Anime Twin Cities, Inc Board Meeting October 9, 2018 6:30pm
Waterbury Building; 1121 Jackson St. NE Minneapolis MN 55413
Agenda
If there is anything that you would like added to the Board Meeting agenda please email me and I will make sure to make the appropriate changes. If there is anything anyone would like to speak on an agenda item please either attend the meeting or send a statement to atcboard@animedetour.com or to atc_secretary@animedetour.com
Coordinator Updates
Anime Detour:
Charities:
Clubs:
Community:
Furry Migration has requested their deposit back. Diana and Ben have said the equipment is good.
Lauren motions to approve to give Furry Migration their deposit back, Andy seconded. All in Favor. Unanimous among all present.
2D Con: Permission to return the remaining balance, following the purchase of a Playstation and any missing cables. The value of the cables needs to be sent to Lauren so we can deduct that total from their deposit and return their check.
Lauren motions to return the remaining deposit back to 2D con, minus the purchase of a Playstation and any missing cables. Andy Seconded. All in Favor. Unanimous among all present.
Media Relations:
SOS:
Finance:
Agenda- Attendance Cap Discussion
Is anyone here specifically for the Attendance Cap Discussion? Have at least 1 person here for this discussion, lets go to that.
Last year we had an attendance cap of 6,500. The choices are to stay the same, lower this cap, or raise it. Is there anyone in favor of lowering the cap? No hands rose
Is anyone in favor of Raising the cap and by how much? Last year was 6,299. That is with staff, vendors, guests, and other extra badges, along with all attendees. It was a full warm body count.
Troy- I would prefer to not sell out and give us more room to grow. If our cap is at 7,000 and 6,500 people come I would prefer that over turning people away. 500 is reasonable.
Alli- We didn’t reach that cap, we were in a transitional year, and there were a lot of people who didn’t know what it was going to go. Better to raise it then keep it and turn people away.
Tristan- Do we want to include every single badge that we sell. We make a point to say that we exclude guests, staff, dealers, artists from our numbers. Do we want to make sure that those numbers reflect that on the website? Seem to simplify if we include everyone in the attendance cap.
Kevin- Agree with raising, very similar to Troy, Alli… it would be a disservice to our membership to turn people away.
Michelle- We have an attendance cap of 6,500. We had 6,300 warm body. Still had 1,000 memberships available to buy. Since we don’t want to turn away people. Why not follow the direction of the fire marshall based on the building?
Nicchetta- At least 500 to 1000 to get to the cap. Why the need to increase? The transition explains why we had a lot of walkups. If we leave the cap where it is, it convinces people to pre-register earlier meaning we can budget better.
Anton- the reason to raise the cap, we have gotten so many positive reviews and that may hit us positively. Historically, the reason we had the cap was because of the Fire Marshal. We had extra badges so why have a cap. A cap is for explosive growth that we can’t maintain. We can handle this.
Andy- as a former registration head, I appreciate knowing that I had an end in sight. There is a finite limit to our resources.
Troy- from a coordinator standpoint, I do not want to turn people away, I don’t believe that this would teach people a lesson. They can and will gladly take their money and go elsewhere. Kim doesn’t base numbers on prospective numbers. Don’t see a harm going up by 500. We have a duty to our membership to let our membership attend.
John- if we don’t hit the cap, then voting to raise didn’t hurt us. If we didn’t raise it, and we hit that cap, we risk turning people away and then they don’t come back.
Andy- at the budget meeting, you mentioned that there was disparity in planning for departments in basing numbers on 6,500 vs. 7,000. What would the financial disparity be?
Kim- only registration has planned for 7,000.
Michelle- based on food last year; we would need to increase some things.
Would it be impactful if 1,500 extra people showed up? Like we did last year, we could make another emergency run. Michelle would need to be updated throughout the process of registration and on when we are ahead of last year. It takes time to go out and get food and process it through, so the more heads up the better
Andy- could you put a rough $$$ amount between 6,500 and 7,000
Michelle- I would ask for a few thousand more, only spend what I have to spend.
Alli- We don’t have the cap publically posted anywhere. If we hit the cap we risk having more negative posts about people not being able to attend due to cap.
Rachel- how many members can we provide a good convention experience to? How many attendees can our staff handle with where we are at?
Troy- 500 more should not make a dent, we have 350 staff members, and we have the highest staff to attendee ratio in the country.
Lauren- I think that people are getting a little overheated, because we aren’t sure about the conversation we are having. Are we having a conversation about an unlimited or getting rid of a cap, or if we are having a cap of an extra 500 people? Getting a little excessive our arguments…
Troy- thank you Lauren, my personal opinion in my position, I would like to not consider a no cap, something to look at in the future. I think a 500 increase gives us a little leeway.
Andy- the general tenure seems to be in favor of raising the cap by 500.
Directed to the Board: are there any reservations against raising the cap by 500? Is there a motion to raise the attendance cap for Anime Detour 2019 from 6,500 to 7,000?
VOTE 20181009.1 Troy motions to raise the cap by 500 people. Tristan seconded. Those in favor: Andy, Kevin, Tristan, Jay, and Michelle. Kim opposes. Motion Passes.
Agenda: AD Budget
Troy- We had our budget meeting. The number I am asking the board is $320,000. That’s $20,000 more than last year. To represent some of that growth, there are some larger scale purchases that we have, this is also to allow flexibility to grow and for replacement of equipment.
Andy- Kim any remarks
Kim- I think Troy covered it.
Troy- will mention it here and mention it again at the Staff meeting. I think it’s important for people to understand that this is a team process; we work through them together. Cuts are not pleasant. Total submitted was around $394,000. Trying to make cuts was difficult.
It does take a while and much thought and debate
Nicchetta- does that account for the cap raise?
Troy- no it does not show for the cap raise.
VOTE 20181009.2 Troy motions to approve $320,000 budget for AD 2019. Kim Seconded. All in Favor. Andy abstaining. Motion Passes.
Agenda: Use of Leg Fund Money
What limits we should impose on the leg fund if any? Charley said it’s pretty much up to us. The IRS has very detailed description of who is eligible.
Two Factors- Visual representation on the wall
1 Factor: Physical Location with regards to a staff member in question (Lives in the same household, or out of state)
2 Factor: Emotional bond to the staff member (Close blood relative, guardian, or a third cousin twice removed)
Question for us, where do we want to put a boundary on who should be eligible?
Tristan- Start with IRS with their definition of family.
Cohabitates; living with someone in a spousal like relationship without being married.
Plus immediate household (not be eligible) no matter how we split this people will be mad. We need to look at is not necessarily how many people we can make happy, but how we can addresses any concerns about fairness.
Troy- Regardless of who you make happy, it’s about the protection of ATC and our organization.
Michelle- Legal Blood definition, living under one roof, relationship definition = agree.
Household (Cohabitation)
Anyone who lives under the same roof would not be eligible.
Emotional distance- how do we define significant other?
Nicchetta- generality is in our benefit. It’s still up to the board’s discretion. If you try to get too specific, you run the risk of loopholes.
Immediate Family; spouse, child, parent, grandparent, brother, sister, step brother, step sister…
Our funds and our benefits are not to be put forth to benefit single individuals…
Anton- Extended households and how we handle that… In all honesty we should stop about there, the board has the final say. Case by case basis beyond that. Go with the IRS Definition and include anyone in your household and any other significant relationships.
Take the IRS definition, add significant relationships and add living in the same household as the baseline with the addition as it will be subject to board review. .
Tristan motions to approve the use of the leg fund money per our discussions. Please see verbage once agreed upon. Michelle seconds. All in favor unanimous among all present.
We removed the discussion about the Tree Removal.