September 2018 Meeting Minutes

Officers Present

* = Non-voting staff or Guest

Minutes

Unanimous approval for our new Advertising Manager, Bill Whipple, to receive free membership as long as he serves in this role.

Working with John Emery to get more emphasis on our "support the troops" program including a guest column in the Journal from him explaining the functioning of the program and a possible outside sponsor.
Due to a slow down in business needing attention and the ability to handle a lot of it via the internet, we have changed the E-board meeting schedule to a bi-monthly update and meeting via conference call every four months. That means updates will only be posted on the Forum every other month.
Have approved a survey on member preference for 1,2,3 or Gold, Silver, Bronze judging methods. Rusty White will be penning a Journal article about the merits of both judging systems prior to the non-binding survey question being added to the election ballot in the next election cycle.

Added one new supplier to active donors of review products.
Working a dialogue with an Executive VP of Bank of America regarding possible donations for veteran-related modeling activities. I plan to involve other Board members and appointees at the appropriate time.
Hosted a successful offsite Industry Appreciation Dinner at the National Convention that resulted in additional review opportunities, most of which are coming to pass.
Scrubbed the Reviewers' Corps active membership list and added two new reviewers post-convention.

Final results for the 2018 convention await the registration data from onsite payments.
The 2019 Convention is off to a good start with strong vendor table sales in Phoenix.
New memberships continue at a strong pace. Journal billing and revenue are still running behind schedule.

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.

Following the Phoenix Nationals, I've only done a couple of things.
- As Historian, I had a request for Journal articles. I'm working on getting them "printed" as PDFs and sent.
- As Publications Director I have confirmed that Ad Manager Bill Whipple has sent out the invoices for the latest Journal and that he's working on computerizing the billing so we can get invoices out even closer to the publication date.

The IPMS/USA National recruitment and retention membership headquarters continues its relocation from its current location to a new site five miles north. ( Translation, after eight years of looking, my wife found a new house for us and I am now having to move all my model stuff). This has put a bit of a damper on my efforts as energies have been focused elsewhere. The current IPMS/USA membership recruiting brochure is out of date and I am in the process of attempting a revision. The Phoenix Nationals was a success from a recruiting standpoint as we got more new members/renewals than normal. Thanks Marie! The commemorative 25 and 50 year membership pins continue to be awarded. Please email me directly if you believe you qualify. As soon as my life gets settled, I hope to begin planning for the 2019 recruiting season. I think we've picked the low hanging fruit, and now we need to up our membership recruitment efforts. Our current membership stands at 4088.

We added 64 new members in July and 60 new members in August.
Our logo and trademark has been accepted and renewed for the next ten years by the United States Patent and Trademark Office.

Submitted by Dennis Tennant, Secretary

International Plastic Modelers' Society / USA