Mn-stf board meeting, Feb 4, 2025, by videoconference. Attending board members: Matt Strait (recording), Linda Lounsbury, LillySong Watson, Scott Raun. Non-attending board members: David Dyer-Bennet. Others attending: Diversicon 32 chair Scott Lohman. == Approve previous meeting's minutes == Approved. == Review TODO list == We cleared the whole TODO list, more or less: * (2024-12) Scott will ask Carol if our account is balanced as of the Dec 31 statements. Also he will ask her for a semi-annual report of our income and expenses. Books are balanced for 12/31/24. See financial report below. * (2024-10) Matt will get a report from the Quartermaster. See below. * (2024-12) Matt will invite Scott Lohman to the next board meeting. He's here. * (2024-12) Matt will send notice to concoms reminding them how voting status works. This includes talking to Scott Lohman to find out who the concom for Diversicon is. == Review recurring task list == "Proposals for next year's fallcon: Solicit at and immediately after the current fallcon, if any, or sometime in the fall if we're skipping a year. Due to the board by February 15, approximately 8 months before the proposed convention. " Matt will officially ask Hershey and Leslie about their fallcon proposal. Matt will get a report from quartermaster Jim Porter. January, April, July, October: Send bills for past due accounts. Get our bank and investment account balances. Matt proposes that we call Jubilee on the past due account, as it's been 10 years. We agree to call Jubilee once we really get to 10 years, this Easter. Matt will send another bill this time. Scott will ask Carol for our checking account balance. Linda has just looked up our Minicon account balance. Read the task list into the minutes. Here it is: == Entire recurring task list == Every month: Scott will contact Carol to remind her to report to us whether the bank accounts are balanced. January: read this list into the minutes so we have a recent copy if the wiki goes down. Proposals for future Minicons: Solicit starting 18 months prior to the desired Minicon, requesting that bids be in to the board by January 31 (approximately 14 months before the proposed convention), with earlier being better. Proposals for next year's fallcon: Solicit at and immediately after the current fallcon, if any, or sometime in the fall if we're skipping a year. Due to the board by February 15, approximately 8 months before the proposed convention. Convention preliminary finances: Due to the board one month after convention. Should include gross income, gross profit, and amount given to the board. Final finances must be done "within six months of the convention or by thirty days prior to the deadline for filing Society tax returns for the tax year in which the convention was held, whichever is earlier", as per the bylaws. ASCAP: Due maybe March 31 for previous year, although they are not very clear. To be done by the MnStf Treasurer at the direction of the board. Voting meeting: The membership secretary and outgoing president should make arrangements for nomination and voting meetings. The board should check over and update the information for new board members. The voting meeting must happen before March 31, typically before Minicon. There are two nominating meetings that must happen before then. At the first meeting of the new board, review the mailing lists and forwarding addresses: The board-chat mailing list is currently administered by Scott Raun and DD-B. Currently the board-at-mnstf forwarding address goes to Scott. Remember to switch the president-at-mnstf forwarding address sometime between the voting meeting and Minicon. 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. Convention incident info: More than a month before Minicon, and other cons, forward any relevant information about incidents at previous cons to the upcoming con. Taxes: Due May 15. At this point, since we gross under $50k, we only have to file the 990N "postcard." Scott has been doing this. Scott reminds himself to do it with Chrome to make PDF generation easier. https://sa.www4.irs.gov/epostcard/secure/home/ is the IRS page to start on. With the taxes (actual deadline Dec 31): Renew Minicon assumed name (as of 2020, must be paper filed). https://www.sos.state.mn.us/business-liens/business-forms-fees/assumed-n amedba/ is the SoS page to start on. With the taxes (actual deadline Dec 31): Annual renewal with the Minnesota Secretary of State for Minnesota Science Fiction Society. Here's where we do it. May: If we want to continue annual book donations (done in 2020-2024, at least), get it going. June: Annual domain registration renewal and contact information verification through GANDI. Current domains are mnstf.org and minicon.org. GANDI sends notifications to the address they have (board-at-mnstf), who needs to confirm information. December, June: Ask the treasurer for a semi-annual report of our income and expenses in January, July. September: Confirm Give-To-The-Max account so we can get our donations. 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 (and still as of Oct 2024), this is an automatic credit card payment. Every December (timing is arbitrary): Review what address we have on file with the state of Minnesota or whoever else won't use the PO Box. As of 2024, this is Scott and Irene's house. Feb/March-ish, July-ish, Oct/November-ish: Get a report from the Quartermaster. January, April, July, October: Send bills for past due accounts. Get our bank and investment account balances. June, December: Send notice to concoms reminding them how voting member status works. == Finances == Investment Account Signer With Web Powers Aaron Vander Giessen reports that we got our 1099, sent it to us, and also that as of Jan 29, 2025, our balance is $33,500, which is up $1000 from October. Carol reports that we have $???? in checking. We need to get this info. TODO for Scott. [Soon after the meeting we got the number: $5602.] 2024 EXPENSES Meeting stipends 15 @$100 $1500 Venue rent $153 Storage 12 @$151 $1812 PO box $400 RUNE $608 Book donations (2) $1257 GPS $200 ASCAP $60 Bank service charges 12 @$6 $72 TOTAL 2024 EXPENSES: $6062 2024 INCOME Minicon $8532 Mighty Cause $142 TOTAL 2024 INCOME: $8674 Carol also says "The report I submitted 9/30/24 had an error. I had 9 storage fees @$302 and they should have been 9 @$151." Linda says our Minicon account has $6500. == Officer reports (offices held by board members) == * Recording (Matt) - everything's fine. * Membership (Scott) - almost caught up with data entry. Just need to do the most recent weekend's meeting. * Correspondence (Linda) - Has picked up and delivered some Minicon registrations. Threw away some credit card offers. Got an ASCAP bill to Scott. * Rune (Matt) - have gotten an offer of material, but do not feel like producing an issue at this time. * archivist (Matt) - Have been finding a little bit of time, finally, to file some things away. * FANPA (DD-B) - not present * Webmaster (DD-B) - not present * Signers (Linda; con account) - still can see the account, but not actually responsible. == Officer reports (offices held by others) == * President, VP, 2nd VP (Sharon, Dean, Hershey) - not present. * Treasurer, assistant treasurer (Irene, Carol) - not present. * Non-treasurer signers (Richard, Dean, Kevin, Emily, Aaron) - not present. * Cheer (Carol) - not present. * Quartermaster (Jim) - not present. He hasn't laid eyes on the storage locker lately, but says he can go look at at in the next week (a few weeks ago now). There is still a fridge we don't want in the back of it. When we do our Minicon organization party one or two weeks before the con, we have a good opportunity to get rid of it. (We will *not* try to deal with it during Minicon if it doesn't happen then.) We discussed space usage for art show panels, and packaging strategy for them, and he still thinks it is fine. He's going to do a walkthrough of the RadishTree's back hallways to make sure things are like they were last time we used it. == Conventions == * Diversicon 32 Have gotten Progress Report 1 done and up on the website, and working on an ad that we can use as a flyer. Working on programming and hunting for an artist for the program book cover and a t-shirt. Will work on hospitality later. No memberships that he knows of yet. He'll have an update next time. Feb 25 is their next concom meeting. He'll forward Matt's e-mail about voting status to the Diversicon concom. * Minicon 58 Proceeding apace. Got consuite subheads, thank goodness. Programming is going well. Will be talking to the hotel tomorrow about the cost of dealer tables, etc. * Minicon 59 Will be talking with the hotel tomorrow about contracts. * Minicon 60 Working on inviting GoH. * Minneapolis in 2073 Throwing a party at Capricon this weekend. == Other business == Scott: We need to make sure that if Diversicon has open meetings that they get counted towards voting rights. We have told Scott Lohman how this works, but we should continue to remind him. Linda: As soon as the new board is seated, it should set a budget for book donations. Then librarians can be contacted before the school year. We could consider branching out from high schools to middle schools. == Next meeting == Tentatively, with consent of the new board, March 23 at 1pm, because Matt's not available during the voting meeting, not even on the phone. == Review new TODO list == * (2025-02) Matt will get a report from quartermaster Jim Porter. * (2025-02) Matt will officially ask Hershey and Leslie about their fallcon proposal. * (2025-02) Scott will ask Carol for our checking account balance, and if the books are balanced for 1/31/2025 and 2/28/2025 statements. * (2025-02) Matt will tell Scott Lohman of the next meeting. * (2025-02) Matt will send bills for past due accounts.