MNSTF board meeting Sunday Aug 16, 2026, 7pm, by videoconference. Attending board members: Matt Strait (recording), David Dyer-Bennet, Linda Lounsbury, Hershey Harris, Scott Raun. Attending others: Scott Lohman -- Diversicon 33 chair == Ratifications == Approval of last meeting's minutes. Ratified. Approval of paying for "premium" mailing lists at Gaggle for natter and minicon-concom. Ratified. == Review TODO list == The remaining TODO list is: * (2026-07) Hershey will get a report from Quartermaster Jim. She talked to Jim. He has been to the locker for supplies for the Convergence party. It is doing well. That was early July. * (2026-07) DD-B will update the website with Linda's suggestions. DD-B has looked at it. We need a new page about our charitable activities. It's going to be a shortish list at the moment. He'll get something started. * (2026-07) Scott will get US Bank account closed. He has e-mailed Carol about it a couple of day ago. We need to know if there are outstanding checks. But it has been a while since she has written any checks. There is currently about $210 in the account. * (2026-05) Scott will ask Carol about what checks are outstanding at the moment. Strike this item as redundant with the last. * (2026-05) Scott will ask Carol for a close-out report for the old account. Let's not worry about this, and strike the item. * (2026-03) Scott will communicate the check signature policy to Drew and make sure it gets discussed with the bank. He has discussed with Drew, but not yet the bank. * (2026-03) Scott will talk to Drew about who else would be a good person to countersign large checks. The question has been asked. Still working on it. * (2026-03) Scott will ask Irene to ask the credit union who all our signers are on our checking accounts. Back on the TODO list. * (2026-03) Scott should do the taxes and Secretary of State things. Hoping to get those done tomorrow. * (2026-03) Scott will ask Carol if she'll continue as Cheer Secretary. She would like someone else to do it. Should we try to find a new person for this, or was it really just a Carol thing? Hershey will ask Jeanne Mealy. * (2026-03) Scott will advertise that the Rune editorship is vacant and we are seeking a volunteer. Has done it a couple of times, and will continue to do so. We'll consider it done for this purpose. DONE: * (2026-07) DD-B will, TODAY, renew minicon.org and mnstf.org. We double-renewed them. They are good through 2028 now. * (2026-07) Matt will ask Drew if he's now the primary contact for the storage locker. Yes, he is. And he is not sure if there's still a secondary contact. He is going to call the storage locker and see if he can get Scott as another contact if he isn't still. And the locker is paid up. * (2026-07) Matt will ask Aaron what our investment account balances are. As per Aaron: We currently have $36,800 in Vanguard. Of this: FTSE Social Index Fund: $19,600. Wellesley Bond Fund: $17,200. One year ago our balance was $34,500. In January, our balance was $37,400. We withdrew $3000 in May. == Review recurring task list == * September: Confirm Give-To-The-Max account so we can get our donations. Scott will check. (This really needs to happen by October so we can get our donations.) == Finances == * Shall we raise the picnic stipend to $150 from $100? DD-B is for it because picnics are important and draw larger crowds. Hershey is for it. Linda is somewhat against it because of our budget outlook and because she doesn't think this is stopping people from running picnics. Scott asks how we would know if the change was a success? Linda: if we get more picnics than before. Sharon is having trouble finding hosts for meetings in general. DD-B is for it because president Sharon thinks it would make a difference. 3 in favor, 2 abstain. Passes. == Conventions == * Diversicon 33 Scott Lohman sent a financial report. Income was $2490, expenses were $3400 ($2080 hotel and guest rooms, $380 t-shirts, $350 program books, $500 guest honorarium, $100 hospitality), for a net loss of $910. Attendance 55 (pre-reg plus at-the-door), 6 no-shows. Already taken 9 pre-regs for Diversicon 34 (which does not yet have dates or GoH or a location). Matt will ask Drew to write a check to Diversicon 33 for the amount of the loss. Was more expensive in part because both guests opted to get hotel rooms for two nights, which they don't always do. DD-B requests more detail in the income category. Scott L recalls that $770 was from the auction. Is $250 honorarium important to get guests to come, asks Matt? Matt answers his own question: Minicon gives $65/day to GoH, which we say is for food, and that comes out about the same. DD-B: yes, it's important that the GoH doesn't lose money by attending. * Diversicon 34 Plan to at least break even is to get more members via more publicity. Scott L expects that the hotel cost will be the same. Strongly consider raising membership rates a little. Will try to have a nice flyer ready a lot earlier this year. Should have a Minicon 60 programming item on Diversicon. Don't know guests yet. Probably will have them set by November. Dates? Almost certainly last weekend of July or first weekend of August. Looking forward to a proposal with a budget, dates and a hotel. * Minicon 59 Still waiting for a check to get cashed. Plan is roughly to give up as of the first M60 meeting, when we'll clean up another few things, and close the books. * Minicon 60 Proceeding apace. Still have hotel, GoHs, etc. First meeting in 4 weeks. Reminder postcard goes out tomorrow to the concom. * Minicon 61 No action here. Still have hotel and an author GoH. We remind ourselves that we need more GoH. * Minicon 62/63 Got proposals from two other hotels. They are similar to the deal we currently have, but with more uncertainty. We will negotiate and see how it goes. * Minneapolis in 2073 Will party at Worldcon, two nights, in Geri's suite. == Next meeting == 7pm, Tuesday Oct 13, online. == Review new TODO list == * (2026-08) Matt will ask Drew to write a check to Diversicon 33. * (2026-07) DD-B will update the website with Linda's suggestions. * (2026-07) Scott will get US Bank account closed. * (2026-08) Scott will make sure the bank knows about the check signature policy. * (2026-03) Scott will talk to Drew about who else would be a good person to countersign large checks. * (2026-03) Scott will ask Irene to ask the credit union who all our signers are on our checking accounts. * (2026-03) Scott should do the taxes and Secretary of State things. * (2026-08) Hershey will ask Jeanne Mealy if she'd like to be cheer secretary. * (2026-07) Matt will ask Drew if Scott is on the storage locker as another contact. * (2026-08) Scott will confirm our Give-To-The-Max account. * (2026-08) Matt will let Sharon know that the picnic stipend is now $150, and update the policy on the web.