These minutes appear to have been extracted from a clean PDF at some point. Matt Strait tidied them up some more in 2020. The text should be exactly as it is in the PDF, up to minor formatting tweaks to make it look nice in plain text, and Matt looked it over just in case. Full lines of dashes signify page breaks in the original. Italics are indicated by equal signs surrounding words or phrases (because why not use a totally unfamiliar convention?). ------------------------------------------------------------------------ The Minn-Stf Board Meeting Minutes for the Meeting of 15 May 1997, at the home of Eileen Lufkin Attending: Margo Bratton, Dean Gahlon, Polly Peterson, Martin Schafer, and Geri Sullivan (The Illustrious and Beneficent Board); and Fred A. Levy Haskell (Official Happy Deadwood & Recording Secretary). Eileen Lufkin was not really attending, but since it was at her place, she stuck her head in to make a few appropriate and timely comments.... The meeting was Called to Order by Polly. It was 7:26 pm by my watch, but Margo said hers read 7:29 pm. Dean said his "just went 7:26." Rather than checking any further, we decided to call it 7:26 pm. AGENDA o Previous Meeting's Minutes. o Who =Are= the Current _RUNE_ Editors? o Is Kay Drache Still the Archivist and Corresponding Secretary? o What About a Quartermaster? o Did We Forget Any Other Officers? o Keys to the PO Boxes--Number of Sets and Who's Got Them? o Treasury--Reimbursement for Minn-Stf Meeting Hosts. o Treasury--Status of Minn-Stf's Tax Filing. o The One True Mailing List (OTML). o A Short Minneapolis in '73 WisCon Report. o The =Survey=. o How to Fix Minn-Stf. o Margo Is Hazy. o The "W" Word. o Report of the By-Laws Committee. o Have We Heard Back From Kim Huett? o Fred's "Proposal." BUSINESS 1) Previous Meeting's Minutes. Fred: Does the Board want me to read the Minutes from the last Board Meeting and then correct and/or approve them? You know--all that Official Stuff? Board: [hand pointing right] Pfui. 2) Who =Are= the Current _RUNE_ Editors? Geri: Tom Juntunen definitely =is=, KenFletch definitely =isn't=; there's still some discussion about how Jeff Schalles and Garth Danielson fit (or don't fit) into the Grand Scheme of Things. Time will tell.... 3) Is Kay Drache Still the Archivist and Corresponding Secretary? Fred: There was some discussion of this last time, so when Kay Drache got an e-copy of the Minutes, she sent me email saying: "The two positions I hold are Corresponding Secretary and Archivist (by fiat since the 'Archives' are in my house)--I want to continue as CS and promise I will get our address changed to PO 8583 on appropriate accounts such as Pitney Bowes and Reinconation (we did agree last year that PO 8297 would be Mainly Minicon, I think). As Archivist, I am actually sorting and arranging the miscellaneous boxes of stuff I was handed and have acquired (like two bags of papers from Denny). Hopefully it will all fit in the file. Lydy has a bunch of stuff on loan from the Archives for PBSuck (which, by the way, I am supposedly working on as well.)" After a brief discussion, and an attempt to track down the source of the confusion, the Board reiterates: [hand pointing right] Yes, Kay is Still the Archivist and Corresponding Secretary. FWIW. 4) What About a Quartermaster? There was a bit of discussion, during which it was pointed out that the Camel shows us that even though Minicon has the bulk of the stuff and therefore has the primary need for a Quartermaster, we also need one for the few odds and ends that are Minn-Stf's responsibility. Somebody asked who had been Quartermaster before, in hopes that he or she might be persuaded to continue to do it, but Martin said that person has specifically asked to be taken off that job. Somebody then suggested that Michael Pins might be willing to do it (in addition to the responsibilities he now has as Vice President). There was a general consensus that he'd be good at it, so.... Board decision: [hand pointing right] Michael Pins would make a good Quartermaster. Dean will ask him whether he's willing to do it in addition to his current duties as Vice President. 5) Did We Forget Any Other Officers? Board speaks with the voice of the turtle: [hand pointing right] No. 6) Keys to the PO Boxes--Number of Sets and Who's Got Them? Fred: Kay Drache sent me email: "I have one set of keys, Polly has a set, and Tom Juntunen tells me that he gave the third set to Glenn Tenhoff after Minicon 32. (This is the set Kate Carey had)" Polly: Yup--I have a set. It's right here. (She takes out the keys and jingles them.) Does somebody else want them instead? All: (Silence) The Board confirms: [hand pointing right] This is as it should be. Note: Did I miss something here? I think I may have missed something here. Is Glenn supposed to have that third set? Or did he pass them on to someone who is supposed to have them? What? Who am I =talking= to? And how do I make my voice =do= that? --falh 7) Treasury--Reimbursement for Minn-Stf Meeting Hosts Polly says she has yet to be paid the $50 supplies reimbursement for hosting a Minn-Stf Meeting a while ago. She, of course, would like the money one of these days, but is also concerned about whether =other= Minn-Stf Meeting hosts are or have been having problems getting their reimbursement checks on time. Is this process supposed to be automatic, or what? Dean takes the blame for Polly's particular problem, saying that it's been a while since he and Julie have gotten together to sign checks. They'll be getting together soon to do this and he'll mention it. Geri: This is an ongoing problem--we should tell people who are hosting Meetings to nudge Julie. Martin: While Julie should send the checks out automatically, people also should turn in receipts--this is important since these are checks being issued to club members. Somebody: Does everybody who's considering hosting or who chooses to host a Minn-Stf Meeting know that they get the $50 Supplies Reimbursement from the club? Dean: Is there a means of conveying this information? Polly: As President, Scott should tell people when he's trying to schedule Meetings. Dean: One problem when there are multiple householders/hosts is we don't always know which person to write the check to. Martin: Ask Scott to ask to whom the check should be written, to remind people to save their receipts and send them to Julie, and to contact Julie to let her know who gets the check and who's hosting Meetings when and stuff. The Board Speaks With the Voice of Unanimity, and, having Spoken, Moves On: [hand pointing right] What they said. 8) Treasury--Status of Minn-Stf's Tax Filing Dean: Julie has the tax extension form and will send it to the proper authority and keep the appropriate copies to give to Judy Gallas, who is Minn-Stf's Hired Accountant. Judy Gallas will do the taxes. Martin: She also needs to get the records from the last Minicon. They should be final soon, and someone (the current Exec? the Minicon Treasurer? both?) will see that she gets them. Geri: Once the extension form is filed, when =do= the taxes need to be done? What =does= the Board need to do to ensure that they are done in time and that our copy of the extension form is not lost before then? Fret fret, worry worry.... Geri isn't careful enough, and maneuvers herself into volunteering to be the Board Oversight Person on the club's tax filing. The Board, less Geri, is unanimous: [hand pointing right] Thanks Geri! It's swell of you to volunteer! 9) The One True Mailing List (OTML). Update from Geri: Laurel still does not have the OTML. She has sent email to Barry but hasn't heard back--she'll talk to Jeff Berry to see about maybe getting the backup copy. Beth has doubts whether the OTML program will actually work. Polly: I've used it--it works jus' fine.... There will be meeting tomorrow (Friday, 16 May 1997) at Blaisdell Polytechnic to discuss database software and hardware. Margo, Martin, Beth, DD-B, Don, and Geri are scheduled to attend. Projected outcome: a hardware suggestion for the registration computer to be bought by Minicon. The Board will Participate in the final decision. 10) A Short Minneapolis in '73 WisCon Report. Geri: She and David Emerson will be throwing a combination Minneapolis in '73 and not-a-ReinCONation party Sunday night at WisCon. Geri has arranged with WisCon Committee to have biggest non-consuite room for the party. 11) The =Survey=. Geri hands out copies of Don Bailey's suggested questions and mentions that Laramie Sasseville, Joyce Scrivner, and Charles Piehl have also submitted questions. Polly: To whom will the survey be going? Geri: For the moment, it looks like the =EINBLATT= list would be a reasonable polling pool. Given that, we may want to tie the Minicon Survey together with the "How to Fix Minn-Stf" Survey. In any case, she'll be striving to create open questions, not check-offs. Dean: We want to ride fine line away from leading questions. Fred: Of course, there are at least two problems with open questions: 1) It takes a little more effort and a little longer to write responses than it does to check off responses, so it's possible people might have a harder time getting around to replying to the survey. 2) Survey interpretation might be more difficult--it's a little harder to group and quantify "essay" responses. Geri: She knows that, and will keep it in mind, but prefers the problems of open questions to the straightjacket of check-off lists. She points out that it depends in part on question design. Polly: How will we handle follow up? Geri: Phone calls are probably best. Of course, if we're going to track who's returned a survey, we need some way of identifying who has. Since people may have some concerns about anonymity, perhaps we should offer them a choice between putting their name on the survey and the "sign across the envelope flap" method used for the annual Minn-Stf ballots. In any case, Geri wants the Board members to look at what she comes up with for a survey, at a number of points during the process, and give her some detailed feedback about what they think. Martin: Please email a copy to the Minicon Exec. Geri: Okay. Martin: In terms of people's gripes, he would like to be able to distinguish between "In general, I like big conventions vs. I like small conventions" vs. "I have a problem with =Minicon's= size." Which is to say that "Is Minicon too big?" is actually a number of questions--break 'em up. Geri: Will try to keep it in mind. 12) How to Fix Minn-Stf. Note: Since this issue may be vitally important and since we never know what blue sky comment will spark a lightning bolt that will bear fruit we can run up the flagpole to see if it enriches Fluffy's environment while seeming like a good idea at the time, as it were, I've tried to retain as much of this discussion as I could. --falh Martin: What can we do so Minn-Stf meetings will again be something we look forward to attending? Margo: Well, what has changed? Martin: More and more of the people we want to talk to aren't there. Margo: Why? Polly chuckles and says: Because people we =don't= want to talk to are showing up. Margo: Different things impact who's at meetings. For example, last time lots of people had gone to DemiCon. So maybe it's that people are finding other things to do on weekends. My notes say "snowballing" at this point. I'm not sure who said it. --falh Geri: It certainly seems to be snowballing--more people are pulling back from hosting meetings. She knows one person in particular who tends to be very inclusive of people, who has decided to quit hosting meetings. Do we need a "manners seminar"? Might it help to have a discussion at a meeting or two =whether= to have a "manners seminar"? Fred: Is there a danger in having a Rules Sheet, since fans tend to be contrary and dislike rules? Margo: What else can you do? Geri: Maybe Minnesota nice is kicking in: Too many people aren't willing to say "don't do this at my home." Instead, they're declining to host meetings. Do we need a Minn-Stf meeting "Miss Fanners"/Bouncer to call people on their poor behavior? Martin: It's not such a crazy idea.... Geri: If we're going to do that, we'll have to think about recruiting people to do that job. Who would be good at it? Is it asking too much of those we'd want to do it? Martin: There's long been talk of alternate venues, but nothing systematic has been done. Do we want to look into it? Fred grins: Well, alternate venues would be =traditional=. Geri: Hmmmm. Should some meetings consist of going and =doing= something? A fannish outing to the planetarium? To the farmers' market? And then regather at a house? Dean: Maybe have some kind of program at library? Then tell people it's going to continue at someone's home? Martin: The effort we made a few weeks ago to send people to Polly's after the postmortem helped. Polly: Is it that we're all older? How many of the "middlers" are there? Martin: Most folks in their teens and twenties find Minn-Stf boring. Polly: We all have our subgroups. Is it just the problems of bad behavior or are there simply people not interested in Minn-Stf any more? I don't know.... Margo: =Why= is it dull and boring? Martin grins: The "teens and twenties" aren't there! Martin grins again: Most of us =have= someone we're sleeping with now.... Polly: Do we not need it as much any more? Martin: Personally, I find it a pain to set things up to see all the people I want to, so it would actually be much more convenient if the people I want to see were at Minn-Stf. Geri: Yeah. Martin: Plus there's lots of people whose company I enjoy, but they're not close personal friends--I never see them if I don't bump into them casually. Minn-Stf Meetings were once good for that. However, I have no good ideas on how to bring that back. Margo: Can't remember right now what it was that got her to come back (other than Don, of course). Polly: She's remembering a going away party she recently attended for a community organizer. All of a sudden it was midnight, and hours had passed pleasantly. That's the kind of thing she likes, and doesn't seem to be happening much at Minn-Stf meetings any more. Martin: The parties that feel like that are: the Pool Party, Toad Hall Christmas. Someone: And New Year's Eve. Martin: Yeah, but that was at our house, so it didn't really feel like that to =me=. Fred: If we go to some community center locations, I think we need to have it nominally hosted by a "known kool kid." Eileen (not really here): Is there a difference between what we think of as "kool kids" and what current Minn-Stf people do? Margo: So meetings are just not conversational enough. Eileen: This has always been a problem. Remember how it would go after a big Minneapa collation? Polly: The time the Theodore Wirth gathering retired to her house was pretty good.... Geri: Gee, we've been having good conversation here.... Martin: DD-B mentioned that it would be possible to set up an electronic flag for "I'm going to Minn-Stf this week." Polly: Hey! We could call it The Minn-Stf Electronic Dance Card. The Board Speaks as One: [hand pointing right] Whatever it turns out to be, whatever form it takes, it'll be called The Minn-Stf Electronic Dance Card. Martin: Will mention it to DD-B. Do we want a Web site? Email? What? Polly: --and news flashes. Fred: Are there security/privacy concerns? Dean: Pooh-poohs security/privacy concerns. Martin: I have some interest in the "Miss Fanners" stuff. Should we talk about this? Geri: Should we talk about this at a Minn-Stf meeting? This would, at very least, raise some awareness that there seems to be an issue.... Martin: Good idea, but let's bounce it around. Polly: But what about the totally clueless? Sorry, I seem to have not made sufficient notes, and now I can't remember what sort of response this got. --falh Martin: For people not hosting. Does anybody know what that means? My notes only show that, and now it's a mystery to me.... *sigh* --falh Polly: The other thing--there used to be fannish outings. Martin: Great, but he's not sure the best way to do it is take a Minn-Stf Saturday. Fred: Field trips were anarchic. Somebody'd get an idea to throw together an outing--a picnic, say--and just put it together an let people know. Polly: But people were closer and in more frequent contact. Spontaneity was possible.... Geri: A slight change of subject: What might we want to measure in a Minn-Stf survey? Margo: Should this be a separate survey from the Minicon Survey? Geri: So--what should be on a Minn-Stf survey? Polly: What's valuable about Minn-Stf? Why do you come? Why don't you come? Martin grins: If you're not coming, what change would cause you to come? Geri guffaws: Who would help you come? Polly: Respondents should have some way of indicating total burn-out. 13) Margo Is Now Less Hazy. She got a brochure in the mail from a company called Skill Path. They're offering seminars on how to communicate. The cost would be $90 per person if four or more people sign up, $100 per person if there are fewer than four. Might this be a good idea for Minicon? Martin: The Exec have talked about management training. Polly: It's cheaper to do in-house. Martin: These sorts of seminars are not that useful in and of themselves--you have to immediately use the training for it to stick. Now my notes say: "presentations re mgmt tips." *sigh* --falh Margo: The reason she brought it up is it seemed pretty cheap. Polly: Gets lots of pamphlets and catalogs with that kind of stuff. Will bring them in. Geri: It might be more useful for Minicon people to start going to SMOFcon. This would provide some networking with other con-runners, and perhaps some information flow. It would also be good to encourage networking out--that is, Minicon Staff and members appear to be too insular and could use some contact with fandom in other parts of the world. The Board Concludes: [hand pointing right] Rather than immediately pursuing Skill Path stuff, let's look at other options.... 14) The "W" Word. In Other Words: Minneapolis WorldCon Bids--Real or Otherwise.... Geri: As far as a 2003 or 2006 WorldCon Bid, it appears that Swoop : \"Matt H.\" has taken himself out of the picture. =But=, she points out, 2015 would be Midwest in the rotation and will be the 73rd WorldCon! (Oy vey! --falh) Geri would like us to chat about this a lot over the coming year. Maybe even start putting aside some money. She says she's serious. But. We'll all be kind of old by 2015, so we'll need to recruit some enthusiastic young folks. She really wants people (not just the Board) to talk about it. Martin: We have 10 years to make a decision on this. Geri: --or to =prepare=. Including getting Minneapolis fandom linked to world fandom. A serious bid would take a considerable channeling of energies over a considerable period of time. Now really is =not= too soon to start thinking about it. Dean: Think back 18 years ago--it's an interesting thought exercise, since this would be 18 years out.... Geri: It's worth discussing; if for no other reason than because people (from here =and= elsewhere) will be noticing the upcoming 73rd WorldCon and will be asking about what our intentions are at some point--we might as well have a coherent answer. Somebody (Polly?) mentions "The Curse": As long as Minn-Stf refuses to run a WorldCon, they have to run one every year. The Board Concedes: [hand pointing right] It might not hurt to think and talk about it a little.... 15) Report of the By-Laws Committee. Martin: Nothing done yet. 16) Have We Heard Back From Kim Huett? Geri: Nope. 17) Fred's "Proposal." Tabled by Fred for the moment. Maybe the Board will want to take it up next time. Or the time after that.... Preliminary Agenda for Next Time [what we would now call a "The Scream" emoji] Minicon Profit. [what we would now call a "The Scream" emoji] Overall Treasury Report. [what we would now call a "The Scream" emoji] Invite Julie to the Meeting. [what we would now call a "The Scream" emoji] Regardless of Whether Julie Can Make It, The Board Would Like A Treasury Report of Some Sort. [what we would now call a "The Scream" emoji] Geri will report on _RUNE_ editorship and status. [what we would now call a "The Scream" emoji] Geri: Does Minn-Stf need to appoint a Budget Manager? [what we would now call a "The Scream" emoji] By-Laws Committee Report. [what we would now call a "The Scream" emoji] Computer Policy Committee Progress Report. Next meeting at Eileen's again. June 19th, 7:00 pm. Adjourned at 9:23 pm. Give or take. [In an ornate font, and with different fancy ampersands each time:] Submitted, With Profuse & Sincere Apologies for Its Lateness & With Great Admiration & Respect by Your Most Humble & Obedient Servant, Fred A. Levy Haskell Official Happy Deadwood & Recording Secretary, Minn-Stf ------------------------------------------------------------------------