About the Next  Meeting

The next corporate meeting of Arisia, Inc. will be held  on March 20th 2022 at 2:00 PM via Zoom. The link to the meeting and corresponding agenda will be distributed over the corp-announce email list in advance of the meeting. The quorum for the March corporate meeting is 17, based on 51% of the average attendance of the last three meetings ((32+32+32)/3×0.51)=16.32 ).  

Please send all proxies for the March corporate meeting in advance by email to corp-proxies@arisia.org, and CC the proxy holder.

February Meeting Summary

There were 25 members attending:  

Proxies: 

The February meeting was called to order on February 15th at 7:08 PM by Nicholas “phi” Shectman, President, via Zoom.

Corrections to the minutes: 

Minute to last meeting not published

Officer and Committee Reports

Eboard report:

• We took an IR vote, but it was not in time for notice for this meeting

etana approved the purchase of some cheap metro shelves

Officer reports:

President’s Report

As you may have heard, the terms of our agreement with the hotel about Arisia 2022 were to extend our stay at the Westin through 2024, and to make a $10,000 deposit towards the Arisia 2023 master bill.  After some delay, we have the proposed 2024 contract from the hotel and it appears to be pretty much what I expected.  The only substantive change is a $5 inflator over 2023.  I intend to sign this contract and return it to the hotel along with the deposit.

The $10,000 is money that A23 is going to spend anyway and it won’t cause cash flow problems between now and when we spend it.  The A24 contract is probably about $20,000 more expensive to Arisia than a contract at the Park Plaza or Cambridge Hyatt would have been.  However, even the smaller cons we’ve held in those facilities had enormous access issues compared to the Westin.  So as much as I am disappointed about having to cancel Arisia 2022, I am also relieved about many things and one of them is that we have one more year before we have to consider the access ramifications of a possible move out of the Westin.

We do not have an updated lease from the Haverhill landlord, and in fact they have not even been charging us the rent increase that’s built into the lease that just expired.  I continue to think they are relieved to have a rent-paying tenant.  I have not made renewing this lease a priority, because I have been busy with funding work.  Speaking of which:

We have heard back from the grants from this cycle, and we’ve gotten quite a few of them.  A few were contingent on holding a convention and I’ll get into the disposition of each of those.

The big news is that we got $15,000 from the City of Boston!  This is $10,000 for COVID relief and $5,000 in general operating support.  We can use this money to pay organizational expenses such as rent, which comes to $15.600 per year.

We got a grant for $2,275 from SFWA for convention expenses and we can use this for expenses the convention had even though it didn’t actually happen.  We have easily enough eligible expenses to get the access grant and $2500 for organizations that did.  This appears to be what happened, as we were approved for $2500 for training.  We have heard back from the grants from this cycle, and we’ve gotten quite a few of them.  A few were contingent on holding a convention and I’ll get into the disposition of each of those.

The big news is that we got $15,000 from the City of Boston!  This is $10,000 for COVID relief and $5,000 in general operating support.  We can use this money to pay organizational expenses such as rent, which comes to $15.600 per year.

We got a grant for $2,275 from SFWA for convention expenses and we can use this for expenses the convention had even though it didn’t actually happen.  We have easily enough eligible expenses.

We proposed to use this general staff anti-racism training, and I also requested in the application to be able to use the money for board training, in case we get other funding for anti-racism trainings.  I believe the Anti-Racism Committee is working on specifics for this training.

We got $3000 for CART from the Universal Participation Fund and the expenses didn’t happen.  This is the grant that we qualify for because of Card to Culture.  I don’t know if the money can be repurposed, or if so how.

Speaking of Card to Culture, we had 12 people registered for A22 via Card to Culture, vs. 3 in 2021.  I am hopeful that we get even more in 2023.

Finally, we have gotten about $4,000 in donations, with one large donation pending in an unknown amount.

This is a total of almost $24,000 not including the access grant.  Our annual expenses are a little over $19,000 and the convention had $6,000 in expenses that can’t be passed on to Arisia 2023, plus one of the grants obliges us to spend money on training that we might not have spent otherwise.  So we aren’t quite square, but we’re pretty close.

I would like to have an A24 ConChair appointment early this summer and an A25 ConChair appointment later this year, to bring us back to the lead times in our policies.

We have a serious candidacy for chair of Arisia 2024.  This is a co-candidacy and before we can proceed, we need to fix the bylaws to allow ConChair that are more than one person.  I am quite pleased to finally get to this.  Other organizations allow and, in some cases, require ConChairs to be groups.  If you are interested in helping draft the bylaws changes necessary, please speak to me.

We can create a committee for this if someone here wants to chair, or if no one is ready to step up right now we can get started on the work and then see if a committee is warranted.  Having a formal committee doesn’t really clear away any of the Roberts Rules issues for bylaws changes, but it’s a nice way to say that we think the work is important.

--

I am behind on committee appointments, but I do have one for tonight.  I appointed Megan Lewis as chair of the Student Contests committee.

[approved unanimously]

-- 

I renewed the mailbox for two years, since there was a discount for doing so compared to the one-year rate.

The March and April meetings are on Sunday the 20th and Tuesday the 12th respectively.  Alternatively, the May meeting should be a weekend.  NESFA is meeting on the 8th, and I am not sure of my availability on the weekend of the 15th.  However, the 22nd would be just ducky.

Moved to set May meeting to 2pm on the 22nd, on Zoom.

[passed unanimously]

Questions for eboard: Vivian asks about clerk, treasurer, IT functions (unreliable email). More about late Mentors and other paperwork. Claudia addressed but didn’t solve clerk inaction. The Corp Communications committee was mentioned. Mike Tatroe responded re IT that Ben Levy is still actively IT-ing. Discussion of whether MPA as treasurer has been totally absent. Nobody is certain but it seems likely they have been totally absent. Michelle W. is reaching out to them.

Vice President Report

None

Treasurer’s Report  

None

Clerks Report

Promised to work on getting better organized, will check to see if the Massachusetts reports can be finished

Committee reports:

Arisia 2021:

 None

Arisia 2022 Convention:

The Saturday night dance raised $736 for BAGLY. (Vivian will tweet that good news.)

Arisia 2022 Treasury:

Cate: no baby yet. Baby soon! The books will close by March 9, and she will have a written submission for the March corporate meeting. Cate thinks we spent a few thousand more dollars than phi summarized, that can’t be passed along to Arisia ‘23. Really, the deadline has passed for expenses, but get them in NOW and Cate will do what she can.

 CIC: 

Stuff is going to and from Boskone. Storage organizing session March 5 noon-4 pm Rick’s previous email.

ARC:

We had a meeting and talked about many available resources. We want to publicize things like the SNAP program more. 

Vivian is working on an idea (in its infancy) that it would be good if someone documented across convention years: social media, program descriptions, souvenir book, pocket program with an eye to whether this presents Arisia as the equitable community that it is our goal to be. Ilene notes that there was once a diversity committee independent of programming, and that there is also a process programming uses. Michelle’s concern is a lack of people points for that documentation process. Vivian’s thought is re what we can take up now when convention organizing isn’t as intense, that might save time during prime Arisia season. Michelle’s concern is that what people are doing between Arisia seasons might be running other conventions.

Old Business: 

None

New Business:  

It was asked if Arisia has filed the necessary form 990 with the IRS or the necessary forms with the state of Massachusetts. Rick Kovalcik has agreed to look into this and report back to the corporation. He was able to research this during the meeting and confirmed the reports had not been filed.

Announcements

• March meeting is: Sunday March 20 at 2 pm
• April meeting is Tuesday April 12 at 7pm
• May meeting is Sunday May 22 at 2pm
• Virtual Boskone does not have an Arisia fan table. David Silber asks if anyone wants to staff it–he can connect you to the right people.
• Team Arisia for the BARCC walk exists again, as does the walk. Please walk or donate!

Membership List 

This membership list is current as of 4:00 PM on 09/07/2021. Please report any corrections to clerk@arisia.org. Names in bold have renewed or joined for 2021-22. Names in italics are non-voting members.

This list is out of date! Please review and notify me if you have renewed your membership and are not listed as renewed. I can be reached via my arisia email  at-large@arisia.org 

Daniel R. Abraham

Vivian Abraham

Wendee Abramo

Joseph Andelman

Inanna Arthen

Julia Austein

Priscilla Ballou

E.J. Barnes

Fred Bauer

Rob Bazemore

James Boggie

Bridget Boyle

Anna Bradley

Jonathan Breindel

Nicholas Brown

Marc Brunco

Shen C

Brendon Chetwynd

Adama Cohn

Brian Cooper

Heather Cougar

Tom Coveney

Elizabeth Crefin

David D'Antonio

Regis Donovan

Kitra Drago

Kaiden Drew

Jan Dumas

Daniel Eareckson

etana

Kelly Fabijanic

Sabina Fecteau

Allison Feldhusen

Jennifer Fitzsimmons-Gauger

Dan Franklin

Jaime Garmendia

Lisa Goldstein

Orlit Groeschler

Erik H

Lisa Hertel

Sol Houser

Diana Hsu

Crystal Huff

Lenore Jean Jones

Rachel Kadel

Melissa Kaplan

Terry Karney

Rick Kovalcik

Chris Lahey

Alex Latzko

Jodie Lawhorne

Henry Leong

Benjamin Levy

Megan Lewis

Ken London

Glenn MacWilliams

Claudia Mastroianni

Will McMain

Penelope Messier

Erik Meyer-Curley

Daniel Miller

Elliott Mitchell

Hope Moore

Alex Morgan

Skip Morris

Lia Olsborg

Kris Pelletier

Melissa "MPA" Perreira-Andrews

Karen Purcell

Danielle Reese

Shannon Reilley

Kim Riek

Noel Rosenberg

Andy Rosequist

Mink Rosequist

A. Joseph Ross

Sharon Sbarsky

Richard Schmeidler

Jason Schneiderman

Cate Schneiderman

JB Segal

Seph

Nicholas "phi" Shectman

Cris Shuldiner

Rachel Silber

David Silber

Mike Sprague

Mary Stock

Sandy Sutherland

Rachel Tanenhaus

Maria Taranov

Ilene Tatroe

Mike Tatroe

Gail Terman

Emily Tersoff

Persis Thorndike

Dan Toland

Dorothy Trachtenberg

Ed Trachtenberg

Melia Vaden

Conor Walsh

Tanya Washburn

Alan Wexelblat

Michelle Wexelblat

Nightwing Whitehead

Executive Board - eboard@ 

Committees 

Storage Keyholders - keys@arisia.org 

Current keyholders are: Julia Austein, Fred Bauer, Lisa Hertel, Diana Hsu, Rick Kovalcik, Paul Kraus, Benjamin Levy, Skip Morris, Dan Noé, Kris Pelletier, Kristin Seibert, Nicholas “phi” Shectman, David Silber, Al *Hobbit* Walker, Ellie Younger

Subscription and Dues Information 

Subscription to Mentor is included with corporate membership. Corporate membership runs from September 1st to August 31st and requires a dues payment of $24. Dues are prorated on a monthly basis for members joining throughout the year. Requests for dues waivers may be submitted by email to the Executive Board at eboard@arisia.org.

Calendar

• March  Corporate Meeting: Sunday, March 20 at 2pm via Zoom
• April  Corporate Meeting: Tuesday, April 12 at 7pm via Zoom
• May Corporate Meeting: Sunday, May 22  at 2 pm via Zoom

Please also see https://corp.arisia.org/calendar.

Meeting adjourned at 7:41 PM.