Board of Directors Meeting
Doubletree Portland Hotel
February 4, 2013
ATTENDING: Several people stayed over from the Annual General Meeting, including all of the Board members: Beverly Block, Car Bostick, Jason Bostick, .Aaron Curtis, Rick Lindsley, John Lorentz, Devlin Perez, D. Stephen Raymond, Lea Rush and Debra Stansbury; Debbie Cross & Paul Wrigley (Susan Petrey administrators); Sam Justice (OSFCI attorney); Ruth Sachter.
The meeting was called to order at 8:29, Aaron SniT (Shiny New iPad Time).
I. Minutes of Previous Meeting
The minutes from the board meeting were accepted unanimously.
II. Election of OSFCI Officers
As Aaron has been appointed the chair of GameStorm 16, he will not be running for re-election as OSFCI President (he cannot hold both positions).
The following people were nominated:
- President: Beverly Block
- Secretary: John Lorentz
- Treasurer Rick Lindsley
Devlin raised a question: Can Beverly serve as President which she is under contract with OSFCI to write software for GameStorm? Paul spoke to that, since he wrote the bylaw governing multiple offices. The bylaws says that no OSFCI officer can hold a similar position on an OSFCI-affiliated event. Since this software project is not an event, there is no conflict. Debra: And she has already abstained from any votes concerning the contract while she’s been a board member. Aaron: And the contract’s already been signed. The Board determines if the contract is complete and the rest of the money should be paid, not the President. Beverly: It would be different matter if the contract hadn’t been signed yet. John: We already discussed any conflict of interest by having Beverly on the Board.
There being no other nominees, these people were re-elected by acclamation.
(At this point, Aaron tried to turn over the meeting to Beverly, but it was pointed out that by tradition the current officers continue through the end of this meeting. So he still had to run the meeting.)
III. Continuing Business
A. OSFCI 2013 Budget (Rick Lindsley)
Rick distributed a proposed budget (corrected since a draft was circulated at the December meeting). (See below.) The key items to note: storage has gone up considerably, since we now have to paid for it (storage used to be free, and now is $4500 annually); the insurance went up this last year from $1600 to $2200; and “convention surplus” (under income) has changed. For the latter, Rick has been taking the last three years’ of surpluses and averaged them. The proposed budget also takes into consideration that we will not receive the OSFCI per member overhead fee from last year (since that convention had a large deficit).
This proposed budget would have us running slightly in the red (by $500 or $600). In the past, though, the convention surplus has been more than we’d expected and it could well again this year. (The belief is that OryCon 34’s deficit was a fluke, based on past history.)
Rick: Is there anything else that we are planning on funding that’s not listed here? It’s still easy to adjust things right now, since we haven’t had any major expenses yet this year. Paul: Can you tell us about the Miscellaneous Expenses ($800)? Rick: It’s usually been small things that we haven’t budgeted for, on the order of $50 here, $75 there.
Debbie requested that at some point we reinstate the matching gift program (which is still listed on the OSFCI web page, even though it hasn’t been funded for many years), and that we discuss this at a future meeting. This was a program where OSFCI would allocate money to match gifts made by OSFCI to selected charities and programs, such as groups promoting literacy, public schools and libraries, Oregon Public Broadcasting, OMSI, etc. OSFCI would match up to $100 of a member’s gift.
Debbie also suggested a “Donate To Our Charities” button on the OSFCI web page, a PayPal button where someone could make a donation to one of these groups that OSFCI would match.
John: We know we will pay the $250 allocated for Mark Protection this year, because those business registrations are due in 2013 (they’re paid every other year).
Ruth: At one point, we were going to talk to the storage people to see about a possible discount on the storage in exchange for acknowledgments in our publications. Rick: The amount listed here does include a price break of listing them.
Paul moved that we accept the budget, Devlin seconded the motion and the budget was unanimously approved by the board.
B. Hootsuite Account
Jason proposed that we start using a corporate Hootsuite account right away, so that it can be used for GameStorm. After some discussion about the growing effectiveness of social media, and a question about the cost ($9.95 a month), the board approved opening a Hootsuite account. Jason will be the account coordinator for OSFCI.
IV. New Business
A. Review of Standing Rules (John Lorentz)
The OSFCI board adopted a set of Standing Meeting Rules back in 1995 (which were circulated on the back of the Board meeting agenda), and John suggested that we review them in order to determine what changes we might want to make. Devlin moved that we form a committee to discuss this. His motion was seconded and approved by the board. The committee shall consist of: John Lorentz (chair), Devlin Perez, D. Stephen Raymond and Debra Stansbury.
B. Request of Equipment Loan by Mind’s Eye Society (Andrew Montgomery)
The Mind’s Eye Society (formerly known as the Camarilla) wishes to borrow registration equipment and art show panels (and possibly other equipment) for the northwest regional convention, which is being held at the Lloyd Center Doubletree on April 18-21.
This is a new organization that’s taken over what was the Camarilla. It’s a registered non-profit group. Aaron: We have had a history of loaning our equipment to other groups, including Kumoricon, Buckman School and Renovation. The one thing we don’t want to do is load equipment to a for-profit entity. John: Will there be any timing problems with GameStorm? Devlin: No, it should work out fine. Devlin also volunteered to be the liaison between the groups, and pointed out that they have put in a lot of hours as volunteers at OSFCI events.
Beverly: We talked at one point about having a written agreement with anyone who borrowed our equipment, to make sure that anything damaged or lost is replaced. Sam: This is a good reason to make sure any borrower has insurance, since they might have the money to replace the equipment. Their insurance needs to cover replacement to OSFCI of any equipment.
After some discussion, including the idea that it would be more helpful to OSFCI to trade the use of the equipment for a free ad in their program book than to be paid money for the use (and to have to deal with the problems of non-related business income), Paul moved that OSFCI accept the proposal in principle, and have the new OSFCI president chair a small committee to draft a written proposal (that includes a detailed list of what is being borrowed) to present to the board at the late February meeting.
This motion was approved unanimously.
C. Contribution to the Jay Lake Fund
Jay Lake is very ill from cancer. There is an effort to perform genome sequencing on his tumors to try to come up with more tightly directed treatment for Jay. There’s current a fund-raising effort to help cover the cost of this, with many people in the science fiction world chipping in. Lea proposed that OSFCI contribute $500 to this effort. This motion passed unanimously.
D. Other New Business
Paul: Who are the OSFCI liaisons to the events (under the new president? OryCon 35: Rick Lindsley; GameStorm 15: Lea Rush; World Horror Convention: Devlin Perez; GameStorm 16: Jason Bostick.
The management contract for GameStorm 16 was signed after the close of this meeting.
VI. The Date of the Next Board Meeting
It was decided that the next Board meeting would be Monday, February 25th, at 7:30PM here at the Doubletree.
VI. Adjournment
The meeting was then adjourned.
2013 OSFCI Budget
Operating Expenses | 2013 Budget | 2012 Actual |
---|---|---|
Insurance | $2,200 | $2,156 |
Storage | $4,500 | $4,253 |
Corporate Registration | $125 | $50 |
Legal Expenses | $300 | $300 |
Mark Protection (Paid biannually) |
$250 | $0 |
Bank Fees | $25 | $24 |
Oregon CT-12 Fee (taxes) | $100 | $54 |
PO Box Rent | $250 | $230 |
Other Postage | $75 | $0 |
Printing/Secretarial Expenses | $100 | $110 |
Meeting Space | $800 | $732 |
Web Site Expenses | $10 | $0 |
John Andrew Award | $700 | $500 |
Miscellaneous Expenses | $800 | $4,213 |
Games Library | $800 | $415 |
Capital Expenses | $2,000 | $0 |
Total Operating Expenses | $13,135 | $13,036 |
Income | 2013 Budget | 2012 Actual |
OryCon Overhead Fee | $2,600 | $0 |
GameStorm Overhead Fee | $1,900 | $2,144 |
Convention Surplus | $8,200 | $5,689 |
MIscellanous | $0 | $3,804 |
Total Income | $12,710 | $11,638 |