MNStf board meeting, Wednesday Jan 19, 2022, 6pm, on Jitsi. Attending board members: Matt Strait (recording), Scott Raun, Linda Lounsbury, Aaron Vander Giessen, Hershey Harris. Attending non-board members: Clay Harris (occasionally) == Approve last meeting's minutes == Approved. == Ratifications == All of us approved the November minutes by e-mail. Same thing! Ratified! == Review TODO list == * (2021-06) Scott will correspond with ASCAP to tell them we had no events in the last year. No change. Keep it on the list. No additional harassment from them, so we guess it isn't urgent. * (2022-01) Aaron will ask Don and Sharla about Minicon in 2023 (56?), again, at the next concom meeting, in January. That will be this Saturday. * (2022-01) Matt will ask Brother Joe to check on the storage locker, in January. Matt sent Joe an e-mail, got no reply. He should try again. Done: * (2021-11) Aaron will remind concoms of how to voting membership works. * (2021-11) Matt will announce the next meeting to officers and chairs. == Review recurring task list == We're supposed to read the list into the minutes so that we have a recent copy in case the wiki goes down. Here it is: {}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{} January: read this list into the minutes so we have a recent copy if the wiki goes down. January: pay GPS $200 as per our cooperative agreement with them. Pay the rent on the PO box, annually in October. We are notified of this by e-mail to board-at-mnstf-org on the first of the month for a bill due at the end of that month. Possibly we also get a paper bill in the PO box. As of June 2021, this is an automatic credit card payment. Proposals for future Minicons: Solicit starting 18 months prior to the desired Minicon, requesting that bids be in to the board by January 31 (approximately 14 months before the proposed convention), with earlier being better. Proposals for next year's fallcon: Solicit at and immediately after the current fallcon, if any, or sometime in the fall if we're skipping a year. Due to the board by February 15, approximately 8 months before the proposed convention. Convention preliminary finances: Due to the board one month after convention. Should include gross income, gross profit, and amount given to the board. Final finances must be done "within six months of the convention or by thirty days prior to the deadline for filing Society tax returns for the tax year in which the convention was held, whichever is earlier", as per the bylaws. ASCAP: Due maybe March 31 for previous year, although they are not very clear. To be done by the MnStf Treasurer at the direction of the board. Voting meeting: The membership secretary and outgoing president should make arrangements for nomination and voting meetings. The board should check over and update the information for new board members. The voting meeting must happen before March 31, typically before Minicon. There are two nominating meetings that must happen before then. At the first meeting of the new board, review the mailing lists and forwarding addresses: The board-chat mailing list is currently administered by Scott Raun and DD-B. Currently the board-at-mnstf forwarding address goes to Scott. Remember to switch the president-at-mnstf forwarding address sometime between the voting meeting and Minicon. Officers: Chosen by the new board at the voting meeting or as soon as possible thereafter. Names and positions of officers should be submitted to the MnStf webmaster. Convention incident info: More than a month before Minicon, and other cons, forward any relevant information about incidents at previous cons to the upcoming con. Taxes: Due May 15. At this point, since we gross under $50k, we only have to file the 990N "postcard." Scott has been doing this. Scott reminds himself to do it with Chrome to make PDF generation easier. With the taxes (actual deadline Dec 31): Renew Minicon assumed name (as of 2020, must be paper filed). With the taxes (actual deadline Dec 31): Annual renewal with the Minnesota Secretary of State for Minnesota Science Fiction Society. Here's where we do it. May: If we want to continue annual book donations (done in 2020 and 2021), get it going. June: Annual domain registration renewal and contact information verification through GANDI. Current domains are mnstf.org and minicon.org. GANDI sends notifications to the address on file (board-at-mnstf), who needs to confirm information. Every December (this timing is arbitrary): Review what address we have on file with the state of Minnesota or whoever else won't use the PO Box. As of 2020, this is Scott and Irene's house. Feb/March-ish, July-ish, Oct/November-ish: Get a report from the Quartermaster. January, April, July, October: Send bills for past due accounts. June, December: Send notice to concoms reminding them how voting member status works. October: Confirm Give-To-The-Max registration so that we can get donations. {}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{} The other things we need to do now: We also need to pay GPS as per our annual agreement. Scott will ask Carol to pay them. We should send bills for past due accounts. Matt will do this. We need to make sure the nominating meetings and voting meeting are getting scheduled. We're not worried, but Scott will talk to Sharon about it, just to be sure. == In-person club meetings == Matt proposes that we fund N95 masks to be handed out at the door at in-person meetings. We all approve. Let's buy 100 to start with, from a reputable dealer (not an Amazon seller). Real N95s, not substitutes that are almost as good like the Korean KF95s. And not KN94s, which aren't as good to start with and are usually fake anyway. Scott will buy them. Matt also proposes we buy air purifiers for use at parties. He proposes buying two of the kinda standard floor models that everyone's getting these days, and two sets of replacement filters for each. They're good for 150 square feet each or something like that. Discussion ensues about whether this acquisition of large objects is a good decision. Scott and Aaron are not sure if it will encourage people to hold meetings. Matt counters that even if it doesn't make people feel safer, it still makes them safer. But we're not sure that someone will take on the job of schlepping them to each indoor meeting. On the gripping hand, would Minicon use them, even if they didn't see consistent use at Minnstf meetings/parties? Let's table this to our next meeting. We discussed whether we want to set some floor for covid safety rules at meetings, and how that would work. Hosts could always specify additional safety measures above the minimum the club sets. Discussion of whether we should require vaccinations. Discussion of whether we'd enforce that. Would hosts be required to enforce it? Hmmmm. Require masks? Masks except when eating and drinking? If we had these rules, how long would they be in force? Scott suggests that we write that they must be re-ratified by each new board, and of course we could end them early. Most of us want to make vaccination our minimum requirement for meetings. Matt is uncomfortable with this, particularly if it means hosts checking vaccination cards at the door of their own house. We settled on making it a requirement that people are vaccinated, but not specifying any required enforcement. Meeting announcements will state the requirement. "Vaccinated" means all the covid shots you're eligible for, i.e. currently vaxxed and boosted. It also means if you medically can't get any, or can't get any more, you're covered. == Conventions == * Minicon 55 There's a concom meeting Saturday. Yes, we're still planning to have a Minicon this year. We don't foresee any changes to that. What do we need to talk about? How much money we're going to lose when we massively miss the room block? Intervening in arguments about covid? Well, there aren't any of those yet, and maybe we won't need to intervene anyway. * Decongestant 5 Still planning to have this too. Have a signed hotel contract. * Minneapolis in 2073 No news. Other than that Matt had the idea to have the NASFiC in 2023, which was a cool idea, except that we're ineligible to hold it because of the 500 mile rule and Chicon being this year. == Next meeting == Feb 16, 6pm, on Jitsi. == More discussion of covid and meetings == Why can't we have a pool party before Minicon? Because no one's willing to host and there are arguments about masks. Some people want to require masks be worn 100% of the time, some want to allow taking them off to eat and drink. And some people want the latter, but are geared up to fight (or grumble loudly, or opt out of attending) if eaters and drinkers don't replace their masks fast enough. Hershey suggests just not having food. It makes hosting a lot easier, both because of reduced arguments about masking and because then the host doesn't have to bring food and drink. But the people who want to eat and drink and the people who want 100% masking may not be reconcilable. What if we had one room where you had to have 100% masking and another room where it was less strict and we could have food and drink? At our 2020 pool party (before covid hit the Cities) we ended up with two rooms because the hotel let us keep the function room where we had the Minicon concom meeting. Maybe Hershey would be willing to host such a meeting. She'll think about it. She would just need to talk to Aaron (hotel) and Sharon (president). == New TODO list == * (2021-06) Scott will correspond with ASCAP to tell them we had no events in the last year. * (2022-01) Aaron will ask Don and Sharla about Minicon in 2023 (56?), again, at the next concom meeting, in January. * (2022-01) Matt will ask Brother Joe to check on the storage locker, in January. Matt has sent Joe an e-mail. * (2022-01) Matt will send bills for past due accounts. * (2022-01) Matt will announce the next meeting to officers and chairs. * (2022-01) Scott will ask Carol to pay GPS $200 as per our agreement. * (2022-01) Scott will talk to Sharon about the nominating and voting meetings, and also about having a meeting in March in general. * (2022-01) Scott will buy N95 masks for meetings. * (2022-01) Matt will write down a concrete in-person meeting covid policy. >>> For next meeting: Discuss air purifiers again.