MinnStf Board Meeting - Tuesday, 18 May 1999 - 7:30pm - @Don Bailey's house Geri Sullivan Martin Schafer Polly Peterson Don Bailey Dean Gahlon Mitch Pockrandt Scott Raun Joyce Scrivener David Schroth Petra Agenda - Aussie party update - Copy printer - M33/M34 Financials - Fo' Paws update - Rune - Taxes (Dean) - M35 Update (see email to board) - Year financial plan - Einblatt Trim & Postcards - Hotline - Old bounced checks - Convergence wants to borrow art show panels - Geri-private topic w/Board - Aussiecon Party Update - They (A3) have a party czar, but nothing more known. Fo' Paws - Talked with Jane and Scott Dennis. Geri will get them files soon enough to have samples at Midwestcon (end of June). Gave go-ahead to continue selling M34 stuff. Geri still needs to talk to committee about Mpls'n'73 blimp on shirts. Question: Are there concerns about MinnStf logo and/or Blimp selling at distant conventions? Hotline - Elizabeth Bendtsen has the Hotline hardware figured out, and is now successfully updating the hotline. Apr.30 message did include at least three weeks of info. Einblatt - ~$130 per mailing is cost at current. Current mailing is 293 items. If Kinko's does the next one $126... - Next send one out with attached postage paid postcard (additional $79.10) to request confirmation of continuance. - If 10% drop, break-even in 6.3 months on saved costs. Decision: Go ahead and do for the June Einblatt mailed at the end of May. Dean: Taxes: - Form for extension has been mailed off. Dean has not yet talked with Judy G. about any remaining missing pieces. She should have Flashback (Reinconation account) information that he delivered. And needs to confirm that Linda L. has gotten all information in to Judy. - Action: Dean will ask Linda if she can get a final year financial report to the next board meeting in mid-June. Bounced Check Thing: - Mike Pins had given Margo and Susan info on unrecovered M33 bounced checks before M34. We need to find out which ones may still be outstanding. At this point M33 bounces have not been followed up on in the past 10 months. We need to followup with another more formal letter or two. Susan would like to followup after that with small claims court. - Past history: We have never done any such small claims. Martin: Reasonable to do so for larger amounts. Don: Probably not worth the effort since they can largely ignore us. ?:And there are filing fees and such that affect the cost of recovery to us. We don't want to lose the knowledge of who has active bounces on us. But we also want to be sure that it stays up to date as folks pay up. Minicon 33 made somewhere around $39,000, so we made up the lost reserves from the past year. (The income was basically the same as M32, so expenses were much better managed. Thank you, Glen Tennhoff and all of the M33 department heads who worked together to come in under budget.) M34 Hotel bill is mostly paid, tips are given, most big bills are paid, some committee reimbursements are still pending, we've turned over ~$5900 to MinnStf already for Visa charges... It currently looks like M34 will have $15,000 to turn over to MinnStf. Mike closed out the Riverside M33 account and got checks to Linda (MinnStf deposit) and Fred (to start M35 bank account). Susan and Fred will be in Australia during June, and M34 is not likely to be closed before they leave. Geri will be covering accounts while they are gone. MinnStf looks likes it is again in good financial shape (although we'll know more once Linda has a financial report worked up). [...and if we wanted, we almost have enough to seriously start budgeting for a Worldcon bid! The 73rd Worldcon is 2015. So the timing is about right.] Easter Discussions,... 2013's Easter.... Calculation differences for 2000... Artificial Full Moon and Artificial Equinox... Why does Dean suddenly feel like a forester?? M35 Update: - Do we (board) have any questions for M35? (See recent email from Geri.) - What number should M35 be shooting for as directed profit to MinnStf. [This will become an email discussion for next month.] Copy Printer: - Is it time to do this now, now that our finances are back in shape? - $6000 new, $4000 used for what we've been looking at. We've rented these for the past couple of minicons. Last year $500 rent, used for pocket program book, Bozo Bus, restaurant guide, etc. Cost was about $.015 per side/page. - Useful for Einblatt? Current cost of Einblatt is about $.10 each. - Useful for Minicon PR's and other pubs? Mailing is expected to be ~4000 for M35. Two mailings planned. Work parties may be extended as a result from 1-2 parties/mailing to 2-3 parties/mailing. - Where would it live, and how would it move from place to place? It would need to be accessible to those who need to use it. - ACTION: - Maintenance Contract Costs? - How long of a life do we plan for this? How long will parts and service be available? - Where? (An arrangement with someplace like Dreamhaven?) Payback period? We are feeling generally predisposed toward it, but would need further numbers, and want to discuss further details. Convergence: - ...want to borrow art show panels. Yes! We charged Marscon a $10 for rental. Let's do the same for Convergence. If this is going to be ongoing use between three or four conventions, we need to coordinate maint activities between everyone using them. We probably need some more material for parts of the setup. - ACTION: - Yes. Arrange through Lydia for storage locker access. David Wilford may have smaller hardware. They have to provide their own duct tape! Geri will followup with Convergence. Rune - next time for sure! Year Financial Plan: - Martin: We should visit what our ongoing expenses are, and make current assessments. - We need the Treasurer involved as well with a current report. - ACTION: Don will also talk to Linda as well. (See Dean above.) Margo reports that a place we used in the past for T-shirts has screens of our art on file. Martin: Would someone be willing to check all of the places we've and document which of them still have screens? Would we use them? ACTION: Margo to do followup for further details. Who? What do they have? What kinds of print runs would be needed to print more stuff. Next Meeting: June! 18-June-1999, Friday, 7pm at the Don and Margo's. Bulk Mail Fee is due June 19, 1999. Fee is $100. - Geri will get it to Linda for payment. - Status: We have $147.xx left over in our postage due account, which is not enough for another major mailing. (Box 8297 account) (What about Box 8583?)