Annual General Meeting Meeting
Doubletree Portland Hotel
February 4, 2013
ATTENDING: (OSFCI Members) Arthur Aldridge, Beverly Block, Car Bostick, Jason Bostick, Curtis Chen, Jenn Contreras-Perez, Jeffrey Cowley, Debbie Cross, Aaron Curtis (OSFCI President), Ann Ezell, Dawn Hewitt, KC Humphrey, Rick Lindsley (OSFCI Treasurer), Tammy Lindsley, John Lorentz (OSFCI Secretary), Brigid Nelson, Tracy Penner, Devlin Perez, D. Stephen Raymond, Kyle Rhône, Lea Rush, Ruth Sachter, Eli Smith, DeeAnn Sole, Debra Stansbury, Marc Wells, and Paul Wrigley; (Non-Members) Sam Justice (OSFCI Attorney), Andrew Montgomery
Proxies (held by): Michael Birkes (Aaron Curtis), Terry Bohach (Aaron Curtis), Christina Booth (Aaron Curtis), Antonia Cabal (Aaron Curtis), Nance Cedar (Lea Rush), Jim Davies (Aaron Curtis), Jim Fiscus (Andrew Nisbet*), Page Fuller (John Lorentz), Marilyn Holt (Andrew Nisbet*), Ellen Klowden (Ann Ezell), David Levine (John Lorentz), Angel May (Beverly Block), Heather McLaughlin (Aaron Curtis), Michael Monical (Aaron Curtis), Daniel Reitman (John Lorentz), Andrew Ross (Andrew Nisbet*), Chris Shaffer (Aaron Curtis), Sheila Simonson (Andrew Nisbet*), David Turner (Devlin Perez), Shawn Wall (Andrew Nisbet*), Patty Wells (Marc Wells) and Pamela Wilsonsage (Anna Wilsonsage).
*Andrew Nisbet was ill, and could not attend. These proxies were not reassigned and these people were not represented at the meeting.
OSFCI membership was accepted by: Terry Bohach, Nance Cedar, Jim Davis, Ann Ezell, Ellen Klowden, Heather McLaughlin, Kyle Rhône, Chris Shaffer, Eli Smith and Anna Wilsonsage.
The meeting called to order by OSFCI President Aaron Curtis, at 7:31PM SniT (Shiny New iPad Time)
I. Minutes of Previous Meeting
The minutes as distributed were approved unanimously.
II. Treasurer’s Report (Rick Lindsley)
It’s a very brief report. This year, OryCon did not have a surplus, so OSFCI will be in the red. On the plus side, we have a good cushion for exactly this reason, so it should not affect the corporation.
The treasurer’s report was accepted.
III. President’s Report (Aaron Curtis)
The biggest thing in the last year was that we did not support the leadership of OryCon 34 as well as we could have. One of the roles of the board of directors is to support a weak con com. We’re moving in the right direction, in that we have a strong movement towards appointing chairs earlier. We already have chairs for the next two events (the current and next GameStorm, and the next OryCon) and we have bids for the next two after that. Getting these planned out more than a year in advance really does help. Aaron would strongly encourage that this be done in the future.
OSFCI adopted a new Code of Conduct during this last year. (It’s available to read on osfci.org.)
We also advanced funds for the development of the name Game Con software (which will be used for GameStorm scheduling).
The president’s report was accepted.
IV. Election of Board of Directors
John listed all the proxies that were submitted, and the people who have accepted invitations to join OSFCI. We have 44 members in attendance, or represented by proxies at this meeting (which does not include the people who assigned their proxies to Andrew, who could not make it to the meeting–they’re not represented tonight), with a total membership of 83 members. 23 votes are needed to elect a director (and 42 voting in favor to pass a bylaws change).
The people that cannot be nominated (because they’re already on the Board for another year) are: Aaron Curtis, Rick Lindsley, John Lorentz, Devlin Perez and Lea Rush. People whose terms are expiring with this meeting are: Arthur Aldridge, Beverly Block, Andrew Nisbet, D. Stephen Raymond and Marc Wells.
The following people were nominated for the five available slots:
- Arthur Aldridge
- Beverly Block
- Car Bostick
- Jason Bostick
- Jenn Contreras-Perez
- Andrew Nisbet
- D. Stephen Raymond
- Debra Stansbury
- Marc Wells
Debbie moved that the nominations be closed. Stephen seconded the motion and the meeting voted without dissent to close the nominations.
Debbie & Paul volunteered to count the ballots.
(Lots of sounds of rustling paper.)
Paul reported back. Five people received more than 23 votes, and so they’ve been elected to the board (for two-year terms):
- Beverly Block
- Car Bostick
- Jason Bostick
- D. Stephen Raymond
- Debra Stansbury
V. New Business
Devlin announced that there would be a storage unit work session on April 6th, starting at noon. If you want to help, please contact Devlin.
2014 World Horror Convention (Tammy Lindsley)
Tammy announced that the World Horror Society has awarded Portland the 2014 World Horror Convention. It will be held May 8-11, 2014 (Mother’s Day Weekend) at the Portland Doubletree Hotel (OryCon’s hotel, although WHC doesn’t take up as much space at OryCon). She put the announcement out last night on the Facebook page–and already 70 people have said they’re coming, with another 30 as definite maybes.
Aaron : What’s the usual size? Tammy: About 450 people.
Guests of Honor, so far, are: Nancy Holder (author), Norman Partridge (author), Greg Staples (artist–he is from the UK, and satisfies a WHC requirement to have at least one non-US GOH), Paula Guran (editor) and Alan M. Clarke (Toastmaster)–there probably will be couple others. “Ghost of Honor” is Edward Gorey. Tammy is still working on bring in a media guest of honor.
Several committee members are already set. Tammy is chairing the event and handling Hotel. Arthur Aldridge is going to be the Treasurer. Lea Rush is going to handle Dealers, Brigid Nelson the Art Show, Jenn Contreras-Perez Hospitality, Devlin Perez Operations. She is also working with her webmaster to get the web page set up.
Tammy is also working with the president of the Horror Writers of America to bring the Bram Stoker Awards to the convention. Those would be presented at an award banquet Saturday night.
The convention would use the Exhibit Hall for the dealer room and art show, and the Willamette and Lloyd Center ballrooms in the hotel.
Tammy will be attending the WHC in New Orleans this year, where she’ll throw a promotional party. Therefore, she’ll need some of the seed money for the event from OSFCI.
Since this is a professional convention, the rates are much higher than our usual conventions. They’ll start at $100, going to $125, $150, $175 and to $200 at the door. The staff rate, however, is $25.
VI. Adjournment
Many people moved that the meeting be adjourned and the meeting was adjourned at 8:18PM, Aaron SNiT.
WorldCon 70 (Chicon 7) Report
First I’d like to thank the board for the honor and privilege of attending WorldCon last September. It was an amazing opportunity and a joy to see such a large number of fans and professionals. The points covered in this paper cannot begin to do it justice. There is simply too much to see and do to report it all.
Worldcon in Chicago had much in common with Orycon but also had significant differences. They have panels and programming as Orycon does although they have considerably more due to the size and diversity or the attendees. I was able to attend several panels from ‘WorldCon for introverts’ to a performance of Neil Gaiman’s short stories, to panels on costuming and entering the Masquerade Costume Competition, along with many others. The panels had a variety of views, not always complementary but definitely informative. The ‘Stroll with the Stars’ morning walk, although a lovely way to see Chicago, was over large and a bit overwhelming for my personal taste. However it was nice to meander through Chicago in the morning before the heat of the day. By far my favorite off-site programming was ‘opening night at the Planetarium’. Visiting the Adler Planetarium and looking through the telescope at the moon was a wonderful start to the weekend.
Volunteering was a great way to see parts of the convention I had not had the opportunity to see. Although I was not able to volunteer in Hospitality, I was able to volunteer in Green Room, door guard for dealers and art show and ice delivery.
Green Room was run like a smaller version of our Hospitality suite with space for panelists and professionals to sit a chat or do a little work. It was a pleasure to meet such a diverse group and overhear bits of conversations on myriad topics. This is also where I was introduced to the most amazing buffet table. It’s a 6 foot molded plastic table with a lip about two inches deep with a plugged hole in the center of the table. You fill the table with ice, place your cold food or soda in and as the ice melts you can drain the water into a bucket, screw the plug back in and refill the ice, it was brilliant!
Art Show and Dealers were much like ours, just bigger. I was able to sit door guard at the Art Show on the last day so got to see the artists coming in for their work and the beginning of tear down.
One area that was different from Orycon is that they sold bags of ice for parties so the ice machines on the party floors were not over-taxed (possibly at the request of the hotel). The party would send someone down between 6pm and 9pm to buy bags of ice and the convention had a crew of 5-6 volunteers that would use carts to deliver the ice to the room and return with the cart, I believe the bags of ice were provided by the hotel from the large banquet ice machines and were about 20lbs of ice for $6, if I remember correctly. It was a rather convenient alternative to empty ice machines.
In conclusion, the weekend was both informative and enjoyable. The things I learned (both positive and things that could be improved upon) will be applied to the positions I help with in our conventions. Thank you again for such a wonderful opportunity.
Sincerely, Jenn Contreras-Perez