Mentor

The Newsletter of Arisia, Incorporated — Number 150, Sept 2006

Notices

A great big thank you to Jill and Don, from all of us, for hosting the last corporate meeting and the social event that followed.

Quorum for the September meeting is 10, based on 51% of the attendance at the last three meetings, rounded up.

As provided in the bylaws, elections will be held at the Annual Meeting, 2 pm Sunday September 17^th in Building 66 at MIT. Votes will be taken for the e-board positions of President, Vice President, Treasurer, and Clerk.

Corporate dues of $24/yr are due as of September 1^st. Dues must be paid before the beginning of the corporate elections in order to vote in the election. The treasurer prefers payment by check.

A waiver of dues due to financial hardship is available. If this applies to your circumstances, please send mail in confidence to president@arisia.org.

The next concomm meeting is Wed September 13 at 7 pm at the Hyatt Regency Cambridge.

Minutes of the “July” Meeting

• Date, Time, and Place

Note, at a previous meeting, the July meeting was rescheduled to Aug 6, and the August meeting was cancelled.

At the Eastlake residence, August 6, 2006. Call to order 2:33

• In attendance

Hobbit, Lisa Adler-Golden, Bridget Boyle, Tom Coveney, David D’Antonio, Jack Dietz, Samantha Dings (new), Mary Dumas (new), Don Eastlake, Jill Eastlake, Arthur Ercolini, Lisa Hertel, September Isdell, Allan Kent, Pam Koretsky (new), Rick Kovalcik, Zanne Labonville, Alex Latzko, Ben Levy, Angela McDewell, Skip Morris, Susan Mozzicato, Tom Murphy, Nicholas Shectman, Rachel Silber, Mike Sprague, Pat Vandenberg

• Proxies

Joel Herda to Alex Latzko, Persis Thorndike to Jack Dietz, Jonah Safar to Rachel Silber, Karen Purcell to Jill Eastlake, Lisa Holsberg to September Isdell, Rickland Powell to Rachel Silber, Walter Kahn to Tom Coveney, Pete Thomas to Tom Murphy

• Corrections to the Minutes -- None

• President’s Report

Thanks to the Eastlakes for hosting this meeing.

We have a request from FurFright, Oct21-23 (Hartford) to help them expand their art show by loaning equipment. RK is discussing this offline.

• VP – no report

• Treasurer

Please renew your memberships! Checks are preferred if possible.

For the moment, we're caught up with our taxes with the Mass DOR and the IRS.  The two tax problems I inherited as Treasurer have been straightened out.

Report on our finances:
For the fiscal year 2005/2006, Arisia Inc., spent -$13,695.70 (rent, USPS, Mentor, capital expenditures, …).
At the end of the fiscal year, the money in the Corporation's
accounts, including the unspent money from A'06, but excluding the N4 donation ($2,690.84), the grant fund ($3,952.39), and A'07 Memberships ($4,270.00), is ~$39,000.

Given the uncertain future of the upcoming Conventions that provide the majority of the Corporation's operating funds, I would like to reinstate the "Rainy Day" fund and put two years of Corporate operating expenses into it (rounded up to $28,000).  This leaves ~$12,000 in unallocated funds for the Corporation. Moved, passed unanimously.

Moved to pay $300 to lawyer as a retainer. Motion taken off table pending a report on our balance with her.

Moved to pay $300 to significant.com for hosting services. Discussion of whether this was a market rate. Alex receives $300 from NEFFA for comparable services. Moved, passes many to 2.

• Clerk

All current mail has been distributed. There were problems with the mailing of the last Mentor, some bounced back to me; my apologies to those affected.

• Eboard

The eboard recommends September Isdell for the Arisia 08 conchair. Moved to confirm appointment by corporation, passes unanimously.

• A06: no report

• A07 Conchair

Alex stands in for Joel: Next major meeting will be a con com meeting at the hotel. Jim Stevenson has moved from Fixed Functions to Ops Div head, Steve Huff is new Fixed Function divhead.

• A 07 Treasurer

Alex Latzko presents the A’07 budget, which was published in the July Mentor, and was referenced at the URL http://lazy-booklet.org/~latzko/07budget-for-mentor.xls

The following notes summarize the motions and amendments to the budget without itemizing all the (lengthy) discussions of individual points.

The budget is based on assumptions of 1400 paying attendees at an average rate of $31.

Alex points out that no amendment should take the budget into the black.

Moved: Corporation set aside $4000 to budget line under ops for shuttle busses. Ruled out of order.

Moved: Add a line item for $2100 for shuttle busses. Passes 14-10

Motion to table the budget until the annual meeting. Fails.

Moved to amend the pubs budget with updated, revenue-neutral numbers provided by Skip as follows: passes unanimously. [Text of amendment in a separate section.] Note that revenue-neutral numbers are only thus through use of advertising revenue; Skip has contingency plans (for smaller, less costly publications) if revenue is not forthcoming.

Moved to add $500 to chairmans discretionary fund. Passes unanimously.

Moved to add $500 to films program passes 14-5

Move to amend budget by having corporation fund student art contest (thus moving it off-budget). Passes 14-6

Move to amend info desk to $75 passes 10 to some.

Motion to correct addition errors in budget and adjust chairman’s discretionary fund to result in break-even budget – passes unanimously.

Motion to pass entire budget as amended passes many to 2.

Motion to set a cap on attendance. At what figure? Discussion is tabled to next meeting.

• Arisia ’08 report

September has appointed Ben Levy and Lisa Holsberg to be assistant conchairs.

Moved to raise the rates for 2008 by $5 in all categories. Motion to table fails. Amended to raise all but student rate. Passes by a large margin on voice vote.

• Hotel

In 2009, there are no available major downtown hotels, first half of the year. In 2008 we only have availability for 3-5 January for $149 /$159 a night.
Move to instruct the eboard to sign a contract for Hyatt Regency Cambridge for 2008 , passes many to 2. Hotel committee is requested to get an option for 2009 with that.

• Grant Committee

Kenai Library in Alaska wants to buy classic SF and start a writer’s workshop. Grant amount of $2500 to “Friends of the Kenai Library, Inc” a 503-c non-profit organization was unanimously approved.

• Survey Committee

Pat Vandenberg never received information from Dave Belfer-Shevett. Please remedy.

• Technical Equipment

Those willing to help with storage cleanup, please talk to Hobbit offline.

• Relaxacon Committee

Grill is already lit, food will be prepped as soon as we adjourn.

• Old Business

• New Business

Moved to set final prereg rate for Arisia ‘07 to 40 and at the door rate to 50. Day rates rise to 25/40/25.
Motion to object to consideration fails. Tabling the motion fails.

Moved to split the motion and consider at door and day rates and prereg rates separately passes 22 –4. $50 day rate and higher door rates pass many to 1.
Higher second tier prereg rate of $40 fails 7 to many.

To sum up: Arisia ‘07 rates are 25 (student and base rate)/ 30 1^st prereg rate / 35 2^nd prereg rate / 50 at door
Arisia ’08 rates are 25(student) /35 (1^st pre reg rate) /40 (2^nd prereg rate) /50 at door

Moved that the corp set aside 4000 from the general fund for shuttle. Fails for lack of seconding.

Moved to adjourn postponed to set future meetings.

• Future meetings

Next meeting is Sept 17^th at MIT at 2 pm.

October meeting is proposed for Monday Oct 16 at Pandemonium Books new space in Central Sq, to be confirmed.

November meeting is at default Nov 19^th time for now. Noted that this conflicts with Philcon.

• Announcements

Food’s up!

Eboard Meetings

An online vote was taken on August 11^th that authorized Lisa Hertel to arrange for LACon IV to borrow the Art Show Key Clamps.

Mentor Subscription Information

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.

Membership Roster

Membership roster will return, updated, after the September meeting.

Executive Board

Committee Members & Corporate Appointed Officers

Note: all committee terms end at the Annual Meeting. New committee appointments are made by the President, subject to approval by the membership.

Upcoming Meetings

Concomm meeting Wed September 13 at the Hyatt Regency Cambridge, 7 pm.

Corporate meeting Mon Oct 16^th at Pandemonium Books meeting room (downstairs) in Central Sq. 7:30 pm.

Corporate meeting Sunday Nov 19^th at MIT at 2 pm.

ARISIA, Incorporated

Building 600, PMB 322

1 Kendall Square

Cambridge, MA 02139