giantcubfan

My Feedback: (2)

Hello to all past and present membersof the International Miniature Aircraft Association. I guess, it is fair to say, that we are allpast members.JUST A SHORT HISTORY OF MY MEMBERSHIP IN THE IMAA - My name is Dick Russell. I joined theIMAA in 1991. In 1992, I organizedChapter 392 which grew to over 35 members. In 1992, I was asked to be the Event Director for the 1993 Rally ofGiants. Chapter 392 joined with Chapter44 to have the first and only Rally of Giants in New England. Chapter 392 later followed in 1994, 1995, 1996with The New England Miniature Aircraft Festival. In 1995, I was appointed Director of District1 to replace Josh Harel. I later resigned in 1996 to take a Plant Manager’sposition in South Carolina. In 1999, Iwas elected as Vice President. Unfortunately, due to illness, I was forced to resign. In 2008, I again was electedVice President and served until the fall of 2011. I have been the CD of several AMA and IMAA events.

END OF AN ERA LETTER - I am sure that you all received the letter from Taylor Collins, Editor of HIGH-FLIGHT, indicating that the IMAA is closing its doors. It seems strange that a paid employee penned the letter and not the IMAA President. The process to close the doors, was not a last minute decision, it had to be in the worksfor some time. The BOD, did not even askfor help or input from the members, but, waited until all funds were supposedly depleted to close the doors.This statement by Taylor Collins, “At the same time, print and production costs have steadily increasedso that the print version of the magazine has consumed more and more of our resources.”is partially true. One of my duties as VP was working with the printer, Electric City Printers. A short time ago ECP was purchased by a larger company which actually lowered the paper cost. The real cost that increased printing HIGH-FLIGHTwas the increase in color pages which required color ink and higher grade paper. At one time the color was only used when Advertisers wanted and paid for color. The first time that I can find color being used is in two articles of the HIGH-FLIGHT, Summer Issue 2005(*1). The color pages seamed to increase from there. The last HIGH-FLIGHT,Summer Issue of 2014 (*2) contains approximately 79 pages of color not counting the Advertisers. Trade Shows (2) and the Joe Nall were regularly sent as many as 15 or more cases for give a ways. Printing plus the cost of shipping added another cost to HIGH-FLIGHT. MEMBERSHIP – grew to its highest under Bob Dean as President in 1998 to 11,995, HIGH-FLIGHT Summer Issue 1998 (*3). I understand the membership numbers to now be around 2,900, but I can not confirm that number.

FINANCIAL - Statements from 1998 (*3) indicate that there was cash in the bank of $35,165 and approximately $237,600 in the investment account with a membership of 11,995.The last financial statement published was in the 2010 Summer Issue of HIGH-FLIGHT (*4) for the financial period ending December 31, 2009. The Cash Assets at that time were $30,075.07and $158,500 in the investment account with a membership of 5,858. Did the Directors take action or any steps to correct excessive spending? Obviously no. They continued to spend more than the income received. Now they claim to have no money. What the BOD did was to go dark. All financial statements, minutes of meetings, proposed budgets andmembership numbers were not published in HIGH-FLIGHT for the fiscal periods ending in December of 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013 and to date. Obviously during this period of declining membership, spending continued as usual. I believe that not publishing these fiscal reports is in violation of the Laws governing Non-Profit Organizationsin New York, but would have to be clarified by an Attorney familiar withCorporate Law.The BOD over the years continued to promote many expensive Membership Drives which never gained enough members to justify the expense. Money was also given to District Mini-Festivals and to Clubs hosting the Rally of Giants. In 1993 we did not accept any funds from the IMAA for hosting The Rally of the Giants. A new Assistant Editor to HIGH-FLIGHT was apparently hired, Summer Issue 2011 (*5). To my knowledge there was never a vote of approval by the BOD. The Printers (ECP) at one time offered to host up to 4 digital issues of HIGH-FLIGHT on their website for free. I passed this offer on, but, is was rejected.

Trade Shows were another expense. Trade Shows never, never gained enough new members joining to break even or cover the costs of the Directors’ transportation, meals, lodging and booth cost. There was never any attempt to downsize, discontinue or reduce the cost of Trade Shows.

The Board of Directors over the years changed drastically. Originally the President, Vice President and District Directors were elected by the Membership. This process was changed gradually over the years so that when a Director did not want to run again he would wait until after or before the elections to resign, then the BOD would appointhis/her replacement. One election I can remember was when the ballots were counted by our Legal Advisor and two members of the BOD, with the excuse it was cost saving. Previously the ballots were submitted to an independent auditing firm.The good old boy network was in full swing. The next move was to remove the President and VP from the election process and have them appointed from the existing Directors. That happened around the fall of 2011. The elected VP never had a vote on any motions. The President could only vote to break a tie of a Directors Motion. To my knowledge, the BOD never ever proposed or accepted a Budget that had spending that was less than our income. Money was continually transferred from the Investment Account to meet expenses. The success of any Corporation is in the hands of its Board of Directors. They bear the full responsibility for the IMAA failing, not the declining membership.

Should not the IMAA members have a say as to when and how the Corporation shall be shut down?

As a side note, my membership ended after the Summer Issue, 2014 of HIGH-FLIGHT. My check for $35.00 was cashed on 7/14/2014. I asked for a full refund and they could keep the last issue of HIGH-FLIGHT. I was told it would not be refunded and I would receive the last issue of HIGH-FLIGHT. The balance of my dues would likely go to pay off bills or salaries. I understand that several others are in the same situation even paying dues the day before the shut down. I understand that a group of IMAA members want to replace the IMAA with a new IMAA or similar group. I would recommend staying away from any revised version of the IMAA especially, if any of the current or past Officers of the IMAA would be involved. We are all members of the AMA and you do not need the IMAA or any other group to have a Big Bird event. Just have your Club Sanction it as a Class C Restricted event, using the 60” ws for biplanes, 80” ws for single wing and the¼ scale rule. Enjoy the day without the politics. You will probably have a better turn out not having to ask for a membership card from an other organization. It is my intention to formally request those 5 missing reports along with yearly membership numbers, minutes of meetings, salaries and budget sheets. The members have theright to know. Should anyone be interested in receiving copies of these reports, please send your name, IMAA Number, phone number (optional) and e-mail address to [email protected]. I will make all efforts possible to see that you receive copies.

Some have said “Mission Accomplished”. Was it??

Over the years, I contributed many hours of service tothe IMAA, now I am rip-roaring mad that the Directors allowed our great organization to disappear. How about you?

In closing, I would like to say that I have enjoyed meeting, talking and working with the many IMAA members that I have had the pleasure to meet over the years.

Best wishes and thanks for your time.

Dick Russell
AMA-8561
IMAA-8293

References:
*1-HIGH-FLIGHT Summer Issue 2005
*2-HIGH-FLIGHT Summer Issue 2014
*3-HIGH-FLIGHT Summer Issue 1998
*4-HIGH-FLIGHT Summer Issue 2010
*5-HIGH-FLIGHT Summer Issue 2011
BOD refers to the 12 voting Directors from Districts 1 thru 12

porcia83

My Feedback: (8)

Dick,
Thanks for the additional information and your thoughts. Couldn't agree with you more. This is another thread that was started on this topic last month:

http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/ama-...imaa-dead.html

My initial thoughts upon hearing about the demise and sudden "closure" of this operation was either grossly negligent management decisions, or suddenly missing funds. Looks like at least one of those is a valid concern.

giantcubfan

My Feedback: (2)

When the membership shows a lack of interest in how an organization is run and just cares about a magazine, that is what will happen.

porcia83

My Feedback: (8)

i don't know that the demise of the organization can be attributed to apathy on the part of membership, but that might be a piece to the puzzle.

Hossfly

In another post, I stated (1.) IMAA screwed the pooch when they failed to contest AMA on the insurance situation when Mr. Dave Brown said "NO" and proceeded to remove any event separation distance protection. DB was a friend for a long time, and basically still are, but we clashed on that point.
(2) For those that don't remember some 20-25 years ago when IMAA was a growing organization and making real progress to keep BIG BIRDS coming into the realm of RC modeling, one still had to have an AMA membership for AMA Sanction as well as the IMAA sanction. While I sent a number of letters out, results were poor. IMAA was afraid of losing AMA insurance. IMO, had IMAA really wanted to, they could have beat Dave Brown and received the proper distance separations, and proper sanctions.

The Clubs quickly found that an IMAA Sanction provided not one inch for event-distance protection, so why not just do an AMA Sanction and save a few $$s ? That meant less IMAA Events, but a Club could still call it a Big Bird event, thus get the AMA members which there were more of than IMAA members and have distance separation protection between events. IMAA, in my opinion, cut their own throat. Now they are burying themselves. SO SAD!

Another bad point of IMAA sinking right now, is that was a real project in my mind, getting IMAA back in the correct swing reference separation and sanctions, if I should win the AMA's Ex. Vice President for 2015+.

IMAA 04598, Chapter 148

giantcubfan

My Feedback: (2)

Horrace,

Thanks for your input and frank comments but at this time the IMAA BOD's have made many mistakes over the years leading to this collapse especially financial. Rebuilding it would be impossible.

Dick Russell
AMA-8561
IMAA-8293

BarracudaHockey

My Feedback: (11)

My thoughts.

IMAA membership was required to fly at Nall, the largest fixed wing fly-in anywhere.

2 years ago that requirement was removed.

How many members only renewed to fly at JN, that didn't bother to renew when that requirement was dropped?

That and the fact that what was then "giant scale" like a 1/4 scale or 80" plane, is now a small ARF, everyone is flying "giant scale", the hardware shipping with the kits is adequate and the information for getting them safely in the air is all over the internet.

So....my question would be, what purpose does the IMAA actually serve? Other than a decent magazine?

giantcubfan

My Feedback: (2)

It is true that the IMAA had in its beginning a huge influence in promoting safety issues concerning the larger airplanes, such as using larger servos and 4-40 push rods versus 2-56 and .

The IMAA lost it foot hold several years ago at the Joe Nall when they wanted everyone to join the IMMA even if they were flying at the lake or in the 3D area.

As for the magazine. It is one of the largest reasons for the IMAA going under. With a continuing drop in membership you cannot continue to expand the color pages and make the magazine the reason for people to join the IMAA. Sending the Editor to Trade Shows and the Joe Nall is expensive. Other people can take photos and write articles.

Dick Russell
AMA-8561
IMAA-8293

RickVB

My Feedback: (24)

I am curious to see it that remains true. Did you notice that the latest Tower Talk that came out just a couple weeks after the announcement had the "IMAA Legal!" graphic that was previously on all their large plane images completely removed? The next step is, you will see lots of "2 meter" planes coming out, which is 78.74" for those metrically challenged. Then it will be 78", then 75"... pretty soon, you won't be able to find anything larger than 1/6 scale.

Don't believe me? Haven't you noticed that recently, manufacturers of products that sold by volume/weight measurements have been getting out of raising their prices by reducing their weight/volume? Have you tried to buy a half gallon of orange juice lately? If you check, you'll find that almost all of them are 59.5oz now. Everyone is being squeezed in the present economy, and as soon as a pressure like a widely perceived standard such as "IMAA Legal" drops away, the marketing route to a smaller product becomes easier and will be taken.

I think this failure may have more of an impact than people currently believe.

casor

I just happened upon this post and appreciated Dick's "tell it like it is" relating of the facts. Sure, there are two sides here, but politics, declining revenues, fiscal mismanagement, apathetic BOD involvement, poor decision making, lack of communication and disclosure to the membership is a great formula for failure. I was in Dick's boat also, having paid dues at WOD only to see the IMMA fail two months later. Nevertheless, my view is that I was never really sure what the IMAA's role was or what service it was providing in the last 10 or so years of the RC hobby (I have been flying since the 60's) and I would only join because I wanted to fly at a large scale event. Certainly, the IMAA was instrumental in promoting large models at a time when large modeling was just becoming more feasible but, once this aspect of the hobby became more established and accepted, what was its goal and or role? If you say it was the magazine, most of the information therein with some exception had become somewhat mediocre in both format and content, especially with the advent of RC specific sites. If you say its role was to establsh arbitrary giant scale size requirements, frankly this is something the AMA should have done. With printed magazine subscriptions rapidly falling industry wide over the last 5-6 years, the high cost, mismanaged IMAA was the odd man out and one without a contemporary vision or purpose. The market has spoken and such organizations deserve to fail.
Rob Caso

littlecrankshaf

My Feedback: (58)

Pretty much agree... Not sure about the degree of any mismanagement but IMAA served its purpose well when the need was greatest. I view IMAA as a great success in the final analysis.