2025 AGM - Resolutions and proposals

[Josip Marasovic]

Please find all 2025 AGM motions / documents attached to this topic.

[John Ball]

I have two questions,
1. Does the motion to change the class rule to add the concept of the MoU restrict the voting to Certificated owners only? (I think YES)
sub-question, as this is a change to the class rules, is it considered 'Special' ie requires 2/3 majority?
2. does the motion to change the regulations restrict the voting to Certified owners only? (I think NO)

Thanks
John

[John Ball]

In my private capacity as a member in good standing CRYA (CAN) and owner or a registered and certificated IOM,

I suggest to vote NO to the Events Sub-Committee motion to levy member nations an annual levy earmarked for video feed of championships.

The 2024 IOMICA Financial report showed a healthy bank balance as shown here from the IOMICA web site

IOMICA currently holds AU$ 25,816.17* in equity across two separate bank accounts being the EURO account (FR), Ubank Business account (AU).

IOMICA has lots of money in the bank to cover costs of video feeds, and my opinion is that they should be part of the budget of the host of the championship. If IOMICA wants or needs to subsidize the cost of video, it can make it a budget line item and include it in the annual membership levy.

John

[Olivier Cohen]

Hi John, respectfully, doing what you suggest, so IOMICA paying directly OA for such video feed is not an healthy management of our ICA.

This levy is a very good idea to ensure there will be a video feed at our WC, so promoting our class in the world.

It would be quite a low fee/owner in each NCA for a great outcome for the class.

[John Ball]

Hi Olivier,
The problem with this motion is that the registered/certificated voting members do not have the authority to make a financial commitment on behalf of their national member. Only the Executives of each national authority may do that, and it may require a vote of their full membership which may include many classes, not just IOMs.

In my opinion, this motion, no matter how well meaning is 'out of order'.

John

[Olivier Cohen]

Hi Olivier,
The problem with this motion is that the registered/certificated voting members do not have the authority to make a financial commitment on behalf of their national member. Only the Executives of each national authority may do that, and it may require a vote of their full membership which may include many classes, not just IOMs.

Sorry, I don't understand. When there is an IOMICA NCA, there is income towards this NCA, owners need to pay a membership fee to be considered, we don't consider owners of random IOM boats somewhere in the country, we consider owners active in the class.
And we are not discussing DNM here, we are discussing NCAs.

[John Ball]

Hi Olivier,
while some countries may have an NCA, not all do. Some countries have a national authority, and the IOM Class is just one part, run by a Class Secretary.

John

[Olivier Cohen]

On IOMICA view, all countries signing a MOU with IOMICA have an NCA, as MoU has been signed !

The way it is managed locally is a different topic, but these costs would be supported by IOM owners from this country, obviously not by ALL members of this DNM.

[John Ball]

Hi Olivier,
IOMICA MoU for Canada was signed by the CRYA. There is no class association. The class has no separate organisation or funds - everything is centralised under a single executive for all classes. The Class Secretary reports to the Executive and is a focal point for the class and recommends to the Executive and distributes information up and down.

The responsibility for running a world championship lies with the Organising Authority. They build the budget and seek sponsorship and set the entry fees. If IOMICA wants to become a contributor the funding part of those costs, there is another way - put it in the IOMICA budget each year as necessary, and vote an annual subscription to the member countries. This is already in the IOMICA constitution and regulations.

John

[Olivier Cohen]

So Canada has to do their homework, as CRYA is the NCA, so you have to organize accordingly how you get these founds.

One question : When you send your report to IOMICA, you give number of IOM owners, not all members of CRYA I guess ?

If yes, you will find a way.

[John Ball]

Hi Olivier,
I have found an 'unsigned' draft of the original agreement, and yes, CRYA acts as an NCA for the IOM class.

I still think that there is a better way than this motion as stated in my previous post - just put it in the IOMICA annual budget and issue the subscription fee - achieves the same goal but without the separate billing - and if IOMICA wishes to earmark funds internally, then you may do that without a separate motion.

John

[Funci]

As the organizer of three major events (one World and two European championships), I believe that the issue of co-financing live video broadcasts is a completely missed question and that even thinking about it confirms the necessity of precisely defining some things related to the organization of major regattas.

IOMICA, or at least its event committee, has not yet written a document asking the organizer what are the necessary and minimum requirements for organizing a major competition and what must be covered by the entry fee, and what are the luxury elements that a potential organizer wants to get in the bid competition... and live video is definitely a luxury.

Can the proposer write what IOMICA should pay for live video broadcasts?
How many cameras and cameramen? Which cameras are used? Drone? Graphics? Presenters? Reporter cars? Studio? Image quality in the broadcast?

This is entering a very slippery area for which the mentioned amount in the IOMICA account can finance only one event and use up all the funds.
The transmission can be done with mobile phones as well as with professional cameras, small drones that cannot fly safely in winds stronger than 15 knots, etc... So what does IOMICA have to pay for?

It is also an important question from which event this could be applied?

If this is accepted to be co-financed already at the events that have been awarded, doesn't it then favor the current organizers and all those who wanted to send a bid for these events and gave up because they knew they could not realize the financing and did not know that IOMICA was considering co-financing are put in a disadvantageous position?

_____________________________________________________________________

As for the people who are running for positions on individual boards... are there any programs somewhere that they offer and what they plan to do?

Wouldn't it be fair to voters to know why they are voting for someone and to be able to assess at the end of the mandate whether their favorite met expectations?

For example... I will make IOMICA a legal organization with a headquarters, address, and account... I will write rules for the bidding competition... I will simplify the rules...

[Bob Lewis]

Comment on member levy for World Video.

This proposal may cause Canada to lose its World Championship invitation for failure to pay dues.

First, I would like to say that the videos of recent IOM Worlds and other IOM events have been fantastic viewing. Unfortunately for our club, I would have to say they have no promotional value. Not one person has approached our group and said something like “I watched the IOM Worlds video and I would like to try it out or get involved.” Our new members come 95% from dinghy or keelboat racers who are encouraged to try it out by our own members.

I would prefer if we called these videos “entertainment” for IOM racers and others who are curious.

The practical problem for Canada and other countries, I see with this proposal: My guess is that in the Canadian IOM membership, most will not be interested in paying for the videos and will not send the CRYA any money. What do we do then. We send IOMICA a small part of the dues and then our country loses “good standing” status and I presume we lose our allowance of entries into the World Championships. I expect this will be the case for many companies. This would be bad!

I think videos should be left to the organizers to decide to do what they can.

[Bob Lewis]

Another thought on video funding:
As I said before, It seems to me that promo videos are not a key function of the IOMICA and the funding should not be forced on all IOM owners.
I think videos are not effective promotion of the class, which I define as drawing new members but is fantastic entertainment for IOM and other RC sailors and some big boat sailors. I view the videos as entertainment.

I think a better way to fund these videos would be for Iomica to have a Go Fund Me account where those who value the videos could send donations. I think this would raise more money from those who are getting value from the project. Some individuals might want to be more generous this way. I think the keener and more active IOM sailors would be happy to make larger payments this way and would save national associations and IOMICA much of the effort and accounting that a levy would entail.

Many of you have probably seen Nigel Barrow's, mostly IOM, site. He has a link to "Buy Me a Coffee" at $5 or so per coffee and uses any donations to cover the website costs. I think that might also work for video funding.