MNSTF board meeting Tuesday October 1 (which is not too late) 6:30pm by videoconference Attending board members: Scott Raun, Matt Strait (recording), Linda Lounsbury, David Dyer-Bennet. Non-attending board member: Lilly Watson Others attending: Scott Lohman, Diversicon chair. == Approve previous meeting's minutes == Approved. == Review TODO list == The remaining TODO list is: * (2024-06) Scott will ask Carol if our bank account is balanced up to the end of July. Scott will ask Carol for a report on our expenses so far this year. Done: Last bank statement available matches books 8/31: $821.60 Books balance as of 9/30 $ 615.60 $8531.85 Minicon deposit ________ $9147.45 Expenses 1/1-9/30/24 Storage 9 @ $302 $2718.00 Stipends 11 @ $100 $1100.00 Venue $153.00 Bank s/c 9 @ $6 $54.00 GPS $200.00 ASCAP $60.00 ________ TOTAL Y-T-D $4285.00 Questions about the stipends: we've had 12 meetings+picnics since the voting meeting in March. So why only 11 stipends since January? Scott will follow up. * (2024-08) Lilly will get a report from the Quartermaster. Back on the TODO list. * (2024-08) Linda will continue working on book donations. Sent request to Don and Greg for pricing. Trying to keep total to $1300. This is not included yet in Carol's total above, because it hasn't happened yet. Looking to donate to two schools in NE Minneapolis. DONE: * (2024-08) Matt will send bills for past due accounts. == Proposal for Diversicon 32 == We reviewed Scott Lohman's proposal for Diversicon 32 to be a MnSTF con. We had questions: Is the t-shirts line just the cost? Yes, for 35-40 t-shirts. Charge $15 per shirt when they're new, then $10 and then $5 when they're old. $1500: Only $100/function room/day, really? Yes, that's what we had at D30 in 2023. Matt: probably need to assume at least 10% more now. What about GoH travel? Assuming local guests next year. Concerned the membership rates are too low to cover costs. Scott L agrees. They'll get a hotel contract and then set rates. Diversicon has $600 in the bank. The hotel has not required them to pay for the function space up front. They will not need seed money. Banking: They have an account for Diversicon at US Bank. They like it there. There's an option to open a new checking account at Blaze under Minnstf's membership. But they like their current account and will provide us statements. Fine by us. We've run cons like that before. Scott R: what's your attendance? At D30, it was 85. At D31+Mythcon it was 125. DD-B: Why no mention of art show or dealer's room? Scott L: because it's a trivial part of the budget, bringing in about $200. Scott L is looking to use our registration system. Matt will talk to Clay about this. Website: Rich Brown is running it and is covering the costs. Probably good with Clay accessing the website to set up and run registration. Clay might want it hosted on our Dreamhost account so that it has uniform behavior with the registration for Minicon and the fallcon. In which case we could either move the domain name to our Dreamhost account, or we could host it from mnstf.org/diversicon32. Scott L will ask Rich if he has an opinion and Matt will talk to Clay. Attendance at board meetings: Scott L is happy to attend every other board meeting or so. Yes, evenings like this are a good time. Linda: what's the worst case monetary scenario? They do simple contracts where nothing is tied to room-nights. The reasonable worst case is just having to pay for the function space and anything else they've purchased. Matt: as we've discussed with Scott before, we want the Minnstf logo on all their things; a clean switch from SF Minnesota. No concerns there. PO Box: They have one, but they could switch to ours so registrations come to Clay in a natural way. Theirs is paid up for another six months. Linda picks up the registrations, she brings them to Clay (probably). Other material mailed to Diversicon is quite minimal, and Scott L can come pick them up from Linda. Trademarks: Is "Diversicon" a registered trademark? No. It's clearly a TM trademark, though, even if not a (R) trademark. Any concern about its use? No, Eric Heideman originally came up with it, and he is good with Minnstf using it. And if we needed to defend the trademark, we could, unlike "Minicon", which has always been too generic. DD-B suggests that if we do this, there should be a formal letter of agreement covering things like the "Diversicon" trademark. Agreement all around. Scott has been chair since approximately Diversicon 17. Scott is dismissed so we can discuss. DD-B: Does not like that they pay guests an honorarium. (If we heard right, local guests get an honorarium and non-local guests get airfare covered.) Scott: if it were called a "per diem", would that change your mind? Matt: I don't want to micromanage their policy on what they pay their guests. Scott and DD-B: we don't want to pay guests, although we are happy to cover their expenses, possibly approximately in the case of a per diem that reasonably covers food and incidentals. DD-B: would not want to change any agreements already in place, though. Matt: well, we should just check if the amount is about the same as Minicon's per diem and then maybe all this is irrelevant? DD-B: why do we want to take on Diversicon? Matt: Speaking personally, I want to do it because I like going to Diversicon and I want it to survive. Speaking for the corporation, we want to do it because it falls under our Purposes in the Articles of Incorporation and is a very definitely educational activity which is good for us to do. Other answers to DD-B's question: Linda: I see the advantage of having more cons, bringing in people who wouldn't otherwise come to Minicon. Scott: It may give us some potential synergy in that it becomes the de facto fallcon. That doesn't mean that people couldn't also run another fallcon. Anyway, it increases the base of conrunners available to the club as a whole. It can function as another training con to learn how to do things. The consuite there is even easier to run than at our traditional fallcon's, for instance. DD-B: New thought: It would be bad if Diversicon killed the fallcon. Matt: we very much don't want that, and do intend to plan a fallcon for next year. Diversicon and the fallcon are quite different cons. DD-B: Is this like when two old computer companies that are both going downhill merge in an attempt to survive, which doesn't go well? Matt: I don't agree with your perception that Minicon is going downhill, or even that it is shaky. We have rising membership numbers, solid financials, and new blood entering the concom. There are always challenges, but we're doing well. Need to tell Scott L that the chair-ship is not transferable under our bylaws. The board names the chair. We need to check that Scott/Diversicon is good with that. Let's do a strawpoll and then ask Scott Lohman questions. Matt: yes. Scott: yes. DD-B: abstain. Linda: yes, provided that we're clear in the contract/letter that they are governed by our bylaws and other rules. So that's 3-0-1. Let's ask our two questions, and assuming success, we draft a formal agreement. 1) Can you rename your honorarium a per diem? And how much is it -- is it plausibly a per diem? 2) Our bylaws say that we appoint the chair or ExCom. It's not transferable. Are you good with that? SF Minnesota is a Minnesota non-profit corporation. Need the letter to be between SF Minnesota and Minnstf transferring Diversicon to Minnstf. Shall we do it that way, with Matt communicating? Yes, all agree. == Review recurring task list == * September: Confirm Give-To-The-Max account so we can get our donations. Scott will do that. * October: Pay the rent on the PO box. We are notified of this by e-mail to board-at-mnstf-org on the first of the month for a bill due at the end of that month. Possibly we also get a paper bill in the PO box. As of June 2021, this is an automatic credit card payment. Scott will check on this. * Feb/March-ish, July-ish, Oct/November-ish: Get a report from the Quartermaster. Matt is stealing this item from Lilly. * January, April, July, October: Send bills for past due accounts. Get our bank and investment account balances. Scott will check on US Bank balances with Carol. Matt will check with Aaron on our investment accounts. Linda will get the Minicon balances. == Officer reports (offices held by board members) == Skipped for time concerns. No officers present have burning updates. == Finances == We may want to make a deposit into our investment account from M57 profits, but we don't want to think about it right now. Scott notes that this should depend on how frequently we are willing to transfer out, and also what our expenses are. == Conventions == (Rapidly, since it's late) * Minicon 57: Are the books closed? Yes, and the profit is returned to our main account. Huzzah! * Minicon 58: Proceeding apace. * Minicon 59: Nothing interesting to say. * Minicon 60: Nothing interesting to say. * Minneapolis in 2073: Party at Windycon. == Next meeting == 6:30pm, Wednesday Oct 30, by videoconference. == Review new TODO list == * (2024-10) Matt will post the board minutes for the last meeting. * (2024-10) Scott will follow up with Carol about stipends. * (2024-10) Matt will get a report from the Quartermaster. * (2024-10) Scott will confirm our Give-to-the-max account. * (2024-10) Scott will confirm that we've paid for the PO box. * (2024-10) Linda will get our Minicon 58 balance. * (2024-10) Matt will get our investment account balance from Aaron. * (2024-10) Scott will get our US Bank account balances from Carol. * (2024-10) Matt will send bills for past due accounts. * (2024-10) Matt will e-mail Scott Lohman. * (2024-10) Linda will keep working on book donations.