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.