Actions Taken

Given the fact there hasn’t been a lot of board activity in recent months, it was unanimously decided to move to quarterly meetings/updates instead of monthly updates.

Sec. Tennant made the motion (1VP Peterson seconded) that the IPMS/USA explore the possibility of sponsoring podcasts related to the hobby as a trial to see if they would be an effective way to recruit new members. Given their growing popularity, Tennant said, it would be good for the Society to get in on the ground floor and be a sponsor for two or three of the more successful modeling programs. R&R Sec. Knights concurred. The motion passed unanimously. Knights and Tennant will explore the costs and figure out a way to offer a discount/rebate for new members who join IPMS/USA through these podcasts. Note that Sec. Knights is a co-host of one of these podcasts (Plastic Modeling Mojo) and will not be accepting any sponsorship money to promote the IPMS/USA. According to Knights, the current ad for the IPMS/USA on the PMM is provided at no cost and will remain so.

After a short discussion, a motion was made by Mike Oberholtzer (seconded by David Knights) allocate a maximum of $5000 per calendar year to our Support the Troops program. This money will be subject to annual board review. The board unanimously approved the motion.

With the passing of Director of Publications/Historian Jim Pearsall, the board is beginning a search for a replacement. We’ll be casting a wide net and hope to find a qualified candidate to fill this position until the next election. Pres. Noack will be putting together an article about Jim for the next Journal and asked for board members to add their thoughts to the mix.

Pres. Noack, Treas. Oberholtzer and Office Manager Van Schoonhoven will be working on consolidating our insurance coverages in the next few weeks and will report back to the board their recommendations.

Officer/Staff Reports

John Noack, President

• Nothing to Report.

Phil Peterson, 1st VP

• With Jim Pearsall's passing, the Reviewer Corps is in need of 1-2 people to help post completed reviews. Past President and Life Member Dick Montgomery volunteered to step in and take over Jim’s responsibilities.

T.J. Misiolek, 2nd Vice President

• I signed the 2023 contract for the San Marcos Nationals. We negotiated a larger room block with the Rio hotel for the Vegas 2021 Nationals and signed an addendum to that effect.

Mike Oberholtzer, Treasurer

• As expected, August was an expensive month as we saw the bulk of the 2020 convention refunds paid out. Even after refunding all vendor and registration income it looks like the 2020 convention had a net loss of about $30,000. Not bad considering what it could have been! The overall picture so far this year reflects what we would expect in the COVID19 world; lower membership income and the loss of potential income from the convention. Revenues were down $96,000 compared to this time last year, almost entirely due to the convention ($70,000) and lower membership ($23,000). Expenses were up $45,000 with the largest categories being convention expenses ($24,000), Journal expense timing ($9,000), Support the Troops ($6,000), and taxes ($5,000). So our overall net revenues are down $141,000 over this time last year, reflecting what a tough year 2020 is for everyone. Keep in mind we have strong reserves, and they did what they are supposed to do- cover us in emergencies. We still have $286,000 in the bank after all of the losses. Another promising sign is that the 2021 Las Vegas convention looks to be a very popular event with vendor tables selling well and the hotel room block sold out. With luck (and good planning) we have weathered the storm and hopefully have a calmer time ahead for the rest of the year.
• Please refer to the three attachments detailing specifics.—DT
  • Statement of Financial Position - August 2020
  • 2020 National Convention Statement of Activity  - August 2019 to August 2020
  • Comparative Statement of Activity - January to August, 2020

Dennis Tennant, Secretary

• Suggesting we move to having quarterly meetings instead of monthly updates until workload increases and that we look into supporting several of the hobby-related podcasts that are growing in popularity.

David Lockhart, DLC

• Of the 225 chapters, eight have been deactivated, five are still “pending,” lacking either a fact sheet or chapter renewal.
• Wisconsin member Jeff Herne has replaced Jim Coatney as Region 5 Coordinator.
• Paul Helfrich from Region 4 has moved to Florida but is still doing Region 4 duties as there are no shows to coordinate.
• All the Regional and National winner plaques will be picked up and mailed the week of Sept. 14. I’m writing an article for the Journal highlighting all the winners.
• Nothing new on the shows as there hasn’t been any. The remaining “open” shows are:
  • Oct 2
  • Nov 6
• I’m pretty sure most of these will be cancelled as well.

David Knights, Recruitment & Retention Secretary

• Working on updated IPMS/USA recruiting hand-outs for use at conventions and future model shows.

Marie Van Schoonhoven, National Office Manager

• New members added in June: 23 / July: 30 / August: 23. 
• A total of 3849 July/Aug. Journals were mailed out.

Submitted by Dennis Tennant, Secretary