Board of Directors Meeting
August 9, 2015
Board Members in attendance:Jason Bostick, Aaron Curtis (OSFCI President), Fargo Holiday, John Lorentz (OSFCI Secretary), Brigid Nelson, D. Stephen Raymond, Lea Rush and Debra Stansbury.
Rick Lindsley was heading out of town on a previously-scheduled family vacation. Andrew Nisbet was ill, and could not attend. Their absences were excused.
Also attending were Anna Holiday (OSFCI Storage Manager), Car Bostick (GameStorm 18 Chair) and Theo Williams. (And others who didn’t sign in.)
The meeting was called to order at 1:22PM.
I. Minutes of Previous Meeting
There were a few minor errors that were pointed out in the previous set of minutes (nothing of substance). The web version of those minutes will be the corrected version.
Jason: Is there a plan to get the minutes updated on the web site? John: We hope this will happen soon (John doesn’t have direct access to the web site in order to load anything).
The corrected minutes were accepted by a vote of the Board.
II. Treasurer’s Report (Rick Lindsley)
(Rick Lindsley, the OSFCI Treasurer, was not able to attend the meeting, but he sent a report that was circulated with the meeting packet. See below.)
The World Horror account has not been closed yet, since it may instead be used for another OSFCI event. He’s still waiting for Alan to send him an invoice for the video equipment so that he can reimburse Alan for those costs. He’s received the information from GameStorm 16 and OryCon 36, but he’s had to file for another extension, since he didn’t receive that information in time to file the forms before the previous extension ran out. However, Oregon does not follow the Federal extension, so there will be a small fine because OSFCI didn’t file with the Oregon DOJ in time.
The treasurer’s report was accepted unanimously.
III. Reports on Sponsored Activities
A. Conventions and Bids
1. GameStorm 17 (2015) (Debra Stansbury)
The last report was sent to Rick, they’re just waiting for him to accept it, and then Stephen can write the last donation check.
2. OryCon 37 (2015)
(The meeting packet included treasury and registration reports.)
Shryl sent the following report to the Board:
Chair Report
I am pleased to report we now have our music guests of honor, PDX Broadsides! This musical trifecta is a local group that have a large following throughout the sci-fi fantasy fandom and will make a wonderful addition to our GoH panel.Saturday is programming heck for Orycon. We have pretty much all of our space lay out done, and we have a good idea on how we are going to fit the panels into the programming grid. While we are aware that there will be last minute speed bumps I’m confident that our programming team is up to the task.
Our only current issue to speak of is we do not have a committee head in charge of the Fan Lounge. Right now it is not a huge issue as myself and Patty are handling the details related to the fan lounge but as it comes closer to the con this will become that will need it’s own handler. I am actively seeking someone who would be willing to take on this task. If anyone on the board knows of anyone who might be willing to head the fan lounge I would welcome the help.
Myself and Davis will not be able to attend Sunday’s meeting as we are already committed to a non OSFCI charity fund raising event.
PoohHotel Report
As of now we have about 25% of the Friday/Saturday night rooms filled. However, we are already finding that the Thursday night is more popular than ever. Those rooms filled and we are adding more rooms as we go along. So far the room problems people have asked about are because of the Thursday night room shortage (fixed) and not understanding Passkey. The good news is that the new rooms coordinator, Andie, has been very good at responding quickly. If you have not yet booked your room for Orycon, we’d appreciate it if you would and let us know if you run into any problems.Sean spoke with social media about ways to let people know more about the hotel, the rooms remodel, and hopefully encourage more people to book their rooms.
Program has done room allocation, some budget allocation is being straightened out (e.g. where does Internet go).
The meetings to be held at the hotel have been scheduled. There are many, many details to continue working on.
Patty and Sean
The programming work session was yesterday. Fargo said that people are working hard on the convention, but there have been problems with communication. Stephen said that OryCon 37 is running about 38 memberships behind OryCon last year, but a lot of that is due to OryCon comping their staff this year.
There was a draft OryCon 37 budget included with the meeting packet. It currently is calling for a slight deficit overall, because the previous break-even budgets have nearly always resulted in a sizable surplus for the convention.
The report was accepted by the board.
4. GameStorm 18 (2016)
((The meeting packet included a treasury and a registration report.)
The registration numbers are up, compared to last year. The hotel blocks are open. Letters are out to the (potential GoHs)–there haven’t been any responses yet, but Gen Con is probably delaying everyone.
The one thing they really need is access to the GameStorm Even bank account (which has been delayed due to the delay in closing GameStorm 16). They can’t spend any money without the checkbook. (The pre-reg money for GS is 18 sitting either in the GS Odd account or in PayPal, so it’s not delaying the income, just the spending.) Because the checks ordered last time weren’t NCR and did have not stubs, Rick has suggested that they order new checks for the GameStorm Even account. Stephen was hoping that Rick could turn over the binder and the endorsement stamp. (Rick did stop by briefly later in the meeting, on his way out of town, to drop off those items.) Stephen does have online access to the account, and can order new checks.
4. Westercon 69 (Lea Rush)
(The meeting packet included chair and registration reports. A treasury report was circulated at the meeting.)
Westercon 68 has now taken place, so Westercon 69 is now the current Westercon. Westercon 68, in San Diego, drew more than 900 people, which is much higher than others recently, and seemed to go well. How many Westercon 69 memberships sold at Westercon 68? 23 (not as many as they’d hoped). Aaron suggested that Westercon 69 ask Westercon 68 for their registration history, so that W69 would have a better idea of what to expect. Lea mentioned that Westercon 66, in 2013, had a lot of communication problems, so it might be difficult getting information from them.
Aaron: What’s your membership target? Lea: About 1300. With the usual bump that Portland gets and the Gearcon people, that should be doable. She has a new committee person, Beth Holley (formerly VP of Exhibits at San Diego Comic Con). She will be handling ad sales. Dale Imbleau is running the W69 Dealer Room. The hotel block is available. Gearcon went pretty well, they sold nine W69 memberships. There were many people interested in W69 dealer tables. And Westercon 69 will have a table at Sasquan.
PR # 2 is about to go out.
5. OryCon 38 (2018)
David Schaber (OryCon 38 chair) phoned in a report to Aaron, since he’s not able to attend this meeting. The invitations have gone out. David is still waiting to hear about David Weber. (Note: David Weber did accept the invitation to be OryCon 38 GOH in late August.)
David is also working on putting together the concom.
B. Funds and Awards
1. Clayton Memorial Medical Fund (James Fiscus)
(A report was included in the meeting packet. See below)
They have received a request in the mail for aid, and haven’t had a chance to evaluate it yet.
Jim wanted to thank people for several recent donations–-including Jay Lake’s family, who held a book sale of Jay’s books and donated the proceeds. There is currently about $17,500 in the Fund, which puts them in decent shape.
2. Endeavour Award (James Fiscus)
(A report was included in the meeting packet. See below)
They have their finalists: Last Plane To Heaven (Jay Lake), Metatropolis (Ken Scholes and Jay Lake), Night Broken (Patricia Briggs), Our Lady Of The Islands (Shannon Page and Jay Lake) and The Shadow Throne (Django Wexler). The judges are Russell Davis, Esther Friesner and Fran Wilde. Aaron: How are the judges chosen? Jim: They have to be published authors from outside the area.
There’s about $2900 in the bank, leaving about $1400 after this year’s award. So there will be some fund-raising going on before next November. There is a number of books that have been donated by Ursula K. Le Guin, and these will be auctioned off.
3. Susan Petrey Fund (Paul Wrigley and Debbie Cross)
A report was submitted by email and included in the meeting packet. (See below.)
4. John Andrews Worldcon Grant (Beverly Block)
There have been no applications yet for next year (Kansas City). They are due in by December 31st, 2015. There will be a notice about it in the OryCon souvenir book in November.
IV. Other Continuing Business
A. Departments
1. Storage Manager Report (Anna Holiday)
No changes since the last meeting. (She did remove the sugar from the storage unit.) She will be doing more organizing soon, including the consolidation of consumables, that was authorized at the last meeting. (It was suggested that any work party at the storage unit should probably be scheduled before it starts raining.)
2. Hotel Committee
Nothing new to report. The contract with the Red Lion Inn at the Quay for more space for GameStorm 18 has already been reported, and the next task would be to start negotiating space for GameStorm 19 (2017). (We’re just starting a multi-year contact with the Marriott for OryCon.)
3. IT Committee (including new hosting company)
GameStorm has moved to Amazon Web Services, as has Westercon. There are still a few things to be taken care of, but the initial mail problems have been solved. (GameStorm is totally off of Arvixe now.) We have upgraded the service out of Amazon’s free tier, so we are now paying for the service. (There are some adjustments that can be made to some of that cost.)
John: Are there plans yet to move the other sites over to AWS? Fargo: If the GameStorm site continues to work well, there’s no real reason not to move the other sites over. We will likely end up paying a bit more for the service, but we’re planning for that.
4. OSFCI Publicity (Jason Bostick)
Not too much to report. They tried to get a table at Rose City Comic Con, but Rose City wanted more than $300 for a fan table so it was decided not to do that. Jason will be helping to run gaming there, so that will be an opportunity for promotion.
Westercon’s publicity is going very well, but there have been problems with OryCon’s mainly the same communication problems reported earlier. There was some confusion whether OryCon had a fan table at Sasquan. Shryl had told people that they’d been putting bookmarks and flyers out on “their”table, but OryCon doesn’t have a table at Sasquan. It was suggested that people talk to Davis (the OryCon vice-chair about this), as Shryl is somewhat overloaded right now. Jim: It sounds like there are problems that should have been mentioned during the OryCon report. Jason: Shyrl sent out email when she first realized that she had to step back–but it sounds like that email only went to the OryCon staff list, since most of the board knew nothing about this.
Jim also felt that the board should take over Publicity overall, with the assistance of the events, because it sounds things are being dropped. Jason felt that would be hard for a corporate publicity person to know everything that needed to happen, unlike someone who was on the staff for that event. Jim: This kind of problem with publicity has been going on for years, and the board needs to address is because you have to have a sustained publicity for all of the conventions and there needs to be some coordination to make sure that it happens. Aaron agreed, and asked Jason to not take over OryCon publicity, but to reach out to them to make sure they have the help they need. Not just email, but phone conversations, in-person meetings–whatever it takes. This is something that needs to happen now–not waiting for the next board meeting.
5. Game Lab (Aaron Curtis)
Aaron met with KC, and KC has some written documentation on how Game Lab operates. There is a lot of information there. (A copy will be sent to the Board list.)
The only Game Lab activity since the last board meeting was the GameStorm Game Day.
Stephen asked if KC should be on the Board list. Probably.
B. Business Carried Over
1. ASCAP/BMI Licenses
John sent the information on what was needed for the ASCAP and BMI licenses to Aaron and Rick, but we don’t have Rick at the meeting today to write any checks. There’s nothing more to report right now. (Copies of the forms were sent to Aaron and Rick in early July.)
All further discussion on this was tabled until the next meeting.
2. OSFCI Fund-Raising Grants
Jacob Engstrom had presented the board with some basic information on applying for grants, and had mentioned one that was a good starter because they basically gave you money for being a 501(c)(3) organization.
Debra had a proposal: PCC offers a highly-rated grant-writing course through Ed2Go (their online course system) for $99. She suggested that some of the board members take the course, with OSFCI covering the cost of the course. Several board members said they would be interested in taking such a course. Jim suggested that Debra draw up a specific proposal for the next board meeting.
Car said that Jacob is still interested in going over fundraising with the board. (She traded texts with him during the meeting.) Aaron suggested that the four people who expressed interest in taking the course arrange to meet with Jacob about this, and he asked that the board allocate up to $400 for four people to take the PCC course. Jason made a motion to this effect, and the board approved the expenditure, by a 7-0 vote. The four people who are interested in taking this course have been appointed as a grant-writing committee, with Debra chairing the committee.
V. New Business
The board voted to change the listed agenda in order to allow a proposal for new equipment to be heard before the discussion on the possible changes to the code of conduct.
C. Other New Business
New Hospitality Equipment
A proposal was presented by Korina Walters to purchase new hospitality equipment, namely hot and cold trays for serving food in hospitality.
There was been some discussion on what should be done in light of the new restrictions on OryCon Hospitality (because of the new hotel), the continuing problems with GameStorm Hospitality and what will need to be done for Westercon next summer. GameStorm has run into problems with power–if they try to run more than one crock pot at a time, the circuit breakers keep blowing. There were a lot of complaints that the food was not hot.
The proposal is for some catering equipment that would use a lesser wattage than the crock pots. (The restriction at OryCon is “No hot food”, which includes coffee.) This equipment comes with a lifetime guarantee, and is highly recommended by her friends in the catering industry. She is proposing two three-well hot tables (instead of one five-well table) because the five-well hot tables are extremely heavy. They break down to a very small volume for storage. This should also eliminate about ten boxes of old equipment (bowls, tubs, etc.) that’s accumulated over the years. The stainless steel hotel pans and covers (which are easier to wash and sanitize) will fit into about two totes. In the case of OryCon, where we’re not allowed to heat anything, the hot-tables can be used as cold-trays, by not plugging them in and using the trays to hold ice.
Brigid asked if these were rentable. That’s not possible, since it require someone to be a licensed caterer. Jason: if we did rent them, these would pay for themselves in a little more than three years. Stephen: With a purchase of this size (more than $6000), should we put this out for bid? Korina said that she’s already done a lot of research on the pricing for these items, and this is likely the best price we will find. Aaron noted that, while this amount is big for us, it’s a small cost to someone who’s outfitting a commercial kitchen. Korina also noted that the cost listed is including a trade discount (she would be ordering it through a friend who is a commercial caterer). The list price is closer to $12,000.
John said that he was not comfortable with the board deciding to spend this much money without the treasurer being involved in the discussion. This is at least 15% of OSFCI’s current total funds–more than 20% of our savings. The other thing is: since we can’t have hot food in OryCon Hospitality, why do we need to purchase the hot-food tables now? Can’t those wait until we’re closer to GameStorm? Stephen: Will it affect the price we’re paying if we split this into two orders? No, the price will not change. Debra: If we wait until the October meeting, when Rick is present, will there still be enough time to order them for OryCon? No, they take six to eight weeks to ship.
Aaron asked if the board could see a list of what would only be needed for OryCon–e.g. just the cold-tables and roughly one-half of the trays. Korina said that she would put that together and have it ready in a few minutes. Discussion on this item was tabled briefly while she was putting together this information. The meeting moved on to the next item on the agenda.
Debra moved that the board approve this proposal (later rounded up to $3,200), Lea seconded the motion and it passed 7-1 (John voting against). The other half of the proposal (for the hot food trays) will not be discussed until after OryCon (probably the December meeting).
A. Proposed Change in the Code of Conduct (Brigid)
Brigid circulated a written account of an incident that took place prior to and at the 2014 World Horror Convention. Briefly, a staff member received threats online prior to the convention from a professional that attended WHC 2014. The chair of WHC 2014 (an OSFCI-sponsored event) basically did nothing other than handing the staff member (and her roommate, Brigid) a radio and told her to contact convention security if “something bad happened.” (The chair did not report this incident in a post-con security report required from all OSFCI events.)
Aaron: We need to narrow down what the point of failure was. John said that he felt the Code of Conduct doesn’t need to be changed–it should have covered this incident. The failure was the convention management not acting on this violation of the Code. Debra: I don’t want to change the wording of the Code. We need to have it spelled out (in the Procedures for Enforcement) what the chair is required to do.
Jim asked what language was in the standard management agreement about enforcing OSFCI policies? (There isn’t any referring to any specific OSFCI policies–the standard agreement template was written years ago before the Board developed any policies like the Code of Conduct.) Debra: According to the Code, people need not go to the chair of an event if there’s a problem–if they don’t feel that the chair will do anything about it, they can come directly to the Board. But people may not know that. And when the incident happens two weeks before the convention (or during the convention), who are you going to call? The short answer is the OSFCI President, but people aren’t necessarily going to know that.
Debra: Additionally, it’s not always easy on an event’s web site to find out what the Code of Conduct is for the event–on the OryCon site, you really have to go hunting for it. It needs to be readily available from the font page of any OSFCI event’s web site.
After some discussion , it was decided that social media posts need to be monitored in case there’s a problem like this that seems to be slipping by. Jason volunteered to do this, since he has access (in his role as OSFCI Publicity manager) to all the conventions’ posts.
Jim suggested that individuals or committes be tasked to review the Code of Conduct Procedures, and the standard management agreement template. Car suggested that the management agreement should require event managements to enforce and publicize the Code of the Conduct (and any other pertinent OSFCI policies). The question came up: who is the “event management” that is required to enforce and publicize the policies? The standard management agreement requires both the chair and the treasurer to sign as “management”, but normally the treasurer isn’t in position to be the person ejecting someone from a convention. The OSFCI liaison? Lea (the liaison for WHC 2014) didn’t know what all was happening until during the convention. Debra suggested that it should be publicized better that people can also approach the OSFCI liaison if there are problems (especially if they feel the chair isn’t doing anything about the problems).
Aaron: It sounds like we need to add that to the management agreement, that the management needs to make sure that the information is distributed on how to contact the OSFCI liaison to the event. John: In an ideal world, every page of every OSFCI event’s website would have a notice at the bottom along the lines of “OSFCI does not allow discrimination or harassment of any kind. Click for more information.”. It was suggested that each event have an email address for the liaison, such as “osfciliaison@orycon.org”.
Brigid said the one good thing is that we won’t have to deal with the people causing the problems ever again. The editor who was harassing the staffperson has said that he’ll never come to Portland again, and no one will every work for the person who chaired WHC 2014 ever again. But we do need to make sure that a similar situation doesn’t happen again.
Aaron: (1) We need to make provisions in the procedures for enforcement; (2) We need to make revisions in the management agreements. Dave has not yet signed the OryCon 38 management agreement, so we can start with that one. (All agreements for events prior to OryCon 38 have been signed.)
Car said that she is willing to sign a new one for GameStorm 18, and Lea mentioned that she needs a new agreement for Westercon 69, since that event has changed treasurers. (Sarah will come to the October meeting and sign the new agreement then.)
To sum up:
- We need to change the procedures for enforcing the OSFCI Code of Conduct.
- We need to change the management agreements to make sure the convention in enforce and publicize the OSFCI policies.
Aaron: We will want these changes drafted and discussed online before the next meeting, so that we’re ready to put them in place. (And John is too tied up with running the Hugos at the Worldcon in a couple of weeks to work on that.) Jason suggested that Beverly Block might be a good person to take on the management agreement changes. Aaron: That leave the changes to the enforcement procedures. Stephen pointed out that we also want to require the events to have the opening of the OSFCI Code of Conduct (“OSFCI does not tolerate discrimination or harassment of any kind:”) at the bottom of each page of an event’s web site, with a link for more information.
Debra, Brigid and Stephen volunteered to form a committee to work on the changes to the procedures, with Stephen heading the committee. The requirements are:
- Appropriately publicize the Code of Conduct on the event websites, including how to contact the OSFCI liaison and/or the OSFCI Board President in the case of non-response from the event chair.
- Procedures for pre-event enforcement (such as online harassment before the event).
Aaron said that he would like a written draft at least two weeks prior to the next meeting. There was some discussion on ways to prevent people from continuing online harassment, if they’re doing it on Facebook.) John made a motion that the board proceed with this action and it passed unanimously.
B. Possible use of corporate password manager
John mentioned that the meeting has passed the 2½ hr mark during which new business can be discussed. (Which actually was incorrect, based on the recording time of the meeting–the meeting started very late, and that wasn’t taken into account. [OSFCI Secretary]) The board decided to table this item until the next meeting.
C. Other New Business (cont.)
Debra said that Kumoricon wants to borrow some lights from OSFCI. Aaron pointed out that the existing equipment-sharing agreement between Kumoricon and OSFCI already allows this, therefore no vote is needed.
The next meeting will on Sunday, October 12th at 7:30PM at the Doubletree.
OSFCI Treasurer’s Report 8/7/15
1. Current Status
I have not yet closed the World Horror account. I may repurpose that account for use by another OSFCI fund.
I still need to get receipts and hardware from Alan Olsen. (I need to make time to run to his house.)
GS16 and O36 materials have been received, but little progress has been made, it being summer and vacations significantly interfering. An extension for filing taxes until Nov 15 has been requested of the IRS. Oregon does not honor the federal extension and so we already have a $20 surcharge when that form is eventually filed. The GS-even checkbook currently has no carbons or stubs to record to whom a check was written or when, so I’ve instructed the GS18 treasurer to simply order new checks.
Current (as of 8/7/15) account status:
Acct | Balance | Change from the 6/13 report |
---|---|---|
Orycon Odd | $8688 | (-$2100) |
OSCFI checking | $12816 | (-$188) |
Endeavour | $2914 | (-$38) |
GS Even | $9286 | ($0) |
Merchant | $568 | ($0) |
GS Odd | $23078 | ($0) |
Orycon Even | $11449 | (+$16) |
World Horror | $1065 | ($0) |
OSFCI savings | $32500 | (+$2) |
Westercon | $13153 | (+$766) |
2. Old Business
As mentioned, GS16 and O36 remain unsettled, and likely will remain so until September, owing to my commitments to Orycon and Westercon as well as various summer vacations. Both will show a surplus; it’s a matter of determining how much and how various expense buckets filled up for each (for tax purposes).
3. New Business
None.
The Clayton Memorial Medical Fund Award
Report to the OSFCI Board
August 9, 20154
Requests for Aid:
We have had no requests for aid since the February report.
Financial Report:
During 2015, we have received $120.00 as a regular donation of $20.00/month, in honor of Jo Clayton. We also received a donation of $810.00 from the friends and family of Jay Lake, following a book sale. Finally, $100.00 was donated via PayPal by Julia Reynolds, that has not been moved to our account yet.
We thank the people who have donated to the Fund.
Counting the PayPal donation, we have approximately $17,500.00 in the Fund.
Financial Health of the Fund:
While we cannot know what demands will be made on the Fund, our plan has always been to have enough money to respond to emergencies, anticipating that if we face a heavy demand we will hold a major fund raising campaign. While we do plan future fundraising, we should be able to meet any general emergencies.
Board of Trustees
Committee Members | First Appointed | Term Expires |
---|---|---|
James Fiscus, Chairman | October 1996 | November 2016 |
Page Fuller, Treasurer | October 1996 | November 2016 |
Rick Lindsley, OSFCI Rep. | February 2013 | While serving on OSFCI Board. |
Ruth Sachter | November 2002 | November 2015 |
Marc Wells | November 2003 | November 2015 |
Submitted,
James W. Fiscus
Chairman, Clayton Board of Trustees
The Endeavour Award
Report to the OSFCI Board
August 9, 2015
Finalists and Judges:
We announced our finalists during the first week of July. The finalists for 2015 are: Last Plane to Heaven by Jay Lake (Tor Books); Metatropolis by Ken Scholes and Jay Lake (WordFire Press); Night Broken by Patricia Briggs (Ace Books); Our Lady of the Islands by Shannon Page and Jay Lake (Per Aspera Press); and The Shadow Throne by Django Wexler (Roc Books.)
Our judges are Russell Davis, Esther Friesner, and Fran Wilde.
Call for Books for the 2016 Award:
To be eligible for next year’s Award a book – either a novel or a single-author collection of stories – must be science fiction or fantasy. The majority of the book must have been written, and the book accepted for publication, while the author was living in the Pacific Northwest. The deadline to enter books published during 2015 is February 15, 2016. Full information on entering the Award is available on the Endeavour Web site: www.osfci.org/endeavour.
Our first call for books will go out later this week. We also expect to put out a call for readers soon.
Financial Report:
There have compensated Westercon for their help with the Endeavour reception at OryCon,. We have approximately $2,900.00 in the bank. That will let us cover our expenses for this year and give us about $1,400 for next year. We will need to raise money to support the 2016 Award.
Endeavour Committee
Committee Members | First Appointed | Term Expires |
---|---|---|
James Fiscus, Chairman | October 1996 | November 2017 |
Page Fuller | October 1996 | November 2017 |
Marilyn J. Holt | September 2000 | November 2017 |
Sara Mueller | October 2003 | November 2016 |
Sheila Simonson | October 1996 | November 2016 |
Shawn Wall, Treasurer | November 2005 | November 2016 |
Helen Umberger | November 2012 | November 2015 |
Submitted,
James W. Fiscus
Chairman, Endeavour Award
Income Statement: Q2 2015
Balance (3/31/2015) | $13,521.06 |
Income | |
Ebay Giving Words | $55.71 |
Donation | 0.00 |
Interest | $0.62 |
Total | $56.33 |
Expenses | |
Scholarships/Fellowship | $6,200.00 |
Total | $6,200.00 |
Balance (6/30/2015) | $7,377.39 |
OCF Balance (3/31/2015) | $65,514.88 |
2015 Recipients
- Dayna Smith (Chicago IL)
- Laurie Penny
- Cory Doctorow (Susan C. Petrey Fellow)
ITEM | PRICE PER UNIT | QUANTITY | TOTAL PRICE |
---|---|---|---|
Vollrath 38203: 3 Well Hot Food Table | $1,531.44 | 2 | $3,062.88 |
Vollrath 38015: 5 Well Cold Food Table | $1,534.18 | 1 | $1,534.18 |
Vollrath 90052: 3 Stainless Steel Hotel Full Size 2″ Pans | $25.49 | 2 | $50.98 |
Vollrath 90242: 3 Stainless Steel Half Size Hotel Steel 4″ Pans | $25.52 | 2 | $51.04 |
Vollrath 90562: 3 Stainless Steel Half Size .Long Hotel 6″ Pans | $82.24 | 2 | $164.48 |
Vollrath 90482: 3 Stainless Steel Quarter Size Hotel 8″ Pans | $49.60 | 3 | $148.80 |
Vollrath 90212: 3 Stainless Steel Half Size Hotel 1¾” Pans | $15.73 | 11 | $173.03 |
Vollrath 90082: 3 Stainless Steel Full Size 8″ Hotel Pans | $66.37 | 4 | $265.48 |
Vollrath 90462: 3 Stainless Steel Quarter Size 6″ Hotel Pans | $29.02 | 3 | $87.06 |
Vollrath 75120: Stainless Steel Half Size Hotel Pan Cover | $16.59 | 12 | $199.08 |
Vollrath 77250: Stainless Steel Full Size Hotel Pan Cover | $34.32 | 6 | $205.92 |
Vollrath 75140: Stainless Steel Quarter Size Hotel Pan Cover | $12.13 | 12 | 4145.46 |
Shipping | $626.14 | ||
Total | $6,714.63 |
Prices and ordering will come from the Peach Suite Hotel, Resort and Restaurant Supplies and Equipment website. I based my choice on this site from several recommendations through various parties including, but not limited to, catering businesses and restaurant establishments. I’ve done comparison shopping and this site has reasonable prices for the items we are wanting and is reputable, guaranteeing that what we order is what we are going to get.
Now, I know that this is a big expense but it will save us money in the long run.
Currently for GameStorm we still have hot food service which has proven a large challenge in the past. Insufficient power and masses of people swarming the food tables at the same time has made it a struggle to make sure that food is served hot and in enough quantities at the appropriate time. Guests have complained in the past about this issue and the hot food tables will address that. The tables will keep the food at safe temperatures. The power required on these tables are only 120V each. I believe that 2 hot tables shall meet our needs nicely so that a variety of food is kept hot. In addition to keeping food hot, these tables can be converted to keep food cold with a little creative ingenuity. 8″ hotel pans can be inserted into the wells and have Ice placed in them (with the power to the tables turned off of course) and smaller hotel pans inserted into them to keep food cold. This will be invaluable for GameStorm lunches as well as for Orycon in general since there is no longer hot food allowed at that event.
The 5 well cold food service does not require electricity. It stays cool by use of ice and is insulated to keep the ice from melting as quickly. This will allow us to keep food cold, use LESS ice since we will be changing it less often and offer a wider variety in a contained area.
The three tables will take up less space in our hospitality areas than the previous tables have in the past, giving our guests more area to work around and less table cloth changes.
The hotel pans are made of Stainless steel and so are nearly impossible to destroy, unlike the plastic and aluminum pans we are currently using. I’ve had to replace nearly our entire supply in the last year due to cracks, breakage, stains and just generally the inability to keep them in a usable condition with the abuse that they take. The hotel pans will nearly remove the necessity for these plastic items, and will allow us some uniformity in the Hospitality department, making washing dishes and storage much easier.
Speaking of storage, all of the hotel pans stack together, ensuring that we can get more of them into a much smaller space, leaving room for things on shelves such as food when active at a convention and will fit into a smaller space in the storage unit. The tables can have their legs removed and be stacked together. I believe that there may indeed be enough room in our current storage space for them, especially since I can remove a good portion of the current Hospitality stuffs with these items to replace them.
Now, for cost. These items will cut down on our power and ice usage. It will mean a few less tables being used, less food waste due to unsafe temperature conditions, and less replacement of broken trays, bowls, and other miscellaneous equipment. Happier guests mean more donations and more memberships being sold since our outstanding hospitality is a draw for our clientele.
Thank you for your time and consideration