April 18, 1996

Lynn Litterer recording

Attending: Martin Schafer, Dean Gahlon, Kay Drache, Polly Peterson,
Lynn Litterer (host), David Dyer-Bennet, Lydia Nickerson,
Fred and Gavi Levy Haskell, Mark Richards, Geri Sullivan, Glen Tenhoff.

1) Review of letters concerning Minicon -- given to Kay and Glenn to take
to the postmortem.

2) Updates on purchases

a) Geri is mailing Mike Wood fanzines

b) Joel R. Is buying a moving strap for MNStf movers

3) Consensus on a desire for a report on MNStf finances, budget, etc.

Publish at least once a year. Mark Richards has the MC30 report, will have a
brief report on MC31 at the postmortem.

4) Several issues regarding Minicon:

a) Fred: How much direction does the board give Minicon? Martin gives
historical update -- nothing formal in writing recently. Having Kay on both
Board and Exec last year allowed easier communication. Any person or group
making a bid to run Minicon has a discussion with the Board as part of the
bidding process.

Kay and Geri's proposal from last meeting to document Minicon functions will
help somewhat to avoid repeating mistakes. Much discussion.

Fred noted that this year is again a time of questioning the direction of
Minicon. Because of this, the Board should pay attention to the discussion and
give direction. Perhaps we should do Minicon with other clubs, and have MNStf
concentrate on ReinConation or a smaller con. Much discussion.

Geri: We need community in Minicon. People at Minicon feel that Minicon
belongs to MNStf -- not us, and they don't have a voice in it. Many people
think `the old guard' or the `con committee' controls everything and don't
want to let them in.

Martin: What other groups have a stake in Minicon? We would have to talk to
them and assess interest, and discuss forming a Minicon board and spinning off
Minicon as a separate organization.

Geri: Board needs to give several year direction to Minicon, since the
committee is an annual organization. Written list of concerns. Major lack of
community building in the Minicon committee. The Board needs to make some hard
decisions.

b) DD-B:
One. Minicon seemed less crowded, but limited space is still a
major concern with the continued trend in growth. Assuming we don't want to
move to the convention center.

Two. Minicon is very successful -- we attract more people every year, however
a number of long time and competent people -- fans -- are leaving because of
the way it's changing with size. Lots of people with a historical and recent
stake in Minicon see a number of problems.

Three. Programming was a major embarassment -- pretty much every programming
participant deserves a letter of apology. Programming needs to have direction
-- not just schedule items. Kay acknowledges all this and accepts
responsibility for not supervising Michelle.

Lydia volunteers to work on DataCon -- extracting all the info from current
and former department heads. This would also help community building in the
committee. Condom. Many good and bad jokes.

Scott Imes: Has a letter to Carol Emshwiller to show the Board. She was very
happy about the bio and the whole event. We should send an official thank-you.

What to do with unsold caches? Sell to dealers first, then to local community
members. He is happy to continue helping with the cancellation event.

Scary note: A paroled sex offender was overheard telling his parole officer
about what a great time he had at Minicon. He heard about it from ASB.
[alt.sex.bondage newsgroup].

Break for snacks, thank-you Margie!

5) More discussion of which Minicon issues the Board needs to deal with.

Lots and lots and lots.

6) Victor reports (through Lynn) that the third and probably final version
of the booking arrangements with the hotels will be ready before the next
Board meeting. The agreements are expected to meet all the criteria previously
discussed by the Board. If there are no major changes, Victor will show the
papers to each of the Board members individually. If they look fine, he will
sign them on our behalf and move the process forward as our agent.