The 2007-2008 membership year started on September 1.  This issue is only going to those who have current memberships.  Please see page 4 for the current membership list.  Dues can be paid to the treasurer by check or by PayPal to paypal@arisia.org.

 

The next corporate meeting is 7:30 PM on Tuesday November 27 at the NESFA Clubhouse in Somerville.  Directions are on page 5 of this issue and more detailed directions and maps are online at http://www.nesfa.org/clubhouse.

 

The quorum for the next meeting is 14 based on 51% of the average attendance of the last three meetings (28, 26, 24).

 

 

Date, Time, and Place
The meeting was called to order 2:35 PM on October 21^st, 2007 at Mary Dumas’ home in Tewksbury.  Minutes taken and submitted by Rick Kovalcik.

 

In Attendance (28)
Rob Bazemore, Bridget Boyle, Samantha Dings, Janice Dumas, Mary Dumas, Don Eastlake, Jill Eastlake, Tracy Gangwer, Brendan Hertel, Lisa Hertel, Lisa Holsberg, Crystal Huff, September Isdell, Allan Kent, Rick Kovalcik, Zanne Labonville, Benjamin Levy, Skip Morris, Susan Mozzicato, Tom Murphy, Noel Rosenberg, Sharon Sbarsky, Nicholas Shectman, Cris Shuldiner, Rachel Silber, Mike Sprague, Pat Vandenberg, Conor Walsh, and Helen Francini (non-member).

[The quorum for the next meeting is 14 based on 51% of the average attendance of the last three meetings (28, 26, 24).]

 

Proxies
Walter Kahn to Jill Eastlake, Persis Thorndike to Donald Eastlake, Karen Purcell to Jill Eastlake, Pete Thomas to Tom Murphy, David D’Antonio to Samantha Dings, Steve Huff to Crystal Huff, Alex Latzko to Ben Levy, Janet Stickle to Ben Levy, Bridget Boyle (when she left) to Tracy Gangwer, Skip Morris (when he left) to Rob Bazemore, Lisa Holsberg (when she left) to Mike Sprague, Zanne Labonville (when she left) to Don Eastlake.

 

Corrections to the Minutes
None.

 

Eboard Report
Motion to hold the February Corporate Meeting at 2 PM on 24 February at Crystal Huff’s home in Somerville, to cancel the March meeting, and to hold the April meeting at 7:30 PM on Thursday 3 April at NESFA.  Note that Feb. 24 is opposite NonCon and Total Confusion but there are likely to be conflicts almost any weekend.  Moved and seconded to amend to hold February at MIT instead.  The discussion centered around the difficulty getting out of the city for people without cars versus the increased attendance at meetings like this one outside of the city.  Amendment Fails.  Main Motion Passed.

 

The Executive Board received a request from Philcon to borrow the cyc, some pipe and drape, and a hand truck.  We have already asked Skip to adjust the fireproofing schedule of the drape to make this possible.  The Eboard voted to approve lending tech equipment to Philcon, inventory to be performed by David Silber and/or Persis Thorndike and logistics to be performed and paid for by Philcon.

 

The Executive Board was asked to fund hotel rooms for college groups (as was done in 2006) as there is no money for it in the convention budget.  The Eboard voted NOT to ask the corporation to allocate $1600 to fund four hotel rooms for three nights each for student groups.

 

The Executive Board recommends the membership approve a motion to set as policy: "Contact information for individuals (for instance, in MENTOR) should not be posted to the Web in searchable text form unless requested otherwise." with the understanding that this is a going-forward policy and that image blocks are sufficiently unsearchable.  There was discussion about whether this included directions.  It was ruled that directions would be split as a separate motion.  The original question was called.  Motion passed.

 

Motion to set policy that directions should not be posted to the Web in searchable text form.  Seconded.  It was pointed out that it is sometimes convenient to be able to cut and paste from the directions to print them out in larger format.  Motion failed.

 

MSP to refer a policy on directions to the Eboard.

 

MSP to refer what to do about past Mentors and existing web material to the Eboard (and take it away from the Archive Committee).

 

In January 2009, it appears that the Hyatt may have up to 150 guest rooms offline due to renovations. They are still very interested in hosting us. The 2009 convention chair has informed us that she would consider a move disruptive if it were to a facility that was not clearly superior.  It may be that we have options that would justify a move, perhaps even including a move downtown (with a date change for 2010).  MOVED: to direct the Executive Board to bring a 2009 hotel contract to the corporation for approval as soon as possible, and no later than the December corporate meeting.  MSP to go into committee of the whole.  MSP to set time for discussion to 30 minutes.  Various discussions about constraints.  Phi asked for a show of hands of who thought we could still hold the convention at the Hyatt even with 150 rooms offline.  The majority seemed to think so.  Perhaps we should see what our options are and then go to the Hyatt and try to get them to work with us.  MSP to extend time for 5 minutes to allow Jill to speak:

It’s important to know all our options before we go back to the Hyatt making demands of them.  We should only threaten to leave there if there are reasonable alternative sites.  It’s important to have some continuity in hotels, and we need to consider future years as well as 2009.  Breaking in a hotel for the first year is very disruptive for both the hotel and for the convention.  I am prepared to take the hit of moving if it is best for the convention overall.  I’d like to go to a larger hotel in downtown Boston if we can get a multi-year contract.  If that doesn’t happen, I would consider Providence as a viable option.  And, given some leeway at the Hyatt with their construction schedule and their help in finding a manageable overflow hotel, we should go back there.  Putting one or two big ticket items in the overflow hotel could get very expensive, so proposals with that in them aren’t very attractive to me.

This seemed to more or less summarize the consensus of the meeting.  MSP to extend time for 20 more minutes.  MSP to go out of committee of the whole.  Moved from committee of the whole to authorize the Eboard to report back to the Corporation but to sign a contract if it advantageous to sign rather than to wait for a meeting.  Motion passed.

 

We may cancel the November corporate meeting and instead hold an open Executive Board meeting at that time and place (November 27, 7:30, NESFA).  Please check your email and possibly USMail for an announcement.

 

Eboard voted to say "Thanks but no thanks" to a key to Andy Bressen's mailbox at 561 Windsor St.  We will return the key to building management.

 

President’s Report
Moved to merge the Tech and CIC committees.  Passed unanimously.

Moved to disband the Corporate Sales and Survey committees.  Passed unanimously.

I don't think we need a motion to say that the current Relaxacon committee replaces the previous Relaxacon Investigation committee.

Moved to create an Information Technology committee to replace the Corporate Sysadmin function.  Passed unanimously.

Committee appointments are as follows:

Archives:  Ben Levy, Rick Kovalcik, Samantha Dings, Susan Mozzicato ... more (and a chair selection) coming

Budget:  Ben Levy (chair), Don Eastlake, Cris Shuldiner, Alex Latzko

Bylaws Cleanup:  Ben Levy, Rob Bazemore, Tom “Merv” Murphy (chair), Rick Kovalcik, Skip Morris

CIC:  Al “Hobbit” Walker, Rick Kovalcik, Skip Morris, Lisa Hertel ... more (and a chair selection) coming

Grant:  Crystal Huff (chair), Mike Sprague, Noel Rosenberg, September Isdell

Honors:  Rachel Silber, Rick Kovalcik (chair)

Hotel Search:  Ben Levy, Janet Stickle (chair), Rick Kovalcik, Skip Morris ... more coming

IT:  Cris Shuldiner, Lisa Holsberg (chair), John Francini, Dave Belfer-Shevett, Alex Latzko, Tracy Gangwer

Long Range Planning:  unpopulated until it has business

Timeline:  Rachel Silber (chair), Skip Morris, Lisa Hertel ... more coming

 

Vice-President’s Report
No report.

 

Treasurer’s Report
I have some information summarizing how we spent money over the last year.  This will be printed in Mentor.  At the current rate of expenditure and we have enough money on hand to cover budgeted and previously approved expenses without touching the rainy day fund.  If we start spending at a much higher rate we will need to raid the rainy day fund.  There was a question about what we need to do to take money out of the Rainy Day Fund.  Motion from the floor to refer this question to Budget Committee.  It was ruled that this was out of order and should be made under new business.

 

Clerk’s Report
There are a couple of people in attendance whose membership has lapsed.  Please pay up.  Dues are currently $22.  Please check the attendance list that is being passed around.

 

Honors Committee
The two new baby cards discussed last week have been sent out thanks to Rachel.

 

A’07 Treasurer’s Report
Pending final collection of outstanding hotel bills, the final amount transferred to the corporate account from Arisia 2007 is $8350 which includes the outstanding hotel balances.

The outstanding amount from hotel bills is $1,309.22.  The Con Chair has been apprised of the specifics to assist in collections. Once these monies are collected the seed will be back to the normal amount.

The breakdown of the transfer is:

$8,350 - transfer amount

$5,000 - profit from convention

$3,350 - correction as noted below

There is an accounting issue that neither Ben nor I can fully confirm involving a double transfer between accounts buried in a bulk move which we have forensically determined to have been double debited.  This is the money for the bus service, which was originally paid by a corporate check, and reimbursed from the convention account, and then moved back to the convention account as part of a column summation in Excel.

The budgeted amount of $9,720 was transferred to the corporate account in January 2007. Sales taxes from the Art show were paid in a timely fashion.

A budget breakdown will be produced sometime in the next couple of weeks.  Sorry folks, since the last meeting we've had two cases of pneumonia at the Lazy-Booklet Inn which put us behind schedule.

 

A’08 Report
If you haven’t made your hotel reservation already, you should because the hotel is quickly filling up.

 

A’08 Treasurer’s Report
More money is coming in than going out :-)

Net income as of Oct. 15th was $13,768 (excludes seed and after PayPal and credit card processing fees).

Expense reports received as of Oct. 15th total $2,515 of which about half is Guest of Honor travel expenses.

The budget over estimated Art Show income because it over estimated the number of tables; however, the budget also over estimated the cost of GoH transport. In both cases, the budget seems to be about $800 off so these cancel each other out.

The Restaurant Guide is currently under Marketing in the budget but organizationally it should be under Publications. Moved, to amend the budget to move the Restaurant Guide expenses from Marketing to Publications.  Passed.

 

Relaxacon Report
There are two people who have volunteered to help with food.  We are looking for parents interested in helping with children.  Mary is looking for someone to run registration.  It was clarified that volunteers should be encouraged to (pay and) attend the Relaxacon but that it is open to all.

 

A '09 Conchair Report

Jill Eastlake passed out a DRAFT of A’09 Flyer.  Her Writer Guest of Honor is Walter H. Hunt.  Her Artist Guest of Honor is Dave Seeley.  Her Fan Guests of Honor are Ricky & Karen Dick.  See the flyer for more on them.  These are all the Guests of Honor she intends to have.

I have actually appointed a few people...

I'd like to particularly thank Bridget Boyle who has been working on the flyer with me for a few weeks so far.  As you can see, it's pretty awesome!

The current webmaster team has agreed to continue to master the web for 2009. I believe that is Lisa Jasra Holsberg, Dave Belfer-Shevett, Ben Levy, and now John Francini. If I've left anyone off, please let me know.

Others are encouraged - and this means YOU - to tell me what you'd like to do working on the convention. It is my intention to keep a list of volunteers, what they'd like to do, and then start making appointments after Arisia '08. No appointments will be made before their time!

It is my intention to flatten the organization. So, please keep this in mind when volunteering. As to how flat it will be - I don't know yet.

I am particularly interested in finding a secretary to take and publish notes of meetings. The person will also make sure that all groups within the convention who need information (ops and information for the most obvious two) get that information before the convention starts. The sooner this position is filled, the better.

Dates for all open convention committee meetings will be announced as soon as a hotel contract has been signed - allowing us to schedule meetings at the hotel. I hope to do this real soon now.

The Arisia '08 debrief will be held on Sunday, January 27, 2008, 2pm at the usual place at MIT.

Moved to change policy to extend the student rate to “High School” as well as College Students.  Motion from the floor to amend to change the policy to “13 to 25 with Student ID” as Fast Track is targeted at up to 12 years old.  Amendment passes.  Moved to table pending discussion of a policy to require adult supervision.  Motion to table fails.  After more discussion the main motion as amended passed.

 

Bylaws Cleanup Committee Report
We are still working but have reached consensus on a change to 6.4   The change to 6.4 as printed in Mentor was read:  Within the scope of [ADD these bylaws,] corporate policy and the authorized budget, the chairperson of each Arisia Convention is responsible for administrating the convention and has full authority to make staff and fiscal decisions, which decisions are subject to review by the Executive Board and the Membership.  It passed unanimously.

 

CIC Report
Skip has been meeting with the insurance adjuster to work out a settlement for the Gentle Giant fire.  He needs statements of hours worked from those who helped with the cleanup.  Our drape has been out for cleaning and will cost about $430.  Fireproofing will cost about $600.  We might also have to pay for pressing.  Moved to cover the costs up $1500.  Passed.  Robin finished fixing our drape.  We now have 100 running feet of usable drape.  We have already allocated purchasing another 40 running feet of drape.  Skip is working with Jill to see what drape we need for this Arisia.  It appears that we could use up to 152 running feet of drape.  We are still looking into options.

 

Old Business
None.

 

New Business
MSF to close the A’07 books and refer any outstanding business to the Corporation.

 

MSP to refer the matter of the policy on snow fund to the Budget Committee.

 

Moved to make the Relaxacon free for all volunteers who work more than N hours.  Seconded.  Motion to refer this to a new committee to be called Volunteer Appreciation Committee.  Amendment to ask the committee to specify how any new incentives will be funded.  Amendment passed.  Motion to refer passed.

 

MSF to close the A’07 books as of the next corporate meeting and refer any outstanding business to the Corporation.

 

Announcements
The 501^st is marching on 10/28 in Woburn.  Flyers are not allowed.

Smofcon registration rate goes up $10 in 10 days.

The A’08 Info Desk is looking for additional volunteers.

 

Future Meetings
ConCom meeting Monday November 12 at 7 PM at the Hyatt.

Corporate meeting Tuesday November 27 at 7:30 PM at the NESFA Clubhouse in Somerville - we may vote to cancel this next month depending on what business is expected / pending.

Corporate meeting Saturday December 15 at 4 PM at Chez Wood, aka Kovalcik-Mozzicato in Newton Centre – potluck; details to be announced.

Corporate meeting Sunday January 20 at the Cambridge Hyatt at some time and room to be determined by the ConCom.

Arisia ’08 Debrief Sunday January 27 at 2 PM at MIT building 66 first floor.

Corporate meeting Sunday February 24 at 2 PM at Crystal Huff’s home in Somerville.

March corporate meeting is cancelled.

Corporate meeting Thursday April 3 at 7:30 PM at NESFA Clubhouse in Somerville.

 

The meeting was adjourned at 5:30 PM.

 

 

 

October 1, 2007			Change from last month
Even Year - A08		$12,200.26	$4,692.73
Odd Year - A07		$9,896.46	$802.08
Corporate
Reserved
$3,000 N4 Grant  (unspent)	$1,246.93		$0.00
Grant Fund	$1,000.00		$0.00
Two years expenses (CDs)	$28,615.92		$104.37
Voted Expenses  (excludes budget)	$3,612.84		$0.00
Total Reserved		$34,475.69	$104.37
Unallocated Funds		$717.34	-$331.13
Total Corporate Funds		$35,193.03	-$226.76

 

Fiscal Year: July 1, 2006- June 30, 2007			Change from last year
Even Year		$6,003.77	-$10,734.17
Odd Year		$5,809.78	-$5,267.88
Corporate
Reserved
$3,000 N4 Grant  (unspent)	$1,246.93		-$857.16
Grant Fund	$4,000.00		$0.00
Two years expenses (CDs)	$28,307.28		$307.28
Voted Expenses  (excludes budget)	$3,362.84		$3,362.84
Total Reserved		$36,917.05	$2,812.96
Unallocated Funds		$8,146.71	-$5,910.00
Total Corporate Funds		$45,063.76	-$6,861.38
Total Assets		$56,877.31	-$2,361.15

 

 

Bylaws Committee is proceeding apace. We have almost come to an agreement on the wording of the first of several proposals to amend the Bylaws.

 

The members of the Committee have identified two additional Bylaws that bear review, and we therefore ask the President to add the following to our charge:

 

To review Article I, Section 1.1, "Classes of Membership" and Section 1.4, untitled by pertaining to Dues.

 

To review Article V, Section 5.1, regarding Committees.

 

We hope to have substantial results prior to the January Corporate Meeting.

 

 

 

This is the current membership roster as of November 19, 2007.  Bold indicates members paid up through August 2008.  Italic indicates honorary members.

 

Lisa Adler-Golden	Allan Kent
Aaron Agassi	Rick Kovalcik
Rob Bazemore	’Zanne Labonville
Dave Belfer-Shevett	Alex Latzko
Michael Bergman	Ben Levy
Bridget Boyle	Glen McWilliams
Tom Coveney	Skip Morris
David D’Antonio	Susan Mozzicato
Samantha Dings	Tom Murphy (Merv)
Jan Dumas	Pam Ochs
Mary Dumas	Shelia Oranch
Don Eastlake	James Pinkerton
Jill Eastlake	Karen Purcell
Tom Fish	Mary Robison
John Francini	Noel Rosenberg
Tracy Gangwer	Sharon Sbarsky
Nichole Gosselin	Nicholas Shectman (Phi)
Joel Herda	Cris Shuldiner
Brendan Hertel	Rachel Silber
Lisa Hertel	Mike Sprague
Christina Hodge	Janet Stickle
Lisa Holsberg (Jasra)	Pete Thomas
Crystal Huff	Persis Thorndike
Steve Huff	Carsten Turner
September Isdell	Pat Vandenberg
Jeanne Kahn	Conor Walsh
Walter Kahn	Michael Whitehouse

 

 

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	Keyset	Holder
1	Joel Herda	13	Persis Thorndike
2	Alex Latzko	14	Lisa Hertel
3	Skip Morris	15	Ben Levy
4	Carsten Turner	16	Rachel Silber
5	Skip Morris	17	Lisa Holsberg
6	Phi	18 spare	September Isdell
7	Michael Bergman	19 spare	Skip Morris
8	Rick Kovalcik	20 spare	Rick Kovalcik
9	September Isdell	21	Jill Eastlake
10	Hobbit	22	Noel  Rosenberg
11	Landlord	23-26 spares	Rick Kovalcik
12	Janet Stickle

 

 

Archives (chair pending) Samantha Dings Rick Kovalcik Ben Levy Susan Mozzicato	Hotel Search Janet Stickle (chair) Rick Kovalcik Ben Levy Skip Morris
Budget Ben Levy (chair) Don Eastlake Alex Latzko Cris Shuldiner	Information Technology Lisa Holsberg (chair) Dave Belfer-Shevett John Francini Tracy Gangwer Alex Latzko Cris Shuldiner
Bylaws Cleanup Tom “Merv” Murphy (chair) Rob Bazemore Rick Kovalcik Ben Levy Skip Morris	Relaxacon Mary Dumas (chair)
Corporate Inventory Control / Tech (chair pending) Lisa Hertel Rick Kovalcik Skip Morris Al “Hobbit” Walker	Timeline Rachel Silber (chair) Lisa Hertel Skip Morris
Grant Crystal Huff (chair) September Isdell Noel Rosenberg Mike Sprague	Long Range Planning (vacant)   Survey (vacant)

 

President	Arisia 2007Conchair
Vice President	Arisia 2007 Treasurer
Treasurer	Arisia 2008 Conchair
Clerk	Arisia 2008 Treasurer
	Arisia 2009 Conchair

 

 

 

Location:  NESFA Clubhouse, 504 Medford St., Somerville, 617-625-2311

 

More detailed directions and maps are available online at http://www.nesfa.org/clubhouse.  There is unlimited free on-street parking after 6 pm and on Sunday (one hour limit with meters at other times), and you can park in back by turning down Lowell and going in the first driveway on the left.

 

From the West, the easiest route is to take Rt. 2 to Alewife and then head north (left) on the Alewife Brook Parkway for about a half mile. Turn right onto Broadway. Follow Broadway about a mile and a half.

Take Medford St. where it forks off to the right at Magoun Sq. (Dunkin Donuts on right) and it's just a bit over a block on the right.

 

From Cambridge, take Prospect St. out of Central Sq to Union Sq in Somerville. Go west out of Union Sq along Somerville Ave until you come to Central St. Turn right onto Central and go to Medford St. (the second traffic light). Turn left onto Medford and the Clubhouse is between 4 and 5 blocks on the left.

 

From the North and East, get on Medford St. from McGrath highway (Mass 28) and follow it to Lowell St.

You could also get on Broadway going west and then make a hairpin left onto Medford where they join at Magoun Sq.

 

By MBTA, the NESFA clubhouse is served by MBTA bus routes 80, 89, and 101 which pass through or near Magoun Square—a block from the clubhouse:

80 Arlington Center—Lechmere Station (Green Line)

89 Clarendon Hill—Sullivan Square Station (Orange Line)

101 Malden Center Station (Orange Line)—Sullivan Square Station (Orange Line) (goes near Magoun Square)

 

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.

 

 

 

Corporate meeting Tuesday November 27 at 7:30 PM at the NESFA Clubhouse in Somerville.

Corporate meeting Saturday December 15 at 4 PM at Chez Wood, aka Kovalcik-Mozzicato in Newton Centre – potluck; details to be announced.

Corporate meeting Sunday January 20 at the Cambridge Hyatt at some time and room to be determined by the ConCom.

Arisia ’08 Debrief Sunday January 27 at 2 PM at MIT building 66 first floor.

Corporate meeting Sunday February 24 at 2 PM at Crystal Huff’s home in Somerville.

March corporate meeting is cancelled.

Corporate meeting Thursday April 3 at 7:30 PM at NESFA Clubhouse in Somerville.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

ARISIA, Incorporated

PMB 322, Building 600

1 Kendall Square

Cambridge MA  02139