Old Business
- Ongoing discussion about improvements to our online shopping cart.
New Business
- We will begin the process of finding a replacement for John Ratzenberger as Director of Foreign Liaison as soon as possible. John is stepping down and we'll need to replace him in this position. We plan to start the search with an announcement in the Journal. Interested parties can find the job description in the bylaws posted online.
- A motion was made by Bruce Briggs to accept the 2014 convention report from IPMS Tidewater and to cut them a check for their half of the profits. Jim Pearsall seconded the motion and the executive board voted 9-0 to approve the report and cut them a check as soon as possible.
- In response to a recommendation in Hampton's convention report, Dave Morrissette made a motion to raise the upper limit for awards for the national convention to $13,000. Motion seconded by Secretary Tennant and passed by a 8-1 vote with John Ratzenberger voting no.
- Chief Judge Mark Persichetti reports he has sent an updated list of contest rules and categories to 2nd VP Ron Bell for posting on the convention Web site soon.
- The new website make-over recently unveiled by Webmaster Eric Aitala is getting positive reviews.
Officer/Staff Reports
Dick Christ, President
David Morrissette, 1st VP
- We posted 1037 reviews in 2014. We finished well ahead of the competition, especially with build reviews.
- We're trying to publish more smaller reviews to the Journal.
- Late reviews coming along pretty well.
Ron Bell, 2nd Vice President
- IPMS Tidewater's share of the profits from the 2014 convention came to $13,415.12. They submitted their final report and it contained a lot of interesting information. Work on the Columbus convention is moving along. Planning is getting more detailed now.
John Shimek, Treasurer
- Sent the 2015 Budget and financial info to the webmaster for publication in next Journal.
Dennis Tennant, Secretary
- Working to update the e-board contact list for 2015. My goal is to have the update complete before the end of this quarter.
- I'll also be sending out conflict of interest forms to all e-board members soon. I'll send a blank form along to Larry, Jim and Dave for their direct reports to fill out. I'll also be sending a C of I form along to Mark P. so he can have all his section judges do the same. Please make this a priority, it takes only a few minutes to do and will allow me to get this chore over with and have on file for the IRS before the end of 2015.
Larry Randel, DLC
Jim Pearsal, Historian/Publication Dir.
- Just letting everyone know that I've been a little busy with personal business lately. I will soon contact the webmaster about making the 'Memos' information from the archived IPMS/UK wrappers available.
John Ratzenberger, Dir. Foreign Liaison
Bruce Briggs, Membership Secretary
MJ Kinney, National Office Manager
- We have had a CD roll over - the larger one $ 81,317.81. The new term is 19 months at .50%.
- Our chapter liability insurance has renewed for another year - $ 994 per quarter or $ 3,976 for the year.
- Our D&O insurance has renewed for another year - $ 930 for the year.
- The credit card fees for the Hampton convention came to $1200. This will become a cost of doing business for future convention planners due to the increased use of credit cards by our membership.
Eric Aitala, Webmaster
- Updated IPMS/USA web site with new theme
- Still have pages to do - mostly E-board meeting minutes
- Working with web host tech support to fix configuration issue which is causing issues with 'error 404' pages.
- Will have update to home page with image slideshow this weekend.
- Waiting on Columbus to approve online registration for the National convention before making it 'live'.
Submitted by Dennis Tennant, Secretary