Board of Directors Meeting
September 29, 2009
ATTENDING: (Board members) Beverly Block, Aaron Curtis, Tammy Lindsley, John Lorentz (OSFCI President),Andrew Nisbet, Debra Stansbury (OSFCI Secretary); Sam Justice (OSFCI Attorney), Ruth Sachter.
Absent Board Members: Arthur Aldridge (OSFCI Treasurer–conflict with classes), Kamila Miller (searching for lost dog), Michael Pinnick (ill) and Marc Wells (unknown). Arthur, Kami and Michael were all excused for their absences.
The meeting started at 7:30PM.
I. Minutes of Previous Meeting
There have been no minutes prepared from the previous meeting for the Board to review.
II. Treasurer’s Report
Because of Arthur’s time conflict that did not allow him to attend the meeting, there was no financial report presented. He said he would e-mail the report to the Board very soon.
John: We have received a refund of the latest late-filing fine (about $3,000) from the IRS, and a confirmation of the extension for this year’s filing.
III. Reports on Sponsored Activities
A. Conventions and Bids
OryCon 31 (2009)
Debra: Showed the group the new flyers for OryCon. The Progress Report should be out very soon. (It was mailed on October 26th.) OryCon this year will be selling tote bags (with Lubov artwork), rather than T-shirts. They may be sold in the Art Show, since they are already handling money and will always have staff there. The cost of the bags will be $15. They are heavy-duty bags, with a reinforced bottom and made of 100% post-consumer recycled cotton. (Because only 150 of them are being ordered, there will be no committee discounted rate unless there are still bags leftover post-OryCon. If there are any left, the cost to committee will be $10.)
Debra needed to replace her Publicity person, and Tracy Penner is now handling that department. There are currently about 475 paid members, which is a little lower than they’d hoped. They are watching the budget very closely. There are a couple of items that have gone a little over budget (Guest of Honor travel–you have to pay what the airlines are going to charge you to bring them to OryCon). There is a preliminary program–the programming work session went pretty smoothly, and the programs will be going out to the participants in the next day or so. Andrew: Kami should find out what the hard deadline is for the pocket program, and set a hard deadline a week prior to that for the last of the program changes.
Debra has someone in charge of the Thanksgiving potluck dinner at OryCon–everyone is welcome to come and bring their own favorite holiday dish. (OryCon will be providing the turkey.)
Aaron: Apparently, I can get a tax deduction for the donation of the use of my house for the programming session. Who should I talk to about getting a thank-you letter for that donation? John: I think it should either come from the chair of the event (Debra) or the secretary of the corporation (Debra). Tammy: I have a form that was used for donations in the past.
Debra: We may need a new head of Gaming for OryCon. She’ll work with the GameStorm folks to get that settled. Debra has sent Sam the forms for the “Jail & Bail” item at OryCon (people will have their friends hauled off to a pretend jail, and the bail to get out goes to a charity)–has he had a chance to look them over? Sam: I haven’t seen them, but I do get about 500 pieces of e-mail a day. Debra will send them again.
Andrew: Is the discussion of changing the comping policy (item III.A.1a on the agenda, added to the agenda by Kami) truly dead? Debra: Since Kami’s not here, then we can’t talk about it. Andrew wanted to at least mention it because, although he doesn’t think Kami’s proposal is workable, he especially doesn’t think it’s a good idea to change the policies after the program invites have gone out. Anything that is going to be changed, should be changed before the invites go out.
2. Gamestorm 12 (2010)
Aaron: Every year we try to do marvelous things with GameStorm, but we do these marvelous things pretty much after OryCon is over, so we don’t have much to report right now. GameStorm has invited some guests of honor: Vincent Baker is our RPG Guest of Honor.
They’ve just found out that the Gamma trade show (the major trade show for table-top gaming, in Las Vegas) has changed its dates to be overlapping GameStorm next (for 2010 only). There may be fewer trade people at GS because of this. Sam: HMS/GRD may be interested in participating–send inquiries attn: Arthur Goodwin. (There was some discussion on ways to bring in industry folks to GameStorm.)
Aaron is still negotiating with the hotel to get an contract addendum to get all of the hotel’s space next yet. The cost would be somewhere between $1500 and $3000, depending on room pickup. (It would be $1500 if the same numbers of rooms are rented as were last year.) Dates are pencilled in for the next two years at the Hilton, slowly moving earlier in March, and avoiding Easter (and Norwescon) for several years.
Andrew suggested a possible special guest for GameStorm.
4. OryCon 32 (2010)
Tammy: OryCon 32 has another GOH–the Artist Guest of Honor will be Chad Savage (www.chadsavage.com). She has talked to him about producing some artwork for an Ory32 website to have that ready to go just as soon as this year’s convention is over. Currently, the other GOH is Editor GOH Sharyn November. (She’s on #5 of her list of possible Writer GOHs.)
Aaron: You put in a bid early for Orycon 32 so that you would have time to book the GOH that you wanted? Tammy: Yes and he was already booked up. Name authors are looking at 2½ to 3 years before the convention. Aaron: Given that guests are getting booked up so early, do we want to put out a call for GameStorm 13 and OryCon 33 chairs at the next meeting. John: GS 13 certainly–it might be too early for OryCon 33. Aaron: The next Board meeting is the only full Board meeting before the upcoming GS. John will send out a call for GS 13 chair(s) to be chosen in December, and include a reminder that the next OryCon would be normally chosen at the April meeting.
A. Funds and Awards
1. Campbell Pin Fund
We’ve heard nothing from Jay on the status of the Pin, although we’ve had a report that they were given to the nominees at Anticipation this year.
2. Clayton Memorial Medical Fund
No report was received from Jim Fiscus for the Fund. Debra: Have Spider and Jeanne Robinson applied for aid? We need to find out if she’s qualified. (No one could remember if British Columbia was included in the region covered by the Fund.)
3. Endeavour Award
No report was received from Jim Fiscus for the Award. Sam had a possible reader for the Award.
4. Susan Petrey Fund
Paul sent email that they’ve nothing to report since the last Board meeting, since it’s still the 3rd quarter of 2009.
IV. Other Continuing Business
A. Audit Committee
Nothing to report.
A. Hotel Committee
Arthur gave a report on the GameStorm hotel during the GameStorm report, and there’s nothing new to report on the OryCon hotel (we’ve got a contract there through 2011, and a first option on 2012).
We discussed the need for a Hotel Liaison training session, so that Tammy and Debra especially have a better idea what is needed (since they’re going to be helping handle hotels at conventions in the near future. It would be nice if it could be scheduled soon, but it will depend on Patty’s availability (since they are in the process of moving, and also still trying to sell the old house), since she is the most experienced person in the group–and it would also be good to have Debbie Cross participating. John will try to get this scheduled. (At this point, Patty’s not available until after the first of the year.)
C. Other Old Business
None.
V. New Business
- Aaron is working with Sam concerning the other “GameStorm” convention that has surfaced recently, trying to protect our business name. Andrew offered to help track down the people responsible for that event.
- Should we file for a “GameStorm” DBA in Washington. (Yes.)
- Tammy had a request for $150 for safety equipment for volunteers to use in setting up the Art Show. (Knee pads, back support belts, gloves, etc.) Andrew thought this might be more in the line of disposable materials (normally paid for by the events), but Tammy said much of it would be used from year-to-year, by both OryCon and GameStorm. The Board approved the request.
- GameStorm 11 needs to be put back on the agenda for the December meeting–the books for that event are not closed yet. There is a new policy at GameStorm–if you ran 8 hours of gaming at GS 11, you’ll get a free membership to GS 12.
The next Board meeting will be Tuesday, December 15, 2009 at 7:30PM. Tammy will try to reserve the room at Everest College again for that meeting date and time.