Board Minutes - 2009-09-19

In attendance: Scott Raun, Irene Raun, Betsy Lundsten, Matt Strait,
Kelly Strait

Storage Locker:
--The board received a report from Liza via e-mail.  Based on the
options she presented, the board has selected the All-American
Self-Storage in St Paul.

--We need to set a date for the move.  Saturdays in Oct that are not
MnStf meetings initially seem like the best bet.  Matt will coordinate
with Minicon folks to find a date for the move.

--Keith's opinion (via Matt) is that, whatever we do, Joel needs to be
involved, since bar & consuite are the majority of stuff.

--To do: sign a new lease - Scott volunteers Dean & Irene to get a
check from Carol, sign it, and initiate the new lease.

--To do: cancel the old storage locker - Scott proposes that we move
everything out, then tell them that, after the end of that month, we
will not be renting from them anymore (we're currently on
month-to-month)

--To do: get information to Carol about new locker.

Archives:
--Matt has found "the box in the basement" in the storage locker - he
will move to the contents to the MnStf archives after scanning
appropriate contents.

--The new filing cabinet has been moved in to Marian's basement with the
rest of the archives.

--The Board approves the purchase of previous Minicon masquerade videos
- Matt will ask Carol to mail him a check & have the original tapes &
DVD copies sent to Matt.

--The Board moves that an official duty of the archivist is to maintain
the Minicon webpages and archives of old Minicon materials on the web, so
the archivist needs access to edit the MnStf webpage.

--It would be nice if there was an official policy for Minicon to put
materials into the archives .

Non-profit:
--Scott received a response to our request for a determination letter.
The IRS does not have any record of us being any sort of non-profit.

--The Board moves to refile - Scott & Irene will start on the paperwork
to do this.

--The Board will move to file for sales tax exemption after reconfirming
non-profit status.

Website:
--MnStf's website is on Laurel Krahn's account (as it has been for a while).

--In the absence of the IRS determination letter, the Board moves for
MnStf to pay for its own account for now, and we'll deal with non-profit
later.

--Scott will notify Laurel & Kevin to let her know that we've done this
and MnStf will reimburse for account purchase.

Printer:
--The printer still resides at Betsy's house and still has not been
evaluated in re: need for parts, service, etc.

--The printer can split into two parts and thus should fit in a normal
car, so it may move to Scott's before its evaluation.

Einblatt:
--We had discussed putting in meeting host thank-yous, but this hasn't
happened so far - Scott had forgotten and is now reminded.

Minicon 46:
--Keith has submitted a statement in essence stating that he, Joel, and
Kevin, in some permutation, are likely to chair next year.

--In light of this, the Board will not advertise further for other bids,
though will be willing to entertain ones that came to us.  Come January,
the Board will ask the trio for a commitment and details.

--In light of the financial situation detailed below, the board asks the
Minicon 46 chairs to get bids from other hotels to see if we can get the
same amount of function space for a smaller room block and/or a
shallower penalty schedule.

--The Board strongly requests an investigation of alternatives to the Sheraton,
but at the very least, the above bid(s) will give us a feeling for our
situation and possible leverage with the Sheraton.

Minicon 45:
--Keith's report on M45 was presented to the board by Matt.

--Keith believes that $4000 is more than can be made by a Minicon right
now at the Sheraton.

--Based on his spreadsheet, the most realistic guess is that the
convention will lose $3000, assuming the same number of room nights as
last year, but with contractual penalties actually applied.

--The primary financial problem is that everything hinges on the number
of room nights and missing the room block by even a fairly small amount
costs us more money than we could possibly save elsewhere in a
reasonable way.

--Keith's report shows how $1000 can be saved over last year and further
discussion with Matt has covered additional cost-saving mechanisms (at
least another $1000).

Budget from Carol:
--Carol sent the board the check request form and a breakdown of
expenses for 2008.

--She reports that we have $4982.66 in checking.

--The breakdown of expenses for 2008 follows:
        Meeting stipends
                Regular 21x$50                          1050.00
                New Year's                               100.00
                Picnic                                   200.00
        Total                                           1350.00

        Storage (currently $179.00/mo.)                 1837.00
        PO box (this year $176.00)                       169.00
        New Checks                                        76.98
        Insurance                                        650.00
        Donation mem. D. Friauf                           50.00
        Einblatt paper                                    21.94
        Copier repair                                    140.00
        Mailings:
                Directory mailing                        223.62
                Ballot mailing                             5.80
                Einblatt (see Note below)
        Not an actual "expense" in that it gets repaid:
        Minicon seed money                              2000.00

        Note: Checks for Einblatt mailings were irregular, so I'm not
sure if each check represented several months, or what. Maybe Scott has
an accurate figure? In any case, now the few people get the dead-tree
version, this figure will be different for this year and very different
in future.

Directory:
--Scott continues to poke Carol about publishing the MNstf directory.

Bylaws:
--With only three Board members present, no movement was made to pass
any amendments at this meeting

--Those present would like to see the complete details of the MnStf
Board voting system included in the by-laws.  Discussion of the voting
method itself tabled until the next meeting.

--There has been discussion of changing the pronoun usage in the
by-laws.  Betsy has volunteered to replace all instances of he/him/his
with they/them/their and repair grammar as necessary.

Next meeting: Saturday at Convivial?