April 14, 2012 MnStf Board Meeting Held at the home of Joel and Beth Phillips at 6323 Excelsior Blvd, St. Louis Park, MN 55416 Attendance: Scott Raun, Irene Raun, Beth Friedman, Emily Stewart, Hershey Lima, Dean Gahlon, Matt Strait (by Skype), Pete Kacner, Joel Phillips, Aaron Vander Giessen *501(c)3 Pete Kacner has volunteered to help with re-establishing non-profit status. It appears that we have no paperwork that proves we ever had non-profit status. Beth Friedman has volunteered to find out from the IRS what information they've ever had or if they can help us provide proof of former status for re-establishment. Emily will start the process of getting together the paperwork outlined on http://www.ncstac.org/content/materials/501c3.pdf for establishing new status. Assuming that we cannot prove that we previously had non-profit status, we will apply for new status. We must first apply with the federal government, and then for tax exempt status with the State of Minnesota. Addendum #1 to these minutes: Emily Stewart and Pete Kacner discussed potential tax savings for non-profit organizations after the meeting. The 2013 Minicon budget includes an estimated expense of $3500 for hotel expenses. The tax rate on hotel rooms in Minnesota is 10.275%, and 6.875% of that number is sales tax. Even if we're only exempt from the 6.875 percent sales tax, that's still a significant savings of $218.20. Addendum #2 to these Minutes: Email sent from Beth Friedman at 5:36 PM, April 14th with links to IRS information about "Reinstating exemption after revocation for non-filing" and "Application for Recognition of Exemption Under Section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code." http://www.irs.gov/charities/article/0,,id=177802,00.html and http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/f1023.pdf *Document Storage Documents stored in private homes have a tendency to get lost, or the holder of those documents becomes unknown to current leadership. We need more secure document storage. Emily will look into and report back at May meeting. Included in discussion - Could we rent a file cabinet at GPS? We would have a physical address which would also help with our 501(c)3 application. That would be nifty. *Archives Matt has found several old board minutes in the archives. He will arrange with Kevin Austin how to get them on the web. *Treasurer Still need line item report originally due on March of 2011, and March of 2012. Beth will ask Carol for a line item report or some electronic or physical copy of the check register by the May board meeting. *Projected profit for Minicon 48 Currently, Joel and Matt are planning to have a conservative profit of $4,000, but would like it to be lower. To give them a definitive answer we need a list of our expected expenses. We need estimated Minicon 47 numbers and MnStf Line Item report for 2011 and 2012 (see previous item). *Fallcon Had a final loss of $55.39. The 2012 Fallcon has been approved, with a projected loss of ~ $200. *Minneapolis in 2073 update Bid parties exist continue to happen, as approved by the MnStf board at past meetings. The mission of Minneapolis in 2073 is to run a Worldcon bid as seriously as is reasonably expectable for a convention more than sixty years away. These parties are self-funded by pre-supporting memberships to Mpls in 2073. The treasury currently is at $242.81. If it gets to $500, money will be transferred to the MnStf bank account for safekeeping. The Minneapolis in 2073 bid is considered to be a subset of Minneapolis in '73. MnStf should clearly be bidding for all years ending in '73. *Rune Editorship Kelly and Matt request that they become the Rune editors. Their request was unanimously and enthusiastically approved. Matt and Kelly will work out how to best send Rune publications to people, including whether electronically or by post mail, and which mailing lists are most relevant. The next publication may be a combination Minneapolis in 2073/Rune document. The board approved approximately $200 in publication/mailing costs, not to exceed $250 unless specifically approved by the board. *Parties There was much discussion about policy for MnStf/Minicon parties. The current budget for Minicon 48 includes $700 in room party expenses, which is in line with several recent Minicon budgets. This budget was approved at the February 18, 2012 Board meeting. At some unknown time in the past, room parties were the exclusive purview of MnStf. There was debate as to whether there should be an official policy to make all room parties the exclusive domain of MnStf, or to continue with some MnStf room parties and some Minicon room parties. Beth raised concern that Minicon funded parties may not include enough acknowledgement about the parent organization. Joel raised concern that there should be room for parties to be planned at the last minute, and MnStf has a slow turnaround time on decision making. This issue is tabled, and will be discussed via email. *Chicago Room Party This topic is related to the topic titled "Parties." Some time back, there was a preliminary discussion of the Worldcon room party that includes several Minnesota fan organizations. Joel has requested $300 to help pay for the suite and for food/beverages. This issue is tabled pending discussion about the parties topic. *Cafe Press There is a MnStf Cafe Press store. Is there anything to report from that (sales, promotion, etc...). Laurel controls. Scott will contact Kevin Austin and/or Laurel Krahn about transfer to Mnstf. *Minicon policy Matt Strait would like clarification of the purview of the Minicon Chair(s) about setting Minicon policy. He suggests the following official statement. "We annul everything previous boards have said about Minicon policy. Minicon should run itself as specified in the bylaws until or unless the board says otherwise." This item is related to the topic titled "Parties," and will be discussed via email, and then re-evaluated at the May board meeting. *Steve MacDonald Songbooks - In February of 2012, Patricia Z. and Emily did an inventory of the chapbooks and other Rune publications at the storage locker. Most of those things can be given away. As an exception, there are 63 Songbooks that had a financial arrangement with Steve MacDonald, the author. During email discussion on the topic, Dean passed along an email from Steve Macdonald, originally sent in 2006. The most relevant parts of that email are as follows: WHERE WE ARE: > I hold the copyrights on the book; and MNSTF is currently licensed to > publish and distribute the songbook. In lieu of cash royalties, MNSTF > agreed to send me 10% of any books printed. Originally, this arrangement > was only to be through 2004; but since I haven't been following due > diligence either (grin), I feel that this agreement is still effectively > in place. > > OPTIONS: > 1. MNSTF decides that there's enough profit in it to keep publishing. > If so- we need to discuss royalties; and the mechanism to get them paid. > We should also discuss whether there may be a perceived conflict of > interest if I choose to publish overseas. > > 2. MNSTF decides to halt publishing. > If this be the case, we be done. *wrygrin* Tho, I'll be more than happy > to do what I can to get the books offloaded from your shelves.... > > Ok, that's about all I have now. Let me know what you guys want to do! >Can we give them away, or send them to someone who will sell them? > >smac Dean will contact Steve MacDonald via the grapevine about what we should do with the songbooks. *Status of electronica mnstf.com and mnstf.info domains were bought by a member some time ago with the understanding that MnStf might want them. We do want them. Those domains are not yet under the control of MnStf, but Scott Raun is working on it. * Database Directory All of the Membership Directory data has been entered. That data needs to be formatted. Scott will do so by the May meeting. * Next Meeting Saturday, May 19th at 2:00PM at 3928 11th Ave S, Mpls.