the brochure.
Charles wondered about r/c clubs that support IMAC. We could have a listing of clubs that donated to support the Worlds. The website had a donate button, but not for sure how much money was donated in that way. We could list them in the magazine as “Sponsoring AMA clubs” by state. We could include points of contact, etc. with the information.
AMA gave us all the tents without charge; took care of all the planes that got shipped to them. They took care of golf carts and radios. We are hoping to get Curtis Cozier back as Event Director.
We get one free 1/4 page ad a year in Model Aviation. Steve mentioned about the gentleman that writes IMAC articles to advertise about the Worlds. Mike will contact him to see what can be done. This article is only done every other month. We could also include a link back to the website. Doug also thinks a link from the IMAC Website to the Worlds Website needs to be on the main menu bar of mini-iac.org and not in the photo show slide pictures.
Jeff mentioned to talk with Flying Giants to see if we can get a banner ad that links right to the Worlds website. Steve mentioned about a Facebook page. Curtis has started a Facebook page for the Worlds. Doug says there is an World’s IMAC 2018 Facebook page. Gil mentioned that we need to figure out who has admin rights on the page, which they believe is Curtis. Jeff will check with Curtis to see if he still wants to run it, or if he would like to add some additional admins to help with the page.
Gil wondered if anyone had looked at the budget that Wayne had started. Mike will send the master lists to Jeff, Clark, and Gil. Steve mentioned that we need to establish deadlines to have things accomplished. Steve said that he would try to get everyone talked to and get back to the BOD as quickly as possible.
Charles said that we need to consider possibly getting a major TV station to cover the event. Gil also mentioned Red Bull. Gil mentioned possibly going outside the R/C industry to sponsor the event.
Mike will talk with Roy and get a forum setup for volunteers, workers, and BOD to discuss the 2018 Worlds.
Meeting adjourned 10:06 p.m. EST.