Board meeting April 2, 2020, by videoconference. Attending board members: Matt Strait (recording), Aaron Vander Giessen, Eric Forste, Scott Raun, Linda Lounsbury. == Approve previous meeting's minutes == Approved! == TODO list == * (2020-03) Matt will ask Hershey if she'll continue being correspondence secretary -- Matt has sent Hershey a postcard. * (2020-03) Matt will ask Brother Joe if he'd like to be the quartermaster -- Matt is in conversation with him. * (2020-03) Matt will ask bright young faces about being membership secretary and/or Einblatt editor -- Matt hasn't done this yet. * (2020-03) Scott will do some recruiting for getting us a nicer style sheet for our website -- Scott reports this is in progress. * (2020-03) Scott will look into what the Zoom rules are for free meetings of unlimited duration, and if we can have a free account for non-profits, too. It does not look like there is a special COVID-19 relaxation of the Zoom rules. Scott is still looking for a response about whether our non-profit status helps. * (2020-03) Scott will handle the ASCAP bill -- in progress. * (2020-03) Aaron will ask Don and Sharla if they are happy running Minicon 56 in 2022 -- they want to know what the result of not having Minicon this year is first. Aaron will bug them again in a couple of months. DONE: * (2020-03) Matt will ask Nico if he'll continue being 2nd VP -- He said yes. * (2020-03) Matt will draft language to require hand-marked paper ballots for the board election -- Sent to board-chat. * (2020-03) Linda will ask Sharon about when she thinks it will be appropriate to schedule social meetings -- this happened and we got a response from Sharon to board-chat. * (2020-03) Scott will get Laura's input on the proposal of requiring hand-marked paper ballots -- Scott sent a summary of that conversation to board-chat (maybe timing-wise this should have gone into the previous minutes, but it didn't, so here it is). * (2020-03) Eric will ask DD-B if he'll continue as VP --- He'd like to step down. So we need another. * (2020-03) Scott will ask Carol if she'll continue as assistant treasurer --- She said yes. == Recurring task list == Rent on the PO box is coming up. We haven't gotten an e-mail bill yet, but it should get automatically paid, in theory. Taxes are coming up (or maybe they aren't, but we can do them for the regular deadline anyway). Onto Scott's TODO list. We opt to not send bills for past due accounts during the pandemic. We'll re-evaluate for next quarter. == Whither MnstF meetings == * Given COVID-19, do we need to amend the bylaws to temporarily adjust down the number of meetings needed for voting status? And/or go back to thinking of making alternate routes for voting status? We currently have about 24 meetings a year, and getting to 5 of them isn't a problem. (We *just* reduced it from 7 to 5, unrelated to COVID-19.) Linda suspects that missing a few months now won't change that too much. But we may want to have virtual meetings just because it is fun and good for people. Eric questions whether it will really only be a few months. But there's no reason that we have to make the decision now. Later we will understand how many meetings will be missed better. Linda suggests we could do more outdoor meetings, if those are deemed safer. What kind of virtual meetings could we have? Not "everyone connects all at once in a free-for-all and fail to have a coherent conversation". We could just have a business meeting plus people can stick around afterwards as long as they want (that's not too different). There could be more moderation, like with the moderator checking in with each participant in turn, Linda suggests. Scott says that videoconferencing apps support the moderator muting and unmuting participants. We decide that we'll stay hands-off for the moment and see what Sharon comes up with. But wait, Minnstf meetings are open to the public. How do we have a public meeting on Zoom or whatever, without it being a disaster? Anyone can sign in and cause trouble, and there has been a lot of said trouble lately around the world. Scott says we can use the "lobby" feature of Zoom so people can only come in if they appear to be SF fans who have heard of Minnstf. Matt: that pretty much means we'd need two moderators for each meeting. Matt proposes that Linda tell Minnstf president Sharon that we haven't really figured this out yet, but that we suggest one thing for the time being: not posting connection information on the public Web. It will go to natter, Minicon concom and to direct-mailed Einblatt (but not on the web-posted Einblatt). We doubt "Zoombombers" will go through the trouble of subscribing to the Einblatt and waiting for connection info for a meeting weeks later. Besides that, we're not directing Sharon to use any particular technology or other strategy at this time. == Officers == Besides those with active TODO items, we're looking for a 1st VP. VPs can be on the board, although the president can't. The trouble with a board member being 1st VP, Scott notes, is that they can't assume the presidency if needed. The only duty of a VP, unless we assign more duties, is to run the business meeting if no more senior VPs or the president are present. Eric nominates Aaron. Aaron declines. Eric nominates Scott. Scott defers a decision until our next meeting, if needed. Scott will get the list from Laura of how many meetings people went to in the last year, since people who go to a lot of meetings are good candidates. == Bylaws amendment to require hand-marked paper ballots == Matt proposes this wording: III.3 reads "Board elections shall use a ranked secret ballot for both choosing the number of seats and for the board candidates." Add a sentence so it reads: "Board elections shall use a ranked secret ballot for both choosing the number of seats and for the board candidates. Only hand-marked paper ballots shall be used." All like this. Since there's no urgency, Matt suggests queuing this up for more changes, like if we formalize rules for virtual meetings. All agree. == Conventions == * The ghost of the Minicon in 2020 Aaron has written to the hotel again to see what they think about force majeure. No response yet, however, the hotel has been canceling room reservations (Aaron's, for instance), which kinds seems like they agree the event can't happen. Currently the stay-at-home order extends until 5pm on Good Friday, April 10. That's awkward timing. It seems likely it will be extended to be solidly through Minicon, but this hasn't happened yet. Aaron will keep on this. * Minicon 55 (now in 2021) No news at this time. * Minicon 56 (now in 2022) See above about the chairs. * Worst Convergence Ever Right now, the MN State Parks are open as long as you stay 6' away from everyone. But that's not going to work very well for a con. So Worst Convergence Ever remains in limbo. * Decongestant 5 Ditto re: COVID-19. In other news, Matt is looking for a new consuite head. He expects consuites to look somewhat different for a while even after stay-at-home ends... * Decongestant 6 Aaron talked to the Marriott at 394 and 169. Columbus Day weekend 2021 is open. But they are pretty busy canceling everything for the next few months. Aaron will see if he can get a proposal from them. * Minneapolis in 2073 We were going to have a bid committee meeting at Minicon 55, since our last one was at Minicon 50, and Matt was thinking of having meetings at Minicon once every 5 years, so we'll still do that, but it's next year. == Next meeting == Let's do two weeks from now to see if a virtual meeting happens or is scheduled and then we can talk about how it went, or whatnot. 6pm, April 16, on some sort of videoconferencing app. == Tabled/continued items for next time == * Proposed changes to harassment policy * Bylaws amendments * paper ballots * virtual meeting attendance * Guidance to new membership secretary to reduce barriers to voting * Whither MnstF meetings == New TODO list == * (2020-03) Matt will ask Hershey if she'll continue being correspondence secretary -- Matt has sent Hershey a postcard. * (2020-03) Matt will ask Brother Joe if he'd like to be the quartermaster -- Matt is in conversation with him. * (2020-03) Matt will ask bright young faces about being membership secretary and/or Einblatt editor. * (2020-03) Scott will do some recruiting for getting us a nicer style sheet for our website -- Scott reports this is in progress. * (2020-03) Scott will look into whether Zoom has special non-profit accounts. * (2020-03) Scott will handle the ASCAP bill. * (2020-04) Scott will do the taxes. * (2020-04) Linda will talk to Sharon about meetings. * (2020-04) Scott will get the list from Laura of how many meetings people went to last year.