December 2016 Board Notes

Date:

12/13/2016

Attendance:

Board Attended: Michelle, Troy, Max, Lauren, Kim, Dave, Andrew
Board Absent: Joseph
Observers: Coordinators: Kale, Erick, Morgan, Jayson || Others: KevinE, John, AndyT, Anton, Megan

Notes:

Open Session:

    JohnK - Equipment Request by North Foundation (501c3) - a PHP conference for developers.. Requesting various tech and misc equipment.

    Andrew - requesting panel room kits only. No issues.

    VOTE (motion Lauren,2nd: Michelle) - For: Lauren, Kim, Max, Troy, MIchelle, Andrew   Against: None, Abstain: Dave.  Motion Passes.

 

    Anton - (for MCAD) - Mechadamia, formerly: School girls and mobilesuits.  Academic Conference. Point to is discuss japanese culture around anime, manga, and music.  Done by graduate and undergraduate and professors from around the world. Uses Zoom (tele-conference) for people from around the world including Japan.  This year brought someone in from World Building. Brings in a lot of Japanese guests which helped us bring in various other Japanese guests from contacts.  Some of these people helped start Detour.

    

MCAD -- Tried to start day before 9/11, had to reschedule in following November. Started as a workshop. Started off as School girls and mobilesuits. Then started a 10 book series of Mechadamia. Starting on a second series. Renamed to Mechadamia 3 years ago. Did a conference in Japan last year planning another in 2018. Bringing in Japanese speakers for this year well known for sci-fi. MCAD helps give some money but needs to pay it back. They now run a fashion show as a big money maker, but barely squeaks by. They are looking for a Sponsor to help with bringing people in (financially). Financial Situation - costs between $5,000-$6,000 mostly volunteer work. They lose $1000-$2000 every year, which puts them in danger of losing the convention.  Each year they decide if they can continue. University budgets have been slashed in past few years, so they’ve had to cut fees recently. They do look for grants from other institutions.  They do Japan Foundation grant which sometimes can help. Looking for help getting these two people (from Japan) in for this year. If we can help sponsor would be willing to put our stuff all over their site. Their big ask is $3000, maybe could offer a registration deal with us.  Long term they’d like to be associated with us long term (like san diego comic con) become an arm of us instead of an arm of the school, as a long term wish, will write a proposal for us if we are interested.  Attendance is about 35 presenters. Also do art exhibits. Time frame for a decision: February or later. Dispersion not until after May 31st.   Low cost for students. All work for free.  Only pay (very little about $100 for a DJ), or a photographer, and MCAD tech to run rooms. Could give AD a global reach. Anybody can come to conference. They do workshops as well. One on lolitas, street fashion, manga, narative storytelling, etc... Several will be for creative writing this year.

Kale: Are you technically part of MCAD or own organization?

MCAD: Own organization also technically we are part of college (they handle money).

Kale: Current tax status?

MCAD: MCAD is non profit.

MCAD: they run their org through various colleges/institutions to handle money/credits.

We should be back in touch with them this time next month at the latest.

 

Thoughts?

    Dave - Right in our wheelhouse. If money was no object, this is a no brainer.

Kim - Could push Kale into making it a charitable donation for May, and since we don’t need money until after then not too concerned.

Max - plenty of time to budget for it.

Kale -  We may only donate to a 501c3 due to our bylaws.

Lauren - our Articles state we could donate to them.

Kale - Board just made a vote about this due to our bylaws. If we vote another way we would be inconsistent.

Andrew - What is our standpoint from here on it

Kale - This is very important and needs to be settled. Could cause liability.

Morgan - we have donated to education non profits (non 501c3) before

Kale - But now legal issues have been brought up and have to be factored in.

John - Worthwhile to figure out what kind they are? There are other 501X types. We may need to consider expanding scope.

Kale - Way it’s written we have to be 501c3.

Lauren - Section V, could cover us to distribute funds to help fund.  Maybe by making them ATC guests at this conventions. Also propose to change bylaws to give to nonprofits that meets our goals.

Troy - Tying specifically to the 501c3 is very limiting.

Kale - They are 501c3.

Anton - Would love to explain they are ATC guests.

Lauren - If they are 501c3 we don’t need to go through this for this.

Lauren - Ask Kim to contact Lawyer to verify we can/how we can change our Articles of Incorporation.  Second Anyone of the board can contact lawyer right? Can you e-mail us (the board) to give us the lawyer e-mail include Morgan/Jayson as well.

Kale - Kale will follow up on the Articles change.

Lauren - we haven’t updated the bylaws on the webpage yet.

Anton - Do you want us to ask for a proposal for a longer term partnership? Could get to a zero-sum quickly we think.

Lauren -Have them submit for our May charity meeting.

Lauren- They are a 501c3, and right in alignment with our missions/goals, and strong relationship with them for meetingspace.

 

Kale: I can cover most in my current budget.

 

Vote: Approve their $3000 budget with review at charity meeting to determine where budget will come from? Propose: Lauren 2nd:  Dave  VOTE APPROVE: Troy, Dave, Michelle, Andrew, Lauren, Kim.  Vote Negative: NONE.  Vote Abstain: Max.

 

Anton/Morgan to coordinate promotion.

 

Coordinator Updates

 

Kale (Charity) - Apologize to board for lack of presence, looking to correct those actions and get back on track and do more things.  

School Lunch Program : Lots of kids going without hot lunches due to low income families, some of these bills as low as $20/25. Besides having Morgan drafting something up, if we can get like top bills and post on our website. Perhaps form a partnership to do this.

Troy : some of these kids only get decent meals at their schools

Erick : Some schools give kids food for no costs, and need help to recover.

 

    Jayson (Detour) - Millenia is impossible to get ahold of without going through the Hyatt. Still working on it.

    Previous e-mail: Looking for a not lack in faith in you, but we want to do something for a certain reason. Have been select board members (more than 3) walking away from meeting feeling upset. Wanted to remind we are all on the same team. We have a great diverse set of people. We can sometimes get too defensive.

    Andrew: Nothing is written down in how we appoint people

    Lauren: Don’t think we should lock future board members on how they get to appoint coordinators.

    Troy: Giving people ability to apply allows an open feeling. Don’t want to make people feel negative.

    Jayson - red cross vote previously. Might have made feel awkward/conflict but not intended. Using chairman vote as an example, don’t want to come to a meeting dreading a meeting.

    John - When we voted for you lot of indecision. We were looking for a second person, and Gifford told us if we didn’t like his decision find our own, and we didn’t have a lot of time.

    Lauren - part of that was on us, Gifford notified us months before we interviewed Jayosn.

    Michelle: Having documentation on how we did it in the past would be very useful to see how we did it (or our predecessors).

    Lauren : Main concern is don’t want to be in position of emergency decisions and we can’t act due to rules.

    Lauren : We don’t have many of the handouts of the meeting in the notes, so we are limited.  Want to have secretary include copies of the documents in the notes.

Lauren: Goal to make a living document of decisions we have made in the meeting/emails. And purpose of secretary to update document.

 

Erick (Clubs) - Sent off email to valley fair for information about forming a geek coasters club for ATC.  This whole process would be still a year out to do it right. Could involve going to various parks each year.

Created a Gamers Club via XBox and Playstation4. Still working on this as well. Looking to get more involved.

Erick to talk to Morgan to advertise when ready.  Will talk to Michelle about Twitch.

 

    Kim (Finance) - Just got e-mail from central storage. Ensure anyone coming and going must make sure snow/debris removed from locker before coming in to prevent being banned. Also no parking for more than 30 minutes. This is a mass email.

 

    Morgan (Social Media) - Hotel go-live wants to make cry, and job a lot harder and issues with hotel. First they wanted it to happen on Friday and that didn’t work well, can’t do on Fridays. Still waiting for hotel confirmation emails.

Hotel gave out Ted’s personal cell number to people on hotel open day.

Still aren’t getting emails about announcements.

 

Agenda - Mechademia (already done)

 

Agenda - Gaming Budget

    Troy - Gaming considered large part of our culture especially for arcade machines. Strip mined locally where we can find it. Only way to do this at a larger scale or diversifying offerings is paying for it.

    Jayson - Issue with using private equipment for damage, would this cut down on it?

    Troy - we budget for loss and damages. Made contact with a company that does machine rentals. They offer various sizes/packages. Last year our rental was about $600. We submitted assuming local vendors, however couldn’t find anything closer than Chicago. And rhythm games are even harder to find (to go with this years theme).

    Got $900 for line item this year in budget. About this year for a 15-block truck is about $3200 ($2300 addendum) + hotel + badges. This is closest company able to find with games that would work for us.  Game company : Credits Remaining.

    Anton : What’s attendance number/usage for these machines?

    Troy: After waking up it’s used throughout.

    John: Current suppliers can’t get here this year?

    Troy: Current supplier only has 3 machines, not very reliable.

    Jayson: Space?

    Troy: Yes.

    Andrew: Do you have enough power in that room?

    Troy: Never had issues. But can double check with Hotel.

    Lauren: At new hotel do we have space going forward?

    Troy: Yes, various rooms give us large open space.

    Lauren: How does this affect us financially?

    Kim: If I had to make decision today I’d say no, we are $5300 short of breaking even yet. Can’t get behind increasing budget a month after given out.

    Troy: Will contact to figure out timelines, and we will revisit.

 

Agena - Results of Fusion Loan Request.

    EMAIL VOTE SUMMARY: Anime Fusion requested a loan of $15,000. Lauren Proposed Dave Seconded. In Favor: Dave, Lauren, Kim. Opposed: Max, Troy, Michelle, Andrew. Motion did not get approved.

 

Outside: Anton - TimA funeral.  Email about sending flowers.  Anton to give details. Will also see if there’s a memorial fund.

    Lauren: Do we want to vote on a budget?

    Kim: Normally we only send a plant like a bonsai. Ususally $125 or so.

 

    VOTE: $125 dispersal for plants for TimA’s funeral.  

    All Approved Vote.


 

Meeting Adjourned 8:17pm

Motion: Lauren, Second: Dave.  All Approved.