December 2017 Board Notes

Date:

12/12/2017

Attendance:

Board Attended: Andy Tso, Megan Stob, Kim Hofer, Stephen Gifford, Kevin Ehrler, Renee Vandervelde, Troy MacDonald
Board Absent: Joe Opsahl
Observers: Jayson Stob, Heather Bufkin, Kale Ganann, Alli Cassel, Peter, Jasmine, Tristan Anderson, Diana Sneve, Hope Kronen, Liz Spafford, Dawn Ahrens, Patrick Cameron, Matt Sexton, Lauren Ganann, Anita Phoenix, John Koniges, Rachel Tippett, Elly Copeland

Notes:

Anime Twin Cities, Inc Board Meeting December 12, 2017 6:30pm

Waterbury Building; 1121 Jackson St. NE Minneapolis MN 55413

 

Agenda

  • Open Session
  • Coordinator Updates
    • Anime Detour
    • Charities
    • Clubs
    • Media Relations
    • SOS
    • Finance
  • Equipment Rental Discussion
  • AD 2019 Badge Prices
  • Summary of Studio Ghibli Fest
  • Midwest PHP Equipment Request
  • Site Discussion

OPEN SESSION

  • Possibility of streaming the board meetings online; live streaming or recording and posting it the next day on YouTube.
    • Concern with live streaming, the internet required may be difficult. Could look at using someone’s mobile hotspot.
    • Going to test this out at the Anime Detour Staff Meeting.
  • Board to continue discussion for Lauren’s proposal via email
  • Request for notice of what staff perks are on the website. Also current staff policies to be listed.
    • There is a disciplinary action guide for departments, Jayson and Troy to work on outlining more rules for the staff.
  • ATC Polo Shirts: The Current price is $25. They are not selling. Would like to drop the cost of the Polo to $15.

Gifford Motions to set the base price for the ATC Polo’s to $15.00. Renee Seconded. All in Favor. No Abstentions. Motion Passes.

COORDINATOR UPDATES

Anime Detour:

  • Going strong, got the budgets out.
  • Currently registration numbers are a little low.
  • Holiday season event, more details to come later. More Facebook engagement.
  • Talk about not deciding now; but discussing via email…. Paying for advertisement. Jayson to start this discussion via email. (web banner on ANN, or otaku) – Advertisement on games/apps (FF15 game). Handled by AD Marketing.

Charities:

  • Just had the cosplay and cocoa event with the geek holiday expo here at GPS. Pictures are up on the Anime Detour Smug Mug. Not a huge turnout this year. With the photos we have from this year, it will help us advertise for next year.
  • Drew in people that had never heard of us
  • Raised $30 some dollars for project lighthouse, and made some Merch sales.
  • Getting a flyer over to the source for next year’s event.
  • Next event is steps of hope in the first or second weekend in February.

Clubs:

  • We are in the planning stages for restarting the YouTube club. The goal of the club is to learn how to make a successful multi-channel network while creating content for our current YouTube channel. As such, we would also like to have access to the Anime Detour channel as we are also looking to help create content for that channel.

    We would look for a portable lighting kit with the $250 allocated funds for new clubs.  I have also reached out to GPS and they would like to partner with us for Meet Up publicity.  If we earn any advertising dollars, that money would go into helping finance our other projects and programs under Anime Twin Cities.

Media Relations:

  • Morgan to email updates as she will be unable to attend tonight’s meeting
  • Convention Reports; Nov 17-19 Daisho Con in Wisconsin Dells. Had an ambassador table. Played some games, had candy. Made a couple contacts. Working on establishing policies for the road crew staff. Working on making things more streamlined, efficient.
  • Anime Nebraskon; working with Noah recently having some discussions about how they run their guests, how they contact their guests. Went very well. Doing a little bit more work on our table on our offerings will help. Making sure we have flyers.
  • Next con; Anime Milwaukee in Feb.

SOS:

  • Recently sent an email out about the next event; the AD/ATC Staff New Year’s Eve party. The hotel has 2 hot tubs, one on either side of the pool.
  • We are on the 11th floor; not key secured, same size as the one on the 12th floor. It just has a different layout. Looking at bookending the room with our rooms to help with noise.
  • Have outpost anime booked this January for Saturday the 27.
  • Working with the Double Tree at 100 and 394 for Akihabara in June to book.
  • Maggie is working on booking the ice space in February for the Cosplay on Ice event.

Finance:

  • Registrations have been coming in.
  • Puts us at about $100,000 of breaking even.
  • Artist Alley payments are starting to come in.
  • Haven’t heard anything from the scholarship people, haven’t heard if they have made a selection. Will be reaching out to them soon.
  • Made the matching deal with GPS for the year.
  • We did receive from Akihabara
  • Last night Andy and Kim met with State Farm, our equipment is currently is only insured when it sits in the locker. We are looking at a couple of different things; we will probably have 2 different types of insurance. General liability. Misc. Floater Insurance which would cover the large tech equipment/gaming equipment.
  • Will require more detailed information. Serial numbers, model numbers, maybe looking at barcodes for a check out system.
  • Last year we paid about $2,400 for our premium which takes us through March 14 of 2018. Right now the numbers Anita ran is about $2,700.
  • Need to decide what item goes on which policy
  • Need the info on the items, plus the year of purchase, no depreciation.

Pictures, Make, Model, Cost (Your telling them what each of these items is worth), Serial Numbers.

Kim and Megan to chat; Announcement to be made at the AD meeting.

AGENDA: Equipment Rental Discussion

  • Both lockers should utilize combinations.
  • The goal is to create a rental guide for ATC equipment that will be loaned out, including: who has access to the combinations for lockers, how notification works, and the terms of agreement for the rentals.
  • To begin:
    • Department heads will create a list of items that are rentable; the board would make the final decision about what is able to be rented.
    • The ATC Board agrees on the rental to the event, they vote on approval.
    • Suggestion to decrease the request from 90 days prior to event to 60 days. If an event has a request in and an addendum needs to be added (based upon prior approval), discussions via email to approve the added request can be done. There is a cut off for additional addendums to 2 weeks prior to event.
  • Create an equipment rental email that includes the board, the logistics head, and the tech department head as that is the primary equipment being rented out. (ex. Atc_rentalrequest@animetwincities.org). This email will receive the request, any addendums, and can be the point of contact if there is something going wrong with the equipment during an event.
  • In previous equipment rentals; we have not had the event sign any documentation. A formal contract will be drafted to include what is being rented. This should be signed by both parties involved (an ATC Board Member and the lead of the other Event. All contracts and requests will be kept on file with ATC.
  • Following the contract being signed; a form will be created to cater to the specific event. This includes the information about Check Out, Check In, and what equipment is being rented. During the check out process: the event renting the equipment would initial that they received each item. During the check in process: ATC’s representative would initial each item as it is being returned. The second signature occurs once the equipment has been verified as working properly. This form will also include a comment section.
  • In the event of equipment damage; the event renting the equipment has 24 hours to inform ATC of any damage or broken items. Otherwise the event may lose their deposit.
  • Rental Fee:
    • Currently only the radios have a $75.00 fee attached with rental.
    • Would like to have a non-refundable fee to help cover the cost of wear and tear on the equipment.
    • This fee would be kept separate from the general account for use for repairs.
    • The Rental Fee is $100.00.
  • Deposit:
    • The deposit is returnable; this will be up to the discretion of the board. Funds for both the deposit and the rental fee must be received two weeks prior to the event.
    • Final cost for deposit is up to the board.
  • Damaged Items while renting:
    • If damages are noted prior to the verification process via the email listed above. The event will receive fewer penalties (this is a reward for communication).
    • If there is damage found during the verification process: the deposit will be removed in full.  
  • Verification will occur within two weeks following the return of the equipment.
  • A copy of the verification paperwork will be sent to the event that rented the equipment as well as ATC
  • There will be no rentals within a month of Anime Detour. Exceptions to this can be made at the discretion of the board.

Email vote and ratified at the next board meeting.

AGENDA: AD 2019 Badge Prices

  • Received an email from Jayson asking this to be held for now.

AGENDA: Summary of Studio Ghibli Fest and Daisho Con and Nebraskon Report

  • Morgan sent in an email 12/12/17 at 9:30 am saying she will not be present at tonight’s meeting. She will email in her updates
  • Troy gave summary

AGENDA: Midwest PHP Equipment Request

  • Received email with request for equipment for Midwest PHP. Event will be held March 9th and 10th, 2018.

Troy motions to approve. Gifford Seconded. All in Favor Motion Passes

AGENDA: Site Discussion

  • Would like to receive more information about the space that we may be moving to within the Waterbury. How would this potential move affect the current size of the meeting space, office space, and storage space? Would we still have access to short term storage like we do now with the garage?
  • As Anime Detour is currently looking for new storage space, would we want to potentially look for possibilities that offer storage space, meeting space, and offices?
  • The lease for the space is up in April.
  • ATC to come up with a list of things we would like to have included in a new potential rental property.
    • Power in the locker space to have the ability to verify equipment is working properly.
    • At least 1,000 square feet of locker space, plus additional space for short term storage.
    • Dock access is preferred, but at the minimum would need to be able to drive up.
    • Would like to have office space
    • A space to hold staff meetings; both for Detour and ATC, 1,700 square feet at the minimum. This space would also function for our social events.
    • Locked offices, for security reasons
    • More options for parking; have the option of being on a bus line
    • Anita will send out information about what types of discounts we can receive if our rental space has certain amenities
  • Troy to work with the site committee on this list, and work with GPS to open communication.

Email:

  • Received and email from Marian about the clip art grant. This is a reminder that what we decide here does have real world implications.

Troy Motions to adjourn. Renee Seconded. All in Favor. Meeting end at 8:33 pm.