As 2024 gets started the schedule has come together well. ARD Dan Powell works very hard every year to try to get it put together quickly and to meet everyone’s needs. He has posted the tentative schedule on FB. As the CDs start sending the information in I will be able to start getting the posted to the IMAC SC events.
There will be a few changes coming this year. The first one is the fees for contest we would like to have all them be $50 for the entire South Central Region. I am not going to force a club to charge that amount if they choose to charge less. However, feedback has been that some clubs are just barely getting any funds out of it and others are actually ending up paying money out of the club funds to host our contests. As a region I think we can all agree, we certainly want everyone to benefit from our contests.
Another new item is a push for freestyle competitors. The folks at Extreme Flight have graciously offered to provide a 100cc airframe to each region in the U.S. at a huge discount. The board approved the budget to cover it so it doesn't impact our regional budget. South Central will receive one 100cc airframe which will be raffled off at the end of the year. I am not sure which airframe, and may not know for a few months, once I know I will let everyone know. To be eligible for the raffle you will have to compete in a freestyle competition at one of the events in our region. Only South Central members will be eligible for the South Central Airframe, you must be in good standing (up to date membership) during the contest and at the Regional Finals to win. For each contest in our region, each freestyle competitor will receive one raffle ticket, the winner of freestyle for each contest will receive two raffle tickets. I hope that makes sense. If you fly freestyle at each event, you will have a bunch of tickets. At IRPS the drawing will take place for the winner of the airframe. Dust of your freestyle planes and get after it.
Last item for now is judging school. Adi will be hosting an online judging school this weekend, if you can attend that it would be great. The details can be found on FB page Online Judging School (OJS). Please do your best to attend that one or another one offered online. If that isn’t possible it is very important to at least watch the series for judging posted on the IMAC site. 2024 is a rules change year, so in 2025 we will have to have an in person judging school. If you have any questions after reviewing the rules or attending an online course, feel free to reach out to me and we can go over it. Our ARDs are happy to be available as well.
The really last item. When you get a chance welcome Jason Watts as our new ARD for Mississipi.
See you all soon,
Tim