December 2016 Meeting Minutes

Officers Present

* = Non-voting staff or Guest

Minutes

Membership pin design is done. Need to wait until January 1, 2017 so we can get an accurate number of each that we will need so I can then go to supplier to place the order.
Have established the time line for the election/vote on amendment.
I’m working with the Journal editor to format the amendment info for publication since it is so extensive.

Posted 100 reviews in October; yearly total is 814. Should finish close to last year’s total.
New Supplier include Miniart directly & Tiger Model, Squadron has dried up as a source of Hobbyboss kits so pursuing other avenues. Getting their books directly from their authors.
Late reviews at 47 and getting better. Only one problem who will not answer emails and is 18 months late..

I have opened accounts with Chase Bank as of December 6 and begun transferring our funds over. Benefits of the transfer include access to branches near most of the Eboard members and our Office Manager, better banking tools like online bill payment and Business Debit cards, and no service charges for the bank accounts, saving us about $90 per month. The transfer will take up to 60 days as we have to set up credit card processing for the new bank and it is a bit complex to move. I am exploring PayPal as an option as well. I hope to have a recommendation for the Eboard by the end of the year.
I have begun paying our vendors and expense reports via online bill payment, so checks will come computer printed from Chase to those submitting invoices or expense reports. I would appreciate feedback on how well this works.
As of today, we still have $3,330 in past due Journal advertising revenue. The bulk of the past due amount, $2,970, is due from one advertiser. They still owe for 28J2, 3 and 4. Doug Reed has sent them past due notices with their last two invoices but they haven’t taken action. The other past dues are from two IPMS/USA chapters and Doug will be sending out invoices for 28J5 soon.

As of this meeting, we have 21 hobby stores listed on our online hobby store finder. I’m hoping the upcoming article in the Journal will generate more interest and participation in this useful online search tool.

Chapter renewal is at 32%, with 72 of 225 active Chapters having responded thus far. This is way behind the needed rate to achieve the December 31st deadline, tracks pretty well with previous years' renewal status. In most cases the process is proceeding smoothly. Using the RC's to validate membership data has been very helpful in taking some of the load off the DLC and giving them some ownership of the process. Picked up 1 new Chapter in Region 5; too early to tell if some of the Chapters in other regions are simply slow in renewing or not planning to renew it all.
We are waiting for the quote for 2017 liability insurance. I have several chapters with events early in 2017 that are getting anxious, but I'm assured by the supplier that the national office will have a quote shortly.
We have one recent attempt to file an insurance claim; a Chapter had some signs stolen during a contest. Unfortunately, our liability insurance does not cover theft of Chapter - owned property. The recommendation for Chapters having property is to obtain a separate policy for their belongings, like we had in the North Canton office for some time.

The server upgrade is done and will hopefully fix the hanging issues we’ve been seeing. But there is one more item to handle which is currently keeping the Gallery offline which should be resolved soon. Nothing has changed website-wise, just the server and the operating system. That may slightly affect the email headers, but I don’t think that will impact spam filters.

Submitted by Dennis Tennant, Secretary

International Plastic Modelers' Society / USA