The Rally of Giants '96, hosted by the "Big Larks" Chapter 274, in Lake Charles, LA was well attended and a great time was had by all in attendance. The flying site at Chennault Industrial Air Park provided lots of room for a very well arranged flight line, pit area, vendor area, concessions, plus pilot and RV parking. Our many thanks to all the workers and planners that hosted this 16th annual Rally.

The Rally of Giants will move on in 1997 and stop for the second time in CONVERSE, INDIANA. Chapter 48 will be your host next year as it was on our first visit in 1987. If you were not able to attend this year, maybe next year will be your chance to enjoy this annual event. The AMA Headquarters, museum, and National Flying Site will be only a short distance away. If you haven't visited Muncie as yet, a side trip will be an extra bonus while in the area.

On June 14th the Board of directors held another very productive meeting. The first item I need to correct is that the requirement for forming a Chapter has been finalized at FIVE members, not ten as reported in my last column. It was discussed and agreed that an increase from 4 to 10 was too great in areas of the world that have few members available to start a chapter.

We currently have many large chapters that began with only 4 or 5 members when they organized.

The following is a short review of the items that may be of interest to all.

DISTRICT XII - The Board of Directors have accepted Mr. Brian Wattie to represent our members and Chapters in Canada. Brian will be the 12th member of the board effective 6/14/96 through 12/31/97. District XII will be open for election of a Director of their choice starting with the next election of officers in 1997. Brian has been chairman of the Giant Scale Committee of the MAAC in Canada (BIG MAAC), for the past three years. For your information you may contact Brian at 7 Furlong Cres, Kanata, Ont. K2M 2J1 or call (613) 591-1937.

CHAPTERS TO BE RE-CHARTERED ANNUALLY - In an effort to maintain a more accurate listing of Chapters we will enter into a simple method of re-chartering all chapters annually at NO COST to the Chapters other than a little time and postage. Please help us in this effort when you receive your re-charter package. The listing of Chapters may be missing from the Winter issue during this initial re-chartering process.

MEMBERSHIP STILL GROWING - We have passed another milestone in our continued growth as we are now above 11,000 members. Please check out our latest membership drive and you may win a kit in your District. There will be a Giant size kit given to the winner in each of the 12 districts.

SANCTIONS - It was reported that for 1996 we have issued 222 sanctions to date. You can find a place to fly on any week-end.

IMAA ON THE INTERNET - Have you looked at your IMAA Home page on the net7 At this time over 1500 have logged in to check it out. We should all be proud of this activity as we tell the cyberspace world what we are all about. If you do sign in please leave a message for the webmaster (Andy Smith) and give us your ideas about what you like or would like to see improved. You can find the web site at - http://www.dsport.com/imaa

HONORARY LIFE MEMBERSHIP - The Board awarded this well deserved honor to JOE FARRIS for his over a decade of service to the IMAA, primarily writing his popular "Farris Fax" quarterly column. Joe's last column was in the Summer issue.

Remember the golden rule BIG IS BETTER, and let's keep it fun.