This Mentor has the minutes of the March meeting; as this month’s meeting is near the very end of April there was no March Mentor. 

The next meeting will be at the home of Tom Murphy, 88 Thorndike St Arlington MA, at 7:30 PM on Tues April 24, 2007. 

Quorum for the April meeting is 9, based on  (an estimate of) 51% of the attendance at the last three meetings, rounded up.  

·         Date, Time, and Place

Meeting at the home of Dr. Karen Purcell, Londonderry NH, called to order at 2:22 PM

·         In attendance

The clerk does not have an attendance list for this meeting.  

·         Corrections to the Minutes  -none

·         President’s Report

 Nominations for A09 conchair are closed  (as of start of meeting).   The interview for our single candidate, Jill Eastlake, will take place over the next month.   Our thanks to Karen for the use of her house for the meeting. 

·         Vice-President’s Report

Lisa Hertel has sent grant info, Jasra hasn't read yet.  Kenai library sent thank you for the grant; we will ask permission to put the library's workshop photo from Flikr on the Arisia website.

·         Treasurer

The treasurer’s report for March can be found in a section later in this Mentor.  It has been amended from what was shown at the meeting to include additional information that was asked for by the membership.

Skip asked if money for trusses, voted last meeting, could come from N4 grant money.  Both that and the credit card machines are appropriate for the grant.

·         Clerk – No report.

Thanks to Ann Thomas for taking minutes in my absence.

·         A07 Conchair and Treasurer reports

Joel says little happened over last month, we intend to close books soon.  Alex distributed some checks for people.  $1200 left in A07 acct.  A08 has $5K on hand.  We are owed $4100 from master account hotel bills.  Alex will distribute copies of bills to those who owe, will make this public in one week.   The con has outstanding checks for $1800.  A disputed bill from a badge company (related to gaming/Blood Bowl, may be over budget).  Owe NESFA and others for sign shop stuff.  Alex predicts about $13,500 profit (after rent for storage.)  5K of this is from Radisson withdrawal, 2.9K from ITA.  Alex predicts books closure in May.  Approx $10K profit will be moved into CDs.

Moving forward we need to not put rooms on master bill.  Previously, the Park Plaza's accounting system made it in the con's favor to put some staff rooms on the master bill and then get reimbursed by these staff. Hyatt accounting is better, so there will not be individuals' rooms put on master bill anymore.

·         Arisia ’08 Conchair

Ben reports we had concom meeting, how to handle 4 day con strategy seems acceptable, and div head slots are being filled.  Div head meeting Tuesday night at Tem's.  Next con com meeting mid-April but no date set yet.

·         CIC

Skip reports new door frame for storage unit will arrive tomorrow, new locks are in.  Alex says emergency phone number needs to be changed, Rick says make it his cell number.

Insurance: Lisa Hertel and Ben have both been working on this. Lisa’s agent needs value of stuff in storage. Ben says we only need liability insurance, not insurance of the stuff per our lease. Ben will get quote, Eboard will act on insurance.  

Keys: 18, 19, 20 were given to Jim, Steve Huff, Lisa (jasra).  Tem or Lisa Hertel will be able to deal w/getting keys back if need be.  Discussion of the relatively wide distribution of keys continued, no motion made.

Lisa: artshow drapes have been washed and ironed.

·         Hotel

Hotel for 2008 is set.  There will be hotel elevator repair staff at con for 2008.  Will write into contract that the Hyatt will pay us a fine if any elevators are down for > 1 hour.  Cambridge Marriott has made an offer as backup hotel.  Doubletree also has offered, for $119/night.  Hotel at MImay also be an option at $119, if our room numbers stay under 100 (65 on Saturday/55 Friday like 2007).

We do not have hotel for 2009 and 2010 … to be worked on. 

Moved and seconded for Eboard to negotiate and sign overflow hotel contract under similar terms to last year after consultation with and approval of the 08 conchair.  
Motion passed unanimously.

·         Relaxacon

Discussion of options available for relaxacon.  Corporate preference seems to be for June Relaxacon
Motion to authorize eboard sign contract wtih Hilton Dedham in June.  – passes

·         Timeline

There will be a meeting on 3/22, details to be announced on the corporate list.

·         Old Business

Updated policies and bylaws were printed in Mentor. Moved that Corp accepts these policies as printed, passed unanimously.  The published version will state "as of 11 March 2007."

·         New Business

Merv moves to improve treasury report for each corporate meeting (printed separately in this Mentor). Seconded.
Objection to consideration  failed.
Move to amend that treasurer make a "monthly summary report" (not requiring details). Seconded
MSP to go to as committee as a whole, discussion in committee as a whole not recorded.
Skip presented the following alternate motion:  To modify corporate policy such that the Treasurer shall publish in each Mentor a balance sheet listing balances of all accounts, and the balances of fund reserved special purposes. Move to amend the motion on the floor to the new text.  MSP many to two

Vote on amended motion passes, many to one.

MSP that all storage keyholders be required to be corporate members (except the landlord).   Discussion:  corporate members still has responsibility for key if they loan it to non-corporate member.

MSP  to stop requiring the student art show.  Corporate started the student art show, but it has devolved to Art Show director.  There are problems with getting contestants, getting someone to run it, etc. Art show already has free panels for high school students.  This could be enough.

Note: If someone wants to run one, they still can.  It would no longer be a corporate requirement. 

·         Announcements and future meetings

Tues 4/24 7:30 p.m. at  Merv’s, 88 Thorndike St Arlington (see directions elsewhere).  Eat beforehand.
Sun May 20 at the Eastlake home at 2 p.m.  Jill says eat beforehand.
June meeting proposed for 6/10 2p.m. at place to be decided (Relaxacon or MIT) -- passed.

Merv will be moving after the April meeting
Rick announces SMOFcon at airport Hilton in December.  If interested, see Rick.

 

The eboard met and interviewed Jill Eastlake on March 27, 2007.  The eboard unanimously voted to appoint Jill Eastlake as conchair for Arisia 2009 and to present this appointment to the membership for approval at the next possible opportunity. 

The  eboard agreed by vote over email to allow Persis Thorndike to borrow the Fast Track supplies as needed for the Beyond IQ conference. 

From February

·         Conclude discussion of refund policy and bring a new motion (eboard)

• Get quotes to eboard for liability and contents insurance.  (CIC)
• Get list of damaged goods to Cal and follow up about fixing door and door frame.  (Skip)
• Deferred discussion of a family or young fan rate to a future meeting. 
• Weekend rates were changed, but single-day rates were not changed and need to be discussed in the context of a 4 day con.
• Report from hotel search committee about state of 2009/2010  possibilities.

If anyone is aware of other pending business, please email clerk@arisia.org. 

From March

·         Who is responsible for notifying non-corporate-member keyholders of new policy?

·         Honors committee send funds to Patri’s Girls fund

 

The text of  the original motion to improve treasury reports:

WHEREAS the Corporation has no defined requirements for the content orformat of a Corporate Treasurer's report, and

WHEREAS, through no fault of the persons holding the office of Treasurer, the content of the Treasurer's reports through various tenures of Treasurers has varied, with regard to what was deemed to be important to  report to the membership,

Be it MOVED to set as Corporate policy:

1) The Report of the Corporate Treasurer, submitted at each regularly scheduled General Meeting of the Corporate Membership, shall contain at  least the following information:

a) Total income received since the last General Meeting
b) Total expenses paid since the last General Meeting;
c) Any internal transfers of funds since the last General Meeting  ("recorded the movement of $4,000.00 from the General Fund to the Grant Fund at the direction of the Membership," "Funded the Snow Fund at a level
of $20,000.00 at the direction of the Membership," etc.);
d) The total monies available in the following funds (Maker's Note:  as known to exist at this time):
i) the General Fund,
ii) the Grant Fund,
iii) the Snow Fund,
iv) the Odd Convention Year Fund,
v) the Even Convention Year Fund, and
vi) any other fund established by a past or future action of the Membership;
e) The balances available in each of the bank accounts maintained by the
Corporation, as they read on the Transaction Registers kept by the Treasurer;
f) A total of remaining Accounts Receivable;
g) A total of pending Accounts Payable;
h) A final statement of net Corporate Worth (as regards cash flow, not total Corporate Worth including hard assets, like what we keep in storage).

2) The Treasurer shall make the full books available, by appointment, to any Member or group of Members who so request.
a) When the inquiring member(s) and the treasurer can not agree upon a mutually convenient time and place for a viewing of the books, the books  shall be brought to the next General meeting of the Membership for perusal there.
b) The books shall be readable as presented; e.g., data on a USB Thumbdrive handed to the member does not work; if the data is kept electronically, the  Treasurer shall provide a reader device; paper copies are always acceptable.

EXAMPLE:
Treasurer's Report for <MONTH>:
Busy month.  ARISIA had income of $25.00 and expenses of $300.00; transferred $4328 from the Odd Convention Year fund to the General Fund  after the Membership closed the books on the last Odd Year Convention and $2000 from the General Fund to the Grant Fund at the direction of the Membership from our last meeting.  This brings our General Fund to $5432.00, our Grant Fund to $3500.00, and the Snow Fund still has $20,000.00; the Odd Convention Year fund has $100.00; I don't have data from the Even Convention Year's Treasurer yet this month; he's been off  running a big art show.  The balance in the Corporate Checking Account is
$28,932.00; the balance in the Odd Convention Year Checking Account is $100.00, and I don't know the balance of the Even Convention Year Checking  Account; it's in use, see above.  We have outstanding Accounts Receivable of $25.00 and outstanding Accounts Payable of $120.00 and an outstanding grant bequest of $450.00 for which I still need to write a check.  Excluding the Even Convention Year (which I sure hope actually has a positive balance) and hard, non-cash assets, the total net worth of the Corporation is $28,487.00.

POINTS OF INFORMATION FOR ITEM 1d):
A) It is not expected that the Corporate Treasurer necessarily report month-to-month on the doings of the Convention; but it would be swell.  After all, the Conventions have their own treasury structure.  A report of "the Con Treasurer hasn't compiled all the details yet" may be  considered sufficient.
B) The fact that we designate "funds" MUST NOT be confused with bank accounts.  While, at one time, I believe we maintained separate bank accounts for damn near everything, AND had 2 or more additional merchant  accounts just for income from Credit Cards, we now have many fewer accounts (see item e)).  There is no issue commingling the funds from, say, the General, Grant and Snow Funds; PROVIDED SEPARATE LEDGERS ARE KEPT for these accounts.  Keeping separate bank accounts for the separate funds was a working concept, until we needed to play fast and loose in order to keep ourselves solvent.  I cite, for example, the situation in calendar year  '03, when we needed to disburse more money than we technically had in the General Fund &/ the Odd Convention Year Fund:  in order to pay our bills,
phi closed the Snow Fund CD's, commingled that cash with the General Fund,  and paid the bills; this left our General Fund with a negative balance, our Snow Fund technically fully funded, and the bank account balance still liquid at an amount equal to the positive Snow Fund balance added to the  negative General Fund balance.  The Membership, to my ability to recall and research, never actually authorized the liquidation of the Snow Fund for general use in Calendar Year '03, so technically, the Snow Fund should have  a ledger balance of what it was plus what the membership recently allotted to replenish it; the ledger balance for the General Fund may still be in the red if that is the case.  This is one of several reasons why Treasury  Reporting must be transparent and available to the General Membership.

POINTS OF INFORMATION FOR ITEM 1e):
A) I can guess we have 3 actual bank accounts:  One for the Corporation (General, Grant, & Snow Fund Monies), one for the Odd Convention Year, and  one for the Even Convention Year.  We may have more.  I don't know; no treasurer in the past several years has ever mentioned this in their reports.

POINTS OF INFORMATION FOR ITEM 2): Now, this is information only, because I  do think that if we imposed this on a Treasurer, it would be micromanagement.  I have never seen any of the books of the Corporation.  I don't think we've had the "thorough going over of the books" called for by
Arisia Corporate Policies, Finance Policy, Policy III in a long, long time.  If I were keeping the books, I would be referencing each deposit with a memo to an income form; referencing each check written to an expense  form; and those forms would have all the details of why money is moving around.  A short memo with the jist of the "why" part of the forms on the
actual line in the ledger would also be a good idea.  This is what I'd be looking for if I ever chose to review the books.

POINTS OF INFORMATION OVERALL:
A) This does not need to be a verbal report: a written report, submitted at the meeting for inclusion into the minutes as though read; or, an emailed report to the Corporate List for the perusal of the Membership, are both acceptable.  The report must be included in MENTOR in the Minutes of theBusiness Meeting as part of the Treasurer's Report.
B) This is a minimum requirement; the Treasurer may make a more detailed report, and may report on other things in addition.
C) Nothing in this Policy shall preclude the Membership from asking for more details: "What insurance company did you write that check to?" "What  do you mean you reimbursed MemberX for ExpenseY?" etc.
D) No singling out of any one treasurer is to be inferred – the Maker of the Motion has been a Corporate Member for nearing 10 years, an active Corporate and Convention volunteer for 14 years -- never has he heard what he considers an acceptable report on the finances of the Corporation; this
is what motivates the Motion.

President Rick Kovalcik 19 Chesley Rd Newton Centre MA 02459 president@arisia.org	Arisia 2007Conchair Joel Herda 17 Heath St #3 Somerville MA 02145 conchair@arisia.org
Vice President Lisa Holsberg 14 Salem St #4 Woburn MA 01801 vp@arisia.org	Arisia 2007 Treasurer Alex Latzko 40 Greatstone Dr Merrimack NH 03054 treasury@arisia.org
Treasurer Ben Levy 47 Brown St Andover MA 01810 treasurer@arisia.org	Arisia 2008 Conchair September “Tem” Isdell 82 Albion Street #2 Somerville, MA 02143 08chair@arisia.org
Clerk Rachel Silber 59 Orient Ave Melrose MA 02176 clerk@arisia.org	Arisia 2008 Treasurer Donald Eastlake 155 Beaver St Milford MA 01757

 

Grant Committee Lisa Holsberg (head) Walter Kahn	Honors Committee Rachel Silber (head)
Budget Committee Ben Levy (head) Alex Latzko Nicholas Shectman	Long Range Planning Committee Nicholas Shectman (head) Jill Eastlake Jack Dietz Lisa Adler-Goldin Conor Walsh
Corporate Inventory Control Skip Morris (head) Lisa Hertel Hobbit Joel Herda Janet Stickle	Technical Equipment Committee (same as CIC)
Corporate Systems Administrator Cris Shuldiner	Relaxacon Investigation Committee Jack Dietz  (head) Janet Stickle
Archives Committee Lori “Jet” Turi	Corporate Sales Officer Lisa Hertel
Hotel Search Committee Janet Stickle (head) Skip Morris Ben Levy	Timeline Committee Lisa Hertel (head) Skip Morris Nicholas Shectman Noel Rosenberg Rachel Silber
Survey Committee <unfilled>

 

Here is the current membership roster for Arisia, Inc.  If you believe there is an error, or if you are on this list and do not receive Mentor, email clerk@arisia.org.

Lisa Adler-Golden	Bridget Boyle
Tom Coveney	David D’Antonio
Elka Tova Davidoff	Jack Dietz
Samantha Dings	Mary Dumas
Don Eastlake	Jill Eastlake
Colette Fozard	Joel Herda
Brendan Hertel	Lisa Hertel
Lisa Holsberg (Jasra)	Steve Huff
September Isdell	Jeanne Kahn
Walter Kahn	Allan Kent
Pamela Koretsky	Rick Kovalcik
Zanne Labonville	Alex Latzko
Ben Levy	Skip Morris
Susan Mozzicato	Tom Murphy (Merv)
Pam Ochs	Karen Purcell
Noel Rosenberg	Nicholas Shectman (Phi)
Cris Shuldiner	Rachel Silber
Mike Sprague	Janet Stickle
Pete Thomas	Persis Thorndike
Pat Vandenberg	Al Walker (Hobbit)
Conor Walsh
Rob Bazemore	Brian Cooper
Tom Fish	Mary Robison
Aaron Aggassi	Tracy Gangwer
Sharon Sbarsky	Christina Hodges
Glen McWilliams	Jeanne Barrett
John Francini	Jan Dumas

 

 

The April meeting will be held at 88 Thorndike St, Arlington MA.  Call to order is 7:30, please arrive after 7:00 pm and observe reasonable quiet after 10:30 pm.  Light refreshment (but not dinner – please provide your own) will be served.

From all points, by car:  Take your best route to the intersection of Rt 16 and Massachusetts Avenue at the Cambridge/Arlington border.  Take Massachusetts Ave (aka MA 2A W/ US 3 N) into Arlington.  Left on Fairmont St. (third left).  Right at the stop sign.  Right again onto Thorndike Street, a one-way street heading up to Mass Ave.  #88 is the second building from the corner, right hand door.  Parking is available on Thorndike and adjoining streets; please do not use the driveway. 

From the MBTA Red Line: Get off at the Alewife stop.  Take the stairs/escalator in the outbound direction.  Turn right out of the turnstiles, past shops, through Passenger Drop-Off Area. Turn right at the Alewife Station Access Road.  Continue straight onto the bike path.  Follow the bike path over Alewife Brook, and to the first street at which you can turn right after the tall marsh reeds end.  This is Thorndike St.  Turn right and walk up to #88. 

From MBTA busses;  The 77, 79, and 350 busses stop at Thorndike St. Ring for the stop after the first stop on the Arlington side of MA 16.  Cross the street and walk one very long block down Thorndike St.  #88 is on the left. 

More extensive and detailed directions were included in the February Mentor.  For more details, use your favorite mapping program, or email clerk@arisia.org.

 

 

If you do not have a key to storage and need to get into storage, send mail to keys@arisia .org and all keyholders will get your request. 

Keyset	Holder
1	Joel Herda
2	Alex Latzko
3	Skip Morris
4	Carsten Turner
5	Skip Morris?
6	Phi
7	Michael Bergman
8	Rick Kovalcik
9	September Isdell
10	Hobbit
11	Landlord
12	Janet Stickle?
13	Persis Thorndike
14	Lisa Hertel
15	Ben Levy
16	Rachel Silber
17-20	Spares with Rick Kovalcik
21	Jill Eastlake
22	Noel  Rosenberg

 

Subscription to Mentor of Arisia is included with Corporate Membership to Arisia, Incorporated.  Membership runs from September 1st to August 31st and costs $24.  Dues are pro-rated on a monthly basis for members joining during the year.

 

 

 

March 2007			Change from last month
Even Year - A08		$5,205.00	$3,205.00
Odd Year - A07		$8,512.09	($5,200.78)
Corporate
Reserved
$3,000 N4 Grant  (unspent)	$2,690.84
Grant Fund	$4,000.00		$2,500.00
Two years expenses (CDs)	$28,000.00
Voted Expenses	$2,750.00		$2,750.00
	Total Reserved	$37,440.84	$5,250.00
Unallocated Funds		$7,327.06	($6,011.85)
Total Corporate Funds		$44,767.90	($761.85)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Look for upcoming corporate and concomm meetings at http://www.arisia.org/calendar.  

Meeting Schedule 

Corporate: Tues April 24 7:30 pm, location: Tom Murphy’s residence in Arlington, 88 Thorndike St Arlington MA  Directions inside this Mentor.

Sun May 20, 2 pm, location: Eastlake residence, Milford MA.

Sun June 10, 2 pm, location TBD