Anime Twin Cities, Inc Board Meeting January 9, 2018 6:30pm
Waterbury Building; 1121 Jackson St. NE Minneapolis MN 55413
Agenda
OPEN SESSION
Gifford Motions to approve additional funding up until our cap or limit according to the LEG Fund Policies. Troy Seconded. All in Favor. No abstentions. Funds to come from LEG Fund.
Andy motions to approve $110 for the new breakout box pending receiving of proper paperwork. Troy and Gifford Seconded. All in Favor. No abstentions.
COORDINATOR UPDATES
Anime Detour:
Charities:
Clubs:
Media Relations:
SOS:
Finance:
Currently in the account; $263,677.93. LEG Fund has $15,127.03. Education Fund has $645.36.
Agenda: Ratify Equipment Rental Request Process
Locker Rules/regulations/suggestions
Both lockers should be combination locks
Who should have the codes and combinations
Storage
Items leaving the locker for maintenance/Inventory/Etc.
Notification of needing entry
Equipment rentals
Terms
What is allowed to be rented
Rental steps
Deposit
Andy Motions to approve with changes about renting prior to Anime Detour. Kim Seconded. All in Favor. No abstentions.
Agenda: Lauren’s Proposal
Community Coordinator proposal
ATC Vision
Strive to create the best anime convention in the Midwest, to educate people on Japanese animation and culture, and to be a cultural leader supporting the community as a whole through our charitable giving and community outreach programs and to grow inter-cultural relationships throughout the community.
I believe in the mission of ATC and its goals. Over the past 15 years I have worked for almost every branch of ATC and taken on multiple leadership roles. I have seen us grow from crazy dreamers into leaders in our local fandom community. When an opportunity to expand or help our community has come along we have not always stopped to ask if we should but how we can.
ATC is still an organization of dreamers but it’s currently run by practical thinkers. This is a good thing, our membership is plateauing and our goals can extend beyond our means. I understand the direction the current board is taking to be more reserved with new projects, retain our resources, and limit our in person advertising to events with larger audiences, but I think that the way we are enacting those choices is counterproductive to our mission and the board’s responsibility to seek alternative sources of income.
This proposal is an attempt to support and build the vison of the ATC board and its coordinators in an effort to create a stronger community trust, and build new revenue streams/donations. The position would also serve to support the existing coordinators and streamline resources potentially saving expenditure.
Community Coordinator Mission
Assist and promote the educational, cultural, and community goals of Anime Twin Cities and its Coordinators through local events, training, and community partnerships.
Potential Coordinator Goals
Establish training: In 2012 the ATC board in conjunction with GPS took the nonprofit governance training provided through MAP (now Propel). This was a private session GPS set up for multiple organizations and only three of our board members chose to attend. This is a valuable service that covers a boards legal, fiscal, and societal responsibilities and it comes with multiple handy reference materials. Over the years I have heard many board members express that they feel unsure of the roles, responsibilities and legal restrictions. The board boot camp takes 2.5 hours and is held once a month on the second Tuesday of the month, alternating months between morning and evening hours, costing 65 dollars per person and allowing no more than 3 members of any organization. We could alternately set up a private session in the location of our choice and potentially invite other members of the community to join and facilitate financing to ensure that all our board members are armed with knowledge. A community coordinator could be responsible for setting up the group training every two years or keeping track of which board members have enrolled in the case of individual training.
New Members: Since the inception of ATC membership fees have been established in the bylaws. Originally there were two ways to pay your membership dues, as part of your registration to Anime Detour or by becoming a supporting member. Supporting members used the Detour registration form to submit their membership fees and then if they choose to attend Detour would pay a 20 dollar fee at the door. The supporting membership program was later dropped from registration as it confused some members who thought they were registering for the convention. Additionally there was a later bylaws change lowering the ATC membership fees to 15 dollars. At that time ATC was just beginning to branch out into further activities and it was believed that we should encourage more members outside of Anime Detour. Since that time nothing has been done to encourage member enrollment. A community coordinator can establish the procedure and maintain enrollment.
Participate in community events: Festival of Nations, Cherry Tree Festival, Pride, Barnes and Noble Pop Cultured, Mechademia and Oban Festival these are examples of events we have been invited to participate in over the last two years that we have either struggled to participate in or completely failed to participate in because we did not have the systems in place to staff and support them. Many of these events are free and provide an excellent opportunity to support our mission of cultural education understanding and community support. They also allow us to highlight our programs and improve our membership numbers for both ATC and Anime Detour. With a coordinator we can establish a calendar of events for the year, create a team lead for each event, develop a pool of volunteers knowledgeable in the mission of ATC for events, and contact/communicate with other coordinator to establish representatives or relevant knowledge.
I also believe that local convention room parties a vital part of showing our community support and one of the best resources for promoting our local events. I understand the Media Relations team position that with limited resources we should focus our efforts on conventions with larger attendance to maximize our potential registration benefits. However, focusing on events out of state limits our ability to grow our smaller events with localized attendance. I have worked many SOS events and many of those attendees do not attend Detour, they have heard of ATC through room parties, Facebook, and other community events. To remove local conventions undervalues our community and undervalues the efforts of our other coordinators. A community coordinator could take on local convention room parties to support our local convention scene and promote our more localized events, clubs and charitable opportunities allowing Media Relations to focus on the larger numbers.
Equipment Loan Program: The equipment loan program was established as part of our support to the greater geek community, but it has always been problematic. We lack infrastructure and guidelines and currently the program is removed from our website without a public explanation or contact information for inquiry. Ultimately the decision to go forward with this program lies with the board but here are some examples of what a coordinator could do for this position.
Establish a staff by using the current logistics team and contacting department heads to create a list of 2-3 staff members from each department willing to become available to inspect equipment for check out/in process.
Encourage department heads to create a standardized system for how their equipment should be stored complete with an inventory of what belongs in each box and a picture of what equipment should look like when packed. This helpful not only for the loan process but also for when we quickly pack up our equipment at the end of the convention. Often we encourage staffers to assist other departments during load out who have no idea how things should be stored.
Develop a more equitable table of fees for the loan of equipment to commensurate with the value of our time, wear and tear of equipment and replacement fees.
Completely remove the loan process and create a committee of conventions through GPS to coordinate cross sharing between the entire local convention scene to limit our new purchase expenses. In this example the committee could swap equipment so we could double our source of video room/gaming tvs by borrowing from Anime Fusion or print badges faster by borrowing extra printers from Convergence or we could collectively buy equipment together. Why buy a new full set of walkie talkies that will be obsolete in five years if we can collectively obtain a full set through multiple organizations pitching in.
Assist Coordinators: Much of this is accomplished through the goals above. Further assistance can be achieved by communally pooling our resources. Maintaining a source for all of our flyers so that it is easy for any coordinator to grab promotional materials, ensuring that the relevant handouts are kept in stock and informing the pertinent coordinator when their handouts are low. Additionally communicating with coordinators to insure that perishable items are not going to waste, leftovers from consuite, charities fundraisers, SOS, and promotional events can be cycled into other events to limit waste and expenditure.
Work with GPS: The October board meeting notes reflect that our lease with GPS is coming up and we should form a committee to look at other rental options. This is incorrect information. We do not have lease with GPS we have a partnership with GPS. Our partnership gains us many benefits which include use of the events space as well as storage and office space but it is not limited to those things. Our partnership is also a partnership which means that when we fund GPS we fund the mission of GPS and all of its programs.
Arts initiative: connecting artists, businesses, and schools to promote development and understanding of arts in the Twin cities. This program has an emphasis on member art and geeky art.
Space Camp scholarship: annually sending a child between the ages of 10-14 to space camp.
Project lighthouse STEAM grants: Bringing presentations to local schools from the University of Minnesota Raptor center, the Como Park Zoo, the MN Zoomobile, the Science Museum of MN, Mad Science among others.
GPS writing contest: Encourging new authours to share their work and gain exposure. GPS not retain the rights to any submissions.
Clubs: Black Hat collective, Crafty Geek, Diodes Steampunk, Geek physique, Geeks read, Minn Spec, Photography club, read the book/see the movie, Tsuinshi, and the Geeks of Gaming
As well as many other events year round both at their facility and out in the community. Our partnership makes this happen. When we look at our partnership solely as a facility we lose the value of our partnership and we might as well rent from any venue. The partnership with GPS is an exercise in community building creating something that is truly unique and the first of its kind. A community coordinator could ensure that ATC receives the full benefit of its partnership with GPS and can advocate for ATC, communicating regularly with the organization leaders and attending their public meetings. Should the board then decide that its partnership with GPS is valued only in facilities they can walk away at the end of the partnership agreement knowing that they have fully researched the issue.
Motion to create a new branch of ATC; titled the community coordinator as outlined in the proposal minus the responsibilities of room parties. With a position description to be typed up before Saturday’s Anime Detour staff meeting. Kevin Seconded. All in Favor. No abstentions.
Agenda: April’s Board Meeting
Andy Motion’s to push back the April and May meetings by one week. Renee Seconded. All in Favor. No abstentions.
Gifford to make ATC Announcements at the next Anime Detour Staff Meeting. End date for applications for board seat is February 9th.
Board appoints; ratified at the next staff meeting. It’s a yes no vote. Could be Gifford’s last meeting.
Agenda: ATC Policy Documentation
Agenda: ATC Focus
Agenda: Welcome to the Board
Heather’s proposal about coordinators budget; be first after open session.
Motion to adjurn. Gifford Seconds. All in Favor. Meeting end 8 pm.