Board meeting at Beth Friedman's, 8pm, 30 Aug 2014. In attendance: Matt Strait by phone, Scott Raun, Dean Gahlon, Beth Friedman, Lydy Nickerson. The minutes are not as snappy or detailed as usual because Matt had to take them with a phone awkwardly pressed to his ear after making the mistake of saying out loud how nice it was that he had gotten Skype working, thus causing the Skype gods to curse his connection forthwith. Here is our confirmation that we did our taxes: \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ From: epostcard@urban.org To: bjf@visi.com Date: 23 Jul 2014 11:53:30 -0400 Subject: Form 990-N E-filing Receipt - IRS Status: Accepted Organization: MINNESOTA SCIENCE FICTION SOCIETY INCORPORATED EIN: 23-7241917 Submission Type: Form 990-N Year: 2013 Submission ID: 7800582014204bj23357 e-File Postmark: 7/23/2014 11:47:13 AM Accepted Date: 7/23/2014 The IRS has accepted the e-Postcard described above. Please save this receipt for your records. Thank you for filing. ------------------------------------------------------------------------- e-Postcard technical support Phone: 866-255-0654 (toll free) email:ePostcard@urban.org ------------------------------------------------------------------------- MINNESOTA SCIENCE FICTION SOCIETY INCORPORATED 3928 11th Avenue S Minneapolis, MN 55407 \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ * Board-chat archives. It turns out to be more involved that we want to deal with to integrate them nicely. They will be dumped in as attachments for archival. * Status of our bank accounts We all got the statements from US Bank, Highland Bank and Ameriprise from Dean from Carol. We should close the Highland bank account, which is a legacy account from when we used rotating accounts for Minicon. It has $584.37 in it, which should be transfered to the US Bank account. Scott will ride herd on Kevin and Irene to get this done. Our Ameriprise accounts (three of them: money market, flexible savings and stock market) seem to be set up non-optimally: not much interest being earned, no apparent reason for the distribution of funds. We would like to know if Carol understands why things are as they are. If we don't learn that somehow this is an optimal configuration, we should rearrange it. Dean will talk to Carol. Since we haven't withdrawn money from Ameriprise in a very long time, Matt worries that we might not turn out to be able to when we need it. We agree that after the previous discussions, our next step will be to withdraw a nominal amount to make sure that we can do it. The US Bank account is in good shape. It's the one we write meeting stipend checks from and so forth. It has about $6k right now, which is enough to cover us for a while even after seeding Minicon 50 (see below), and even if Minicon 49 continues to be slow returning its profit (see below). We'd like Carol to come to a board meeting so that we can talk about Ameriprise and other financial doings without a go-between. Dean will set up a special meeting at a time Carol can make it. Matt says that while he'd find this meeting interesting, it would be ok if it were scheduled at a bad time for him. * Minicon 49. We still lack a correct hotel bill. Matt (Strait) needs to ride herd on Matt (Weiser) and has been failing to do so. He promises to start riding herd. * Minicon 50. Not much going on, but would like its $3k seed money. Dean will make sure this happens and will have a check sent to Matt (S). * Minicon 51. No developments. * MethodCON 2. Nothing needs discussing. Everyone should remember to register and get a room sooner rather than later so that Patricia doesn't have to worry as much. * Bylaw amendments Proposed amendment to I.5 was "Persons whose memberships have been revoked are barred from attending all meetings, conventions and other Society functions." This needs reworking on the point of whether people are banned from conventions if their membership is revoked. We all agreed that these should be decoupled, but that the board should explicitly have both powers. II.8, on what to do when someone is not welcome at a meeting host's house, needs copy editing changes. II.7, on Minn-stf's harassment policy, needs a space removed from "web site". VI.7, on conventions' harassment policies, should be changed to be the more general "publish in its paper and electronic publications as appropriate", but with a thesaurus applied. There is some funny footnote that Lydy wants put into the bylaws that Matt couldn't hear and Matt said no and Lydy is sad. * harassment policy and related We go over what changes Matt made relative to Beth's last draft. Mostly it is in adding the "rules for conventions" paragraph and formalizing. We add the words "the following" in the last paragraph. All approve this to be sent out to natter, LJ, etc. for club comments. Here it is: ======================================================================== Minn-stf Harassment Policy (draft) Preamble: This policy covers Minn-stf sponsored events, including regular meetings of the membership, board meetings, and convention committee meetings, most of which are hosted in members' homes, and other Minn-stf-sponsored events held in more public venues, such as picnics and pool parties. It also covers conventions held under Minn-stf auspices, such as Minicon and the fallcon. Principles: Minn-stf acknowledges that interpersonal relationships in social settings are complex. Not everyone likes everyone else, and not everyone agrees with everyone else. Disagreements, friction, and vigorous debate are expected. However, interactions that become hostile or coercive do not have any part in a healthy social environment and Mnstf commits to addressing problem behaviors. Harassment is difficult to define, and attempts at an exact definition are subject to rules-lawyering, so we won't attempt to do that. However, repeated unwelcome behaviors are mostly likely to be construed as harassment. If someone asks you not to touch them, not to talk to them, or not to refer to them in a way that they find objectionable, and you persist in doing so, you may be harassing them. In the end, harassment is judged primarily by the person who feels harassed, and actions are more important than intent. Outside of conventions: If you are being harassed, it is your choice whether to deal with it on your own or seek support or assistance from Minn-stf. If you choose the latter, please notify the host of the event, a Minn-stf officer, or a board member of the problem. In all cases, we will try to work with all parties to eliminate the problem behavior. Actions taken may include warning or banning, either temporarily or permanently. Rules for conventions: Each Minn-stf convention shall publish a public policy and also have an internal policy, both approved by the board. The public policy must consist of at least the above Principles section, verbatim, followed by information about how the convention implements these principles. The internal policy must include: who is responsible for looking into reports; how they will look into them, including the process and the timeline thereof; how the progress and conclusions thereof will be communicated to the harassment reporter and reportee and to the public; and how multi-year recommendations will be communicated to the board regarding harassers. ======================================================================== * Set next meeting We have already set a meeting on Oct 11 at METHOD Con 2. Beth can't attend, which we knew. Since Dean is going to set up a special board meeting with Carol, we don't feel like we need another meeting between now and Oct 11. TODO: * Scott ride herd and Kevin and Irene to close the Highland Bank account. * Dean will talk to Carol about Ameriprise: why are the accounts as they are, and how would we get money out? And Dean will set up a board meeting with Carol. And get M50 its $3000, by check mailed to Matt Strait. * Matt will revise bylaw amendments. And after we like them, we will send them out. * Afore named people will send out our just-approved harassment policy for discussion before it is actually approved and official. * All: Think about how to keep internal documents.