Feb 6, 2016, 2pm, at Scott Raun's house. Board members attending: Matt Strait (by phone), Scott Raun, Lydy Nickerson, Ann Totusek. Kevin Austin is sick and not here. Non-board members: Irene Raun. Matt Strait taking minutes. == Approve previous minutes == Approved! Lydy notes that she was a zombie at the previous meeting. == Review TODO list == * "Ann will, at the appropriate time, contact DD-B and Corwin, find out how Beyond Conventions' finances are structured, and negotiate a payment plan with Corwin if appropriate." See below section on Minicon 50. * "Lydy will follow up with Beth about whether and how the 2014 taxes were filed." Lydy asked for clarification, Scott provided, Lydy will ask Beth on Monday. (We thought they had been filed, but the IRS sent us a letter saying we hadn't. Our taxes are really easy to file, but still need to be done.) Back to TODO! * "Scott will hand-deliver the copies of the Ameriprise paperwork to Charles at Ameriprise." Scott says that the copies are not deliverable because a cat vomited on them. Scott will generate new paperwork between the next two Minnstf meetings and deliver them after the pool party. * "Scott will make sure that the 2014 taxes get filed after Lydy follows up with Beth." Back to TODO! * "Ann will work on updating the M50 policies and departments document for M51. Ann will talk to Matt about her current draft." Ann has opted to copy the M50 document exactly except to add information on accessibility. * "Lydy and/or Ann will draft and send an e-mail to the University of Iowa about tapes." Lydy says "yeaaaaaah, we'll do that..." Ann asks Lydy if they can work on it this afternoon. They agree. Back to the TODO list! * "Lydy will put together an informational packet for new board members." Lydy says: Haven't done much more after the previous draft. Matt: are we going to put this on the wiki? Is there anything in it that can't be public? Not right now, but we can always include a pointer to confidential stuff. We agree that the bulk of it (currently all of it) will go on the wiki. Back to the TODO list! * "Lydy will send Dean the now-definitely-approved Mnstf meeting info e-mail." Lydy thinks she did that, but will double check. Back to the TODO list! * Scott asked Carol for a report of Minnstf finances so we can set an M52 profit target, and we got it (see below). * Matt announced on natter that we want people to report to the quartermaster, Joel, what things they have of Minnstf's. Matt also asked Dean to announce this at a few meetings. * Scott let Hershey know to look for the new blank Ameriprise paperwork in the PO box. * Scott followed up with DD-B about Spideroak. * Scott talked with DD-B about fixing the wiki. It got fixed! == Review Recurring Task List == We haven't been able to do this agenda item for a while because the wiki was down. As partial protection against future wiki outages, here is a copy of the list as it currently is: Proposals for future Minicons: Due to the board by January 31, approximately 14 months before the proposed convention. Proposals for next year's Fallcon: Due to the board by February 15, approximately 8 months before the proposed convention. ASCAP: Due March 31(?) for previous year. To be done by the MnStf Treasurer at the direction of the board. Voting meeting: The Membership Secretary (currently, Laura Krentz) and outgoing President (currently, Dean Gahlon) should make arrangements for nomination and voting meetings. The voting meeting must happen before March 31, typically before Minicon. There are two nominating meetings that must happen before then. Officers: Chosen by the new board at the voting meeting or as soon as possible thereafter. Names and positions of officers should be submitted to the MnStf Webmaster (currently David Dyer-Bennet). Minicon preliminary finances: Due to the board within one month after convention. That report should include gross income, gross profit, and amount given to the board. Final finances should be available within three months, or an explanation of extenuating circumstances. Taxes: Due April 15 (technical drop-dead date is May 15). At this point, we only have to file the "postcard," and that can be done online. Beth Friedman filed online in 2013 for calendar year 2012, and has the login. In theory, the Treasurer (currently Carol Kennedy) is in charge of seeing that such happens. Annual renewal with the Minnesota Secretary of State for Minnesota Science Fiction Society: Should be done by December 1 or earlier, though the actual deadline is December 31. This is the current link to do so: http://mblsportal.sos.state.mn.us/Business/SearchDetails?filingGuid=5c 18cf48-aed4-e011-a886-001ec94ffe7f. Done by Beth Friedman for 2014. Solicitations for the next year's Fallcon: Both at and immediately after Fallcon. Fallcon preliminary finances: Due to the board within one month after convention. That report should include gross income, gross profit, and amount given to the board. Final finances should be available within three months, or an explanation of extenuating circumstances. Solicitations for future Minicons: Due early November, approximately 17 months before the convention to be proposed. To be done by a board member (secretary?) (currently, Matt Strait). Annual website registration contact information verification through GANDI (http://en.gandi.net/). Current domains are mnstf.org and minicon.org. GANDI sends notifications to the address on file (who?), who needs to confirm information. Items that need doing: ASCAP: we are waiting for them to bill us. Taxes: Scott will follow up after the 2014 tax items above. TODO! SoS renewal: Scott did it for 2015. Scott will deal with it for 2016. We are in good standing, and just need to renew by the end of 2016. TODO for Scott. Domain renewals. Matt asks, what time in the year does this come up? Scott: don't know, but we get an e-mail about it. Ann suggests that we figure out when this is so that we know to expect it. Scott says that they come in June, domain renewals are at the end of June and middle of July, and we get warnings at 60, 30 and 15 days. == Web stuff == Scott: we still need Spideroak. A continuing TODO for Scott. == Pop Machine == We have been wondering if Kelly James would sell Minicon his pop machine. Kelly said that he would probably say yes, but wanted to wait until after Minicon 51 to decide. Ann spoke with him in person last night about this and also about his ideas to buy other equipment for the consuite. They worked out details about how capital expenses are authorized within Minicon 51. Ann asks that permission be asked before significant capital purchases. Decisions made: we are not buying a little refrigerator. He already bought the pizza warmer. Ann retroactively approves the expense, but would like him to store it himself and sell it after he is done running the consuite (either after M51 or M52, depending) to recoup the money for Minicon. == Quartermaster == Joel has sent out some messages about getting an inventory together, but no date has been set. Since he has messed up his shoulder, he needs a lot of physical help. Ann suggests that we send a note to Joel asking for a list of dates that he can do it, and the board will take care of advertising a date and wrangling people to show up. Ann will do this -> TODO. == Finances == We got the following report from treasurer Carol: 2015 Expenses Storage fees $131 x 12 1572.00 Meetings and parties Regular $75 x 18 1350 Pool 200 Picnic 198.45 9/5 space 85 NYE 150 1983.45 P.O. box, annual 232 Speakerphone 97.99 Domain renewal 32.10 ASCAP 126.51 132.13 258.64 Grand Total $4176.18 Matt asks: Has money been transfered from Ameriprise to our bank account yet? Scott believes that we have *not* gotten any money out yet. Carol should be able to tell us. Somewhat relatedly, Ann's stipend check for the NYE party bounced. Ann will call Carol about that (a personal item, not a TODO). Scott will arrange to get our money put into a C-share as well as regenerating the paperwork (TODO). == Conventions == * M50: Lydy reported by e-mail, "Per conversation with DD-B this morning, Beyond Conventions is an LLC, which is owned by Corwin, Dee, DD-B, and Mary Rohe." We later got an e-mail from Corwin confirming that they know they owe us money, that they are broke, that they hope to get more money in so they can pay us, and that they'd like to negotiate about what the amount they owe us actually is, i.e. they don't agree with the invoice Matt sent them back in the summer. As a condition of allowing Corwin to attend our future conventions (e.g. Minicon 51), Matt would like to see a good-faith partial payment immediately, perhaps $50 or $100, since it's certain that regardless of any adjustments we might agree to, the amount owed will be above this. Ann suggests that phrasing this as a good-faith payment is a statement of non-trust. So instead she proposes that we only require that a payment plan be agreed to. We could require that this start now, making the only difference between Matt's proposal and hers the removal of the phrase "good-faith". But Lydy thinks that they will not commit to a plan yet, but may make one payment. Lydy would like the top priority to be making a specific date that they will sit down and talk to us. Is it time to close the books, transferring the Cats Laughing debt to Minnstf? Yes, we all agree. OK, so Matt will close the M50 books. Lydy will make the next move, asking for a payment of $125 (10%) and asking for a date to talk regardless of whether they have paperwork in hand. TODO. * M51: ** Harassment policy *** External: Ann proposes to use the M50 verbatim for M51. We all agree, after some debate about whether we have to approve this policy since it was approved for M50 already. The Minnstf harassment policy rule that we wrote is ambiguous, saying "Each Minn-stf convention shall publish a public policy and also have an internal policy, both approved by the board". Does that mean that we are approving any policy we have ever approved for any convention for use by any other convention? We are not certain that we meant to mean that. We don't settle this issue, but instead explicitly approve the policy for M51. Approved! Matt put it on the website in real time. *** Internal: Lydy is going to produce a policy, revised from the M50 internal policy, and present it to the board. TODO for Lydy. Lydy would like to get formal harassment training for the group. Scott suggests that this is fine as long as it costs less than a few hundred dollars. Lydy will work on a proposal. * M52: Profit target. Matt had proposed setting it to $3700 as per our expenses above, small adjustments for known differences between 2015 and 2016 expenses, and bylaw VI.4. This assumed $350 for consuite capital expenses and $200 loss by a fallcon. Since we are not approving those capital expenses, Matt revises this to $3400. All approve. ==> The Minicon 52 profit target is $3400. <== * A fallcon in 2016. Matt says that he has a concom all assembled except that no one has agreed to be hotel head. Maybe six or seven people have volunteered to help with the hotel in some fashion, but no one has agreed to be the *head*. Matt cannot remotely organize a gaggle of people to sum to the job of hotel head; he needs someone to be the *head*. He has one person who has agreed to think about it and give a yes or no by the end of February. Ann says that if that falls through, after Minicon is done this year, she would be willing to be the head, preferably with a hotel already identified. But Matt will keep working on people not chairing another con. * MPLS in 2073 Worldcon bid. Matt submitted the following report: In 2015, we took in $540.53 and spent $461.99. The majority of the income was pre-supporting memberships, while the majority of the expenses was ordering 1000 ribbons. We now have 744 members, of whom 472 (63%) have paid us in real actual currency. The balance of the MPLS2073 treasury at the end of 2015 was $219.40, 25 Iraqi Dinars, 8.02 Israeli shekel, 2 pfennig, 1 button (squarish), 1 euro cent, 2.04 British pounds, 1 Taiwanese dollar, two silver quarters (1943 and 1964), a silver dime (1960), a small rock of unknown origin, a medium-small rock from the southernmost point in Canada, a 100 word original story on a business card, the ghost of 2 US half dollar chocolate coins, $0.003 worth of coupons' cash value, the ghost of a peanut M+M, a "Luna City or Bust" medallion, and 1 French Franc. In 2015, we put out Progress Report 8, had parties at Capricon and Windycon, and held a bid committee meeting at Minicon 50 with about 25 people in attendance. == Next meetings == Kevin suggested via e-mail that the next meeting ought to be March 12 at Dreampark after the new board is announced. Ok, we agree on that. == New TODO list == * Lydy will follow up with Beth about whether and how the 2014 taxes were filed. (We thought they had been filed, but the IRS sent us a letter saying we hadn't.) * Scott will make sure that the 2014 taxes get filed after Lydy follows up with Beth. * Lydy and/or Ann will draft and send an e-mail to the University of Iowa about tapes. * Lydy will put the informational packet for new board members up on the wiki. * Lydy will double-check that she sent Dean the now-definitely-approved Mnstf meeting info e-mail. * Scott will follow up on our 2015 taxes after the 2014 tax items above. * Scott will do our Secretary of State renewal that needs to be done by the end of the year. * Scott will continue following up on Spideroak. * Ann will ask Quartermaster Joel for a list of dates that he can do the storage locker inventory, and then will advertise this date and wrangle people to show up. * Scott will arrange with Treasurer Carol to get our money put into a C-share as well as regenerating the paperwork. * Lydy will ask Beyond Conventions for a payment of $125 (10%) and for for a date to talk regardless of whether they have paperwork in hand. * Lydy will produce a Minicon 51 internal harassment policy for approval at the next board meeting. ------------------------------------------------------------------------