August Update

• The IPMS/USA August meeting was held at the National Convention site prior to the State of the Society/Business meeting. More than 70 members were in attendance. Some items brought up during that meeting are included in this update.
• Treasurer Mike Oberholtzer will look into the possibility of membership auto-renewal for credit card renewals. Will also look into the possibility of giving a better rate for those who do. Mike would support the concept only if a secure third-party would manage and protect member credit card info. It would also have to be an "opt in" choice with the member needing to actively request auto-renewal before it would go into effect.
• Second VP Mike Van Schoonhoven asked and received the go-ahead to purchase a padded, waterproof case to store and, when necessary, ship the laptops used for Nationals.
• After some discussion about the possibility of the Society setting up a permanent website to publicize the National Convention, Secretary Dennis Tennant suggested that we reserve the "ipmsnationals.org" domain name for possible future Nationals web hosting. Webmaster Eric Aitala made it so but had reservations of having multiple conventions on that domain at the same time. More discussions will follow but we have reserved the name at very little cost.
• Someone at the State of the Society meeting asked whether the Convention Management System used in running the National Convention could also be used for Regionals. 2nd VP Van Schoonhoven said he didn't know of any reason why it couldn't. A member asked about the benefit of being a sponsor of Model Expo next year. President Ron Bell said it would get our name and brand out among an elite group of modelers and vendors. At a cost of $500, our logo will appear on banners, hand-outs and other show information at the Chicago show next year. Member Steve Hackney encouraged chapters to add a debit card to their bank accounts to enable quicker chapter renewals via plastic instead of the slower check method.

In the Weeks Following the Convention

• The Board is looking into the possibility of obtaining a list of email addresses from one or more manufacturers or distributors so we can reach out to their customers with a discount membership offer.
• 2016 Webmaster of the Year John Ratzenberger emailed a thank you for the award. We also heard from the Sonoran Desert Model Builders thanking us for awarding them the chapter of the Year Award.
• Director of Publications/Historian Jim Pearsall was given permission to scan and post the 2016 Convention decal sheet and instructions for member use.
• Sec. Tennant sent the State of the Society presentation in PowerPoint format to Journal art director John Heck for use in the Journal. The data within the presentation will be printed.
• Treas. Oberholtzer renewed two CDs for 7 months rather than the previous 19 and 32 month terms. This will give us the flexibility to move them to another bank when we are ready. We will actually have equal or better earnings on them at that maturity as well. He is researching alternate banks with good location access to as many of the board as possible, with reasonable costs for account and credit card services. Will share that info when he has it all collected.
• Pres. Bell announced that his proposed update to the C&BL got enough signatures at the convention to go on the next election's ballot. Ron is now working to get the amendment into the Journal. The board is also working on getting together the required Constitutional Review Board (CRB) to review Ron's amendment.
• Work continued on a survey form to gather data from our membership. Ron Bell shared the original survey with the board and is currently getting feedback.
• Following a successful rollout of the new, updated CMS, we are considering hiring the programmer on an hourly basis to make periodic upgrades to the program plus be on-call to support the software during Nationals week.

Officer/Staff Reports

Ron Bell, President

• Began work on a new membership recognition program based on years of membership
• Contacted past officers to form the CRB for the amendment procedure
• Finalized the amendment petition and submitted it and the amendment copies to the OM
• Started working with the Journal and Webmaster about deadlines for elections next year.

David Morrissette, 1st VP

• The Manufacturers Dinner and Reviewer Corps meetings at the National Convention went well.
• Am working with manufacturer contacts made at the nationals to further review our ties to manufacturers.

Mike Van Schoonhoven, 2nd Vice President

• I have been working on retaining our CMS consultant and standardizing some convention procedures.

Mike Oberholtzer, Treasurer

• Updated and rolled-out a new expense report template. Thanks to 1VP Dave Morrissette, we opened a new 2017 Convention Account.

Dennis Tennant, Secretary

• I have submitted an article to the Journal about our website's new Local Hobby Store finder and hope this will kickstart some member participation. So far, there have been only 21 stores submitted.

John Noack, DLC

• Nothing to report.

Jim Pearsal, Historian/Publication Dir.

• The Journal will be using selected articles from local newsletters.
  If Chapter newsletter editors would please send a copy of their newsletters to Fred Horky (white64vette@gmail.com), Journal Editor Chris Bucholtz would greatly appreciate it.

Marie Van Schoonhoven, National Office Manager

• Following the convention, I have been processing what seems like truckloads of new membership renewals.

Eric Aitala, Webmaster

• Nothing to report.

Submitted by Dennis Tennant, Secretary