Details

Written by: Doug Pilcher

Category: Club Business

Published: 30 September 2016

Present:

Mike Karnes, Charles Youngblood, Samantha McKinney, Phil Vance, Brad Davy, Steve Sides, Ron Graham, Doug Pilcher, Michael Verzywelt, and Rusty Fried

Guests:

Pollyann Falk, Ann Marie Holder, and Gayle Ireland with Spark Strategic Ideas

Meeting began 9:01 p.m. EST

Marketing Strategies – Ron Graham and Pollyanna Falk

Ron Graham has spoken with Pollyanna Falk with Spark Strategic Ideas on what we can do to address the membership drop and contest participation levels. Mrs. Falk is with Spark Strategic Ideas. Ann Marie Holder, CEO of

Spark Strategic Ideas, and  Gayle Ireland, Research Partner, helped present the proposal to the BOD.

Spark Strategic Ideas is a full service agency in Charlotte, North Carolina. They research who the organization really is, their strengths and weaknesses, and goals for the future. Once all this information is collected, they can then coordinate a plan that helps the organization. The IMAC organization has different perspectives from the BOD, members, former and prospective members. We must first understand the environment. By understanding all of this, it helps the organization grow. If the IMAC organization asks why, the information received may be just what they want to hear, but a third-party would receive real responses. Spark has worked with several non-for-profit organizations with their marketing strategies.

Mrs. Falk presented the proposal to the BOD. With the membership drop, the problem is that it cannot be pinpointed to just a few reasons because there are multiple. Spark is recommending to do the research to see what the main problem is and then come up with a solution to fix it. They will be conducting a survey with three groups, current, former, and prospective members. Each contact will have a 10-12 minute survey. Currently, there are 5,000-6,000 emails available to reach out to for the survey. Spark’s goal is to receive 300 responses. They will follow up with contacts until they reach 300. Spark will manage all phases of the data collection process. They also recommend to include an incentive for filling out the survey, one grand prize of a $250 VISA gift card, and 2 one-year IMAC memberships. Everyone who fills out the survey will be included in the drawing for these prizes.

Questions that Sparks recommend include for current members but are not limited to: why are you participating; reasons for joining; why are you continually renewing your membership; any challenges, changes, or improvements; perceptions; or competitive options or alternatives. Questions for past members but are not limited to: reasons for joining and leaving; any challenges, changes or improvements; perceptions; and competitive options or alternatives. Questions for prospective members but are not limited to: how did you hear about IMAC; level of interest; reasons for interest; motivators or barriers to join; expectation for membership; perceptions; and competitive options or alternatives.

The BOD will receive a detailed written report to see what Spark has learned from the survey. This will be a two-phase, 7 week process. The proposal submitted is $9,500 and $350-400 for incentives.

Gayle, research partner with Spark, would like to emphasize the importance in having a third-party involved. This is important to past and prospective members that aren’t able to access the website. This insures people the anonymity and real honest answers. The question arises if we are delivering the correct information to the correct audience.

Ron says that he sees this as a return on investment. What will the survey include, multiple-choice, open-ended, or both? Yes, some of them will be lists that can rate, rank, or select. There will be options to enter answers to questions or their own comments. Questions that are answered with “other” are taken very seriously. This will be an unbiased survey and have the option to put in their own responses when needed.

Brad wanted to know Spark’s experience and id they have worked with another organization that has the same structure of IMAC, such as geographical issues, and was it successful. Gayle says geography is no longer an issue due to modern technology. If there are geographical issues, their survey is built to address and see what these issues are in different regions. One case study in the real estate market. They had offerings to buy in a community. One offering was not receiving any interest. There offering wasn’t appealing to the right audience. The survey identified the correct audience and then changed their offering and sold out the community. It was extremely successful.

The BOD will review and get back to Mrs. Falk. The BOD thanked Gayle, Ann Marie, and Pollyanna for their proposal, taking an interest, and accommodating their time for the meeting.

Samantha forwarded Spark’s proposal to the entire BOD. Mike suggests that the entire BOD review the proposal, gather their thoughts, and any ideas that they have. Currently, the cost of the survey is 40% of our membership income. Ron recommends that we get other bids submitted for a marketing strategy. Brad has mentioned it to his daughter to see if her company is interested to submit a proposal within the next couple of weeks. Brad agrees that we should have the information gathered by an unbiased, third-party. This proposal is only gathering information; it is not providing the solution. Ron believes that this would be an investment for IMAC.

Website Issues – Charles Youngblood

Charles brought up that he thinks the website is not working and functioning like it should. Many on the BOD have not had any issues. Brad has tried to duplicate some of the problems and the only way he can is if he uses the .com for the old website. Brad and Doug say they both use Internet Explorer. Ron has also received a lot of questions and issues about the website. Some members who are still having problems registering for the website need to email Samantha and she will forward it on to be taken care of. Membership issues need to be forwarded to Phil. Rusty says that the older generations are having the most problem with the website. Rusty gave an example of many couldn’t find the forums because the name was changed to “The Hanger.” Doug has an outside forum for the website navigation question and answer. Steve gets questions about why the membership list is no longer available, forums are hard to use, or about the new features compared to the old website. Many members would like to see the member search back on the new website. The member lookup is not available because of all the information of each member that is connected to their profile. It is a huge opportunity for information to get out to marketers. When you click on a message posted from a member, click on the name and then user profile. There is a “pm” button where you can send that member an email. We are also supposed to be using our names for our profile, instead of an alias. Ron says that he would like to see the articles that are written, such as on the NC page, to be tagged into a forum for all members to view. Currently, they can only be view on NC regional page.

Charles also brought up the issue of people logged into the website using an alias. He believes a previous board voted years ago and members were told that their login would be changed to their correct name.

2017 Sequences – Mike Karnes

The Unlimited sequence is still being worked on. Mike has posted the Basic, Sportsman, Intermediate, and Advanced, including the alternates, for the BOD to review and vote. These need to be reviewed as soon as possible for they can be posted to the website for the members. Unlimited will hopefully be posted within the next week or two.

2017 BOD Elections – Mike Karnes

Right now, the only contested race is the SE and SW regional directors. Please get a bio written up and sent to Roy to be posted.

Flying Giants Post – Mike Karnes

Many of the BOD has read the forums on the Flying Giants website on the membership drop. There is also a poll on the membership drop. Many ideas have been posted on the membership drop such as, not scale enough, limiting plane size, inconsistent judging, contests too far away, etc. The BOD reviewed the poll based on the results as of September 19.

2017 National Judging School – Doug Pilcher

The hotels are narrowed down to two options. One is across from the school itself. Doug’s wife is trying to get the best deal between the two hotels. She is trying to get them to include breakfast and airport transportation for pickup and drop off. There is no room guarantee and you can cancel within 24 hours without no penalty. As of now, we are not ready to start booking rooms. Doug will put the hotels on each region’s page with a link. Doug has several vehicles available if the 15- passenger vans do not work out. The companies do not want to commit to a price this far in advance. Phil is going to send the BOD a report of a complete run down of expenses from the 2015 National Judging School. Each region can send 2 members, up to $1,400 per region at IMAC’s expense. Any additional will come out of the region’s fund. Mike is also going to get a current list of our National Judging Instructors to send to the RDs.

Treasurer’s Report – Phil Vance

Phil emailed the regional funds report to the RDs. We have received our check for the participation at the NATS. We also received funds for the Horizon Hobby Airplane Auction by Charles Lewis. Phil will get the BOD a report for the NATS, when he sends the one for the Judging School. The current balance as of September 19:

The NATS expense has went down since we use contestant judging and the McCullough Center for the banquet. We also will be having the judging school and possibly a marketing cost as expenses within the next year. The marketing costs would be a significant expense. The National Judging School will cost between $8,000-10,000.

2018 IMAC World Championships – Mike Karnes

The BOD is aware that Wayne Matthews has pulled out of the World Championships, International Liaison, and all the committees. Wayne has emailed all the documentation that he has started to all of the BOD and certain members. Doug believes that we should contact the 40 plus volunteers to see if they are still willing to help. If not, we need to start finding replacements. The BOD also discussed the financial sponsorships and donations received for the last Worlds. The last Worlds finished in the black, with around $6,000. No money came out of IMAC funds. It was the consensus of the BOD to review all the documentation that Wayne sent and to have a meeting around the first of October to only discuss the future of the 2018 Worlds.

Regional Issues

No regional issues to report.

Meeting adjourned 11:42 p.m. EST.

Addendum post meeting: Mike followed up with webmaster on Charles concern over use of aliases on the website. There was no record found nor did the webmaster recollect any such change of alias user names to proper names. However the BOD does ask/suggest that members do indeed update their entire profiles to include real names. This is not a change to an alias on forums but only in your user profile. At this point there is not a motion nor a vote passed to exclude aliases. This also provides consistency to the RPS system and ability of users and contact between users on the site.

Details

Written by: Doug Pilcher

Category: Club Business

Published: 31 August 2016

Attendees:  Mike Karnes, Charles Youngblood, Samantha McKinney, Phil Vance, Rusty Fried, Doug Pilcher, Ron Graham, Steve Sides, and Brad Davy

Absent: Michael Verzywelt

Meeting began:  9:15 p.m. EST. 

2016 Board Elections – Mike Karnes

Nominations for the 2016 Board will begin on September 1, 2016.  Mike will post in the forums to the general membership that nominations will be open.  Elections will be in December.

Forum Issue – Letter to RD – Ron Graham

One of our RDs received a letter from an anonymous IMAC member concerned about the membership drop and other issues in our organization.  The BOD discussed this letter and took it under review.

Forum Issue – Membership drop – Mike Karnes

The BOD discussed the forum thread on the membership drop.The question was raised on what we have to offer new members.  Many members have ideas, but not very many step up help.  Brad raised the question if we were too wrapped up in the numbers because there are other factors involved.  Ron completely disagreed.   Many different ideas were discussed on why our membership is dropping: “cliques,” disposable income, plane size, website issues, judging issues, etc.  It was under agreement that “cliques” are not the reason for the membership drop.  Each pilot at contests make everyone feel welcome, and are more than willing to help each other and new pilots that are beginning IMAC.   Brad feels that the issue is more with disposable income.  Many pilots use their disposable income to fund this sport.  When the disposable income drops, this sport is the first to be cut.  Many of heard that a smaller plane couldn’t compare to a big airplane on how well they can compete.  Many of the BOD members mentioned several instances where a pilot with a smaller plane is very competitive, but its not the plane, it’s the pilot.

Some RDs mentioned that some new members mentioned that the website is too much of a hassle for them, especially when trying to register for contests and the forums.  Some of the older members are not as familiar with computers and it is harder for them to navigate the new website. 

Another issue mentioned for the membership drop was favoritism being played with the judges, or the judges not being experienced enough to judge certain classes.  Some CDs put judges in the chair that don’t know how to judge or have a fellow pilot flying in that particular class.  Many of this is due to the numbers that attend the contests.  This leads to subconscious bios.  The South Central region does not normally have the CD create the judging matrix.  Most of the time it is the RD or the ARD’s that create the matrix.  Most of the time the RD and 2 or more ARDs are at their contests.  It was mentioned to have the names of judge one and two for each round be submitted with the scoring.  South West region has put experienced scribes with unexperienced judges to give them someone to discuss judging with.

Mike mentioned that we could get a testing software for the judges, but it has a cost with it.

Ron mentioned that we need to have some individual classes for the CDs to help them become better prepared to host a contest.  There are some CDs that have attended judging schools and cannot run a contest.  IMAC does not currently qualify the CDs, AMA does.  IMAC has never had qualifications for CD.  The closest thing we have is the Contest Standards Guide.  The CDs provided the field and the weekend, and there are several members that are willing to help them run the contest. 

Phil presented the membership numbers from the following years: 2007 – 845; 2008 – 906; 2009 – 1,127; 2012 – 983; 2014 – 899; and 2016 – 778.  Many BOD members pointed out the rise in members in certain years, particularly the year of the World Championship qualifying year.

Forum Issue – Limiting aircraft size in lower classes – Mike Karnes

An issue has been raised that we need to limit aircraft size in lower classes, due to the drop in membership and unfair competition.  In both of these cases, it goes against IMAC.  The Basic class can fly what they want.  It was suggested to keep points and acknowledge the pilots flying with smaller plane. This would create more to keep with up for the CD and the scorekeepers.  Several of the BOD agrees that the problem isn’t the equipment.  The BOD members named off several pilots that won several competitions in their classes with smaller planes.  The pilot choses what he/she wants to fly. This isn’t the overriding problem. 

Forum Issue – Use of gyros in lower classes – Mike Karnes

Gyros were mentioned in forums as a possible advantage to lower class pilots.  He wanted to the RDs to let the CDs know to look for this type of equipment as it is not allowed.  Currently, there is no BOD support for gyros being used in the lower classes.

Forum Issue – Advertising loss – Mike Karnes

Mike informed the BOD that we lost Hobbico as one of our advertisers due to not enough hits on the website.  We currently use the advertising income to pay the monthly maintenance fees on the new website. 

Forum Issue – International Region – Mike Karnes

The International members are wanting their own regional page on the website and RPS listing.  The only thing that the International community receives from IMAC is the knowns and unknowns.  They would like to be able to post their contests and a place to post their scores for their members can view.  A motion was made to create an International region on the website for these contests can be posted and scores can be viewed and would have an “RD” assigned to the said International Region and also have a seat on BOD.  Motion passed unanimously.

Electric Request for Action (RFA) – Mike Karnes

An RFA (request for action) was sent to the BOD for allowing electric aircrafts to fly a sequence, land and change batteries, and then proceed to the end of the line to finish their round.  Currently, this RFA is actually an RCP and the BOD will forward to the Rules Committee for review for the next Rules Change Cycle.  The BOD agreed that as of now, it will be left to the CD’s discretion at each event whether to fly all single sequences or the normal 2 sequences per round. 

Marketing IMAC – Mike Karnes

A few BOD members mentioned that we don’t market IMAC very well.  It was raised to hire an outside professional to help market IMAC.  Mike gave an example of how the North Central region pilots schedule is to why we have trouble helping promote IMAC.  The North Central contest schedule is nonstop from the first contest to regional finals.  These pilots are going to every contest possible to get their points and compete.  There is a contest almost every weekend.  It is hard for some of the North Central pilots to balance work, family and IMAC.  Currently, our line of communication with new members is contests and the website.  With the website, a pilot can create a profile without being an actual member, but they cannot register for contests.  Some members believes that our website is confusing and complicated.  When registering, Phil must create and send the IMAC number; the computer doesn’t automatically generate it.  Forums are not user-friendly.  Many that are not familiar with a computer have a hard time finding the forums. 

The question was raised if we could afford an outside professional to help promote IMAC.  Brad and Ron has spoken to a couple of people who work for marketing companies.  They said that we would need to contact their companies and ask them to submit a proposal.  The companies would present a couple of proposals for the BOD could review.  Ron asked the BOD to write the top 5 ideas that they think will promote IMAC and bring in new members.  A motion was made by Ron to move forward on getting proposals from outside professionals on what we could do for marketing and advertising IMAC to help the membership drop, as well as putting a dollar amount to said marketing and seeing if viable to add to IMAC budget. Motion carried unanimously.

National Judging School – Doug Pilcher

The registration for the 2017 National Judging School is on the South Central Region page.  Registration is for Saturday and Sunday only.  The RDs will appoint who will attend on Fridays.  As of right now, hotels will possibly be between $80-90.  Doug informed the BOD that they are nice rooms.  These hotels are close to the school and about 20-25 minutes away from the field.  Doug has an unlimited pilot lined up to fly for practicals.  The reimbursements for individuals is $700 per person, up to $1,400 per region.  

Meeting adjourned at 11:49 p.m. EST. 

Details

Written by: Doug Pilcher

Category: Club Business

Published: 30 April 2016

Attendees: Mike Karnes, Charles Youngblood, Samantha McKinney, Phil Vance, Brad Davy, Steve Sides, Doug Pilcher, and Michael Verzywelt.

Absent: Ron Graham and Rusty Fried

Meeting began 9:06 p.m. EST

National Judging School – Mike Karnes

Ty Lyman is now Chief Judging Instructor and he is starting to get the National Judging School lined up for 2017.  The school will be held in the SC region around Dallas.  The last time it was held in the SC region was in 2009.  The school will be held the last weekend in January.  Tarrant County College Fort Worth (by DFW Airport, 2301 Horizon Drive, Forth Worth, TX) donated 2 classrooms, includes projector screens.  The classrooms has seating for 30 with personal viewing screens with the projector in the front of the classroom.  The only thing needed is a thumb drive.  We will also have access to the avionics lab.  There is an r/c club within 25 minutes from the hotels and schools.  We have approval for Sunday practicals.  We need to consider possibly rent two 15-passenger vans to help transport students for the school. Each district will send 2 people.  Each person interested will be reimbursed up to a certain amount for expenses, but will only be reimbursed for actual costs.  In 2015, $8,000 was spent on the National Judging School and it was held in Jacksonville, Florida.

Contest Standards Drop Schedule – Mike Karnes

Mike noticed that the drop schedule needed corrected.  Some believe unknowns shouldn’t be dropped.  This will mainly applies to the NATS.  At NATS, they fly three unknowns.  In 2015, due to a total washout on one day, they had to keep both of their unknowns.  The Worlds flew 4 unknowns.  Mike would like to see a drop schedule for the Worlds since they have 4 unknowns.  Most unknowns that will be dropped are 1.  Now each contest has guidelines to go by including the NATS and the Worlds.  Every situation is covered that could possibly happen.  This can be changed in the score program as it pertains to each contest.  The default setting for the unknowns is zero.   Only thing in the score program is the Known drop schedule.  Brad noticed that a statement is made with ratios of the Knowns to the Unknowns, Paragraph 13 of the current Contest Standards Guide.  It is also mentioned that the dropping is at the discretion of the CD, Paragraph 11, which conflicts with Appendix A.  A motion was made and the  BOD agreed unanimously to remove the statement in Paragraph 11 that conflicts with Appendix A and  to remove the ratios of the Knowns and Unknowns in Paragraph 13.  Brad will make changes.  Doug and Steve noticed that there isn’t no mention of what will happen when deviations are made from the Contest Standards Guide.  It was agreed to make any additional changes when are the BOD members are present.

NATS – Mike Karnes

Mike has the event team set.  Phil has gotten the shirts ordered.  The banquet will be at the same place, the McCollough Center, on July 7th and the food is set.  Mike will be picking up pilot packets since AMA is not open on Monday. 

Website Issues – Mike Karnes

Currently, the committees are upset on storing IMAC files outside of the website.  Mike had to contact the webmaster and Mike decided to add another module to the website for the committees’ storage.  The cost shouldn’t exceed $300 and it is a one time charge.  Currently, the old forums on the old website can only be accessed for 90 days.  RDs need to copy what they need before the old forums are turned off.   Each RD must copy and paste and create word/pdf documents.  Mike has already completed the education committee forum.  The webmaster cannot keep 2 servers going.  It has created a conflict between the old and new website.  The motion was made to pay the webmaster $300 to create another module for the committees to have permanent storage.  Motion passed unanimously.

Regional Issues

The NC region’s schedule is getting ready to start.  Brad mentioned that it would be nice for the membership and the BOD to know who is on all the committees.  Mike will ask the webmaster to add this information to the website. The SC region is interested in another scoring school being held.  Regions need more interested in learning the score programs.  Samantha and Mike will get a date together for an evening to have the school.  It was mentioned to record and possibly post on YouTube for those who cannot make it.  Doug will put a thread on the website to see who is interested.  Samantha has also created a scoring guide that will walk through the score program.

Mike wanted to remind all the CDs about the basic unknown.  The RDs mentioned that the pilot listing that is exported on the event page is working very well.  The only thing is the export is not pulling in the contact information. The NW is hosting a judging school in Calgary, Canada this weekend.  There are currently 14 guys registered.  The NC judging school had an attendance of 23, with 12 being first time students.  The weather was exceptional for the practicals.

Meeting adjourned 10:22 p.m. EST. 

Details

Written by: Doug Pilcher

Category: Club Business

Published: 31 March 2016

Members present:  Mike Karnes, Charles Youngblood, Samantha McKinney, Phil Vance, Brad Davy, Steve Sides, Ron Graham, Doug Pilcher, Michael Verzywelt, and Rusty Fried

Meeting began: 9:01 p.m. EST

2018 World Championships Qualifications – Mike Karnes

The last proposal submitted to the membership seemed to work.  One member mentioned scoring it differently, though to make sure to make it more fair.  Contests are open to anyone, so a non-IMAC member could affect the potential scoring of a member trying to qualify.   They are wanting the 5 members to qualify for the World team to be scored in a separate score program.   One problem is that each region needs to be consistent on how their top five will be selected.  It was suggested to use the regionals finals, since this is the last contest that allows points to be accumulated. It is being suggested that each region designate the regional final contest for each of their region.  The only difference will be that each region needs to stay consistent on how the top 5 will be scored for qualification purposes. 

The 2017 NATS are still being used as one way to qualify.  If a pilot qualifies both ways, IRPS and NATS, the region has first choice to find a pilot to send to the Worlds.  The NATS will only be used if the region absolutely cannot send anyone.  The regions will only send one per class.  The NATS will send the top 3 from each class, 1/3 of the team.  The vacancy rule states that if a pilot makes the World team from the NATS and the IRPS, the NATS will take precedent over the IRPS and the next in line at the IRPS will take place. 

Some does not like this because pilots can still make the team by just flying at the NATS.  This discourages the pilots from flying contests and putting the work in during the 2017 year.  To qualify at the NATS, the pilot must have competed in 3 IMAC contests.  The numbers would not work out to without the NATS sending 1/3 of the team.  It is very rough for the outer regions to make the NATS, due to travel and time constraints.  It was noted that we had pilots drop out at the last minute before the last World Championships. 

The only change needed is on the scoring.  This change will apply to all regions.  RDs need to designate the last point-accumulating contest of the season.  For many regions, this is the very last contest of the season.  The top 5 point earners will be going into the regional finals to compete for the spot on the World team.  If the pilot does not show up, they are removing themselves from qualifying for the World Championships. 

Rule 3.b seems to be an issue between the regions.  SE currently holds a regional championship as a separate contest after the IRPS stops.  SE regional championship does not count as regional points; it is an invitational.  The issue is that each region will be arriving at their 5 pilots differently.  Each region needs to arrive at their top 5 pilots the same way to make it fair to all pilots.  The top 5 pilots going into the regional finals are the ones that will be competing for the World team.  Currently, it is up to the regions to chose which contest.  Currently, the SE cannot use their regional championship invitational contest due to the fact that it does not accumulate points for IRPS.   The IRPS is only used to determine who flies off at the regional finals and whoever wins that contest, wins the spot on the team.   According to IRPS, the regional finals is an open contest to everyone.  The SE regional championship invitational is not an open contest available to everyone.    It is closed to everyone except for the top 10 of each class.

The SE regional championship invitational is an extra contest that is for the top 10 of each class to get together and have fun.  Just another perk for the SE.  The argument is that this has no constraints of the other regions.  The SE should use their regional finals and the regional championship invitational would just be for fun.  The reason is why it is written is to incorporate a fly-off at the regional finals.  The SE would have to designate a contest as a regionals points contest, which would be the last scored contest.  The top 5 may not be able to go.  The way to solve the issue is the SE regional championship invitational will become open to everyone and will be a points contest.

It needs to be added that their placement for the 2018 World Championships will be scored in a separate program. 

The issue with just using the NATS is due to the geographics, travel constraints, and finances.  The only way to make it fair to every region is to send a pilot from each class from each region.  This gives the whole U.S. membership the same opportunity to make the 2018 World Team.  It gives each member 2 ways to make the team, through the region or at the NATS. 

Mike asked the Board if we should only use the first 3 days of the NATS.   If we are using the top 3 of the NATS, we should use the actual winners of the NATS. 

Rule 3.b needs to be added:  Those five contestants’ results will be separately scored to determine placement on the Worlds team. The motion was made to accept Version 15 as presented.  Motion passed unanimously. 

Meeting adjourned 9:30 p.m.