Action Items
- Our banking relationship with Huntington Bank is over. Funds were successfully transferred to Chase Bank.
- A future Journal will be upsized to include expanded election info and the proposed amendment up for consideration.
- Fifty and twenty-five year Membership recognition pins are ready for distribution.
- IPMS membership recruitment inserts have been created for inserting in future Sprue Brothers' shipments.
- Approval was given to upgrade the service plan for our online store to accommodate increased traffic and usage.
Discussion
The board discussed updating the IPMS/USA website with the goal of making it a bit more user friendly but not putting more on Webmaster Eric's plate. We would like to find a web designer within the society willing to act as a consultant and work with Eric to take a look at the site and make recommendations. We are willing to allocate money to pay for this service and are officially looking for someone willing to put their web skills to use improving the usability of our website.
The board also discussed having a "senior" membership cost reduction, but decided that so many of our members are seniors that it would result in just an over all membership cost reduction, so that idea was put that aside for now. We have the Sprue Brothers flyers and the discount memberships sold at shows recruitment programs running already, so we'll see what results these produce first.
Officer/Staff Reports
Ron Bell, President
- Membership pins have been delivered and they look great. I'm exploring ways to distribute them. I'll take them to the Omaha convention and distribute as many as I can there and then mail the pins to the 50-year members. Mailing the 25-year pins to each member will be expensive and we'll explore the best way to inexpensively do that.
- Organizing the election was more complicated this year due to the length of the C&BL amendments. We compared costs and options and the board agreed to adding the necessary pages to the Journal so that normal content is not reduced. This should be in the May/June issue. We are still working on getting it electronically available for on-line voters.
David Morrissette, 1st VP
- Late reviews are down to 34 (cool!).
- The art work for the Sprue Bros. insert is in its 2nd revision and has been sent to board members for review and comment.
- Adding two new manufacturers to our reviewer sources: Gecco and All Dioramas.
- I am rewriting the procedures for the Reviewer Corps Process for the next 1VP.
- Dick Montgomery has agreed to stay on after the new 1VP is elected but is ready to retire. We'll need to be looking for a new mailing clerk.
Mike Van Schoonhoven, 2nd Vice President
- No new convention bids have appeared for the board to evaluate at this year's convention.
- We are gearing up for the Omaha convention.
Mike Oberholtzer, Treasurer
- February saw the beginning of online registration for the 2017 convention. Volumes of activity for registration, banquet meals, tours, trophy sponsorships and t-shirts increased dramatically as the month went on, and that high level of activity continues in March. I am working closely with the 2017 convention treasurer, Brian Smith, to keep our financial reporting current and complete.
- As of March 13 all of our Huntington Bank accounts have been closed and the funds moved to Chase. I will provide a summary of the cost savings we are seeing in service charges and credit card fees soon.
- I am waiting on the final reporting from the 2016 convention so that I can produce a year end 2016 balance sheet and comparative income statement as well as complete our tax returns.
- Our new Journal advertising invoicing and tracking processes are working well. Journal advertising past due payments are now almost all up to date. Only four payments from 3 vendors remain outstanding from 2016; all are from 28J5 or 28J6.
Dennis Tennant, Secretary
John Noack, DLC
- Chapter rechartering, is officially closed with a few stragglers coming on board. We are at 97% rechartered, with 221 Chapters registered
- I had 4 interested parties contact me regarding the RC-5 position being vacated by Kelly Quirk. I've down selected (and the board approved) Jim Coatney, IPMS #37335, as the new Regional Coordinator for R-5. Jim serves as VP of Mad City modelers in Madison, WI, and I believe he will be a good regional coordinator. Kelly Q. is very comfortable with Jim taking over the role and has offered to stick around to assist Jim in the transition.
- I also moved to give Kelly Quirk an additional three years of complimentary membership for his long service to the largest Region in our national organization. This motion was approved unanimously by the board.
- Insurance is in place for Chapter events and I've renegotiated chapter meeting coverage back into the policy after the provider tried to argue it out. I'd be prepared for a rate increase next year and recommend that we consider shopping the policy around to get some comparative quotes if worst comes to worst.
- I put the organizers of the Chicago Model Expo show in touch with our insurance provider after they reached out to Marie asking about how and from whom we get our coverage.
Jim Pearsal, Historian/Publication Dir.
Marie Van Schoonhoven, National Office Manager
- I had 51 new members register in February 2017.
- Convention registration is rolling in, their treasurer has sent a few batches of checks for me to deposit into their convention account and, as far as I know, they have been for tables
- I am still working on arranging my work schedule so that I can be at the convention when registration opens at 11a.m. Wednesday.
- John Noack and I are reviewing the tri-fold brochures before updating with the new address to have another batch printed.
Eric Aitala, Webmaster
- Our new online voting web site is set up - I just need to add member login accounts, add the bios for the nominees and set up the voting form.
- Online registration for the Nationals has begun.
- We used 3.7 GB of bandwidth for the online store in February - our current plan only includes 3GB, so we may see an additional charge. The board has approved increasing the bandwidth to our online store to the next level to accommodate increased use in the future.
- I am talking with a new forum admin candidate - haven't decided yet.
- Still need to update the Forum and Gallery software which may require a web server software update.
Submitted by Dennis Tennant, Secretary