March 2018 Meeting Minutes

Officers Present

* = Non-voting staff or Guest

Minutes

To take advantage of the fact that our new Recruitment and Retention Secretary is an attorney, President Bell suggested that the board begin using David Knights as our legal counsel. David graciously agreed to help the Society with its legal issues in the future. This change will make it quicker and more convenient for the Board to obtain legal advice. Our former counsel, Kaliste Saloom, has been informed and thanked for his years of service to the board.
MOTION MADE — Jim Pearsall made the motion to appoint Bill Whipple as the Journal advertising manager with Mike Oberholtzer seconding. The Board voted unanimously in favor. Whipple accepted the position March 19, 2018 and will have his membership comped upon acceptance for the length of his service.

I've started the process of updating the iPMS/USA web site. The E-Board has voted that it would be best to out-source this project due to the scope and time that will be required. Eric Aitala is compiling a list of technical aspects and I've asked the E-Board and Office Manager Marie to put together lists of what changes they feel the site needs to function better. I have also contacted other members who have functions that involved the web site to do the same thing. I will then combine these lists into one list and pair it with Eric's technical stuff so we can product a Request For Proposal to distribute to some website design companies so we can get some bids to consider. This will all take time and I don't really expect a new web site until sometime next year.
We have extended Marie's contract as Office Manager for another year and are pleased that all the feedback received about her performance has been very favorable.

Added 4 new suppliers - all from Eastern Europe. Kits from two (OKB Grigorov and Micro Mir) have already arrived and been disseminated for review.
Working the details of a discount program for Micro Mark (for National Members-only).
Coordinated with industry base for donations and category sponsorships at Phoenix this year.
Added several new members to Reviewers' Corps and got the late reviews down to a reasonable level - a number of reviewers responsible for late reviews are on hiatus as a result.

Phoenix convention update - So far, the Phoenix crew has sold a little less than half their vendor tables. They will be reserving 18 tables for local chapters and SIGS at a discounted price. I have been working with them to help market the tables and get the word out. They may be amending their hotel contract soon to add more rooms to the block already reserved for the convention, so stay tuned..

Year to date net income is down $12,000 from last year. This is due to timing of Journal income and expenses (Journal income is down $5,800 and expenses are higher by $4,400), and much lower ($7,400) vendor table sales for the convention so far this year while expenses are higher by $2,500. Fortunately this is partially offset by $4,600 higher membership income. Adult memberships seem to be way up! Most of these timing issues should even out over time, except for the $1,500 we gave up in Journal revenue due to the delay in producing 29J6.

The Board’s shared folder in Dropbox is currently about 3.2GB in size. Some of us have received notices advising us to upgrade our accounts because we’re running out of space. I don’t think that is the case and will continue to monitor the situation and keep the board informed if we need to change the way we do things. In the meantime, continue to use this shared folder to store info you feel needs to be archived and kept secure for future reference.

Chapter Renewals:
- 214 Chapters renewed
- Six chapters have been deactivated
- 11 chapters have not renewed. Of those 11:
  - 3 paid but didn’t turn in the required paperwork
  - 2 turned in fact sheets but didn’t pay the rechartering fee
  - 6 chapters did nothing
Regional chapter awards:
- Two chapters have sent in nominations
- New, local sources for plaques. More convenient, better communication, lower price and able to use multi-colored IPMS/USA logo.
Chapter Newsletters are being sent out monthly. Will be looking into the bulk mailer MailChimp to streamline the process.

Following the board vote in favor, I will ask Bill Whipple, IPMS #7215, of Omaha to be the new Journal advertising manager. I have given Bill a list of duties, as provided by former Ad Manager Doug Reed, and Bill thinks he can manage the job. I also mailed the invoices for the January-February issue of the Journal.
I will follow up on late payments for the November-December issue.

I have dived into the job and have already touched base with various chapter contacts. I plan to concentrate first on getting more local club members to join the national organization. I think it’s important to get the word out about all the advantages of being a national member and plan to enlist help at the local level. I’m also wanting to start a new online newsletter to compliment our printed Journal much in the same way we used to have a printed Quarterly Update. We have a lot more to offer than just a magazine and a contest.
Marie has given me access to the membership database and I’ll be spending time going through this data to see if there is any info to be gleaned that’ll help with my recruitment and retention efforts.

Submitted by Dennis Tennant, Secretary

International Plastic Modelers' Society / USA