MINNSTF board meeting, Sunday November 19, 3pm. Attending board members: Matt Strait (recording), Linda Lounsbury, David Dyer-Bennet, Scott Raun, Lilly Watson Attending non-board members: Jim Porter. == Approve previous meeting's minutes == Matt, Linda, DD-B and Scott approved by e-mail. Ratify? Ratified. == Review TODO list == * (2023-10) Linda will ask Carol about the payment for the PO Box. What frequency do we pay, how automatic are the payments, what did we pay in Oct 2023. And it's paid on her credit card which when then reimburses herself for, right? Ok, done: we know from Carol's e-mail that she paid $388.00 and it is annual, they are automatic, and she is reimbursing herself. * (2023-10) Matt will get a report from Jim Porter, quartermaster, and encourage him to update us more often. -- Matt sent Jim an e-mail, which didn't work. Matt has now tried text message. He says he might attend the board meeting. * (2023-08) Scott will also talk to Carol about how we'd like regular monthly reports and offer to find another volunteer if needed. Carol thinks this is reasonable. We should expect monthly reports that the bank account is balanced. * (2023-10) Scott will send Lilly information on how to fix the Einblatt announce list. Sent. It's not fixed yet. We now think this would be more useful on DD-B's list. * (2023-10) Lilly will call for volunteers to run a small con (in fall or otherwise, like our recent fallcons or otherwise) in the Einblatt. Lilly's not here, so back on the TODO list. * (2023-10) Scott will call for volunteers to run a small con (in fall or otherwise, like our recent fallcons or otherwise) on natter and also send the same wording to Aaron for disseminating on social media. He'll run the language by the board. But he doesn't need a majority of the board to formally approve it to send it out. Back on the TODO list. DONE: * (2023-08) Scott will ask Carol for confirmation that the bank statements of July 31 and following, inclusive, have been balanced, and for the latest checking account balance. Balanced as of Oct 31, with $1274.60 in main checking. * (2023-10) Matt will send bills for past due accounts. * (2023-10) Matt will ask Aaron for our current investment account balances -- we have $28,668 as of Nov 6, 2023. Aaron reminds us that we withdrew $3,000 to checking at the beginning of August. "The market (and our funds) were on a downswing at that point and just recently started trending back into the positive." == Review recurring task list == Nothing is up this month. == Financials == We will be down to under $400 in main checking, Carol reports, after paying our bills through Feb, assuming zero meeting stipends. Matt added CONFelicity's $251.24 to this, but sounds like we need to pull some from Vanguard. Matt moves to authorize Aaron to move $3000 from Vanguard to checking. All approve. Matt will ask Aaron to do this, and tell Carol. Scott arrives here; some content above retroactive. Linda asks if we've asked Carol for a report of what we've been spending money on. Scott: Not specifically. Scott will ask her. == Officer reports == * Membership, correspondence, Einblatt, Rune, archivist, FANPA, etc. Linda, corresponding secretary: Looked in the PO box: no mail. Delivered mail gotten previously. Can we discard redundant ASCAP bills? Yes. DD-B, FANPA, webmaster: No report. Scott, membership secretary: One meeting behind on meeting data entry. Needs to retrieve sign-in book from Dreampark; he'll do that this week. Matt, archivist: Have continued sorting through Denny's papers. Not sure what to do with a long run of ANZAPA. DD-B reminds Matt that he has six more boxes of Denny's papers for Matt. Lilly, Einblatt editor: She notes that there are no meetings in November. Still need to fix the announce list so that issues can be sent out. Jim Porter, quartermaster: Have not been out to the storage locker; planning to go there tomorrow. Will get in touch with John Wardale to figure out what's in the Rumpus Room bins. Will also discuss with Sharla, who did some weeding. He is meaning to get around to making a list of things that we own that aren't in the locker. Lilly asks to hear when Jim is going over there, as she could stop by and help. Matt encourages Jim to send us monthly reports, which could be "nothing has happened", but to send them. Jim says "ok". == Conventions == * CONFelicity Returned profit of $251.24. This might be off by $100, because there was some confusion between CONFelicity and Minicon 57 money. Matt thinks this is the most likely correct number now, and perhaps we'll discover that Minicon 57 is off by $100 in the other direction when all is said and done. * Minicon 57 Proceeding apace. * Minneapolis in 2073 Run a good two-night party at Windycon. Came out ahead financially and got a dozen upgrades and a dozen new members, roughly. * Minicon 58 Matt sent a proposal to the board to chair Minicon 58, Easter weekend 2025. We remind ourselves that the profit target for Minicon 57 is $4700. Discussion of registration rates. Scott approves. DD-B approves. Linda approves. Lilly approves. Approved. We'll all think about what the profit target should be, using the information we're about to get from Carol. DD-B says that we should think about how we're thinking about our savings. We don't want to gradually spend it down until we're out of money. Can we think of a 5-year plan that aims us at consistent comfortable profits? The point of this would be to agree to spend extra money on the front end of the 5-years on promotion on the theory that this would make more money back by the back end. Or, instead of promotion, drop the reg rates on the front end. Matt: how about increasing the age range for the "student" rate? Going up to 25 or even 30. Lilly: add a "sponsor" rate, for instance Anime Fusion has $150 and $200 rates that come with some sort of perks. We could do $100 rate which lets you pre-reserve a t-shirt, or something else like that which doesn't feel like we're making a premium membership type. Having a special mark on the badge, for instance (with opt-out possibility), or a ribbon. NOT something like access to the *good* consuite. What's the right cut-off for the "student" rate. We think it's probably 30, because that's kinda like the age where people manage to have enough income so that they don't need to worry about dropping $60 on a membership. Anyway, this is a decision for Minicon 58, with the board just advising at the moment. == Next meeting == Tentatively 3pm at Clay's house at his birthday party, Sat Jan 20, which we presume will be a Minnstf meeting. Matt will check with Clay that this is ok. == Review new TODO list == * (2023-11) Scott will ask Carol for regular semi-annual reports on what we have spent money on. And will remind Carol (every month) to send us a report as to whether the bank accounts have been balanced. * (2023-11) All will think about a profit target for Minicon 58 based on the information from Carol. * (2023-10) Lilly will call for volunteers to run a small con (in fall or otherwise, like our recent fallcons or otherwise) in the Einblatt. * (2023-10) Scott will call for volunteers to run a small con (in fall or otherwise, like our recent fallcons or otherwise) on natter and also send the same wording to Aaron for disseminating on social media. He'll run the language by the board. But he doesn't need a majority of the board to formally approve it to send it out. Scott self-imposes a deadline of 7pm Tuesday Nov 21; so bug him then, everyone. * (2023-11) We authorized Aaron to move $3000 from Vanguard to checking. Matt will ask Aaron to do this, and tell Carol. * (2023-11) DD-B will work on fixing the Einblatt announce list, and let Lilly know about it.