Hello IMAA Members,

It is on a very sad note that I start off this President’s column. On September 11th, shortly after midnight a true modeler’s modeler, a fellow pilot, a great talent and founding father of IMAA ,a close personal friend to many of you, Miles Reed passed away. I had the pleasure of meeting Miles and I must say it was a great honor on my part to have known him for a short while. He will be truly missed in the Modeling community . Miles’ close friend Kraig Krumm will have a special memorial article about Miles in this issue.

As I have previously stated in other President’s columns, I am very excited about the future of I.M.A.A. We are getting ready to travel down some roads we have not been down before . We now have 12 District Directors that share a new vision and a new direction for the I.M.A.A.

The totally redesigned IMAA website shoulld be accessible by the time you read this. New Webmaster Roy Barrow, working with District IV Director Josh Bunn, have put in a tremendous number of hours to make the site one of the best on the web for giant scale modelers.

This coming January, at the AMA EXPO in Ontario, CA, we will have our Winter Board of Directors meeting. At this meeting we will kick off the new direction for IMAA. These are very exciting times for all of our members to be a part of . We all need to stay very positive and be pro-active in making the I.M.A.A. stronger, and more effective in representing the interests of giant scale modelers, and in promoting fun and safe events.

Hopefully, by the time you read this we will have kicked off the NEW IMAA Web Site. As many of you now know, Roy Barrow from Salisbury, NC is the New Web Master and working with Josh Bunn, District IV Director and IMAA Web Site Chairman, as well as the Web Site Committee . Both Roy, and Josh, are working with Taylor Collins, the High Flight Editor, Dave Moro the IMAA Event Sanction Coordinator, and our “Mr. IMAA” Secretary-Treasurer Don Vineyard, to make the launch of the new website as smooth and glitch-free as possible. The new Web Site will be much more “user-friendly” and will have many benefits for each IMAA Member. New Members will be able to now sign up on this Site and present IMAA Members will be able to renew their Memberships online. Soon you can go to the new site and check it out. You will like it! The address remains the same... www.fly-imaa.org

For all of our West coast I.M.A.A. Members and all others that will be in the Ontario, CA area on Friday, January 8, 2010, at 8 am at the Ontario Convention Center. Please stop by the IMAA Winter Board Of Directors Meeting. It is open to all. Come see what the IMAA Board is doing for you.

-Take a Kid Flying!

Bill Hamby
IMAA President.