Mentor

The Newsletter of Arisia, Incorporated — Number 142, Dec 2005

Notices

Holiday Potluck at December Meeting

Gather for food at 2 PM ; meeting at 3 PM.  Our suggestion is that people with last names between A-H bring an appetizer / before, I-M bring a side dish, N-S bring a main dish, T-Z bring a dessert.  Directions are on the outside page.  For other questions, please email Susan (smozz@alum.bu.edu) or call her at home (1-617-244-4560. )


Best holiday greetings to everyone, and our wishes for a happy, healthy 2006.


Please see the schedule of convention work sessions and meetings on page 4.

Minutes of the November Meeting

Called to order Nov 20, at 2:12 PM at The Usual Place. In Rick Kovalchik’s absence, Lisa Hertel chaired the meeting.

Walter Kahn, Tom Murphy, Lisa Adler-Golden, Michael Leuchtenberg, Jack Dietz, Cris Shuldiner, Karen Purcell, David D’Antonio, Conor Walsh, Paul Selkirk, Joel Herda, Rachel Silber, Ben Levy, Lisa Hertel

Bridget Boyle to Karen Purcell, Alex Latzko to Ben Levy, Jeanne Kahn to Walter Kahn, Joel Herda to Ben Levy after committee report. Pat Vandenberg and Allen Kent’s proxies were thought not to be eligible for voting.

Note: although we generally have access to email at the meetings, this should not be considered guaranteed; proxies should be sent considerably more than an hour before the meeting.

Minutes accepted without correction.

Still no grant activity.

 Current Bank of America Balances:

  Corporate                     $3,727.51
  Business Savings             $7,000.81
  Even Year A06                $12,491.25
  Odd Year A07                 $10.10

 We filed for an extension on our filing taxes with the IRS.


MSP to change the Arisia Policy on bounced checks from:

CONVENTION POLICIES
  I. A ten dollar ($10) fee will be charged for returned checks (i.e. bounced checks)
to:
A fee of five dollars ($5) in addition to any bank fees will
be charged for returned checks (i.e. bounced checks)

And move it from section 1 of Convention policies to the section 10(X) of the Finance policy.  [it shouldn't just apply to conventions but also the corporation (e.g. dues checks)] Renumber the Convention Policies section as appropriate.

MOVED to Change Corporate Matters, section IV. from:

The Executive Board has the authority to approve and set ad rates for progress reports, newsletter, and video programs. Such rates must exceed marginal costs.

To:

The executive board has the authority to approve and set ad rates. Such rates must exceed marginal costs.

AMENDED: The executive board has the authority to approve and set ad rates where not otherwise set by the membership in bylaws or policies. Such rates must exceed marginal costs.

This is brought up because color rates are not set currently in policy.

Merv points out here that the current policy says color would cost more. Therefore, convention committee does not REQUIRE this motion to set reasonable color rates.

Amendment PASSES, motion PASSES.

MOVED to change mail policy to:

The clerk is responsible for the timely distribution of Arisia mail from the mailbox to the responsible individuals. The clerk shall make an archive copy of all appropriate paper correspondence. This task may be delegated.

Motion PASSES.

MOVED (from eboard) to change membership and dues policy to say:

Dues for all members are payable on Sept 1 of each year. Any member who joinsduring the year shall be pro-rated monthly to the following September 1st. Any member who has neither paid their dues, nor requested a hardship waiver, shall have their membership expire at the beginning of elections of the Annual Meeting. Voting rights expire when membership expires and can be regained as set forth in section 1.1.A. The eboard may grant a grace period for payment of dues or requesting a hardship waiver, retaining continuous membership, as long as the grace period is offered equally to all corporate members; however in no case shall unpaid members be allowed to vote. The clerk shall notify any member who has neither paid their dues nor requested a hardship waiver by September 1st.

MSP to table this issue to the eboard. The sense of the corporation is that the phrasing of the motion is not clear.

Eboard agrees to loan TV's to Mensa. RK agrees to be responsible for them. Mensa will provide a donation.

Income 76,817.80 (approximate. Registration data is inaccurate.)

Expenses 57,851.82 (soft – estimated high on credit card fees where Cris doesn’t have all the information. There are also outstand things that we’ve never had a bill for and Cris doesn’t think we’ll every get them.)

18,965.98 net income about 10K of that is definitely valid under-ages of what was budgeted.

We planned on 8K of net income to improve our bottom line – we planned at 16K and we got about 26K on the bottom line. This is a good thing on the bottom line that we should not count on every year, certainly not this year.

MSP to close Arisia ’05 books.

There is a budget amendment. Cris Shuldiner conducts the budget amendment discussion.

The following budget amendment for Arisia ’06 is planned to come before the corporation at the November corporate meeting.


Income:

Before

After

Diff

Item

$4250

$2600

-$1650

Year-Ahead Pre-Reg

Total Income difference:  minus $1650

Expenses:

Before

After

Diff

Item (Department, if new)

$5000

$500

-$4500

Artist GOH shipping

$1200

$800

-$450

Artist GoH travel

$800

$400

-$400

Paid security

---

$150

$150

Relocate light control (Technical)

---

$70

$70

Coat check (Fixed Functions)

$400

$500

$100

Filk Guest Travel

---

$60

$60

Philcon Pocket Program Ad (Marketing)

$1000

$1250

$250

Green Room

$1400

$1800

$400

Staff Den

---

$50

$50

Voicemail phone number (Ops)

$3000

$3900

$900

Souvenir Book

---

$50

$50

DVD-R capable DVD player (Events)

---

$1500

$1500

Contingency Fund (administered by Chair)

Total expense difference: minus $1670.

Net difference: plus $20 to bottom line.

MSP to separate souvenir book from remainder of budget amendment.

MSP to separate income item. MSP to table income item to next meeting.

Remainder of the budget amendment PASSES .

MSP to table souvenir book discussion until there’s more information (Skip is in the house) or the end of the meeting.

Discussion of room reservation policy. The treasurer intends to present an amendment to current policy to improve handling of rooms that we rent on the master bill at the next meeting.

No treasurer picked yet, working on it.

Timeline : Meeting scheduled for Dec 19th, 7 pm.

Hotel Search : Resume stuff needed by deadlines posted to staff list.

Corporate Sales : Offworld will give corporate members 20% discount; shirts will be $20

All other committees, no report.

Relaxacon Moved to form a committee to explore and plan a no (or minimal) programming. Point of information: NESFA relaxacon is end of March, it was suggested that we could go in with them on it.

Shooting for an ’06 date. Do we have $3K to invest in it?

Passes by acclamation. Jack is chairing the committee. We agree that in Rick's absence, Lisa has the ability to make that appointment.

Souvenir book matter brought off the table. Skip wants a nicer book – more pages, more artwork and so forth.

Amendment on souveneir book (from budget amendment) passes.

Blood bowl trophy. PR stunt. This tournament would be sanctioned by official group.

Move to use $400 corporate money for a trophy for Arisia Bloodbowl perpetual trophy. Expenses for the particular year’s engraving coming from each convention year.

Amendment: This motion will not go into effect until there are 15 people signed up. Passes.

Vote on amended motion ends in tie vote. Lisa does not break tie, remands to eboard for more discussion and decision.

Previous Mentors list meetings through Jan. Feb meeting scheduled for Sat 2/25 at Cris Shuldiner’s home in Pelham NH, details to follow.

No announcements.







Executive Board

President

Rick Kovalcik

19 Chesley Rd

Newton Centre MA 02459

president@arisia.org

Arisia 2006 Conchair

Nicholas Shectman

75 Lexington Ave

Somerville MA 02144

conchair@arisia.org

Vice President

Lisa Hertel

93 Greenwood Rd

Andover MA 01810

vp@arisia.org

Arisia 2005/06 Treasurer

Cris Shuldiner

9 Jeremy Hill Rd

Pelham NH 03076

treasury@arisia.org

Treasurer

Ben Levy

47 Brown St

Andover MA 01810

treasurer@arisia.org

Arisia 2007Conchair

Joel Herda

17 Heath St #3

Somerville MA 02145

Clerk

Rachel Silber

59 Orient Ave

Melrose MA 02176

clerk@arisia.org

Arisia 2007 Treasurer

TBD










Membership Roster

Lisa Adler-Golden

Rob Bazemore (honorary)

Dave Belfer-Shevett

Bridget Boyle

Brian Cooper (honorary)

Tom Coveney

Jack Dietz

Regis Donovan

Elka Davidoff


Don Eastlake

Jill Eastlake

Tom Fish (honorary)

Colette Fozard

Joel Herda

Brendan Hertel

Lisa Hertel

September Isdell

Jeanne Kahn

Walter Kahn

Allen Kent

Rick Kovalcik

Zanne Labonville

Alex Latzko

Michael Leuchtenburg

Ben Levy

Skip Morris

Susan Mozzicato

Tom Murphy

Karen Purcell

Pam Ochs


Mary Robison (honorary)

Noel Rosenberg

Paul Selkirk

Pete Thomas

Nicholas Shectman(“Phi”)

Cris Shuldiner (honorary)

Rachel Silber

Persis Thorndike

Carsten Turner

Pat Vandenberg

Conor Walsh












Storage Facility Key Holders

1

Joel Herda

2

Alex Latzko

3

Skip Morris

4

Carsten Turner

5

September Isdell

6

Phi

7

Michael Bergman

8

Lisa Hertel

9

Lost

10

Hobbit

11

Landlord

12

(spare with Skip)

13

Persis Thorndike

14

Rick Kovalcik

15

Rachel Silber

16

Ben Levy

17-20

(spares with Rick)















Committee Members & Corporate Appointed Officers

Grant Committee

Lisa Hertel (head)

Honors Committee

Rachel Silber (head)

Budget Committee

Ben Levy (head)

Alex Latzko

Nicholas Shectman

Long Range Planning Committee

Bridget Boyle (head)

Jill Eastlake

Skip Morris

Jack Dietz

Lisa Adler-Goldin

Corporate Inventory Control

Skip Morris (head)

Lisa Hertel

Hobbit

Joel Herda

Technical Equipment Committee

(same as CIC)

Corporate Systems Administrator

Cris Shuldiner

Survey Committee

Pat Vandenberg

Archives Committee

Lori “Jet” Turi

Corporate Sales Officer

Lisa Hertel

Hotel Search Committee

Jill Eastlake (head)

Skip Morris

Janet Stickle

Joel Herda

Timeline Committee

Lisa Hertel (head)

Skip Morris

Nicholas Shectman

Noel Rosenberg

Rachel Silber

Relaxacon Investigation Committee

Jack Dietz






Schedule of Convention Meetings and Load-in/Load-out

Con Com meeting - Monday, December 12, 7pm, NESFA clubhouse

Tagging Session - Wednesday, January 4, 6pm-10pm, storage

Tagging Session - Saturday, January 7, 10am-2pm, storage

Con Com - Saturday, January 7, 2:30pm, MIT

Tagging Session - Sunday, January 8, noon-4pm, storage

Truck Loading - Wednesday, January 11, 6pm, storage. A keyholder will be present at 5:30 so that volunteers can be sure to be there when the truck arrives.

Truck Unloading - Thuresday, January 12, 10am at the hotel.







Membership/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.

September

$24


March

$12

October

$22


April

$10

November

$20


May

$08

December

$18


June

$06

January

$16


July

$04

February

$14


August

$02







ARISIA, Incorporated

Building 600, PMB 322

1 Kendall Square

Cambridge, MA 02139








































































Calendar of Events

Sun Dec 18th Arisia Holiday Potluck and corporate meeting 2 pm Kovalcik-Mozzicato residence. See inside for food arrangements.

January 13-15, 2006 Arisia 2006 at Boston Park Plaza Hotel. See http://www.arisia.org for details.

Sun Jan 15 2006 Arisia corporate meeting at Boston Park Plaza Hotel, location and time TBA

Sat Feb 25 2005 corporate meeting at Cris Shuldiner’s residence, Pelham NH.

Convention committee meetings and other work sessions are listed on page 4.

Directions to October Corporate Meeting

Rick Kovalcik and Susan Mozzicato 19 Chesley Road, Newton Centre, MA   02459-1903

Directions are online at http://www.mit.edu/~rk/newton_directions. The “by car” section is reprinted here. Please call if you have any questions. 1-617-244-4560 (home) 1-508-259-6819 (cell) rk@mit.edu et. al.


By car, take the Mass Pike to exit 17 (Newton Corner).  Follow signs to Newton Centre which will put you on Centre St.  (When coming off the Mass Pike heading east from route 128, stay to the right.  Centre St. will be the first street on the right.  When coming off the Pike heading west from Boston, go 3/4 of the way around the "circle" around the hotel over the Pike.)  Continue on Centre St. for 2 miles to Newton Centre.  Immediately after the large parking lot on left, turn left onto Beacon St. 

*Go 2 blocks and turn left onto Chesley Rd. just after Murray's Liquors, Motophoto, and Cambridge Savings Bank on the left.  If you pass a Gulf Station, US Post Office, and West Coast Video on the right, you have gone too far.  Our house, a gray colonial with white and red trim, is the fourth house on the left.  You must park on the right hand side of the street facing in the direction of travel OR YOU MAY BE TICKETED.  Alternatively, you may park in the driveway to the right of the house as you are facing it.

Or, take Route 9 to Centre St.  Take Centre St. 1 mile to Newton Centre.  Immediately after yield / merge and before the large parking lot, turn right onto Beacon St.  Continue from "*" above



Arisia, Mentor of Arisia, and the Arisia Lens are service marks of Arisia, Incorporated. All material copyright 2003, Arisia, Incorporated. All rights reserved.