Board of Directors Meeting
December 11, 2012
Board Members in attendance: Arthur Aldridge, Beverly Block, Aaron Curtis (OSFCI President), John Lorentz (OSFCI Secretary), Andrew Nisbet, Devlin Perez, D. Stephen Raymond, and Lea Rush. Rick Lindsley and Marc Wells missed the meeting because of family issues, and their absences were excused.
Also attending were Car Bostick (OryCon 35 Treasurer), Jason Bostick (GameStorm 15 Chair), Debbie Cross and Paul Wrigley (Susan Petrey Fund), Jacob Engstrom (GameStorm 16 Treasurer), Sam Justice (OSFCI Attorney), Ruth Sachter, Debra Stansbury and Tracy Penner (OryCon 34 Chair).
The meeting started at 7:30PM ACPT (we’re back to Aaron’s Cell Phone Time).
I. Minutes of Previous Meeting
The minutes from the previous meeting were accepted unanimously.
II. Treasurer’s Report (Rick Lindsley)
Rick could not be at the meeting tonight, but he distributed his report to the Board earlier and copies were passed out at the meeting. (See below.)
Paul asked about the amount reported for OryCon 35 pre-reg income. The amount listed is $1800, and the report from OryCon 35 says it was $4300. It looks like the amount listed here was only the dealer income so far for OryCon 35. Car Bostick (the OryCon 35 treasurer) will work this out with Rick and will make sure the right amount gets transferred over to the OryCon Odd account.
Tracy: Do we know why the insurance went up so much? Aaron will check with our agent to try to get an answer. Jason: Will this affect future payments to OSFCI (for the OSFCI overhead fee, currently $2 a head)? It won’t affect existing events with signed management agreements, but sometime in the future we might have to raise the rate.
The report was accepted (with the correction on the amount of OryCon 35 income).
The board discussed the proposed budget for 2013, that Rick had submitted. Aaron: The $250 we paid in 2011 for mark protection–should that be in this budget? John: Those are paid every other year, so they’ll come due again in 2013. (Those are the assumed name registrations for OryCon, GameStorm, the Susan Petrey Fund, the Endeavour Award and the Clayton Fund.)
After some discussion, the board realized that some of the numbers in “last year” on the proposed budget were from two years ago and the 2013 proposed budget didn’t actually have the 2012 numbers to compare against. Beverly pointed out that we haven’t paid anything for the bulk mail permit (in fact the permit has lapsed), so we should drop that from the budget. It was decided to table discussion of the 2013 budget until the next meeting , when we’ll have the right numbers to work with.
IV. Reports on Sponsored Activities
A. Conventions and Bids
1. OryCon 34 (Tracy Penner)
Rick sent his best estimation for the current OryCon position (we have received no report from Paul Brinker, the OryCon 34 treasurer). It looks like OryCon 34 might barely be in the black by maybe $500. Tracy should have more detail at the next meeting. Stephen: Does being in the black include paying the OSFCI Overhead fee? (Yes)
People are still coming forward with receipts to be reimbursed for. Stephen: Is there a deadline for reimbursement? Tracy: Not yet. Aaron asked about the first page of the spreadsheet that was sent out, where it lists art show income as “-$5000”. Stephen said he asked Rick about that–so far Rick has no detail from Paul (Brinker) on where the income came from, so for the time being it’s all listed as registration income. (Unfortunately, there were a lot of deposits that Paul never broke down by income type.) We should be able to identify art show and dealer income from the records for those departments.
There was some discussion on the security log. Beverly was concerned about the lack of names in the report. Devlin: We don’t always get names–sometimes, it’s more important to just deal with the situation. Beverly: The reason that OSFCI requested names be included was so that we could identify people who have caused problems at multiple conventions. Devlin: One thing not in the log was the Occupy demonstration in the park next to the hotel. It didn’t affect OryCon, but Devlin was pulled aside Friday night to be briefed on the backup plans if the demonstration escalated. (It went very peacefully.) The one incident of note was the injury at the storage unit as material was being returned Sunday night. Andrew asked about the report of the uncooperative volunteer at the art show. It would be good to have her name so that other departments could be warned about this person. Devlin knows her by sight, and will try to get her name if she’s at OryCon next year.
Paul asked about the reference to a multi-tool in the report. If people can’t carry Swiss Army knives at an OSFCI gathering, several people would have leave this meeting. Devlin said he didn’t know about this incident until he read the report. As he understands the OSFCI policy, tools are tools (not weapons). He’ll talk to the security person involved.
John asked about a panel which people reportedly threatened to sue OSFCI about. It was then canceled, and people again reportedly threatened to sue OSFCI over it. Tracy: There was a panel on The Diagnostics of Autism, and prior to the convention there was an e-mail conversation with someone asking if there was going to be a person with autism on this panel. The exchanges escalated, and then this person took bits of the e-mails and put them online. This caused the issue to spread and suddenly OryCon was inundated by people questioning its actions. After Tracy had a conversation with an autism advocate, the panel left a bad taste in her mouth and she told programming to cancel it. Tracy feels that programming, and the original panelists involved, decided to secretly go ahead with the panel. Lea said she’s spoken with Rick and Ann (who were running programming) and both have said they did not encourage the panelists to hold the panel anyway. She said Rick had told her that he’d discovered the panel in progress and didn’t tell them to stop (feeling that it wasn’t right to prevent a group of people voluntarily getting together to talk in a space that wasn’t being used for a scheduled event).
Tracy said she’s had e-mail from some of the previous critics of the panel, who discovered that it took place anyway and now is accusing Tracy of lying to them. Aaron: Is it true that the room, after the cancellation, had nothing scheduled in it? Andrew: The panel was canceled after the pocket program was printed, so it still listed the panel (although the daily newsletter had the cancellation notice). Also, even if these people had taken their discussion to the bar, based on his reading of the web sites of people who’d been upset about the panel, those same people would have still been upset with OryCon for allowing the discussion to happen at all. Since these web sites seem to consist of two people, neither of whom are in this state, he (Andrew) doesn’t understand why we’re concerned about them. Lea has traded e-mail with some of the local advocates, and they have decided to work with OryCon rather than hurling brickbats from afar. Aaron: So from the perspective of OSFCI, it sounds like this issue has spent itself.
Stephen: Is the 1312 membership count for OryCon 34 include the people who did not attend? Yes, the number of bodies actually at the convention was 1261.
This started a discussion on what number should be used for determining the OSFCI overhead fee for the event. OryCon traditionally has counted all paying members, as well as the comped program participants who actually participated at the convention, as its “attendance” and that was what was assumed when the fee was first implemented. But GameStorm has always only counted the paid people who were at the convention, not all paying members. This will need to be discussed later, so that we arrive at a consistent number to use.
The OryCon 34 report was then accepted.
2. GameStorm 15 (Jason Bostick)
(Registration and financial reports were circulated at the meeting.)
The reg person is still getting up to speed. Right now, the total paid registration is 364, with total membership at 502-still above last year’s at this point. (Just 100 short of the total pre-con count for last year.) The dealer room is about half full, and will easily sell out. Flyers and banners should be completed by Thursday, so that they can go out into circulation. The Guests of Honor have been confirmed now. The convention has more than $9,000 in assets, and only about $700 in expenses so far.
A game day is scheduled for January 5th, which will be the last one before the convention. Pre-reg for games has not gone live yet, due to multiple factors. It will be operational by Christmas, either by using the old system or the new system if it’s ready.
The report was accepted.
3. OryCon 35 (Lea Rush)
(Reports were circulated.)
They currently have 194 members, 148 from OryCon 34 and 46 who have joined since then. Last year, there were 218 by January 31st, and memberships are on track to beat that mark. The current $25 rate is good until the end of the year.
Jason Bostick will be heading publicity. OryCon will be throwing a room party at Radcon, and has already arranged for a program book ad swap with them. (Lea is also trying to get one in place for Norwescon.)
There are a few holes in the committee list, that she is working on filling. She is collecting information for a regress report. Lea: Since we’ve dropped our bulk-mailing permit, should I be sending out physical regress reports, or should they go out by e-mail? John: We’d talked a few meetings ago about sending out a mailing to everyone (or at least every household) that’s been at an OryCon over last few years. Even if we do send out a regress report, I’d suggest just one per household. Who would pay for it? Traditionally, it’s the first publicity for the new convention (OryCon 35, in this case) so it’s paid for by the new convention.
Lea also asked about the people who paid to attend OryCon 34 but didn’t attend. What do we do for them. And do we allow rollovers? Aaron: Traditionally, we send them the program book for the convention (and possibly the pocket program). How many people have asked for rollovers? (Sixteen.)
Treasury report (Car Bostick): We have money. Don’t have a budget yet, but so far we have about $7,000. There’s been a grand total of $122.50 in expenses so far.
The report was accepted by the board.
4. GameStorm 16 (Aaron Curtis)
Nothing much will happen until Aaron isn’t OSFCI president anymore (which will happen at the Annual Meeting in February). Right now, all his energy has been going towards OryCon. But he will have a GS 16 Guest of Honor before GameStorm 15.
The official report was that GameStorm 16 hasn’t taken in any money and has had no expenses, and no one has been registered yet. This report was accepted by the board.
Stephen pointed out that the registrar and treasurer for each of the OSFCI events are required to make reports to each board meeting of the status of the event, but many times the treasurer and registration people aren’t on the Board mailing list. So it’s the responsibility of the chair of that event (who is on the mailing list) to remind the event’s staff to prepare the reports.
The report was accepted by the board.
5. The 2014 World Horror Convention Bid
Tammy’s e-mailed report was “Alas, no I haven’t heard anything about WHC yet. Sorry, but trust me when I say you’ll be among the first to know.”
This report was accepted.
B. Funds and Awards
1. Clayton Memorial Medical Fund (James Fiscus)
2. Endeavour Award (James Fiscus)
(Jim was unable to attend. He submitted reports which are attached below.)
John and Ruth delivered Kris Rusch’s Endeavour Award to her in person a couple of weeks ago.
Jim has asked the board to confirm Helen Umberger’s appointment to the Endeavour Board, and as administrator of the award. The Board unanimously confirmed both appointments.
The board accepted the reports.
3. Susan Petrey Fund (Paul Wrigley and Debbie Cross)
The Q3 report went out attached to the minutes from the previous meeting, and Q4 isn’t over yet. They raised about $1600 at OryCon from egg sales, auctioned material and donations at the fan lounge, and they’d like to thank Patty and Lillie Wells for running the egg prizes at OryCon.
Samuel R. Delany will be the 2013 Susan Petrey Fellow at Clarion West.
The Board accepted their report.
4. John Andrews Worldcon Grant (Beverly Block)
No applications have been received yet for LoneStarCon 3 (in 2013). Jenn did have a very nice time in Chicago this year, and came back with some ideas she wants to try.
Paul suggested including a note about the grant in the OryCon regress report. Andrew suggested, since the goal for this was to get promising people more involved in fandom, asking con chairs or department heads for suggestions, rather than just waiting for people to contact us.
The report was accepted.
IV. Other Continuing Business
A. New Code of Conduct
Andrew was worried that the new policy was too vague to be useful. Sam said that we needed a general rule that’s fairly clear that will apply in most situations, and a caveat or addendum stating that the committee reserve the right to exclude people for what is considered unacceptable behavior. He also urged events to find out what the hotel will be required and include that in their plans.
This code has no effect on any weapons policy, since weapons policies are event-based, not corporate policy.
Sam suggested we add a note to the code that “Procedures for enforcement of this code are available upon request.” While the statements in the code are pretty vague, it doesn’t bother him much as long as the policy for enforcement are very clear. The procedures don’t have to be printed out and handed to every attendee, but the code of conduct needs to indicate that there are procedures for enforcing this and those procedures are available upon request, or on the web site.
Debbie moved that the enforcement procedures be added to the OSFCI web site and a line be added to the code, stating the that the enforcement procedures are available online and give the link. Andrew seconded the motion and the board approved this change.
This finalizes the new code of conduct (and enforcement procedures).
B. Storage Manager Report
Not too much to report at this time, other than the accident that was mentioned earlier that took place as items were being returned from OryCon.
Devlin passed on a report from Jenn, regarding the condition of the hospitality items. The refrigerators were dirty when they were picked up for OryCon, and some of the items were missing or broken.
Aaron: We have two issues here–we have items that are basically wearing out and need to be replaced; and we’re having problems with closing out conventions (making sure that items are cleaned and stored properly). Devlin said that it occurred to him that we don’t have anything in our management agreements that equipment needs to be returned in the same condition as it left the storage unit, and that any damage should be noted. Without that, the storage manager (Devlin) doesn’t know there’s anything wrong with the equipment. Should this be added to the management agreements? Probably so.
Beverly: If we had an inventory of what we have, it would make it easier to know something’s gone missing. Devlin agrees, and is working on this. He has a very good inventory of the hospitality equipment now.
A copy of this report from OryCon 34 hospitality has already been passed on the person running GameStorm 15 hospitality. Jason (GameStorm 15 chair) is working on some procedures to make sure the equipment is returned properly. Andrew: In times past, we’ve had work sessions where a group volunteers takes everything out of the storage unit, and writes down what we have as it’s put back in place. Devlin: The problem is that there’s not a lot of space on the third floor (by the large unit). With the lower levels, Devlin can inventory them himself in about five seconds. (They’re smaller units, filled mostly with large items such as art show panels.)
In her report, Jenn said that she still has money left from the OryCon hospitality budget, and she can replace the lost/damaged items and still be under budget. Beverly suggested that this more properly is an OSFCI capital expense, rather than coming out of the budget for OryCon 34. It was decided that, since Jenn has the money in hand now, she’ll go ahead with the purchases, and OSFCI will reimburse OryCon for the cost.
The report was accepted.
C. Hotel Committee
Tammy sent on a proposed addendum to the 2013 OryCon contract (she’s already discussed this with the OryCon 35 management). This would lower our room block for next year (since we fell so far short of filling our block in 2012–which cost OryCon more than $5,000 in attrition costs this year). The new block would be a total of 700 room nights, instead of the previous 770. It would also raise the cost of the weekend parking pass to $18 (which is their normal rate for a single day), while lowering the parking rate for overnight guests to $3 a day. The new block would still be above what we actually rented this year (but only slightly). So the pressure would still be on to attract more people to rent rooms at the convention. The room rates would not change.
There was discussion on some of the problems from this year, such as an online special room rate that undercut our rate. They also rented out the Portland room to another group, and that was supposed to be ours by contract.
There were questions on whether the room list was compared against the OryCon membership, in order to make sure that we got credit for all the rooms taken by OryCon attendees. Tracy felt that the Hotel people were taking OryCon for granted and they wanted to push back on a few things. Sam was asked if signing the addendum for next year had any bearing on what we might do about recovering costs from this year. Probably not much. And the contract specifies binding arbitration, so we wouldn’t be able to collect attorney fees. We should be able to request a housing list to compare it against our membership list.
Aaron proposed that we asked our committee to pursue this. Debbie moved that we approve the addendum and get that out of the way. The board voted to approve this motion with 7 in favor. Paul moved that the hotel committee investigate the problems with OryCon 34. Arthur seconded this motion and it was approved unanimously.
Following the meeting, this report was received from Tammy Lindsley:
Let me address some of the issues that have been raised regarding our relationship with the hotel. First of all, they are *very* happy to be working with us. I’m not exactly sure what prompted Tracy to feel otherwise but everything I’ve been getting from my contact with management is they look forward to our event and want to continue to partner with us in getting better each year.
The issue of the Portland room this year was unfortunate, but since the space wasn’t in the original contract, they sold it to a different group. We were able to make do during the con and one of the items in the addendum was making sure it was listed as part of our space moving forward.
As for the room nights/room prices issue… When I first spoke to Monica about finding room rates listed on the hotel website, not a third part site, that were below what our contracted rate was she seemed very upset and apologized. She told me that she would find out what was happening and get back to me. Monica called me less than an hour later to say that the website had been updated and she had an explanation. It seems the hotel finance manager was getting anxious because they were having problems filling the hotel during our weekend and decided to lower the room rate to drum up business without realizing that would be a breach of contract. Once Monica brought up that fact, they immediately fixed the website and ran a report to see how many room nights had been purchased at the discounted rate. Turns out it was only four room nights from our group. They apologized again and I know both Monica and Michael will be very much aware of this issue from now on.
There was some reparation from the hotel for this lapse. Our room block was sitting at about 76% the week before the con and Monica said they would waive the fees associated with not making the 80% of our block. The reason we had to buy room nights at all was because between the Thursday the week before con and the Tuesday before con, we lost 30 room nights from people canceling their reservations. So what was agreed at the pre-con meeting between Monica, Michael, Tracy, Lea and I was that since the hotel was already going to accept 76% of our room block, the con would make up for the room nights we lost over the weekend. While I don’t know why we lost so many rooms right before the con, my guess would be people took one last look at their budgets and decided they couldn’t afford it.
I did provide a compiled list as names only from reg, programming and dealers to the hotel so they could run a report against their reservation system to make sure we received credit for room nights from our members. They did find some additional nights with this report, but I believe it was less than 10 nights.
Since the board has approved the addendum, Monica will create a similar addendum for 2014 and will incorporate those updates for the contract for 2015. As soon as I have the 2014 update and the 2015 contract, I’ll send them out for review.
D. IT Committee
There is nothing to report right now about DreamHost.
Beverly: GameCon is moving along, but definitely will not be ready for GameStorm 15. She knows that Dave is working at moving the web site to the new server, but has no idea what is happening with Matt & JD on moving the scheduling system to the new server–she has not been able to get a response from them. Theoretically, it should be pretty easy to move the system to the new VPS system. Jason: Scheduling will be turned on–either on the old system or the new system–no later than Christmas. It’s already running late. Stephen: It certainly would run better on the new system.
The report was accepted.
E. Proposed Capital Purchases
We had a request for three items to be purchased:
- Car Bostick proposed a purchase of a portable scanner, so that the OryCon treasurer (which for OryCon 35 is her) could take it to the committee meetings and scan receipts, so that she would have a record of any receipts turned in for payment. It would cost no more than $100. Andrew: How long would the scanner last? Probably several years. This request was approved by a 6-1 vote.
- Jason Bostick that we purchase a large, stand-alone banner (with OSFCI, OryCon and GameStorm logos) that we can use for publicity at events. The cost would be $150 to $200. (It probably would also have something about the Clayton, Endeavour and Petrey funds.) This would be a permanent banner, that would be used year to year. This proposal was approved by a 5-0 vote.
- Jason also suggested that OSFCI sign up for a professional Hootsuite account in order to manage social media for our events. It would cost approximately $10 a month, and would allow multiple people to use it, for multiple events. Is there a discount if you pay annually. That’s unknown. Aaron: Are there other companies that provide the same service? Jason: There are other that cost about the same amount of money, but Hootsuite has been recommended over those (all of the big gaming companies use it). After some discussion, Paul suggested we table this until the next meeting, allowing people to go look at their website and get a better idea of what they offer. The rest of the board agreed with this, and this proposal will be discussed at our next meeting.
F. Long Term GOH Search Committee (Ruth Sachter)
Nothing has been done yet, because of this OryCon thing and Thanksgiving. Lea, Debra and Arthur are interested in being on the committee–there may well be others. The intention is to have the first get-together in January, and there may be online discussion before then. Do we want to make an announcement on the general lists to bring in anyone who’s interested? Ruth: I think we want to limit it to people who have chaired events in the past (or are on the board).
G. Other Continuing Business
Debbie announced that at OryCon, Marc Wells was presented with an OSFCI lifetime achievement award. (Two engraved tumblers and a bottle of good single-malt Scotch.) Debbie suggested that we get a list together and post it on the web site of all people who have received similar awards.
Stephen announced that he is now training the OryCon 35 and GameStorm 16 treasurers in our procedures.
Andrew reminded the board that Sam should be paid his annual fee at the next meeting.
V. New Business
OryCon 36
Devlin is interested in chairing OryCon 36. How long in advance should he announce that he will be presenting a bid? (One or two meetings?) It’s never been set in stone–sometimes people announce early, sometimes they wait until later. In any case, Devlin will be presenting a bid at the April board meeting, and we should announce that ahead of time in case someone else is interested in bidding.
GameStorm 17
Debra will be presenting a bid to chair GameStorm 17 at the (regular) board meeting in late February.
Andrew reminded both Debra and Devlin that the most usual reason for bouncing a bid (tabling it until the following meeting) is that the bid is not complete-it doesn’t have a budget, a treasurer, a statement of policies, etc.
The next meeting is the Annual General Meeting on Monday, February 4, at 7:30PM at the Doubletree hotel.
The meeting adjourned at 9:44PM ACPT.
Oregon Science Fiction Conventions, Inc. (OSFCI)
Code of Conduct
(as modified on December 11, 2012)
Be respectful of and courteous towards others. If you have graduated from kindergarten, we expect you to understand that you need to ask before you touch and that “no” means “no”. If someone tells you “no” or “go away”, your business with them is done.
Violation of this policy can result in action by the con committee ranging from warnings to having your badge revoked with no refund, and the decision of the event chair is final. Action by the convention in no way precludes the injured individual or the hotel from pursuing whatever remedies, civil or criminal, they see fit.
After the event, OSFCI may take further action, including banning you from further events.
Please note that other behaviors, including but not limited to destruction of hotel property, can also result in the actions described above.
A copy of the procedures for enforcement of this code are available on the OSFCI web site at https://osfci.org/code.html.
EVENTS
- The events shall draft written policies listing who is designated as having the power to revoke event memberships, and the event chair shall forward a copy of this to the Board prior to the event. (These people may be designated by name or by staff position.)
- The event security of any OSFCI event shall note any warnings given in the written security logs for the event.
- Except in the case of extraordinary situations, anyone who has their event membership revoked shall have their membership fee immediately refunded.
- The event chair is the final authority on any actions, including membership revocations, during the event. (The OSCFI Board is only involved with any further actions taken after the close of the event.)
OSFCI BOARD OF DIRECTORS
- Copies of the written security logs from the event shall be forwarded to the OSFCI secretary within two weeks of the end of the event or prior to the next scheduled meeting of the OSFCI Board of Directors (whichever comes first). The secretary will forward copies to corporate counsel.
- The OSFCI Board shall be informed of any membership revocations as soon as possible after the close of the event.
- The Board shall review any membership revocations and the event security logs at the next regularly scheduled Board meeting following the event.
- The Board may take further action-up to and including a permanent ban from all future OSFCI events. All such actions will be decided by a simple majority vote of the full Board.
- If the Board does vote to exclude someone from further events, the minimum length of that ban is one year, dating from the time of the Board decision.
- Anyone who is banned from further events shall be informed of this ban in writing, and be given to opportunity to appeal the ban at a following, regularly-scheduled Board meeting.
- Board reviews and ban appeals may be heard in closed session, upon request of either the Board or the person being heard.
- Actions by the hotel or its staff, including ejecting someone or permanently banning them from their property, are not appealable to the OSFCI Board.
- Anyone who owes money to OSFCI, or one of its events or activities, may not attend any other OSFCI event until this debt is satisfied. This includes (for example) debts to the Susan Petrey charity auction or an OryCon art show, but does not include private debts to dealers at an event.
OSFCI Treasurer’s Report 12/10/12
1. Current Status
OryCon 34 happened. Lots of activity 🙂
The O34 treasurer (Paul Brinker) was able to return from his new job in Texas to be physically present for the con and perform the usual at-con treasurer duties. Not to take away from the O34 report, but in talking with both him and Tracy, the chair, we seem to be about 85%-90% done with resolving the books. I have physically taken custody of the O34 checkbook again, and in fact wrote the hotel check this weekend rather than having Paul use Bill Pay. (That $20k expenditure is not included in the totals below since it occurred after 12/7.)
Insurance was paid in November, but went up about 25%. Don’t know why, and don’t know how to find out why.
Pre-reg for O35 was about $1800, and has been moved into the OryCon Odd account. The new treasurer and new chair both have signature authority on that account now.
No capital expenses yet. I reiterate that in light of the proposed capital expenditures before the board – we’ve not used any of our capital budget. That’s not a reason to “use it or lose it” of course, but I did want to make that clear.
A proposed 2013 budget is also included. It has notable increases for insurance and storage. Storage, in particular, has gone from zero to over $4,000 in two years. However, the convention surpluses also continue to rise (this last year primarily GameStorm) so income is rising to meet this new need. Even so, the proposed budget falls short of breaking even by about $500. This anomaly could easily be addressed by adjusting the expected surplus projection. The surplus projection, as in the past, is calculated as an average of the surpluses actually experienced over the last three years, but the trend has been rising.
I am unable to attend this meeting, but will be available by cell phone after 8:30 if needed.
The Petrey Fund and the Clayton Fund are in different funds and their totals are not included below. All other OSFCI accounts are below.
Current (as of 12/7/12) account status:
Acct | Balance | Change from 10/6 report |
---|---|---|
Orycon Odd | $2785 | (+$1785) |
OSCFI checking | $22392 | (-$2292) |
Endeavour | $4080 | (-$1100) |
GS Even | $1000 | ($0) |
Merchant | $568 | ($0) |
GS Odd | $7808 | (+$31) |
Orycon Even | $27994 | (+$18450) |
OSFCI savings | $19699 | (+$0) |
2. Old Business
Will be purchasing a membership in the 2014 Worldcon in London for the 2013 John Andrews Award.
3. New Business
None
The Clayton Memorial Medical Fund Award
Report to the OSFCI Board
December 11, 2012
Requests for Aid:
We have had no requests for aid since our October report. We have heard, informally, of a Northwest writer who may need assistance, and are looking into eligibility issues. From the writer’s public comments, however, it appears that she may not need aid.
Account Balance and Fund Raising:
We have just over $5,000.00 in the bank after the donation and grant, and hope to start fundraising soon
Board of Trustees
Committee Members | First Appointed | Term Expires |
---|---|---|
James Fiscus, Chairman | October 1996 | November 2014 |
Page Fuller, Treasurer | October 1996 | November 2014 |
Arthur Aldridge, OSFCI Rep. | July 2005 | 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
December 11, 2012
Winner:
The 2012 Endeavour Award was won by Kristine Kathryn Rusch for City of Ruins.
Books Received:
Another 14 books have been entered since October, bringing us up to 32 books.
New Committee Member and Administrator:
The Committee has voted to add Helen Umberger to the Committee, and I ask the Board to ratify that appointment. So moved.
Helen has also agreed to become Administrator of the Award. In that position, Helen will be responsible for the preliminary judging and the distribution of books to our readers. I will continue managing relations with publishers, publicity, and the other work of the Award.
Financial Report:
We raised $164.00 at Orycon and spent approximately $155.00 for the reception, which is our normal pattern of raising enough at the convention to pay for the reception.
After giving grants totaling $1,125.00 to our winner and an out-of-town finalist who was able to attend Orycon, we have $4,079.73 in our account.
Endeavour Committee
Committee Members | First Appointed | Term Expires |
---|---|---|
James Fiscus, Chairman | October 1996 | November 2014 |
Page Fuller | October 1996 | November 2014 |
Marilyn J. Holt | September 2000 | November 2014 |
Sara Mueller | October 2003 | November 2013 |
Sheila Simonson | October 1996 | November 2013 |
Shawn Wall, Treasurer | November 2005 | November 2013 |
Helen Umberger | November 2012 | November 2015 |
Submitted,
James W. Fiscus
Chairman, Endeavour Award
Orycon Security Logs and Incident Reports
Friday November 2, 2012 10:03 pm
Second floor outside gaming. Four children were observed in the halls unattended. Samuel returned the two boys (ages 11 and 12) to their guardian who was in their hotel room and reminded of the unattended children policy of after 8 pm. Diana returned the two female children to their guardians in gaming and advised that due to age were required to be under adult supervision.
Friday 10:45 pm
Con member came into operations asking if we had a nurse on staff. She presented with symptoms of chills, fever, and pain in the lower right side. Advised that we do not have medical personal. Was driven to the hospital by Pam Wilson Sage. Diana
Saturday November 3, 2012 4:45 am
Requested Pirate party to turn down music from room party. Was able to be heard 2 floors down. They complied and closed down for the night. Diana
Saturday 12:01 pm
Two individuals were spotted with a plastic toy knife. They were informed of the weaponless con policy. Knife was placed out of sight in a bag and returned to their room. Sam
Saturday
A member of watch was approached with a concern about the lights at the Star Trek Fan table. A con member was concerned that the lights could induce an epileptic fit. Watch brought the topic to the mentioned table; they declined the request to turn the lights off. The matter was then brought to the head of fan tables and a call was made after a minor incident regarding functionality of the lights and a compromise was put into place by order of the chair by head of fan tables under supervision of watch. Sam
Around 1:00 pm on Saturday, I heard a call over the radio asking if light-sabers were allowed in the lobby or if they violated the rules regarding weapons and semblances thereof. I looked around and saw the gentleman in question. I approached him and asked if I could talk to him for a moment. I asked him if he had approval to carry the light-saber. He said he did and that a lady named “Amy” (he thought) had given him permission as the event coordinator. I asked him to walk over to his booth so we could verify with one of the people working there who exactly had given him permission to carry his light-saber. While I was discussing this with him and the lead lady at his booth, they were getting frustrated that there was a misunderstanding. I happened to see that “Pooh” (Shyrl Hester), the Vice-Chair for the event, had come close and was discussing the situation with other watch members, so I called her over. She then explained to the people running the booth that it was hotel and event policy that no weapons were allowed to be displayed unless they were specifically for a contest, panel, or some other event, and that they were then to be returned to the owner’s vehicle or room as stated in the rule book. Shyrl then apologized for the miscommunication and promised that she would speak with the lady who had allegedly given permission for carrying the light-sabers. Rick
Saturday 1:13 pm
Mask spotted in lobby, requested removal and got compliance. Sam
1:30 pm
Laser gun removed from lobby to room upon request. Sam
Saturday
Uncooperative volunteer at art show warranted watch to relieve bag check duties. Volunteer was spoken to privately, issue resolved. Sam
Saturday
911 call was made in the hotel, four officers responded. The call was not con related, no impact on function.
Around 7:00 pm Saturday night I was riding the elevator to the lobby of the hotel when a gentleman got on with his friend. An older gentleman (who was with one of the people running the event) asked him if that was a knife in his pocket. The elevator was quite crowded and a lot of people immediately got involved in the conversation over whether a pocket knife was allowed to be carried because of the weapons rules of the event. We were passing the gentleman’s room floor so I asked him if he would step off with me so I could get him away from the bombardment of so many people and their individual opinions. He kindly obliged and when the elevator left I explained him the rules of the event regarding weapons. I told him that I wasn’t 100% sure on the rule regarding a common folding pocket knife, but that I would be happy to check if that would make him more comfortable. After showing his frustration briefly, he asked me if he should also take off his Leatherman tool. I told him that I didn’t think it would be a problem, but since we were already at his room, it might be a good idea simply to avoid any further hassle or confusion from people who weren’t solid on the rule. He left both his leatherman and pocket knife in his hotel, thanked me for taking the time to talk to him privately instead of making a scene, and left to enjoy the rest of the event. Rick
Sunday 1:30 am
Responded to complaint regarding trumpet playing on the balcony of the 15th floor at a party. Upon locating the trumpeter he had already been asked to stop and was complying. No further complaints.
Around 12:45 pm Sunday, I was working bag check for the Art Show when two gentlemen came in with no badges. I was taking someone’s bags and missed them when they walked into the Dealer’s room. Tom Roberts came to me and let me know that they were walking around without badges. When they came back by me to go into the Art Show I approached them and asked if they had badges. They told me they didn’t and asked if they had to have badges in order to go through the rest of the event. I directed them to Registration in the main hotel and Sherri Castle walked with them to show them where to go. She came back to me later and told me that when she walked outside with them, they quickly walked away and were no longer interested in coming to the event. Rick
Sunday November 4 approx 6:30 pm
Load out. Helping with movement of con items into storage units. I was closing the outer door of the elevator with my right hand, forgetting that the bottom came up to meet the top in the middle. Slammed my right hand in between the two doors. Removed hand and continued on to finish moving items into and out of the elevator until we were finished. Temporarily taped fingers to prevent bleeding and extra movement. Upon return to the hotel preformed some minor triage with the help of Colleen Kost and Jenn Perez. Refused further medical attention for that night. Followed up the following day with my normal physician. X-rays showed two fractures on the middle finger. Covered by my insurance. Diana Cerasin.