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Mentor |
[Ed: the following notices appear to be
leftover from an earlier Mentor]
Sunday 26th October 2003 at MIT. Meeting called to order at 16:32 official Sprint time. The meeting was called to order by Nicholas Shectman in the absence of the President and Vice President. In Attendance Bridget Boyle, Lisa Hertel, Rick Kovalcik, Ben Levy, Tom Murphy, Nicholas Shectman, Carsten Tuner Proxies Skip Morris accepted by Tom Murphy, Rachel Silber accepted by Ben Levy, Walter Kahn accepted by Bridget, Noel Rosenberg accepted by Bridget. Corrections to the Minutes The clerk has been advised of the following: A correction to the minutes requested last month' motion to set policy, not otherwise, was fielded by Phi who asked if the folks who performed the action were present, the response being negative, Phi then tabled the request. President's Report/Eboard Report (Joel Herda) Not present. Vice President's Report/Grant Committee Report (Noel Rosenberg) Not present. |
Treasurer's Report (Nicholas Shectman) The new budget is due in November 2003. Clerk's Report:(Paul Selkirk) The clerk received a request for the publication of an HTML version of Mentor by Ben Levy. Mentor #126 was distributed to those present, all other copies to be mailed. Arisia '03 Report (Skip Morris) No report. Arisia '03 Treasury (Alex Latzko) We still hare not closed the books, no great weirdness there. We still have one bill left to pay that we can't pay because we don't have the address of the payee {Ed, Bryt forwarded the address later to the treasurer.] A small number of bounced checks haven't been resolved yet, at some point they'll he written off as not collectable. Arisia '04 Report (Carsten Turner) The budget has been sent. We need inure volunteers. There is a big hole in the staffing of the staff den, which needs to be filled. Lisa Hertel suggested recruiting Mike Trachtenherg to do the den. This was rejected on the grounds he does the Green Room and would need to be replaced there. Arisia '04 Treasury (Alex Latzko) There are roughly 440 registrations and bunch more that are being processed this weekend. Due to time skew we don't know what the current balance is as of the last deposit it was some 52,700, along with roughly $1,000 of charges to reconcile and put into the account. There is a budget proposal on the web which has row been available for three weeks. Mail announcing its availability was sent by Carsten on 9 October 2003. There is a budget proposal which has been on the web for 3 weeks; mail was sent out and no questions have come back. (the announcement went out 9 October) The motion was presented for vote and carried many to 2. Merv comment 'it s not a happy thing, in violation of sections 2.4 & 3.2 of the by-laws. Heavy discussion on the budget ensued, and is listed herein summary form, with the questioner listed, then the question, and the respondent and response. Lisa - can we do this by major categories? Chair -yes |
Lisa - do we know A03 actual's? Treasurer yes. Merv - 2035 guess of attendance, is that reasonable. Carsten yes. 1950 paid last year. Ben, request line item income for $40 (accepted as friendly amendment) Lisa question does the Saturday membership reflect reality. Proposed amendment to lower (Merv second). Friendly if Dresden Dolls are reality we'll leave it as is, otherwise reduce by 200 people for Saturday only. Phi - any comments on general structure of the budget. Lisa: Con corn news was the letter Skip produced, are you going to do so at all? Carsten - entirely likely will happen in month before con. Lisa: why is babysitting 1/10th ? Phi- things not need to be done by lawyer, which were done previously Phi -- General question about the state of the Operations line item. Lisa: Ops - need to add $100 info desk will ops get a phone. Merv asked about long distance, and it was left open. Merv what do we use paid security for: Carsten that was the paid security for hucksters, etc, and the uniformed BPD officer on Friday. Done as a response to the thefts from the A '02 dealers room. Phi: - General question about state of the Convention Services line item. Rick.-- comment - Line 70/71/79 - left overs from 02 budget. Lisa: what is the 250 for engineering? Alex: Arisia TV install. was out of chair's discretionary line in '03 Lisa: why are Sound/Lights up? Alex - normal inflation. Phi: General question about the state of the Member Services line item. Lisa: if there is fanzine lounge why a line item? Friendly amendment to remove line item, Carsten - there will be no fanzine lounge. Bridget: what is the babysitting line item? Alex - snacks and juice. Rick: why is babysitting up? Alex based on real numbers from A0'3 Rick: why is ASL down? Alex based on real numbers from A03. |
Lisa: Why no party seed fund? Phi - folded into Con Suite.
Ben, - yes
the con suite is up, has party seed and small inflation. Lisa - We shouldn't say the GOH has a Coke habit, it was noted and the amended, it says Coca-Cola. Merv -- what are the guests? Carsten - on the web site, there are special guests, a freedom guest and a filk guest. It was moved to set the comic book guest line to 0. Lisa: question about shipping on ART G014 setup and shipping, Carsten - its in as coverage, we're expecting it to be cheaper, Arthur Ganson has responded that he has crates and will transport in a rented U-Haul for the stuff he's bringing. lf we have a patron of Ganson's who's loaning us a piece. we may have to use an art moving company. - Lisa--- what about pipe and drape, Carsten-discussed with Buzz. going on banquet tables. Do we have insurance. No motion to amend Phi -- General question about Marketing Expenses No comments were heard Phi -- General question about Publications Lisa~ Will there be a program grid? Emergency 'pink sheets (noreacson talk)' otherwise known as the Trifold grid? Phi - Separate document intended to fit on one piece of paper. Bridget? - is someone doing it? Carsten - yes. Claudia Lisa - does this replace the pocket program? Unknown no, it does not. Lisa -- Will there be a color insert? Phi - if we sell enough advertising we will, only happens if it pays for itself Ben, at the con corn, we talked about the con newsletter. Should we add $5 to do a larger format. A discussion about pricing ensued finishing in a new line item- pub's large format program grid and newsletter $250 in the form of a friendly motion by Carsten. Lisa are we doing a Braille program ? Carsten - yes, we have access to a Braille printer, we should he getting it done for essentially zero. Lisa to Rick - how many requests for Braille, 0 per Rick. We had two copies total. Discussion ensued. Mew - what is the definition of line 148 -- it replaces line 147 in the spreadsheet, formatting error.. Rick - large print pocket program ? Carsten -- yes, we'll print 10 this year. Phi -- General question about Hotel Expense |
Lisa: Cots & Furniture rental - these are zero Rick - coat check Phi - we guaranteed the hotel 1500, we forked over 600. discussion of tuning by Phi. We now know the timing, so we can reduce the possible liability. Rick - point of info - disagreement over $ I/bag $2/bag we won, that is contractual. We will be getting a lower guarantee on the coat check. Motion by Carsten to chage itto 750, seconded, Not friendly by originator of motion. Put for discussion. Discsussion points: Could he better advertised, what if the:re is an early January Thaw and people dont' bring their coats. Needs better signage where was the coat check. Vote passes -change to 750 Phi discussion on Banquets: Merv - why is the gaming budget up? Alex -large amount of coffee. Coffee is $85/gallon loaded Lisa - meet the pro's doesn't use coffee, instead of having an art reception, we're having a combined art/meet parry to a lower total amount. Lisa- we should bump the ice cream budget, or get cheaper ice cream. Carsten - We are planning on getting a lower priced ice-cream via Joelll. Merv - suggestion, spend Garners to con suite Carsten -the garners won't leave their games. Lisa- suggestion, cut hours Gamer's have coffee. Provide six hours of coffee vs. eight hours of coffee. Comment - garners are a high income low overhead part of the convention. and a large block therein. Lisa asked that we try to measure wastage on cold coffee dumping for future planning. Phi - call the question. nothing more... Phi -- General question about the state of Exhibits Ben, wants to add a line item for dvd media rental. The amount of 50 was found to be a friendly amendment. Carsten - why was LARP cut to zero, Alex - $200 wouldn't make a dentin the LARP plan. Mew - do we pay corkage for the ice-cream 7 Phi - yes. Ben - off time Siggy, did you say we can borrow DVD players from your work? Alex - no, I said they're $85 we should by them as a corporate expense, the specific model in question would do multi-region. Ben - under art show mailing, does that include returns, Alex -yes. we do, 'art show shipping' Phi -- What is line 204? Do we pay off hotel 200 for ice-cream $750 |
Questions what is the $500 for big event. Overhead not paid
to the
hotel. Should we buy the PRO's drink chits? - yes Lisa - No junkyard wars? Robot wars? Carsten - Not yet resolved. Bai1- student writing contests were not under exhibits, Lisa - Why $100 for Rocky Horror? Do we pay for their parking? Should we just give them 2 hour hotel parking passes? How early do they come in? Carsten- they come in earlier than 10:00. They need time to setup. They're there for over two hours. Lisa - Are we doing cloisonne pins? Carsten .. Punt, no one has the cycles PHI -- General question about the state of Programming Men' - who's doing the LARP? Carsten - the LAPR is done by people doing it for Arisia. Phi - there are 2-3 LARPS, Carsten -- its no charge for Arisia attendees Lisa - what is 'infinite improbability drive' Alex - slush fund for the programming division. Lisa - What about the 50 for large print grid here ? Carsten -for ops staff Mary - asked for a budget snapshot. Alex replied can't he done in re-al time, the numbers have to he merged back in, Phi - 10 minute break to do the budget snapshot. after which the budget summary was posted to the blackboard. Budget posted to board Phi -- Request for thither commentary on the budget. Merv - highest income, 52G max income, inflation isn't that high. I.isa - we raised prices, Merv -- Request of Carsten on how comfortable he is with the budget. Carsten, its the thing that's not causing him to lose steep. Phi - before we go to a vote, its been pointed out we don't haive a good handle on '03. Should we defer? Alex - we have the total's, not income breakdown. Rick - better to get this behind us. we need to do better planning for the future, need better numbers earlier. Disappointed that all the division heads were not at attendance at the corporate meeting. Since no motion to table, any objection to calling the question. the question was posed, and passed with no dissent. |
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End of A04 treasury report. Convention chairman is metaphorically
dancing in the streets, This took the lion's share of the meeting time,
after which the rest of the committee reports were heard. A question was raised by Merv. If all committee's are dissolved, and not yet re-appointed, what are the reports coming from. There was no solid answer provided. Long Range Planning Committee LRP will provide written report. LRP meeting of 16 Dec needs to go in the calendar. 19:30 @ lazy-booklet inn. Rick meeting attendance is pretty poor. What's going on? Why aren't the people who should be here. How d we drum up interesting in both meetings and convention itself. BJB - meeting notices & meeting attendances.; Point of info - MERV where is the note about meeting planning. Lisa - under new business about scheduling meetings. Database Committee In statis, when Merv figures out what that means he'll have more to say. Presidents honor's committee. No report OLD BUSINESS: MOU with StoneKeep no new news Rick - repairing the cart, no news. Needs to be done before January. Ben, the cart is in storage. NEW BUSINESS: Request from Rick, do we have a set time fir the January meeting. Generally after the gripe session, it the whim of programming. Lisa - should we set the February meeting date. Merv wants to set a date. Motion: should we ask Boskone to schedule a meeting on Sunday. Merv would you need to have a Boskone membership - Lisa it would be scheduled after badge checking 7 for 3 against. ANNOUNCEMENTS Carsten: next A04 con com 14:00 9 November @ hotel All are welcome and encouraged to attend. Room at Hotel TBD. Rick moved to adjourn, Phi second. 18:27 |
[Editors Note: These are flowed in as received from Lisa since the Clerk is currently overloaded between work and a brand new baby. I send a big Thank You to Lisa for the notes]. Present: Skip, JoellI, Rick Kovalcik (host), Ben Levy, Carsten, Pat McCormack, Phi, Susan Mozzicato (sp?) (hostess), and Lisa I-Hertel. Meeting called to order at 8:30pm by Phi while Joelll ate some food: Joelll took over after the first vote. In Alex's absence, notes were taken by Lisa (why me?) Hertel. Proxies: Merv to Skip: Regis to Ben. (No restrictions mentioned.) Corrections to the minutes: There have been no minutes. so therefore they can't he corrected. Skip noted that there was a vote on the budget at the last meeting without due notice. The budget was neither published in Mentor. nor was there notice that it would be voted on. In addition, the people who did riot attend last meeting have yet to receive September's Mentor. Skip felt that people didn't show up to the last meeting because they believed the budget could not be legally voted. The purpose of Arisia's rules regarding notification is to provide people with an opportunity to attend meeting that matter to them. Therefore: MOVED, that the minutes be accepted with the provisos that a) the F-hoard be reminded that notification exists so that people can make an informed decision as to whether or not to attend meetings, and b) the Clerk is directed to repeat the budget presentation & summarize all relevant discussion at the December Corporate meeting. Seconded. Discussion: Discussion was lengthy. Ben worried about the convention's ability to act in the absence of' a budget, but Skip emphasized that the budget is not contested. Ben also noted that Men' protested the legality of the meeting last month. Carsten noted that some budget amendments would likely be made in the next month. Since the budget is valid, what good does a report do7 Also, it is possible that the Clerk may not be able to complete this task. Skip stated that he felt his corporate rights were denied, and he is seeking redress. Phi noted that the statement was directed to Alex as Clerk, not former Convention Treasurer. Joelll said that when a budget is approved, it is tagged as interim. Pat asked why the budget hadn't been done in the summer, as had been tradition. Rick noted that the bigger issue was that neither the current nor past Clerk sent out Mentor' in a timely fashion, and the Corporate website is grossly out-of-date. Skip commented that, in Arisia, people have lives (vs. FIAWOL). Ben asked that, assuming Mentor goes out, would |
merely publishing the budget (after the fact) be sufficient'? Lisa wondered if the Clerk was capable of the complete recall that the motion demands. Ben believed the recap to be a waste of time. Joelll suggested the convention look forward; it now has a new treasurer (Pat McCormack). Skip said that he desired to make a statement to be put on record--either follow the rules or change them. Lisa noted the budget link was posted on email; wasn't this notice? Skip argued that that wasn't sufficient for the rules, as not all corporate members have email (or read it regularly). Joelll notes that we can't make him be con treasurer, just Clerk. Motion PASSED, 5-4 However, the minutes still couldn't be accepted, there being none. Corporate Sales: (Phi) MSPU to set the price for "Powers of Two" by Tim Powers to $15, including tax, at-con, Dealer (wholesale) cost will be retail ($24) --40% (514.40) (non' taxable). Lisa Hertel will handle direct-to-Dealer sales. Lisa reported that the book was at the printer's, except the cover. (The cover was sent on 11/16.) Some suggestions were made regarding the cover, and it was asked that a final proof of the cover be sent to the Eboard. (Done.) It was noted that the book does not have any specialized states (signed, numbered, boxed, etc.), and that NESFA has verbally committed to buying back most or all of the leftovers. There are still delivery details to he worked out. Corporate Inventory Control: (Phi) The damaged pipe cart is being repaired by Special Purpose Vehicles (our neighbors). for a cost of not more than $200. Officer's Reports:President: No report.Vice President: No report (absent) Clerk: No report (absent). Treasurer: The quarterly taxes are- done and available for examination before being mailed off soon (they are due 11/15). We now use PayPal to accept monies from Ebay sales, and for convention registrations. We had to jump through some hoops to get a higher limit (vs. the $500 default). [At this point, Ben & Joelll left. Regis' proxy is lost; Ben gave his proxy to Carsten; Joelll declined to leave a proxy.] |
Arisia '03: (Skip) The person who was our designated videographer, John Floyd, is selling the Masquerade videos at an outrageous price of 525. Most con videos are under $20; CostumeCon's was $12 each, and the Noreascon 3 video is $15. Further, he never filled out the appropriate contract with Arisia. Phi suggested Skip refer the matter to the B-board. Arisia '04: (Carsten) Volunteers needed at all levels for all areas. Contact conchair@arisia.org. We have a new Treasurer, Pat McCormack; the signature cards are already done. Online Hotel registration and online convention registration, using PayPal, are now available. Skip reported 5 registrations on that day alone, He stated that online registration is working well, except for a few minor glitches with security & permissions. There was a concomm last week, and several more slated for the near future (see website). We still seek volunteers. Staff updates may be sent to staff-updates@arisia.org. Volunteer offers should be sent to the appropriate division or department heads. Information (info@arisia.org), and Carsten (con-chair@arisia.org). Generic offers may be sent to the division heads list (div-heads@arisia.org, which includes conchair) instead of a specific one, plus Information. MOVED to retroactively approve the rate extension ($30 to 11/7 not 10/31) given due to website difficulties. PASSED unanimously. Arisia '05: (Absent) $5.60 has been spent on invitation(s) to potential guest(s). Database: No report. (Merv absent.) Long Range Planning: No report. (The chairwoman is still pregnant.) Old Business: not taken up. New Business: (Skip) Cris reports that the machine which hosts arisia.org has been moved to a new site which charges hosting fees. Flu suggests we pay a part of these fees. MPU, to pay $15/month toward hosting fees. Announcements:Skip needs a job in networking--or he may need to move to Houston.MCFI Logistics (Rick) would like to be consulted regarding Arisia trucks to Lunacon, as a great deal of Stuff must come back. It was suggested they talk to the Lunarians, and also Lynx, who has a CDL license. MOVED & FAILED to set the date for the March meeting, or to cancel it. Meeting adjourned 9:26pm |