Board of Directors Meeting
December 14, 2010
ATTENDING: (Board members) Beverly Block, Aaron Curtis (OSFCI President), Rick Lindsley (OSFCI Treasurer), Tammy Lindsley, John Lorentz (OSFCI Secretary), Andrew Nisbet III, Debra Stansbury, and Marc Wells.
Michael Pinnick was excused due to illness. Nothing was heard from Arthur Aldridge on why he did not attend.
Also attending were Paul Brinker (OryCon 32 Treasurer), James Fiscus (Clayton and Endeavour ex-officio member), Sam Justice (OSFCI attorney), Tracy Penner (OryCon 33 Vice-Chair), Devlin Perez (OryCon 33 Chair), D. Stephen Raymond (GameStorm 13 & OryCon 33 Treasurer), David Schaber (GameStorm 13 Chair); Gene Armstrong, Ruth Sachter, and David Lohkamp (and ??–he didn’t sign in).
The meeting started at 7:33, Aaron Cell Phone Time.
I. Minutes of Previous Meeting
Aaron Curtis asked the Board members if they had read the minutes when they were distributed (most people had). There were no corrections (other than those e-mailed by Beverly to John several weeks earlier).
The minutes from the previous meeting were then accepted by general acclamation.
People were reminded to pass on reports earlier than the morning of the meetings, if they wanted copies made, or the reports to be read, by the time of the meeting.
II. Treasurer’s Report (Rick Lindsley)
Rick sent out the treasury report last night. (See below.) The OryCon 31 books are finally close to being closed (one stale check has to be replaced, the overhead fee needs to be transferred to OSFCI and then everything will be done). The (2009) taxes have been filed (two days before the deadline). Rick would like to get statements from OryCon 32, OryCon 33 and GameStorm on their status at year-end to help get the (2010) taxes ready.
The statement he distributed has listed how much is in each of the bank accounts. There is one anomaly, in that the merchant account is extremely rich, but that balance included all of the PayPal funds which were transferred to OryCon Even (32) yesterday.
Rick also enclosed a proposed budget for 2011 in his report. We can discuss this later, but we did have over $1200 in (unbudgeted) miscellaneous expenses this year, so he’s proposing that we budget some money for the games library, capital spending and miscellaneous expenses.
There will be an overhead fee of about $2800 coming from OryCon 31. He doesn’t have a signed copy of the OryCon 31 management agreement (just the unsigned original), so he’s not certain of the distribution of their surplus. But with the delay in the closing of the books, the Board could take all of the surplus and make the sole decision on its distribution–we need to discuss this.
Rick: Deborah gave away the OSFCI computer equipment after the convention (OryCon 31). We make people jump through a lot of hoops in order to purchase new equipment, but this made him realize we don’t really have a policy on giving it away. Deborah: I did not give that equipment away as chair of OryCOn 31, I did so as Secretary of OSFCI. (She’ll have a report on that later.)
Following up discussions at the last meeting
- We’ve taken some steps towards dealing with events that delay in closing their books (the worst is behind us, but we may want to talk more about that in the future)
- We’ve talked about deciding on a standard practice on how disburse surplus money in the future and making that the default for agreements in the future
- And already on the agenda for later is talking about the Worldcon fund.
The treasurer’s report was then accepted.
IV. Reports on Sponsored Activities
A. Conventions and Bids
1. OryCon 31
Aaron: I’d thought there was still some information missing. Stephe: We were able to get the last information we need, filling the remaining holes in the spreadsheet.
Debra: If I’m allowed to distribute surplus funds as I’d like (since technically, the management agreement had expired), I’d like the money to go to (this is a revised breakdown, after the discussion below–originally 10% was going to OryCon 33, with 10% to Endeavour and 5% to Sunshine Division):
- 15% to the Endeavour Fund (about $2100)
- 10% to the Susan Petrey Fund (about $1400)
- 10% to the Clayton Fund (about $1400)
- 5% to Free Geek (about $700)
- and 10% to the Sunshine Division (about $1400)
And of course, 50% goes to OSFCI (a little over $7,000). Rick: Does it make sense to roll money over to a future convention? Paul: The future convention needs seed money to get started. Debra: And the future convention needs to a money to buy equipment. Rick: But they’re all part of the same corporation, and OSFCI buys the equipment. Passing the money might have made sense when OSFCI was a liability umbrella and not a cash cow, but that isn’t necessary now and shouldn’t be necessary again.
What I envision is starting up each convention with $500 or $1000. If they need more, then OSFCI can loan them more. We have the liquid cash to transfer money in $500 or $1000 increments. I know we’ve done this in the past, but I don’t think we need to keep doing this.
Beverly: It does muddy things by having money roll from con to con, and then at the end of the year you’re trying to figure out just how much money did this convention make, when money is rolled from last year, the year before that, and the year before that. Rather than the con having the money, it would allow OSFCI to buy more capital items that all the conventions could use. Dave: Sometimes in the past, an OryCon would give money to a future OryCon to allow it to bring in a special guest. Andrew: It was also a mechanism which would allow you to buy specific capital items for future years, such as powered air cleaners for gaming. But just creating a slush fund doesn’t make much sense. GameStorm for years rolled money over just in case they wanted to split off from OSFCI, but now most of the Board has come from GameStorm.
Stephe: If you’ll look at the GameStorm 13 report, you can see that it’s very clear on where the money has come from. As far as getting more money from OSFCI if it is needed, what type of reaction time is there for equipment (or other) requests? Rick and Tammy: The treasurer is reachable by e-mail all of the time, and the Board can decide via e-mail to advance needed money. Rick: And the treasurer should have some discretion in this–a matter of $500 until a PayPal transfer comes through next week shouldn’t be a Board issue. If it’s $3,000 because you’re running low, then that might be something that the Board may want to discuss.
Andrew: By money floating from convention to convention, it limits flexibility on the part of the Board. If (for example) some of OSFCI’s money is living in the GameStorm account, and we suddenly needed it for OryCon, we’d have to go through a far more convoluted process (to transfer money to where it is needed). There may well be good reason for the keeping the funds (like Clayton or Petrey) separate, but if conventions keep their money separate it means we can’t access it when we need it. We have never needed to do so in the past, but that doesn’t mean we won’t in the future.
Paul: There is a cash flow need. At times this last year, the bank balance was a bit low. Does the OSFCI treasurer have the authority to make short-term loans to conventions?
Ruth: As a former OryCon chair, I appreciated the opportunity to donate money to organizations in the community outside OSFCI. It is nice to be able to donate to the community at large, rather than tying money up in convention funds.
Aaron: Things have changed since OSFCI was poor. It’s good to have a cushion–but OSFCI should be that cushion. Dave: As long as I can remember, the seed money’s always been about $500. With the economy and everything, that should be raised to closer to $1000 or $1500. Rick: I intend to look back at the last three years to when those first expenses came in and see if registrations coming reflect enough money to cover them, and to make sure there’s enough money there to cover the expenses. Aaron: And the seed money amount should be part of the convention bid proposal.
Andrew: When I was chair, I enjoyed being able to buy the air fresheners for gaming, and I deeply appreciated the convention before me buy me Terry Pratchett. It seems like a blanket exclusion might not be the right way to go. Since conventions come to us to let us know what they are doing with their surpluses and the transfers have to go through OSFCI, it seems like we don’t need a hard rule. We need a rule that says “Slush fund bad, others expenses [OK] as determined.” Aaron: I’m not looking for a rule, rather a policy.
John: For years, OryCon has sold about 200 memberships at $25 each at the previous year’s OryCon. That’s $5,000–that’s your seed money. And GameStorm also sells a good number of memberships at the previous year’s event. It’s been a long time since either of those events has needed seed money to get going. Rick: If we haven’t closed the books for the previous OryCon, we don’t know how much belongs to the following year. John: Actually, it’s very easy. They have no expenses and very straightforward income. As someone who has sold OryCon memberships on a Sunday numerous times, I could tell you exactly how much belonged to the following year at the end of the day.
Marc moved that the Secretary draft a policy that the seed money for conventions is the money they get from selling memberships at the previous year (if this is a new convention, then obviously that’s a different issue), and in general money should not be forwarded from convention year to convention year, unless for a specific requirement (such as a special guest). This will be distributed to the Board and by voted on by e-mail by the end of January. This motion passed, 7 to 1.
OryCon 31, as an event, is now closed.
David Lohkamp spoke about a problem he’d encountered personally with both OryCon 31 and 32. Aaron is going to investigate this further before there’s any Board discussion
2. OryCon 32 (Tammy Lindsley)
We had fun. Attendees had fun. GoHs were very appreciative. There were many kudos at Onions & Orchards. The final number of attendees was 1413 with is slightly below last year, but not by very much. Having Voodoo Donuts on site was very successful, and they’ll be back next year. Meeting with the hotel after the convention, we ate them out of house and home again this year, so they’re fine with Voodoo coming back. The blood drive was also very successful–we pledged 30 units and they took in 35 and had to turn people away. They’ll likely be back next year, also.
Almost everything came in under budget. The art show took in $9,500 in sales (the first time it’s been that high in some years). The dealers were happy, although the espresso stand didn’t work out and probably won’t be back next year (the dealers were pretty much the only people using it). Having programming in the art show didn’t work too well–too much noise from all the other traffic in the room. The mini art track worked well, as did the science track. The filk guest had a good concert. We were pleased with the hotel staff, and the hotel was very pleased with us. They were able to put off the renovation of Eduardo’s (the hotel’s Mexican restaurant) until Monday following the convention and that helped a lot.
The zombie walk won’t be back next year. They were told they couldn’t be messy…and they were. (The hotel had no complaints, but the participants didn’t keep up with their side of the agreement.)
The surplus will be roughly $20,000. Possible charities to receive surplus funds include Film Action Oregon and Tri-County Literary Association. Reg, art show and dealer income were all higher than budgeted ($45,000 was budgeted for membership income, and the total was more than $52,000), and expenses overall were lower than budgeted. This was also the first year in some time that the art show panel fees weren’t counted against the commissions owed by the arts, so the artist fees were higher. The hotel costs were substantially higher this year–both because last year we received a lot of concessions to be on Thanksgiving weekend and because this year we had to rent several sleeping rooms to take the place of the suites, which were already booked by outside parties.
One individual caused some problems. (This will be discussed more via e-mail by the Board. Although the recording mentions that the discussion on this topic will be edited out, no discussion actually took place at the meeting and the recording and minutes are complete.) David Schaber mentioned there were also a few car break-ins in the parking garage.
Andrew thanked OryCon for covering the Friends of Filk guest’s room. It’s also likely that Friends of Filk might not be able to cover the cost of the filk guests anymore, since sales at their table haven’t covered the costs of bringing someone in.
The report was accepted by the Board.
3. GameStorm 13
A report was distributed (see below). So far, it’s going pretty good–on schedule in most areas. Andrew (in his role as OSFCI liaison to GS 13): The chair and treasurer of GameStorm have declined to sign the management agreement as it is currently drafted. David: It’s section 12 of the proposed agreement, where it says the convention must get the approval from the Board for any item that exceeds the budget by 20%. I feel it should be exceeding the total budget by 20%. Aaron: The reason we have this clause is so that the chair gives us (the Board) a budget they’re going to stick to, not just spend money willy-nilly. Beverly: the budgets we had for GameStorm 10 and 11 weren’t this detailed–saying that Events can’t exceed the budget by more 20% makes sense, saying that LARP can’t exceed the budget by more than 20% is probably more restrictive than is needed.
There was a good deal of discussion about at what detail level should the 20% limit be held to–major divisions such as “Events”, or the sub-level departments underneath the major headings. It was also pointed out that the $2/attendee OSFCI overhead fee should be included in the management agreement.
The Secretary will prepare a new management agreement draft, including the change of the wording to “…by more than 20% or $100, whichever is greater.”, as well as adding the clause about the management agreement and distribute it to the Board, and have it ready to sign by the GS 13 management by the time of their January 8, 2011 meeting.
David: Referring back the Board’s previous discussion on GameStorm’s using one year’s surplus to buy memberships for gamemasters in the following year…if any limits are put in place, this needs to be done before this year’s GameStorm.
The report on GameStorm was accepted.
4. OryCon 33 (Devlin Perez)
There are a total of 199 people registered for next year. He would like the management agreement to be changed to include the same “or $100, whichever is greater” language that we just discussed for GameStorm 13. Aaron: Should the OryCon and GameStorm agreements be more or less identical right now, save for the parts that are specific to the event? (Yes.) Devlin will manually write in the changes and sign the agreement; the secretary will scan and distribute copies of that one modified copy.
The Guests of Honor are all set, and pretty much everything else is waiting for the first committee meeting. (Tracy is trying to find a location for that meeting.) Ruth: Are there any new things that are being planned for next year? Devlin: No, but some of the things that were tried out this year and worked well will carry over. The teen lounge will be upgraded, and there will be more advertisements out for Hospitality and the bar there–and there will be more room to sit down in the area of the bar.
Tammy, who is the hotel liaison for next year, met with the hotel earlier today to go over the rooms (since a small part of the block is being shifted to overflow hotels this coming year), and to try to get more suites allocated. (We do have suites in 2011, but only four so far, besides the Lanai suites.) OryCon filled 90% of its block in 2010, and that 10% is about the same number that is being shifted to the La Quinta next year. So OryCon in 2011 might drop the La Quinta and just keep the overflow rooms in the Red Lion. Tammy will also be investigating having a shuttle bus making runs late at night to the overflow hotels. What was the room count in 2010? Either 590ish or 690ish (there was some confusion). [Secretary’s note: The count was 691 room nights.] Also the amount of our room block that we have to fill without anything extra was lowered from the original level (from 80% down to 65%), in case some of the people who are in the overflow hotel on Friday don’t want to move to the Doubletree on Saturday. (The other city-wide event that is taking up space only needs the rooms on Friday night.)
They are paying OryCon $4,000 for us to release these room nights that we contracted for. $2,000 of that is coming from the Doubletree, and that will be applied directly against our hotel bill. $2,000 is coming from Travel Oregon (the convention & visitor’s bureau), and that will be in the form of a check sent to us.
The OryCon 33 report was accepted.
B. Funds and Awards
1. Campbell Pin Fund
Ruth and John talked to Jay about this at OryCon. There is still $3,000 owed for the Campbell pins (which have already been delivered), and now that Jay is feeling healthier, he will start raising money to cover that amount. So, for the time being, this is still active (although he is not looking for more money from OSFCI).
2. Clayton Memorial Medical Fund
Copies of the report were distributed at the meeting (see below).
3. Endeavour Award (James Fiscus)
Copies of the report were distributed at the meeting (see below). Jim thanked OryCon 31 for the donation. The Award is still looking for an administrator–he’ll be putting something out on the lists soon.
The report was accepted
4. Susan Petrey Fund
Copies of the report were distributed at the meeting (Paul and Debbie had a schedule conflict and could not be at the meeting.) Their report was accepted.
David: Has there been any effort by the Board to find someone to replace them? Aaron: It’s up to Paul and Debbie to make the decision on who to take over the fund. Andrew said that a couple of people have asked him what that might involve. He will pass the information on to Paul and Debbie.
There was more discussion of who the money with Oregon Community Foundation belongs to. This is something for Sam to research.
IV. Other Continuing Business
A. Hotel Committee
John: We have a contract proposal from the Doubletree for 2013. The proposal is virtually identical to what we signed for OryCon 2012–the meeting space cost is the same, and the sleeping room rates went up $3 a night. Tammy: Did the service charge go up again? (It went up between 2010 and 2011, and is going up again between 2011 and 2012.) No, it will be the same as 2012’s service charge (22%). Tammy: I would like us to get more of the suites–right now, we only have four Presidential suites and a few of the Lanai suites. With the parties, child care, hospitality and other things, we need more.
Aaron: I heard that the management at the Jantzen Beach hotel is now very eager to bring in more business. (There was some discussion on the current lack of restaurants on Hayden Island now, as well as the other problems out there. Several restaurants that were there during the OryCon years are now gone.) David: The Board would be fools not to sign this contract. This year and last year were great at the Doubletree.
The Board voted unanimously to sign the proposed contract, and try for an addendum later to add more suites.
B. John Andrews Worldcon Grant
Ruth had something prepared for the Board to discuss, but wondered if we should discuss it later via e-mail since we’re running out of time. The matter was tabled for now, but OSFCI will buy a membership in the 2011 and 2012 Worldcons (we need to do so soon for 2012, since the rates are going up).
C. The OSFCI Computers (Debra Stansbury)
After OryCon 31, the 19 monitors and 19 tower computers that were in the OSFCI storage garage were donated to Free Geek by Debra (in her role as OSFCI Secretary). Until OryCon 31, the towers were in the possession of Chris Cullen, who ran Internet Café. After OryCon 31, he put them all in the storage locker. Carla (something) was storing the monitors for us, and after OryCon 31 they moved into the locker. This was taking up a significant amount of space, and something had to be done before GameStorm. She was told that these were only used by the Internet Café, which had been scaled back from OryCon 30. At OryCon 31, she was told that none of them were used at Reg or in the Green Room–just the Internet Café. Prior to donating them, she spoke to Free Geek and found that we could submit a grant and get as many machines we needed for the weekend, and not have to store them for 50 weeks of the year, and then use them for one weekend and donate them back when we were done with them. This happened in January or February of this year.
Andrew proposed that this probably would have been approved by the Board had she’d asked–but she should have asked first. Rick disagreed with this. The only reason that the equipment wasn’t used in the Green Room is because they didn’t get the equipment for the Green Room that they’d requested. Tammy: A computer had also been requested for Registration that year. And because Green Room and Reg didn’t get the computers, Rick had to bring computers from home. Jim suggested that someone, maybe Rick, draw up a policy and we move on now with the rest of the agenda. (Someone): They will not provide monitors, though.
Aaron: Let’s move on. John pointed out that the President of the corporation at the time (John) knew nothing about this at the time, and in fact just found out about it this morning. At a bare minimum, the other officers should have been informed. It’s important that we know what we have, and that this doesn’t happen again, since it took a lot of people by surprise for OryCon 32.
D. Other Continuing Business
The Board accepted Debra’s proposal for disbursing the surplus of OryCon 31.
V. New Business
A. Proposed Joint Seattle/Westercon Bid
Gene Armstrong presented a proposal (see attached) for a Westercon bid, for the Jantzen Beach Red Lion, to be run jointly by SWOC (the Seattle Westercon Organizing Committee) and OSFCI. (There was a joint event before put on the two groups, a C-Cubed several years ago.)
Any questions? Rick: Do we believe the Red Lion at the Jantzen Beach will be around in 2013? (Yes.) John: How do you envision the structure of this working with the two groups? Gene: We’re hoping to find a treasurer down here in Portland, but it would be going through the SWOC bank account. We’re not asking for any money from OSFCI. But half of the proceeds will go back to OSFCI.
Aaron: What are you asking for? Gene: OSFCI’s support, use of the storage unit and other equipment. Gene’s co-chairs would be from the Portland area, Shryl Hester and Matt (??) (too many people speaking at once, couldn’t catch Matt’s last name). Dave: Matt has been on two GameStorm committees in the past.
John: Why Portland? Gene: Seattle and Portland are major areas for throwing Westercons. Most of the years, between 2000 and 2008, the Westercons have been OryCon-sized or smaller. The year before this bidding year (2012), the Westercon is in Seattle, so the choice was either Canada or Portland, and I know most of the people down here.
Gene was not at Westercon last summer. Bobbie called him up from there, and said “There are people down here that are saying you’re running a Westercon in Portland.” Aaron: So you were drafted into doing this?
Andrew felt that they should consider another site just as a backup, since there is the possibility that bridge construction may make it very difficult to get to the hotel. Gene: The plus side is that there is no signed contract with the hotel (so he’s not locked in to that site). Does Gene have bids from other sites? No. Is anyone else running? No. Jim: Westercons is recent times have felt onto rough times, and sometimes have drawn only 500 people. That might affect the size of the hotel that you would need. Gene: this is why there are three different scenarios in the proposal, starting at 2,000 attendees and dropping down considerably. Andrew: You need to have flexibility in where you decide to locate the convention, and how many people you’ll draw.
Aaron: How much of the convention staff would be from Seattle? Gene: Right now, a small amount. Most of the exec staff would be from Portland. Aaron: As I see it, you’re asking for our blessing. Other people will see it’s being sponsored by OSFCI, as well as SWOC, and we’re lending you our reputation, so that it’s not just seen as a Washington bid for a convention held in Portland. And the third thing that we are providing is oversight. Are we prepared to take on the responsibility of taking on the oversight of this convention for the next two years after the bid is won?
There was some suggestions for possible other locations for the bid. Gene’s not locked into a specific site now–he just needs a letter of intent from a site by the time he files (the deadline is next April 15th).
Andrew: What we’re being asked for is to borrow our reputation and to be able to poach in our pool of con-runners. Our pool of con-runners is wildly over-worked, but they’re overworked because they like to keep doing stuff like that. He had two suggestions: (1) if Gene is going around to talk to other hotels in the area, then it would help to have the assistance from the other local folks who have been talking to hotels here; (2) if it’s an OSFCI event, then there will be an OSFCI ex-officio Board representative to the event and Gene needs to be prepared to accept that.
John: If OSFCI ends up part of this, then OSFCI really needs to oversee this. (Not just helping out with the hotel, but overseeing the event itself.) OSFCI is having a real difficult time right now, overseeing the existing events. We’re already overtaxed as it is. The other thing–and this is totally personal–the Westercon zones are set up to make sure that Westercon moves around to different parts of the west. Having a Seattle Westercon in 2012, followed by a Seattle-Westercon-in-Portland in 2013 goes against the whole philosophy of the Westercon zones. It may be legal, according to the rules, but it’s not right. The idea is to go from region to region, not stick within a easy driving distance in consecutive years.
Jim: Would we anticipate a hit on OryCon attendance that year? (Probably not, based on previous Westercons in Portland. But it does have an effect on the con-runners, just like Reno is having now.) Andrew: Just having the event under sponsorship of two organizations isn’t a reasonable idea. There has to be a unified group sponsoring it, a mechanism that is exercising control. We are always having trouble monitoring our events (but this meeting seems to have had more success in monitoring the events than we’ve had for a long time).
Aaron: What I’m hearing is that the Board has some questions that need to be resolved before any decisions can be made. We need to know what the relationship of SWOC to this bid will be, what will a “co-sponsorship” mean. We know what it would mean if it were an OSFCI bid with Gene as the chair. Andrew: in the interests of speeding things up, circulating a more complete proposal to the Board before the next meeting would be a good idea.
B. Other New Business
The GameStorm wireless routers and the purchase of badge printers will be discussed by the Board via e-mail.
The meeting was then adjourned.
Treasurer’s Report 12/14/10
1. Current Status
With one last reimbursement check written and cashed in October, the OryCon 31 books settled down. I can’t quite say closed as I learned last month that one check needs to be reissued to Mel that he did not cash and is now stale. In addition (see below, Issues) it appears OryCon 31 owes its OSFCI fee yet. I don’t view either of these to be insurmountable obstacles, however. Not to usurp the report from the OryCon 31 chair, but the convention was firmly in the black. Thanks to Paul Brinker and Stephen Raymond for helping with this task.
With the OryCon 31 books effectively closed, taxes were filed a full two days before the expiration of our last extension.
A reminder to event and fund treasurers: to assist in doing the 2010 taxes, I would like income/expense statements for your event or fund through 12/31/10 no later than January 31st, 2011. The OSFCI treasurer would like to try doing the taxes in March instead of October and see what that’s like.
Current (as of 12/10/10) account status:
Acct | Balance | Change from 9/20 |
---|---|---|
Orycon Odd | $18743 | (+$1197) |
OSCFI checking | $8083 | (+$2702) |
Endeavour | $2413 | (-$1305) |
GS Even | $3741 | (-$4834) |
Merchant | $17027 | (+$16514) |
GS Odd | $7151 | (+$4501)) |
Orycon Even | $10851 | (+$1026) |
Campbell | $190 | (0) |
OSFCI savings | $19878 | (+$3) |
The Merchant account went huge on us temporarily as we hit a window where credit card receipts for OryCon 32 came in. By the time of the meeting it will already be back down to a little over $500.
I’ve enclosed a proposed budget for 2011. We can discuss this if there is time. If we run out of time, I will send out additional information and solicit questions by email.
2. Issues
- Now that we have closed the OryCon 31 books, we also know that there was a $17,306.68 surplus. However, I don’t see a line item for the OSFCI fee in the final accounting, nor do I see transfers in our banking statements, so I believe OryCon 31 still owes OSFCI $2 per attendee, which would reduce the surplus. Since the accounting did not include attendance numbers, I’d estimate this from verbal reports at $2800-$3000, meaning the actual surplus is in the neighborhood of $15,500.
According to the management agreement I’ve seen, $500 goes to OSFCI, then $500 goes to charitable organizations at management direction, then 50% of the remainder goes to OSFCI while the other 50% goes to charity.
Question for the board: the OryCon 31 management team is technically in violation of their management agreement. Do we wish them to retain the right to designate the charities? If we assume a surplus of $15,500, then the amount to be disbursed (and an equal amount coming back to OSFCI) would be $7,750. If not, then we should try to decide on the charities at this meeting. If so, then I would like them to do so and have the checks written by 12/31/10 at the latest. OryCon 33 would like its checkbook. - At the end of OryCon 31, the chair donated keyboards, monitors, and computers that had been used for the Internet Café to FreeGeek. Some of these had been donated to OryCon, and some had been purchased. In any case, the lack of equipment meant that OryCon 32 could not have an Internet Café.
I would like a clarification from the board on who ‘owns’ items in The storage unit. While we give the chairs broad authority to run the events, and require notable expenses to be approved by the board (e.g., radio handsets, archival boxes, and new games), we seem to have no such requirements upon chairs wishing to release assets. It may be prudent for such restrictions, if any, to be written into future management agreements since, as we learned this year, one chair’s actions can affect the next chair’s options.
3. Old business
- We have not decided upon a course of action to take in the event that books for an event are not closed by the time specified in the management agreement.
- We have not decided upon a “standard” practice for excess monies to write into the management agreements.
- There was talk of creating a fund (or an award?) to send one or two people to Worldcon. Since the details of that were to be presented at this (December) meeting, that does not appear in the proposed budget, and it’s not clear if that is to happen in this fiscal year or next (or both).
Susan Petrey 3rd Quarter 2010 Report
Attached is the Financial Report for the 3rd quarter. Since the end of the quarter, the tour of brew pubs, including donations, raised $700 and egg sales and auctions at OryCon raised approximately $1,600. We are pleased to announce that the 2011 Susan Petrey Fellow at Clarion West will be Charles Stross.
We note the unattributed remark in the last set of minutes – “Have we settled on the status on the money that was turned over to OCF?” OCF calls the Petrey funds the Oregon Science Fiction Conventions Endowment Fund (see OCF 2009 Annual Report, available on their website). General information on Endowment Funds may be found on the OCF website, although it should be noted that the minimum amount to start a new Endowment Fund has been substantially raised since we transferred funds to $25,000. In addition, although typically distributions are made semiannually, we have elected to receive an annual distribution. Specific questions about the Fund should be addressed to us, the Administrators of the Fund. If there are questions that we cannot answer, as the agents registered with OCF we will be happy to contact them for more information.
Debbie Cross
Paul M. Wrigley
Susan C. Petrey Scholarship
Income Statement – 2010 Q3
Balance (6/30/2010) | $4,920.96 |
Income | |
Interest | $1.87 |
Total | $1.87 |
Expenses | |
Scholarships | $0.00 |
Fellowships | $0.00 |
Total | $0.00 |
Balance (9/30/2010) | $4,922.83 |
OCF Balance (9/30/2010) | $45,322.67 |
2010 Recipients
- Cassandra Clarke (Cuerto TX)
- Laura Praytor (Long Beach CA)
- Ian McDonald (Susan C. Petrey Fellow)
2011 Recipients
- Charles Stross (Susan C. Petrey Fellow)
The Clayton Memorial Medical Fund Award
Report to the OSFCI Board
December 14, 2010
Requests for Aid:
We have received no requests for aid.
Funds Available:
The Fund has approximately $7,500 in the bank.
Board of Trustees
Committee Members | First Appointed | Term Expires |
---|---|---|
James Fiscus, Chairman | October 1996 | November 2010 |
Page Fuller, Treasurer | October 1996 | November 2010 |
Arthur Aldridge, OSFCI Rep. | July 2005 | While serving on OSFCI Board. |
Geri Jeter | November 2002 | November 2011 |
Ruth Sachter | November 2002 | November 2011 |
Marc Wells | November 2003 | November 2011 |
Submitted,
James W. Fiscus
Chairman, Clayton Board of Trustees
The Endeavour Award
Report to the OSFCI Board
December 14, 2010
2010 Award Winner
Our for 2010 is Mind Over Ship by David Marusek, a hardcover from Tor Books.
Administrator Needed:
We are still looking for an administrator to run the Award on a daily basis. While we can’t pay an administrator, we can offer them copies of all books that are not finalists for the Award. (And as long as no copies of the finalists have gone walkabout, we should be able to also offer copies of the finalists.)
We are also recruiting additional committee members, as we expect several current members to leave the committee soon.
Financial Report:
We have received no donations since last year, though sale of books to Powell’s brought in $70.00. We have spent $1,668.44 so far during 2010, and do not anticipate additional expenses this year. We had income of $244.55, with a current balance of $2,412.74.
With a high estimated budget for 2011 of $2,000, we should be in alright for next year’s Award, but need to raise money for 2012 and future years.
Endeavour Committee
Committee Members | First Appointed | Term Expires |
---|---|---|
Sarah Bryant | October 2006 | November 2012 |
James Fiscus, Chairman | October 1996 | November 2011 |
Page Fuller | October 1996 | November 2011 |
Marilyn J. Holt | September 2000 | November 2011 |
Sara Mueller | October 2003 | November 2010 |
Alan Rosenthal | January 2006 | November 2012 |
Sheila Simonson | October 1996 | November 2010 |
Shawn Wall, Treasurer | November 2005 | November 2010 |
Submitted,
James W. Fiscus
Chairman, Endeavour Award
Treasury Report Gamestorm 13 (12-14-10)
Area | Amount | Actual as of 12-14-10 |
INCOME | ||
---|---|---|
Artifacts | $1,000.00 | $29.00 |
Hospitality | $1,000.00 | |
Program Book Advertising | $1,000.00 | |
Registration | $23,360.00 | $6,260.00 |
Total Income | $26,360.00 | $6,289.00 |
EXPENSES | ||
Chair | ||
Artifacts | $1,500.00 | $9.84 |
Chair General Fund | $1,500.00 | $95.88 |
GOH (Line item, not department) | $3,900.00 | |
Dealers | $200.00 | |
Game Library (Sub-Department) | $500.00 | |
Hospitality | $4,000.00 | |
Internet (Line item, not dept) | $1,000.00 | $251.97 |
Outreach | $1,500.00 | $45.00 |
Publications | $2,500.00 | |
Registration | $1,200.00 | $199.76 |
Secretary | $0.00 | |
Treasury | $300.00 | $121.86 |
OSFCI (Line item, not department) | $2,000.00 | |
Web Site | $0.00 | |
Events | ||
Board Games | $100.00 | $6.00 |
GameLab (Sub-Department) | $800.00 | |
CCG | $100.00 | |
Console Gaming | $50.00 | |
Events General Fund | $500.00 | |
Indie Hurricane | $50.00 | |
LARP | $100.00 | |
Miniatures | $50.00 | |
Organized Roleplaying Campaigns | $250.00 | |
Panel Programming | $50.00 | |
Roleplaying | $100.00 | |
Operations | ||
GS Bucks | $200.00 | |
Info Desk | $50.00 | |
Logistics | $1,000.00 | |
Operations General Fund | $200.00 | |
Security | $50.00 | |
Signage | $50.00 | |
Volunteers | $0.00 | |
Total Expenses | $26,200.00 | $730.31 |
ASSETS | ||
Checking Balance 12-10-10 | $7,151.01 | |
PayPal Balance 11-30-10 | $1,563.09 | |
Total Assets | $8,714.10 | |
BALANCE SHEET | ||
Rollover from GS 11 | $3,155.41 | |
Plus: Total Income | $6,289.00 | |
$9,444.41 | ||
Minus: Total Expenses | -$730.31 | |
Balance | $8,714.10 |
- I am still waiting for word from the OSFCI treasurer that the GameStorm 12 final Treasurer’s report has been accepted, so that the surplus of $3,741.12 can be rolled over to GameStorm 13. That convention did not fall under the new OSFCI method of handling surpluses.
- With the addition of Jacob Engstrom to join Paul Brinker as an Assistant Treasurer, Treasury is now fully staffed.
- Signing of the management agreement has been postponed, due to issues with the 20% variance clause.
D. Stephen Raymond, GameStorm 13 Treasurer
Registration Report (as of December 14, 2010)
GS 13 | GS 12 | |
Paid | ||
Rollovers from GS 12 | 17 | |
Purchased at previous con | 168 | 77 |
Purchased since previous con | 79 | 40 |
Guest GMs | 48 | |
Total | 312 | |
Comped | ||
ConCom & Staff | 52 | |
Industry Guests | 2 | |
Total Membership to Date | 366 |
ORYCON 33 TREASURY REPORT 12-14-10
D. Stephen Raymond, Treasurer
ORYCON 33 PROPOSED BUDGET
REVENUE | |||
---|---|---|---|
Department | Proposed | Actual as of 12-14-10 | |
Advertising | $1,000.00 | $0.00 | |
Art Show | $2,000.00 | $0.00 | |
Dealers | $3,500.00 | $0.00 | |
Miscellaneous | $500.00 | $0.00 | |
Registration | $44,800.00 | $0.00 | |
Total Revenue | $51,800.00 | $0.00 | |
EXPENSES | |||
Item | Proposed | Actual as of 12-14-10 | |
Chair | |||
Art Show | $2,400.00 | $0.00 | |
Chair/Misc. | $300.00 | $0.00 | |
Contingency | $500.00 | $0.00 | |
Meeting Expense | $200.00 | $0.00 | |
Dealers Room | $1,200.00 | $0.00 | |
Hotel | $10,000.00 | $0.00 | |
Registration | $800.00 | $0.00 | |
Treasury | $1,500.00 | $0.00 | |
Mail Room | $50.00 | $0.00 | |
Credit Card Fees | $500.00 | $0.00 | |
Insurance (@$2.00) | $3,000.00 | $0.00 | |
Total | $20,500.00 | $0.00 | |
Events | |||
Events/Tech/Pipe & Drape | $3,000.00 | $0.00 | |
Masquerade | $500.00 | $0.00 | |
Opening Ceremonies | $150.00 | $0.00 | |
Total | $3,650.00 | $0.00 | |
Member Services | |||
Child Care | $800.00 | $0.00 | |
Teen Lounge | $250.00 | $0.00 | |
Hall Costume Awards | $0.00 | $0.00 | |
Hospitality | $5,000.00 | $0.00 | |
Internet Café | $500.00 | $0.00 | |
T-Shirts | $1,500.00 | $0.00 | |
Total | $8,050.00 | $0.00 | |
Operations | |||
General Logistics/Supplies | $1,200.00 | $0.00 | |
Office/Information Desk | $150.00 | $0.00 | |
Rangers | $100.00 | $0.00 | |
Volunteers | $200.00 | $0.00 | |
Safety Equipment | $0.00 | $0.00 | |
Ribbons/Awards | $400.00 | $0.00 | |
Total | $2,050.00 | $0.00 | |
Programming | |||
Gaming | $175.00 | $0.00 | |
GoH | Per Diem ($225×5) | $1,125.00 | $0.00 |
GoH | Travel Expenses | $4,500.00 | $0.00 |
GoH | Gift Baskets | $250.00 | $0.00 |
General Programming | $800.00 | $0.00 | |
Writer’s Workshop | $75.00 | $0.00 | |
Open Read Critiques | $50.00 | $0.00 | |
Video | $50.00 | $0.00 | |
Panelist Invitations (email only) | $0.00 | $0.00 | |
Panelist Questionnaires (email only) | $0.00 | $0.00 | |
Total | $7,650.00 | $0.00 | |
Publications | |||
Fliers & Publicity/Sponsorships | $800.00 | $0.00 | |
Progress Reports 1 & 2 | $525.00 | $0.00 | |
Regress Report | $525.00 | $0.00 | |
Daily ‘Zine | $100.00 | $0.00 | |
Pocket Programs (1500) | $1,750.00 | $0.00 | |
Souvenir Books (1500) | $6,350.00 | $0.00 | |
Total | $10,050.00 | $0.00 | |
Total Expenses | $51,950.00 | $0.00 |
- The Treasurer will be meeting with the Chair and the OryCon 32 Treasurer to fine tune the budget, once the OryCon 32 Treasurer informs us that he has a handle on the final numbers from OryCon 32. It is planned for this to occur before the first OryCon 33 ConCom meeting in January.
- The Treasurer now has access to the OryCon Odd bank account.
- The present balance in the OryCon Odd bank account is $18,743.11. The OSFCI Treasurer has informed me that this seems a bit high.It may be that little or none of this money will roll forward to OryCons 32 and 33.
- Business-size checks have been ordered to replace the present wallet-size checks.
- The prior proposed budget has been corrected to show $2.00 per attendee paid to OSFCI for insurance, not $0.50 per attendee. The future fine tuning of the budget should allow presentation of a budget that does not show a proposed loss.
Proposal for O.S.F.C.I. Sponsorship
Presented on December 14th, 2010
What: Westercon 66
When: July 4th – 7th, 2013
Where: Red Lion on the River at Jantzen BeachThis is going to be a joint OSFCI and SWOC event. The Bank Accounts and Insurance will be ran through SWOC and OSFCI will get all copies of the books and insurance.Membership Rates:
Since we are a bid the membership rates have not been set.This proposal is for O.S.F.C.I. sponsorship for Westercon 66, to be held July 4th -7th, 2013 at the Red Lion on the River at Jantzen Beach, with whom we already are in contract talks with. Sponsorship will include, but not be limited to, the use of the storage locker.
Committee:
The committee will be based on the structure of other O.S.F.C.I. conventions.- Chair: Gene Armstrong
- Vice Chair: Shyrl Hester & Matt Brooks
- Treasurer: ?
Bid Committee: David Schaber, Devlin Perez, Ilia Whitney, Tracy Penner, Andrew Nesbit, Mark Burns, Alexander James Adams, Tom Roberts, James Stringer, Ari Goldstein, Alex Von Thorn, Sally Whorle, Brenna Sharp, Ed Stiner. Mira
Policies:
Westercon 66 will be a Weaponless convention.
Westercon 66 will have Smoking and Child policies similar to past Orycons.Guests of Honor
(once we come up with some ideas they go here)