MN-StF Board Meeting - September 17, 2003

Present: Larry, Scott, Laura Jean, Dean, Peter Hentges, Polly, Kevin,
Joe Agee.

The pre-meeting began with a tour of Scott and Irene's back yard to
admire their elderly box elder tree because of which they will go broke
getting it pulled out, but he and Irene have other lovely trees and
bushes to replace it.

Web site: Peter is willing to take it on but wants to know what the
Board expects of him. They wish him to update it regularly, clean out
any deadwood, and set up an email message link that will be sent to
both web master and Einblatt editor. They would also like a Paypal page
for donations and to sell merchandise.

Einblatt email (not counting a lot of spam) is 50% meeting and event
announcements and 50% changes of address and publishing news etc. The
board wants to let people know that messages to Einblatt will go to the
web master as well. Peter asked if there is any information that will
serve an audience that is not now being served and the board responded
that they would like to keep current information available for our
members and be findable for people looking for fannish groups. The
board wants quality hits, not quantity hits. One possible opportunity
is that the MN-Stf web site could potentially join a fannish webring.

Other web site issues:
 * MN-StF owns a copy of Dreamweaver (at least two versions old), but
   it is for Windows and Peter is a Mac guy (for the most part).
 * There is a form to submit an event for Einblatt, but Scott has
   gotten only one posting via this form this year.

This will likely be a few hours per month to maintain the web page. If
Peter feels like digging in and redesigning the site, the board would
not say no to him. Dean will still put the board minutes up. (Polly
will send him the last couple of months in the body of an email.)

Peter is agreeable to becoming the web master. Dean will get in touch
with DDB to give Peter access.

Joe came to argue that MN-Stf meetings are where we build community and
that having the stipend reduced so that hosts will not be able to have
enough meal opportunities to stay at the meeting. Joe would like to add
an auction to Minicon as a fund-raiser and then keep the stipend at
$50. He will have Carol announce (at the next meeting) that we need to
increase revenues and to have people donate either food or money to
make the meetings nice.

(At this point the Board indulged in a tangent to discuss a possible
LOTR marathon the eve of the release of the Return of the King.)

Hotline: Larry suggests that since Glenn and Mia have resigned from
editing the Hotline, we kill it. Other members of the board would like
to at least try metering it to see how much it is being used. Kevin is
willing to be the lame duck editor for the next few months but if it
does not get killed, he does not want to continue in that capacity. The
hotline is Ubikkly (Philip K Dick novel). Laura Jean says if the
metering does not get set up by September 30, KILL IT! (The board
digressed to the history of Arthur Leo Wu. Junk mail proclaiming "Wus
since the Civil War" is Dean's favorite piece of Wu history.) Larry
will call the phone company and change it to metered for two months.
Dean thinks that after a month that we will know that they should kill
it and then announce that you are going to kill it in a month. THEN
KILL IT. Kevin is hearing the answering machine more than 5 times a
month but the board does not know how many of them are telemarketing
calls. The board decided on a cutoff of (!! I didn't type it in.)

Pool Party: Last year's room rental was about $200. The budget for food
was decided last month as $200. Whoever chooses to be the (principle)
host will need to decide on the gun policy for the whole event since
the Radisson does not have a policy prohibiting guns, so MN-Stf's gun
policy rules.

Fundraising:

Steve McDonald - we have an agreement with him to sell his chapbook
through 2004 but he would like to raise the cove price to $15 to make
change making easier.

Greg's offer: Dreamhaven would like to subsidize the dead tree edition
of Einblatt in return for advertising space. He would give us about
$100 per month. Scott (as editor) says it is fine with him depending on
how much space Greg is talking about. The subsidy would cover the cost
of a one sheet Einblatt for 200 people but not the extra cost for an
annual directory including increased costs in postage and that it is
sent to 400 people. If the board decides to do this, they would offer
to refund the subscriptions of the people who paid for paper editions.
Scott will have information regarding the incremental cost of sending
out the directory next meeting. The board is interested in finding out
the specifics of Greg's proposal and thought that if they accepted the
proposal they would give it to him for a year and then, if someone else
was interested, the board will renegotiate with Greg and the other
party(s) what to do. Scott, wearing two hats (but not simultaneously)
will talk to Greg.

Taxes: Charmaine is out of town and no one has been able to get the
Minicon records from her. The Franklin Bank is also difficult to get
stuff out of. The board will apply for another extension to file tax
forms. Laura Jean's attempts to get the documentation from Charmain
have not succeeded so far. They are on vacation. Laura Jean will
continue to try to contact her when they get back from vacation.

Brochure: The board has discussed this in the past and so Larry brought
it up again. They would like someone to write text for an updated flyer
to put in libraries and other places. Dean suggests they announce that
they would like such a volunteer. At the next MN-Stf Meeting Carol will
announce it and that we are looking for help to manufacture chapbooks.
Laura Jean will let her know all of the things that need to be
announced and implemented including a donation kitty.

Thanks to Geri Sullivan for the donation from the Why Fans shouldn't
.Time travel Worldcon, which came about because she left the room. The
donation was $186.63.

Fundraising ideas:
 * Get donations from authors of their books
 * Have a MN-Stf Sale day at bookstore and have some percentage of the
   sales go to MNstf.
 * Booksale (like the garage sale)
 * MN-stf T-shirts
 * Benefit Concert (Nate or Decadent Dave perhaps)
 * Ask Neil Gaiman do a benefit of some sort.
 * Have a frame or link to MN-StF Live Journal (easy multiple point
   way to update the web site) as a means to promote the organization
 * Bake Sale (early December)

Promotion ideas:
 * Get authors to go into the schools in a long-term effort to grow
   the club. (Polly will remind Eric to respond to Laura Jean.) Scott
   says to talk to Denny, who lets Scott know about all of the MN
   connections in the publication world.

The board will announce these ideas and have people contact them if
they are interested in helping make any of them happen.

Torcon Dead dog party came in under the budget, but Larry does not have
the final figures given the necessary exchange of currency. Several
people suggested Mpls in '73 make it a tradition to run this party.

Next meeting is October 15 at 7 p.m. Scott will update the time on
Einblatt.