IMAC Contest Policy - standardization of IMAC discounts

Contest fee discounts have been a long standing and widely supported benefit of IMAC membership. In practice however, many events have ignored this fee structure to the detriment of the organization and its members.

The Contest Guide clearly states (Section C - Item 4) that for a contest to be considered a valid IMAC contest, a discount should be offered to IMAC members. This discount level was never established.

The opinion of this Board is that this policy and the resulting member benefit is too important to leave as is.  The board discussed many options at length including REQUIRING IMAC membership (for classes other than Basic) to participate in an IMAC event – exactly as IMAA does now.  But, it was decided that the best approach was to leave this decision up to the individual but set a minimum discount of $10 to be extended to IMAC members. 

Unfortunately in the rush to deal with everything that has happened in IMAC over the last 60 days (new website, new board, etc.), the mass communication with the membership about this required discount amount was overlooked.  It was posted on the web on the Unknown request form (where CDs would see it) but never made it out in a Quick Charge email to members.  For this oversight, we apologize.

CDs and clubs are still completely free to set their overall entry fee as they require.  IMAC certainly does not wish to interfere with this budgetary process. 

Logically, a pilot that plans on participating in more than one event in a year would see the advantage in going ahead and joining IMAC.  This gains them not just the discounted entry fee but provides them full access to all the features and benefits of the website as well as discounted fees to judging schools.  In short, $10 is the point at which the decision to join becomes pretty easy…but not required.

Also, after much discussion, the board decided that, rather than modify the Contest Guidelines to include a specific discount amount, it would be a better and more flexible approach to issue an annual policy statement setting the discount amount.  Additionally, it was also pointed out that many events have been held already and others are planned for the next few weeks.  To eliminate any immediate problem, the board decided to make the policy effective on April 1, 2009.

The search for maximizing the benefits of IMAC membership is never ending.  This particular benefit directly puts money back into the pocket of the IMAC member resulting in a win/win for both the member and the organization.

IMAC BOD

All 2009 IMAC events will offer a minimum $10 discount from the regular event fee to all IMAC members in good standing with proof of current membership.  This policy is effective for events after April 1, 2009.