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The IAC Board of Directors met in Oshkosh, Wisconsin for their regular fall meeting on October 31 and November 1, 1997. All directors were in attendance. The following is a summary of the various actions taken by the board during the course of the two day meeting. Specific questions regarding the details of these agenda items can be answered by contacting any of the officers, directors, or staff. In some cases, more detailed information will be presented in future issues of SPORT AEROBATICS.
At the recommendation of President Dick Rihn, several amendments to the by-laws were considered by the board. Most can be considered "clean up" in nature, however, two amendments are of particular note to the members:
(1) The proposed amendment would give officers two year terms, versus the present one year. Since most officers have served for more than one year in the past, this was not viewed as a significant change but would promote continuity among the IAC leadership. Terms would also be staggered, i.e. only two officers' terms would expire at one time, thus also promoting continuity.
(2) The Vice President of IAC would be tasked with attending some of the meetings the President is now required to. This has been an excessive burden on all the Presidents of IAC, since they serve on so many boards (EAA, NAA, and USAF) and it has made it very difficult for us to recruit and retain Presidents. Though the Vice President could not be a "voting member" of those other boards, without their concurrence, IAC would continue to be represented at those functions.
These proposed amendments, now approved by the board, will be submitted to the membership at the 1998 annual meeting in Fond du Lac, Wisconsin. Precise text on the changes will be published in the magazine at a later date.
Earlier in the year, President Dick Rihn contacted each of the IAC listed aerobatic schools in the United States, asking for their views on whether an aerobatic school trade association should be formed. The objective is to improve quality of training in aerobatics. IAC cannot and will not impose any standards on these schools but the president did feel that an ongoing dialogue between schools would be helpful in improving the quality of aerobatic training. According to our own safety experts, training has been cited as a significant factor in aerobatic accidents.
Most schools replied they would be interested in discussing training and/or the formation of a trade association. The IAC Board authorized the president to organize a meeting of school representatives in a convenient location to proceed with this project.
The board considered various amendments to the "IAC Policy & Procedures" manual regarding selection of U. S. Aerobatic Team pilots after our experience with the new procedure this year. Most of the changes were administrative in nature but did go far to clarify the intent of the board when it adopted the new procedure in November 1996. Changes include:
(1) Added emphasis to the completion of Unknowns if weather is a problem on the extra fly days provided after the official contest is ended.
(2) Procedures were cleaned up regarding the use of video.
(3) Reimbursement for team selection judges' hotel rooms, though controversial, was continued by the board.
(4) Pilots must fly at both Fond du Lac and U. S. Nationals to qualify. While this problem did not arise this year, with the reduction in the number of female pilots trying out for the team, the board wanted to make clear that participation at both events is necessary to qualify.
(5) Percentage of possible to qualify for the team was lowered from 75% to 70%. This change was made in view of the increasing complexity of Unlimited sequences.
(6) Different sets of judges will be used at Fond du Lac and the Nationals. The objective is for a total of 14 judges to work the events during team selection in Unlimited. Positions on the panel of judges will also be reserved for the U. S. Team judge and assistant.
In addition to procedures which affect the Unlimited category the board also made changes which will affect the U.S. Advanced Team. They are:
Percentage of possible to qualify for the team was lowered from 75% to 70%.
The order of the flight programs flown will now be Known, Unknown and Free.
Several changes to the letter of agreement which defines the relationship between IAC and the U. S. Aerobatic Foundation were agreed. IAC is responsible for the promotion, management, and administration of the sport of aerobatics in the United States under the terms of our agreement with the National Aeronautic Association (NAA). NAA is the sole representative of FAI in this country. In turn, IAC delegates its responsibilities for the management and promotion of the U. S. Aerobatic Team to USAF, a separate corporate body. IAC, however, retains the authority to selection all U. S. Aerobatic Teams and these procedure are laid down in policy set by the board.
Part of the agreement deals with the selection of the U. S. Delegation to CIVA. These procedures have been strengthened and clarified in the new agreement. Our current delegation consists of a delegate (Mike Heuer), alternate delegate (Bob Davis), and reserve alternate and technical specialist (Howie Stock). Since Mike Heuer serves as President of CIVA, he cannot occupy the U. S. seat during CIVA meetings and this responsibility is assumed by Bob Davis.
The agreement now allows any of the delegates selected by IAC to be rejected by USAF and a new election held. Nominating procedures are also changed. In the past, pilots also voted in a rejection procedure but are removed from this in the new agreement. USAF leadership called for this change and cited the formation of a new "team relations committee" which liaisons with the pilots. Therefore, USAF felt it could speak for the pilots in the voting process.
Team manager selection was also changed to permit USAF to select a manager closer to the dates of the World Aerobatic Championships.
With the advent of more IAC chapters and practice boxes and critique sessions, our insurance underwriters felt more detailed guidelines concerning the administration of chapter practice days were necessary. Proposed guidelines were adopted by the IAC Board and will be distributed to chapter presidents accordingly.
As a result of its strategic planning, EAA as derived a new logo for itself and had proposed IAC's logo be altered to include the new EAA symbol. The IAC Board postponed action on this matter pending the completion of its own strategic planning process, now well underway, and the resultant agreement on our direction for the next five years in terms of purpose and objectives. The board did not rule out the complete revision of our own logo in response to our strategic plan.
The Chairman of the Strategic Planning Committee, Doug McConnell, presented the first document agreed to by the committee for board approval. The document defined our core purpose and values and set down specific objectives and deadlines for the accomplishment of various steps in the process. These were agreed to by the board and the plan now moves forward. Chapter presidents and newsletter editors will receive a copy this document. Those who are not members of chapters and would like to receive a copy should contact Jan Hetzer at the IAC Executive Office.
In accordance with our procedures for an orderly change in rules, the board reviewed all the proposals for 1998 it had agreed to "in principle" at the March 1997 meeting in Chicago. In addition, it considered comments received from members during the comment period which closed on October 15, 1997.
As a result, nearly all the changes for 1998 were adopted in total. These can be found in the June 1997 issue of SPORT AEROBATICS. The following exceptions or items of particular importance should be noted:
(1) Changes to require that "mathematical zeroes" stand regardless of majority rule were not adopted.
(2) It was agreed to raise the K limit for the Intermediate Free to 190 K.
(3) "Flat" Known sequences, to be used in times of bad weather, were approved.
(4) The 1998 proposed Sportsman (power and glider) and Intermediate (glider) were adopted without change. A few minor changes were made to the Intermediate (power) sequence which will be published, as approved by the board, in the January 1998 issue of SPORT AEROBATICS.
The Board also voted to adopt the "revitalized" rule book as proposed by the Red Book Revitalization Committee, headed by Brian Howard. Bob Minkus has been responsible for the production of the book and the beautiful new layout and graphics which will be featured. The committee received the thanks of the board. The new book is a tremendous step forward for our club. The new book will be available after January 1, 1998 and will be printed on the same size paper as the FAI Aerobatic Catalogue. A new binder will also be featured, most likely still red in color since our book has almost universally become known as the "red book".
Important news for those of you interested in attending Fond du Lac '98. To enhance the contest and shoot for better weather, dates have been changed back to a Monday through Friday format and prior to the EAA Fly-In in Oshkosh.
Dates for Fond du Lac will be July 13-17, 1998. A contest director has not yet been named but volunteers are welcome. The IAC President should be contacted for details.
Also responding to the weather problems we have experienced at the last three Nationals, the board agreed to the dates of September 7-11, 1998 for the U. S. National Aerobatic Championships in Denison, Texas. This is right after Labor Day weekend. The contest director will be Glenn Frick who has promised major improvements to the event. For the first time, practice days will be offered on the two days just prior to the contest's start.
IAC Treasurer Doug McConnell reported IAC has performed very well financially this year, due to the stringent cost controls imposed by the executive director under the budget approved by the board for 1997. Through September 30, 1997, IAC realized a net income of $30,370 (significantly better than budget) with a net cash position of $145,067. Some losses are anticipated in the last quarter of the year which are normal, due to the winding down of the contest season.
Disturbing, however, to the board was a loss of membership of just over 7% since the first of the year. Losses have also been occurring in other EAA divisions. Attributed to a number of factors, including a change to align membership expiration dates between EAA and its divisions and the conversion to a new computer membership program which temporarily dropped some family members, the IAC Board took a number of steps to boost membership recruitment and retention which will take immediate effect. More details will be available soon.
The U. S. delegation to CIVA was scheduled to leave for Munich, Germany immediately after the conclusion of the IAC Board meeting in Oshkosh. The U. S. Delegate to CIVA proposed a complete alignment of Advanced and Unlimited Unknown figures between IAC and CIVA to help U. S. Teams participating in these championships. However, the delegation will vote against any increase in the complexity of the Unknown figures as has been proposed by Great Britain.
Advanced and Unlimited Knowns will be adopted for 1998 by CIVA at this meeting and the IAC Executive Committee will review the sequences before final adoption by IAC to make sure they are suitable. The U. S. is proposing sequences of its own at this meeting.
The IAC Board also voted to withdraw its bid to host the 1999 World Glider Aerobatic Championships in the United States.
The U. S. delegation was also empowered to seek FAI and CIVA recognition of our IAC Championships in Fond du Lac and perhaps give it the status of a full "continental championships" under FAI and CIVA rules. This would be dependent on agreement of CIVA regarding the use of IAC rules for this event - a condition of our proposal.
Lois Rose, Judges' School Chair, brought before the board a number of proposals to enhance the program. The following proposals were approved:
The development of a "Known Sequence Calling Primer" audio tape. The tape would contain a recording of the ten 1998 Known sequences being called and include a copy of the B forms. They felt this would be helpful for first time assistant.
Budget for improvements to the school to include development of a video which would be available in 1999.
Introduction of an Advanced Judging Criteria Seminar. The purpose of this seminar would be to provide continuing education for the judges. There will be a limited number of seminars for 1998 and the results reviewed next year.
The National Judges Exam will be implemented in 1998. This exam will be sent to all National judges current in 1997 and will replace the Revalidation and Currency Exam.
Changes have been made in the leadership of IAC program due to resignations and new appointments. Complete addresses, phone numbers and e-mail addresses will be provided in the January 1998 issue of SPORT AEROBATICS but here are the names of our new program chairs: Hall of Fame - Dave Lammers, Marion, IA; One Design -Guy York, Ft. Payne, AL; Awards Administration - Loren Smith, St. Paul. MN.
Many thanks to the people who headed these programs, including Linda Hamer, Mike Current, and Myrna Mibus.
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