Mentor

NOTICE AND APOLOGY

Our esteemed Clerk, Rachel Silverman, regrets to announce that she has unexpectedly acquired a life, which has and will continue to interfere with her duties as Clerk. In the interim, guest editor Paul Selkirk has taken the minutes, and mailed them to the corporate email list, but has not committed them to posterity in the form of Mentor. He also wishes to apologize for this. Therefore, this issue is a gargantuan Three-for-One Special Edition. We hope you enjoy it.

More importantly, there will be a Special Election at the next meeting, to fill the vacancy. Tom Coveney has volunteered, and has been appointed interim Clerk. However, it’s not real until we vote on it. Anyone who wishes to challenge Tom for the job (and the seat on the Executive Board) should contact any member of the Eboard.

Minutes of the February Meeting

In absence of the clerk, Paul Selkirk took notes.

Pat McCormack to Cris Shuldiner, Kyle Hollingsworth to Scott Cobb, Dave Cantor to Skip Morris, Rachel Silverman to Ailsa Murphy, Beatrice Bordzol to Scott Campanella, Tom Murphy to Nicholas Shectman, Amy Chused to Nicholas Shectman, Walter Kahn to Scott Cobb (until 8:25)

There are some errors in the Committee Members & Corporate Appointed Officers list. Buzz Harris is not on the Long Range Planning Committee, but Pat Vandenberg is. Buzz is also not on the Budget Committee, nor is Noel Rosenberg, but Nicholas Shectman is. Scott Campanella is on the Grant Committee. Buzz is on the Hotel Search Committee.

In the Eboard report, item #2 ("It was decided to have Corporate Sales take orders for the Oasis Arisia '99 masquerade video, despite the objections of the Arisia '99 Con Chair and Arisia '99 Treasurer.") Should read "overruling the decision of the Arisia '99 conchair".

Not a tremendous amount going on. Hotel negotiations will be covered in the Hotel Search Committee report. We loaned some art show panels to Erik Meyer's Masonic lodge because they're having a non-profit art show for some students. Skip went to Minneapolis to get the tech equipment we bought from Minicon.

See Grant Committee report.

The Grant Committee met after we accosted Kris Barnhart from the vice President's Chariot. Ms. Barnhart was left in a dazed and confused manner and, satisfied in a job well done, the grant committee retired to Sol Azteca for food and beverages.

It occurred to the upstanding members of the Grant Committee somewhere after the appetizer, that they had originally scheduled to meet for reasons not even involving Ms. Barnhart. After a long debate as to whether or not these issues merited disturbing our dinner, we began to discuss the many things on our figurative and not literal plate.

1). We would like the SysAdmin to setup a Grant Committee email list so we can discuss our next restaurant selection.

2). The Grant Committee would like to see the grant process become more organized with more formalization of the Grant submission and approval process and a deadline system. We're going to think about this at a later date.

3). Once we've systematized the entire process we're going to work on getting the Arisia Grant fund known at the right places.

4). The Alaskan Funding Exchange needs to get smacked upside the head and remove us from their mailing list.

5). We discussed the 5CON grant request as submitted to the Vice President a week before Arisia 99. We have the following motion as a result of our discussion.

Illustrious members of the corporation, and Madame President, it is so MOVED that we approve the amount of $2250.00 for the purpose of making a formal grant to the 5CON who have met the criteria necessary to obtain a grant from the corporate entity known as Arisia, Incorporated. The disbursement of this money is conditional upon the following clauses and for the reasons as noted below:

a). Arisia will grant a base sum of $1500 to 5CON.

b). Arisia will grant an additional matching sum of $750.00 on a dollar by dollar basis. This grant will be a dollar for dollar match of funds donated by any other organization. This amount will not exceed $750.00. Funds will be granted to match donations from individuals, companies, student groups/college funds, new grant monies over and above those already cited in the budget they submitted to us, etc. We will not match pre-reg payments or other expected revenue as outlined in the budget which they submitted to us.

c.) Arisia will cut a check immediately to 5CON for $1500.00. Matching funds will be available up to 2 months after the convention, June 11, 1999. After that point matching funds will revert back to Arisia.

Our reasons for this motion are thus:

a). This is the second year that 5CON is applying to us. While we like the fact that Arisia is there for the community as a resource for money, we'd also like to believe that our money is helping them to grow and that, over time, they will come to rely upon us less and less so that we might give more to other organizations with more need.

b). 5CON asked us for $2885.00. The Grant Committee felt that this was too high to bestow upon any one grant. Informally, we estimate that this would be almost half of our grant "budget".

c). We decided to do the matching additional support as hopeful encouragement to 5CON to find other funding sources. We realize this is late for them, but we really want to encourage 5CON to be less dependent upon Arisia for money. Their grant request was a significant portion of their budget.

d). Just as an aside, we'd like to see 5CON submitting their grant requests a little earlier in future years. Actually, we'd like to see 5CON be more self sufficient, and we'd definitely like to see them asking for smaller and smaller amounts each year. Previously 5CON asked for ~$1900 or so. This year they asked for nearly $1000 more.

6). We discussed at some length the Grant Request we will be receiving from Lance Oszko on behalf of Eurocon 2000. The formal Grant Application has just arrived and we will begin reviewing it, but we have the following motion from our discussion.

My Esteemed peers, Madame President, and guests, since we are, for the first time dealing with the possibility of granting money to a foreign organization, it is hereby MOVED to direct the President to consult with the corporate attorney regarding feasibility, legality, and plausibility of Arisia granting money to a foreign organization, and the impact of such a grant, if any, upon Arisia's tax status.

7). After a grueling night of fine food and drink, the Grant Committee in its infinite wisdom, decided to confer itself with much praise and retire for the evening. No Arisian's were present upon our return trip in the Vice President's Chariot for us to accost.

[End of Grant Committee report.]

MOVED to direct the president to consult the lawyer regarding Eurocon. Motion PASSED.

MOVED to decrease the 5Con grant to $1250 plus $750 matching. Motion died for lack of a second.

FRIENDLY AMENDMENT to make the 5Con grant conditional on acknowledgment of Arisia in their publications.

MOVED TO AMEND by changing $1500 to $1250. Amendment PASSED. Overall motion PASSED.

No report.

No report.

No report.

The con is still over.

The books aren't closed yet. We have a bottom line of just under $14,000. I expect between $3,000 and $4,000 in additional expenses, which would place our net for Arisia '99 at about $10,000.

We're going to have a con. I have my senior management lined up, and we're starting to talk about what we want to do.

I have recommended to the Eboard that they appoint Nicholas Shectman as Arisia '00 Treasurer. He will be working on the budget after he finishes Arisia '99.

We've been negotiating with the Copley Sheraton and the Park Plaza, and occasionally talking to the Copley Marriott and the Danvers Tara.

The Park Plaza is available on Martin Luther King weekend for the next three years. They've given us an informal offer of $98, $103, and $108. This is down from their initial offer of $98/108/118.

Somewhere around 2003 is when any new convention center hotels will be coming online. This competition should help stabilize hotel rates in our end of Boston. I would like to see us sign two or three years worth of deals to lock us in safely in Boston while the rates are escalating.

The Sheraton initially offered us $114.50, essentially a 5% increase on the rates we had the Westin this year. They have expressed a willingness to come down, but we haven't discussed exactly how much. My feeling is it's unlikely to be below $100, probably in the mid-100 range. They are available on MLK weekend in 2000 and 2002. They are only available on the last weekend in January in 2001. The Westin is not available in 2000, except for the weekend opposite Boskone and the last weekend in February, but they are available on MLK weekend in 2001. So one option is to switch back and forth between the Sheraton and the Westin. We are penciled in at both hotels for first option.

I have an initial contract from the Sheraton, which contains a number of what I consider to be unacceptable provisions, but none are any worse than the initial contract we had last year from the Westin, and all of them are negotiable.

We don't have a contract proposal from the Park Plaza, so there are a lot of unanswered questions regarding room block, function space rental cost, etc. It is the opinion of some members of the Hotel Search Committee that we want to give them our contract first.

The Sheraton has just as many big rooms as the Westin Copley, a lot more medium-sized rooms, and even more small rooms than the Park Plaza. So it combines the best attributes of the Park Plaza and the Westin. We could run an excellent convention in the Sheraton, but that's why they're not going to match the Park Plaza's room rates. Other advantages are location in terms of easy food, parking, and so forth.

The Park Plaza has the advantage of having worked with us before, and we can be in the same hotel several years in a row. The Terrace Room is available for the first time since we've been there, and they may also be converting some restaurant and office space to function space.

Bill Arnone has promised that there will be no renovations affecting any part of the physical plant, hotel rooms, function space, HVAC, freight elevators, loading dock, etc., that would any impact during any of these weekends. However, the person in charge of renovations has said that part of the ballrooms would be offline sometime next winter, but they didn't know exactly when.

MOVED to direct the Eboard to negotiate with the Park Plaza as the primary hotel, and the Sheraton and Westin as the secondary hotels, subject to an acceptable contract.

After no small amount of discussion, the motion PASSED.

Skip and Alex Latzko brought a truckload of A/V stuff back from Minneapolis, logging 1250 miles in 25 hours. We had to rent a second storage unit. Unfortunately, it's very humid, and stuff is going to be ruined if we don't move it soon.

We're currently spending $250/month for our main storage unit, plus $100 for the second unit. We're looking at a prospective place on the Cambridge/Somerville line. This would be 1000-1100 square feet for $350, vs. 350 square feet for $350 now.

In other news, we may be able to get year-round equipment insurance for not much more than we're paying for 1 weekend of insurance now.

MOVED to increase the CIC storage budget to $350/month. Motion PASSED without objection.

MOVED to modify the corporate budget to spend $600 per year on insurance. Motion PASSED without objection.

I implemented mail filters on the staff and corporate lists to eliminate attachments, and to limit excessive inclusions. At the request of the Arisia '00 conchair, I also instituted an announcement-only staff list.

No report.

The numbers tend to support our choice for hotel.

I ask the president to appoint Noel Rosenberg and Scott Cobb to the Long Range Planning Committee. [Done.]

The LRP is currently investigating a few of the items that were tabled to it, and one item that it decided to work on its own. We have no report to make now, but should have a report next month.

We had 1305 paid memberships of one sort or another. That number goes up to 1451 when you include earned comps from last year's convention. This is not the warm body count, as it does not include any of the other free memberships given out (probably 100 program participants, and up to 50 unearned staff comps).

We bought a literal ton of stuff from Minicon. We paid $3000 and change for the equipment, plus 2 airfares at $225 each, $750 for truck rental, $125 for gas, and $100 for tolls, for a grand total of approximately $4500 out of $5000 allocated.

What we got is lighting gear, video gear, sound gear, and A/V gear -- 45 theater lights of various styles, ranging from excellent to parts-only; $500 worth of spare bulbs, not counting bulbs already in the lights; a lot of cables, but not nearly enough; 2 lighting control boards and 3 dimmer packs, plus several smaller dimmer packs as well (old manual style); no pipe and drape, but a nice backdrop; bunch of microphones, wireless mikes, mike stands, cables; 4 cameras, tripods; overhead projectors, slide projectors, and screens, but no TVs or VCRs.

What we got should save us at least $1000/year in equipment rentals.

I would like to spend the remaining $500 of the allocation to bring the stuff up to current local electrical code. [Approved with no vote needed.]

We grossly over-ordered T-shirts and sweatshirts this year, overlooking both last year's sales figures and our allocation for sales goods. We paid $1200 for T-shirts this year, but only sold $560, which adds to the pile of unsold sales goods in storage.

A full list of what was sold was presented at the meeting, but was not delivered in writing for inclusion in the minutes.

MOVED to revise our comp policy to give additional smaller rewards to volunteers under twelve years of age who work four hours or more. Motion PASSED.

MOVED to set the Art Show rate structure back to what it was in 1997. ($20/panel hanging fee, $30/panel commission cap, prorated by the fraction actually bought.) Motion eventually PASSED without objection.

MOVED to direct the Long Range Planning Committee to investigate the possibility of using a set percentage of each con's profits to fund a trust fund. The proceeds of that fund would be used to defray some aspects of the hotel costs of the attendees each year. MOVED to direct the LRP to investigate tabling this motion to the LRP. Motion to table FAILED. Motion FAILED.

MOVED to move all Corporate Sales back under the convention. Motion WITHDRAWN after some discussion.

Whereas: The office of Conchair places great strains upon its holder without much recompense, and

Whereas: The corporation has consistently failed to show sufficient appreciation of the efforts of its past Conchairs on its behalf, be it

MOVED that the corporation grants to all Conchairs at the completion of their con the title of "Rat-Ass Bastard". Further, that any Conchair who has also served at least one full term as a corporate officer be allowed to append the further honorific of "Royal" to their title, making them a "Royal Rat-Ass Bastard". Motion PASSED (to the surprise and dismay of at least one future ex-conchair).

MOVED to amend the bylaws to update section numbers referenced in section 4.3 (see text below). Motion automatically TABLED to the Eboard.

MOVED to direct the Operations division head to investigate and report back on the volunteer problem. So directed by the president.

MOVED to grant $500 to Arisia '00 to be used as prizes in a student art exhibition. Motion PASSED without objection.

MOVED to set the art show commission structure as follows:

MOVED to raise the art show cap from $30/panel to $60/panel. MOVED to amend by changing $60 to $40; amendment FAILED. Motion FAILED.

MOVED to change the commission to %5 and eliminate the cap. Motion TABLED to the next meeting.

MOVED to transfer TJ Mooney to General Membership for his long service to the convention. Motion WITHDRAWN when it was discovered that TJ is not currently a corporate member.

BYLAWS AMENDMENT

Current bylaws:

4.3 (b) All Board members are entitled to adequate advance notice of Board meetings. Notice may be given orally or in writing and is valid if given in time to enable the person to attend or if given according to Section 10.2. Notice given in the form of an announcement made at a prior meeting of the Board or of the Membership is valid as to those persons present at that prior meeting.

Moved to amend my substitution to read:

4.3 (b) All Board members are entitled to adequate advance notice of Board meetings. Notice may be given orally or in writing and is valid if given in time to enable the person to attend or if given according to Section 11.2. Notice given in the form of an announcement made at a prior meeting of the Board or of the Membership is valid as to those persons present at that prior meeting.

Submitted by Cris Shuldiner, Glen R. Goodwin, Buzz Harris, Noel Rosenberg, and Nicholas Shectman.

Minutes of the Eboard Meeting

In absence of the clerk, Paul Selkirk took notes.

On the advice of the Arisia '00 Conchair, the Eboard appointed Nicholas Shectman to the post of Arisia '00 Convention Treasurer.

We discussed the contract that we will be submitting to the Park Plaza Real Soon Now.

We reviewed the proposed amendment to the bylaws (to change a section number referenced in section 4.3), and found it to be consistent with the bylaws. This motion will be voted on at the next business meeting at which 25% of all General Members are present.

We discussed how best to move from our old storage space to our new storage space before the end of the month. Skip will beg and plead people to help move on the 28th.

Meeting Adjourned at 3:23 PM.

Minutes of the March Meeting

In absence of the clerk, Paul Selkirk took notes.

Ben Levy to Cris Shuldiner, Walter Kahn to Nicholas Shectman, Dave Cantor to Skip Morris, Buzz Harris to Cris Shuldiner, Noel Rosenberg to Glen R. Goodwin, Rachel Silverman to Kyle Hollingsworth, 'Zanne Labonville to Skip Morris.

I spoke to the lawyer about whether we're allowed to give money to the fan group in Poland [Gdanski Klub Fantastyki, organizers of Eurocon 2000], and she sees no problem with it, as long as it's not in violation of our bylaws. So the Grant Committee is allowed to consider the grant proposal.

We have appointed Nicholas "Phi" Shectman to be treasurer for Arisia '00.

We discussed the hotel contract; Skip may present more details in the Hotel Search Committee Report.

No report.

No report.

No report.

The Clerk was unable to publish Mentor before leaving for an extended business trip, for which she duly apologizes. Your Guest Editor intends to prepare a double issue, or at least get the minutes out to email, before Rachel gets back.

The convention is still over. I have kept a careful eye on it, and it has not started up again.

Most of the Accounts Receivable are from the corporation. Most of the Accounts Payable are to the corporation, but we also still owe the hotel some money.

All of the artist have now been paid. There was some delay in cutting checks because of discrepancies between art show paperwork and treasury paperwork.

We sent flyers to Boskone and Lunacon.

We had or will have program book ads at Boskone, Lunacon, Balticon, Westercon, and 5Con. We will also have ads in the Chicon (Worldcon 2000) and Millennium Philcon (Worldcon 2001) progress reports.

We have two comp memberships to Balticon. We did a comp swap with them, for the purpose of throwing parties at each other's cons, so we've effectively already paid for these memberships.

I-Con has offered us two comp memberships, of which Cris has claimed one.

MOVED to alter the art show commission structure as follows:

(This effectively swaps steps 2 and 3 in the formula that was adopted last month.) Motion PASSED.

The Sheraton has reduced its offer to $108 + 5%/year, and is offering us a multi-year contract. The Westin is willing to participate in a two-hotel deal (Sheraton '00, Westin '01, Sheraton '02).

We are working on a contract to submit to the Park Plaza.

The Danvers Tara is still interested in us, and has left a couple plaintive messages on Skip's answering machine.

We moved one of the storage units to the new space. [This was the smaller unit, with the sensitive A/V equipment from Minnesota.] Thanks to Cris Shuldiner, Kim Van Auken, Kevin Fallon, Skip Morris, Ken Elwell, and Walter Kahn for helping. It took much too long, but we got it done. We are going to try to move the bigger unit by the end of the month.

We have a possible lead on a T-shirt printer in Hartford who can do 4-color shirts for $6 apiece (no other details available, like whether this is for 100% cotton).

No report.

We are reporting favorably on the motion to institute a $5.00 discount for any paid corporate member wishing to purchase a convention membership, based on the price for that time of year. This puts the motion back on the table under Old Business.

We were asked to consider a motion to modify Corporate Convention Policy VII by adding a new Section C (causing the current section C to become Section D): "Any non-comped staff member will be allowed to purchase a convention membership at the lowest publicly available price for that year." The majority of the committee found this to be acceptable, if certain things were done vis-a-vis getting information to gophers on how one becomes staff.

There was a motion to modify Corporate Convention Policy VII, Section B, by adding a new subsection 2: "All gift memberships authorized by the con chair under the previous section must be noted in the chair's report at a subsequent corporate business meeting." We noted that the vote was not to refer it to the Long Range Planning Committee, but to bury it in the LRP, so we decided that we shouldn't discuss it.

We are still discussing the motion to modify Corporate Convention Policy VII, Section A, by adding a new paragraph: "Hours worked before the current convention may be used as credit for an earned membership for the current convention instead of the following convention. Hours credited this way must be documented on a separate timesheet."

Even though it wasn't referred to us, I took it on my authority as chairman of the committee to discuss Pat's suggestion for a trust fund targeted at decreasing the hotel rates. We have nothing to report on that yet, but will probably have something to report on it at the next meeting.

It is the recommendation of Long Range Planning that the corporation create or update the book of convention job descriptions, and that this be passed from conchair to conchair, as something they can present to volunteers to tell them what it is that their position means. This would include job descriptions up and down the entire staff, all the way up to division head. If the existing book can't be found, a new one should be created by all the people currently filling the jobs on the convention.

It is the opinion of the Long Range Planning Committee that the corporation should host a large party for convention staff in the middle of every year.

MOVED to count up the number of times people suggest that something be tabled to Long Range Planning, and the person who suggests it the most times be forced to be a member of Long Range Planning. MOVED to table this motion to Long Range Planning. Motion to table PASSED.

MOVED to institute a $5.00 discount for any paid corporate member wishing to purchase a convention membership, based on the price for that time of year. MOVED to amend by disallowing multiple discounts. Amendment FAILED. The original motion PASSED.

MOVED to modify Corporate Convention Policy VII by adding a new Section C (causing the current section C to become Section D): "Any non-comped staff member will be allowed to purchase a convention membership at the lowest publicly available price for that year." [It was noted that the corporate discounted rates are not publicly available.] MOVED to amend by replacing "staff" with "volunteer". Motion to amend PASSED. MOVED to table back to Long Range Planning. Motion to table PASSED.

MOVED to change the art show commission to 5%, and eliminate the cap. MOVED to table to a subsequent meeting. Motion to table PASSED.

Merv (Tom Murphy) now lives in Amherst. If there are committees that need somebody, if there is something corporate that needs help, if you need to have a body available with half a brain inside of it, hey, I'm here.

The April meeting will be on Thursday, April 22, at 7:00 PM. The May meeting will be on Sunday, May 23, at 2:00 PM.

Minutes of the April Meeting

In absence of the clerk, Paul Selkirk took notes.

Rachel Silverman has resigned as Clerk [see clerk's report], and we are now taking nominations for her replacement. [Tom Coveney volunteered, and was duly appointed interim clerk, pending an election.]

MOVED to transfer Tom Coveney to General Membership so that he can run for the office of Clerk. Motion automatically TABLED until the next business meeting.

Not present.

I ordered new checks for all our various accounts.

Due to my having unexpectedly acquired a life (a life with lots of chorus rehearsals and late work nights), I will be resigning my post as Clerk, effective as soon as someone else is elected to serve through the Annual Meeting. Nominations will be taken at tomorrow's corporate meeting and put into the next Mentor, to be voted on at the May meeting.

It still looks like we'll make slightly more than $10,000, but we haven't officially closed the books yet.

I went to 5Con, and it was okay. I noticed in passing that there was no acknowledgment of Arisia in the 5Con program book. I don't know if the Grant Committee requested acknowledgment, but I would like to suggest that they make it a condition of future grants.

Cris was unable to make it to I-Con due to illness.

There will be a Concom meeting on Sunday, May 2, at 2:00 PM.

No report.

We have most of a contract with the Park Plaza. We (Skip, Paul, and Elka) met with Bill Arnone to go over our proposed contract. This is a contract that I basically loaded with all sorts of favorable stuff for us to negotiate away, and they mostly said yes. I got a fax from Bill last night, and there were a few things they wanted to change, but the only substantive changes were the dealers row room deposit and the banquet ticket rates. The only other item left outstanding is the language for the billing arrangements - they want us to fill out a credit application, but there were no provisions for what happens if the credit manager turns down our application.

[There followed much discussion of the banquet prices, and whether we want to include catering in the contract at all. Eventually it was decided (which some had been protesting all along) that the contract is properly Eboard business, and the Eboard will meet Sometime Soon to discuss the contract.]

We moved all our worldly possessions from two storage lockers in Chelmsford to a single much larger place in Somerville. Thanks to Cris, Paul, Phi, Gingi, Merv, Skip, and Adam Ek, who loaded the truck in Chelmsford; and to 'Zanne and Bryt who joined us to unload in Somerville.

During the move, the gate of the Chelmsford storage facility attempted to close on the truck, and was bent thereby. We haven't yet received a repair bill, but even if we do, it's covered by our truck rental insurance.

The new storage unit includes a meeting room (with a classy shag carpet and hung ceiling). We can have meetings and work sessions there as soon as we move the A/V gear out into the main room.

There were a couple items on the table, which were left on the table.

MOVED to cancel the May meeting. Motion PASSED without objection.

MOVED to hold the June meeting on Tuesday, June 8 at 7:00 at the storage facility. Motion PASSED without objection.

There will be cleanup work sessions on June 5 and 6 at the storage facility. Skip will post times and directions [to be included in Mentor].

Minutes of the Eboard Meeting

We discussed details of the contract to be submitted to the Park Plaza.

It was voted that Elka could sign the contract, with the provision that the Park Plaza made no additional changes to the contract as it was currently written at the time of this meeting.

We discussed the need to bring up babysitting concerns with the corporate lawyer.

The current status of insurance was brought up.

Meeting Adjourned at 9:25 PM.

Calendar of Events

June 5-6, 1999