June 2018 Meeting Minutes

Officers Present

* = Non-voting staff or Guest

Minutes

After a brief interval for personal reasons, I have re-started work on compiling info for the RFP for the web site update.

Added several new suppliers to Review process.
Scrubbed active Reviewers' list for expired membership dates, excessive late reviews, etc- provided list of active reviewers to Phil Peterson for guidance in selecting who gets what.
A National Members-only discount at Micro-Mark is in place and the info for getting 15% off your purchases will be in Journal, and can be found on the website. The first review item was received from Micro-Mark and is out for review.
Currently fielding supplier inquiries regarding sponsorship of trophies and info about the raffle process for Phoenix, although it's a bit late in the game.
Setting up Industry Appreciation Dinner and Reviewers' Get-Together in Phoenix. Dinner will be scaled back significantly this year.

Continuing to work with Phoenix on this year's convention.
Reminder sent to Chattanooga regarding update at NatCon.
Contacted four potential bidders for the 2020/2021 National Convention and received one draft bid and am waiting on a second after sending reminders to all. One potential bidder withdrew.
I'm also editing the Bid Parameters book in my spare time. No tentative completion date yet.

This is a volatile time of year for IPMS/USA finances. We see increases in income due to lots of convention registration activity, and big fluctuations in expenses for the same reason. So it isn't very helpful to look at monthly activity right now except in a couple of areas. Some points to keep in mind:
- Memberships continue to be up significantly from last year, about $5,000 at this point. Not sure if it is timing or not, but the trend has been steady so far this year.
- Journal revenues are down about $10,000 from last year for two reasons. Last year we had discovered that past due Journal Ad invoices weren't being followed up on, and Doug Reed and I worked out a process to get the collections up to date. That resulted in higher collections in the first part of 2017 as we pulled in about $7,000 in 2016 past due amounts. The second reason is that this year, due to the loss of Doug, we are behind in invoicing and collections. 30J2 invoices have yet to go out, and we have about $885 in past due ads, so overall we are behind about $3,500 in revenue collection from where we should be.

I attended the Northern Illinois Modelers Convention (NIMCON) in northern Illinois in June and had a great time at this well-run show. I was pleased to see that their goodie bags included a recruitment pamphlet from the IPMS/USA.
Additions to the Local Hobby Shop list are continuing to roll in. Remember to recommend your favorite local hobby shop, it's very easy for members to add the info online.

Of the 227 chapters at the beginning of 2017:
- 219 chapters rechartered
- Six were deactivated (by chapter choice).
- Two remain that will be deactivated if I don't receive a reply soon.
There are 4-5 new chapters.
We have a full roster of regional coordinators.
I have completed region awards and will get the information to the board members about the nationals awards.
Newsletter distribution is chugging along.

Membership continues to grow, but more slowly than I'd like.
I continue to work with the chapter contacts to recruit new members and to set up IPMS recruiting tables at shows. Have sent out some packages of recruiting flyers and magazine samples to chapters having shows. 25 and 50 year membership pins are still coming in slowly.
I am beginning to work with Regional Coordinators to explore ways to get them involved in recruiting.
I continue to solicit ideas for recruiting strategies and have a column coming in an upcoming Journal.

Submitted by Dennis Tennant, Secretary

International Plastic Modelers' Society / USA