MNSTF board meeting, May 6, 2021, 6pm on Jitsi. Attending board members: Matt Strait (recording), Aaron Vander Giessen, Scott Raun, Linda Lounsbury, Hershey Harris. == Approve last meeting's minutes == Approved! == Review TODO list == * (2021-04) Scott will let DD-B know the answers to the questions he e-mailed us -- This happened! Scott still needs to pass the Deed of Gift draft through Jonathan. Done: * (2021-03) Matt will announce the next meeting to officers and chairs. * (2021-03) Scott will get the letter sent to the storage locker changing our billing address to Carol's house -- Done March 26. * (2021-03) Matt will ask if Brother Joe will continue being the quartermaster -- He accepts. New: Linda points out that we still need to figure out PO box keys. Hershey will get them. == Review recurring task list == Rent on the PO box? Should happen automatically on Carol's credit card. Taxes? We have not done them yet. Normally they're due May 15, but probably it's been extended this year. Scott will do it. Domain renewal? Scott will watch for the automated notice. Past due accounts. Matt will take care of this. == Young board members position? == Matt floats a suggestion that we make a Young Board Member position, setting aside one of the 3, 5, 7, or 9 (but, as it turns out, always 5) board slots for a person under 35, to be voted on separately. This would require amending the bylaws, but works just fine with the articles of incorporation, which say "qualifications, and terms of directors shall be as provided in the By-Laws". Voted on separately? Or could more simply (from the voters' perspective) be included in the same ranking as everyone else. If a young person places in the top 5, they win as usual. If not, the highest ranking young person wins and the #5 ranking person doesn't. Anyway, implementation detail to be decided later. [After the meeting, Scott said: "If we go with this method, we should put some kind of flag on the ballot for the qualified nominees."] On average, positive reception. What if there's only one young person on the ballot, then they just get on the board automatically? Do we like that? Well, we could raise the nominations threshold a little bit if we were concerned about randos getting on the board after self-nominating. Currently the threshold for getting on the ballot is one nomination from anyone, including self-nominations, which is as low a bar as there can possibly be. Linda is a little dubious. She's concerned that we'd get people on the board who no one really knows. Matt again says that we can cure that by raising the nominations threshold. Linda: what about giving young people positions of power and then people will know them and vote for them for board? Matt, Scott: well, we've been doing that and it doesn't seem to lead to them getting elected to the board. Hershey: well, the worst case scenario is that they just end up as dead weight on the board, and we've had dead weight on the board before, and it's been ok. Linda: well, should we have quotas for other underrepresented groups? Matt: I think the thing that's different is that youngness is temporary. It's a way to get people into it, and then later they don't get the advantage. Scott: something we've done before, but not for a while, is to have people on the ballot send in a position statement. Maybe that would help people vote for young people who they don't know? == Fan Photo Archive == By e-mail, DD-B asked us seven questions: 1) Shall we name his project the Minnesota Science Fiction Society Fan Photo Archive (FANPA)? 2) Do we like his proposed logo? 3) Can he put things at fanpa.mnstf.org? 4) Can he be an officer called the director of the Fan Photo Archive? 5) Can he sign Deeds of Gift (that he designed for this project) for the club? 6) Assuming yes to #4, is his officership annual or perpetual? 7) Does the board think we need a lawyer to review the Deed of Gift? By e-mail, Matt and Scott proposed the answers: yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, we'll ask him annually to continue just like any other officer (so not really one or the other), and yes (Jonathan can probably tell us if it is ok or not without needing an outside expert). Aaron concurred. Linda says yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, no-comment, and if-Jonathan-can-do-it-quickly. Scott relayed this to to DD-B, with the answer to the last question being that Jonathan would look at it, but only a quick look for glaring problems. == Book donations == Budget? Matt suggests $1300, as last year, split evenly between Dreamhaven and Uncle Hugo's. We have this in the club budget for 2021. We approve. Books to go to high school libraries. What authors? Should they all be locals? Women? People of color? All of the above simultaneously? At least one of the above each? Advantage of local authors is that we could arrange for autographing parties (COVID-allowing). Scott feels it's important that the authors be POC or female or not-straight or local. Local is the most important. Matt suggests that it's really going to come down to what books are available and then Linda will have to make reasonable decisions. Scott says that Linda should talk to Peg Ihinger about used books. Discussion of specific authors and books ensues. Lyda Morehouse's and Naomi Kritzer's names are floated. == Facebook group settings == Scott: They are changing them for public groups. They're making purely public groups easier to find and participate in. Anyone will be able to join by just clicking on the join button. You can kick them out or set requirements for posting. Previously you could set requirements to join. Let's see if any problems arise and deal with them if they happen instead of trying to fix hypothetical problems. Scott would like us to make one decision: Will the Minicon chairs have the power to make the Minicon group private, an action which is irreversible? No, the board should have a say on that. (Anyway, the current chairs aren't admins on the group, as it turns out.) == Conventions == * Minicon 55. Aaron sent the chairs and treasurer the draft contract from the hotel. It has an expanded force majeure clause that covers pandemics better. Of course, it doesn't handle whatever future disasters we haven't thought of better, and the next disaster probably won't be a pandemic, but *shrug*? There are reasonable price adjustments and a reasonable reduction in our room block. When the chairs approve it, Aaron will get back to the hotel. * Decongestant 5. We can get Sept 24-26 at the same bat hotel, same bat rooms. We'll take one of the two board rooms. We'll have all three 2nd floor suites, with the consuite being one of them. Hershey has gotten a contract and will send it to Matt to look over. * Minneapolis in 2073. No news. == Next meeting == 6pm on July 6. Will need to be done by 7pm, but we managed that today, so that's probably ok. On Jitsi still. == New TODO list == * (2021-05) Scott will consult with Jonathan about the FANPA Deed of Gift draft. * (2021-05) Matt will announce the next meeting to officers and chairs. * (2021-05) Hershey will go try to get PO box keys. * (2021-05) Scott will confirm with Carol that the PO box has gotten paid on her credit card. * (2021-05) Scott will do the taxes and SoS renewals. * (2021-05) Scott will watch for the automated notice for our domain renewals. * (2021-05) Matt will send bills for past due accounts. * (2021-05) Linda will contact school libraries. * (2021-05) We'll all think about a young board member position.