Minn-Stf board meeting, at Clay Harris's house, 3pm, Saturday January 20. Attending board members: Matt Strait (recording), Linda Lounsbury, Scott Raun, Lilly Watson. Non-attending board members: David Dyer-Bennet. Others attending: Stacey Strait (formerly Stacey Lam), Clay Harris, Evelyn Bogie. == Approve previous meeting's minutes == Approved! == Review 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. We just got an annual report, great. And Scott asked her to plan for a semi-annual report. This has gone on the recurring task list. We haven't heard that our bank account was balanced for December. * (2023-11) Scott, Linda, Matt, Lilly and DD-B will think about a profit target for Minicon 58 based on the information from Carol. Linda suggests that we get "officers and directors liability insurance". She will look into how much it costs. Information: The Minicon 57 profit target is $4700. We think about our finances (see below) and decide: ==> The Minicon 58 profit target is $6000 <== * (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. The Einblatt mailing list is still not working. But now all the ducks are in a row and she'll send out an Einblatt. * (2023-11) DD-B will work on fixing the Einblatt announce list, and let Lilly know about it. See above. DONE: * (2023-10) Scott will call for volunteers to run a small con -- Sent out to natter, Discord, Dreamwidth and Facebook. * (2023-11) We authorized Aaron to move $3000 from Vanguard to checking. Matt will ask Aaron to do this, and tell Carol. Aaron did this, and the money arrived in our checking account Dec 4. == Review recurring task list == * Review what address we have on file with the state of Minnesota or whoever else won't use the PO Box. This has been Scott and Irene's house. We agree that it still should be. * Send notice to concoms reminding them how voting member status works. Matt will do this. * Pay GPS $200 as per our cooperative agreement with them. They're advertising us better than last year. Scott will arrange for the payment. * Get a report from the treasurer of the previous year's income and expenses and read it into the minutes when we get it. Done already. * Send bills for past due accounts. Matt will do this. * Get our bank and investment account balances. Done. See elsewhere in these minutes. * Read recurring task list into the minutes so we have a recent copy if the wiki goes down: Every month: Scott will contact Carol to remind her to report to us whether the bank accounts are balanced. 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. January: Get a report from the treasurer of the previous year's income and expenses and read it into the minutes when we get it. 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. https://sa.www4.irs.gov/epostcard/secure/home/ is the IRS page to start on. With the taxes (actual deadline Dec 31): Renew Minicon assumed name (as of 2020, must be paper filed). https://www.sos.state.mn.us/business-liens/business-forms-fees/assumed-namedba/ is the SoS page to start on. 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: http://mblsportal.sos.state.mn.us/Business/SearchDetails?filingGuid=5c18cf48-aed4-e011-a886-001ec94ffe7f May: If we want to continue annual book donations (done in 2020-2022, at least), 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 they have (board-at-mnstf), who needs to confirm information. September: Confirm Give-To-The-Max account so we can get our donations. October: Pay the rent on the PO box. 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. Every December (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 2022, 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. Get our bank and investment account balances. June, December: Send notice to concoms reminding them how voting member status works. == New requirements for corporations == The MN secretary of state e-mailed us to say that there's a "New Federal Reporting Requirement for Beneficial Ownership Information". However, we are exempt from reporting because we are a 501(c) organization. == PO Box == Carol believes that we are paid up for the whole year, despite getting a paper in our box telling us to pay by Jan 30. We think that they put that paper in every single box. == Financials == Carol sent us this: Expenses 2023 Storage 12 @$151 $1812.00 Venues and stipends $1918.00 Bank fees $94.00 Annual GPS $200.00 Assumed name $45.00 PO Box $388.00 Book donations $1042.74 Memorial $50.00 ASCAP $292.08 Decongestant 5 loss: $1349.42 Total expenses: $7191.24 Income 2023: Confelicity profit: $251.24 Minicon 56 profit: $0.00 (exactly) And we transferred $6000 from Vanguard in 2023. The Vanguard balance as of Dec 31, 2023 was $28,152. And we have $4075 in main checking as of today. Our "loss potential" is $38,000, i.e. what we'd have to pay the hotel, either for Minicon 57 or 58, if we canceled right before the con. So we should be trying to build up our savings. == Officer reports == * Membership, correspondence, Einblatt, Rune, archivist, FANPA, etc. Scott, membership: All caught up with data entry. Nominations and voting meeting planned. We do need a host for the 2nd nominations, currently on president Sharon's plate. It's not clear if the voting meeting will be in-person. Matt will be ready to prepare ballots to mail out the third week of February. Linda, correspondence: She has distributed the mail. Lilly, Einblatt: see above. Matt, Rune: Issue 93, guest edited by Jeanne Mealy, went out in December. They went out digitally, and on paper in-person. We think she hasn't mailed any yet. No plans for #94. Matt, archivist: Haven't got much done, but have packaged up about 4 linear feet of ANZAPA, from Denny, to send to Joe Siclari for scanning. Hershey, second vice president: She's prepared to preside today if needed. == Conventions == * Minicon 57 We have 258 members. Linda reports that another 220 would get us to break-even. But that's without income from dealer's tables, the art show or t-shirts, which is probably another $2000. If we had the same membership as last year, we'd get 30 members over that, so an additional $1700. So that puts the projection at about $3700. So against a target of $4700, that's looking ok. Still having trouble with the hotel. They are not answering any e-mail and we really really need to open the room block. Hotel head Stacey is going to start escalating to phone calls and/or contacting our contact's manager. Deputy hotel head Aaron will help out. Programming is going well. Linda gives a suggestion to the teen room: Linda will give them books to take. * Minicon 58 We are nearly ready to sign a contract with the RadishTree. We visited yesterday and got shown around. We asked for a few more minor concessions and expect a new draft contract early next week. As above: The Minicon 58 profit target is $6000 * Minneapolis in 2073 No report. == Next meeting == Jan 20, online, 7pm. == Review new TODO list == * (2024-01) Scott will ask Carol if our bank account is balanced up to the latest month. * (2024-01) Linda will look into how much "officers and directors liability insurance" costs. * (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. * (2024-01) Mat will send notice to concoms reminding them how voting member status works. * (2024-01) Matt will send bills for past due accounts. * (2024-01) Scott will arrange for us to pay GPS $200 as per our cooperative agreement with them.