March 2016 Board Notes

Date:

03/14/2016

Attendance:

Board Attended: Dave, Kevin, John, Kim, Lauren, Troy, Michelle
Board Absent: Connie
Observers: Justin Madel (Director Festival of Nations), AntonP, BrianJ, MaxV, JenKoniges, ErikH, AndyT

Notes:

Open Session:

Festival of Nations - looking what we can do. Theme this year: Folklore & Fairytales. Morning doing some 10 and under programming, later in day more darker aspect.  They do have Nagasaki Sister City at this event.  They want more broad culture, manga & anime brought in.  Perhaps looking for a video component of anime showings. They started first press release today, and would like information brought back ASAP if we can assist.   Festival is May 5-8 (Post Mortem).   We may be able to pull together a manga library & information booth, depending on hours required.  Hours of event: Thursday/Friday 9a-3pm (Student Days), Public: 3pm-10pm, Saturday 10am-10pm, and Sunday 10am.  Latest to hear back from us by: March 25th.  Possible to do Friday 3pm+ only.  No ticket fee for us.  No booth fee for us.

 

[VOTE: Asking Morgan to Take this on: [FOR: Michelle, Troy, Lauren, Kim, John, Kevin // OPPOSED: Dave]. 

 

Morgan asked, she says she can think she can take this on.

 

Anton: Express interest in working on the Site committee again. 

 

Eric: Room Parties needs more fliers. They are completely out. 

            John to tell Morgan we need more.  We need Fliers by Detour.

 

FINANCE UPDATE:

            Increased Insurance. Was 30K large, 40K tech, we now have 70K on both lockers. Increased premium 1686 to 2422.  Still two more years before we can price out other providers.

            Nagasaki Sister City Recognition came, and will go into binder.

            Invitation to the 2016 celebration of giving awards breakfast. Thursday March 31st. RSVP due back by the 24th. 7reg, 730breakfast.

            Open meet and greet to the new director of education of saint paul public library on Friday April 1st at 9:15am. RSVP required.

            Not a lot of spending going on yet, but expected to change. We have 402,000$ in bank. Most dealers are already in, and merchandise money, should have good charity giving year.

            $12,800 community fund.  Scholarship fund just shy of $7K, should be close to $10k after things coming in.

            RATIFICATION VOTE: Extend operation radio budget by $1,400 Michelle, Troy, Lauren, Kim, John. Confirmed.

 

COORDINATE UPDATES:

            -- Kale/Charity (By Proxy Lauren) : Charity meeting this Thursday.

            -- Jayson (ATC). : Brought to our attention that the double tree has broken contract again for the 4th time by booking hotels outside our room block. They will be having a discussion to them about breach of contract, we haven’t done this yet, and it’s time we do this. Jayson needs to get latest version of contract amendment. They overbooked approximately 16 rooms this year, and they have stopped answering emails. This was done by Hilton Corporate, and not for the first time. John, Jayson, Kari going in to talk to doubletree. 

            -- Heather (SOS) : Movies going on this month showing three anime movies in March. Ghost in the Shell Marathon after next Detour meeting (FUNimation permissions already acquired). Getting flyers before convention. We do have dates for cosplay picnic and fest that will be added to handouts.

            --Morgan (Media Relations) : Social media followers continue to grow. Wizard world has reached out to let us know Marketing coordinator has changed and wants to start a dialogue. Website/specific departments there are sections of website that are out of date, specifically guests and registration, and keeps answering many questions on this.

                                    -Guest Relations: updated to all information at this time.  Will contact Morgan to figure out what if any still needs to be updated.

                                    -Registration : no policy on a few things we need to update (ie: children under 5yr old).

                                    -We could add a $0 (5y and under) to the system.

                                    -John, as division head, to let Registration know Media Relations needs them to update their stuff.

 

EMAIL NOTES

            •           Every comfortable with the outcome that departments referencing ATC policy.  -- no issues

            •           All questions answered regarding ad-swaps? Troy: Yes

            •           Harassment form: good, but needs more space for incident information

            •           Heather: Can the coordinators review before going to board?

            •           Heather: This is the draft in progress, still needs more work, not final document.

            •           Red Cross Hero’s Breakfast Sponsoring? Are we doing this and have we contacted them?

            •           Jayson: Need more sponsorships. They have a table this year at AD looking to get more interest. The numbers are higher because they need more funding.

            •           Hero: Community.

            •           3/09 (StephenH) we got a email about youtube club - Does this attach enough to anime to justify? He just looking

            •           for promotion and space. Is this in our scope? Troy: Do we want a more formal process, form to fill out? Do we want to invite him back again to discuss more details? Morgan to contact about content/age-appropriateness, and invite him to next meeting to discuss again. 

            •           3/11 - email about CONvergence volunteer party wanting prize support. Last year we gave some squishies and shirts. What do we feel comfortable giving them?  They need it before April 15th (date of their party).  How about: 2 convention shirts, and a polo shirt. Lauren will contact Merchandise for authorization and contract Logistics to get the items. 

            •           3/3 - email about Lantern Lighting Festival, applications are open. Do we want to have a table again? Do we want to ask Jay to host again, or task to Morgan?

            •           Morgan talked to John about this, probably needs help more but wants to do this.

            •           Andy: Did the amount of people (large amount) have an impact on our table performance?

            •           They are expanding available space this year.

            •           VOTE to get a table at Lantern Lighting - [Motion/Second - Lauren/Michelle] - FOR: Michelle, Troy, Lauren, Kim, John, Kevin.  Not Here: Dave, Connie.

 

HOTEL DISCUSSION

            Each year raised meeting space $1K and food $500.  2018 Double Tree $14K for meeting space and $7k for food. Also room rental price goes up each year as well. 

            Minneapolis Convention Center - $55,247.50 only going through Sunday and excludes union fees for security and IT (24h), also would lower price based on anticipated revenue for food but we have no estimate for this since we don’t have this number. And no consuite.

            Hyatt - No food minimum. Rates based on nights. We would hit their maximum discount. $15K for function space. This only covers 3/4 of space, they will come back with a full bid, plus this is only Friday->Sunday. We are getting new information for Wed->Monday as we use today. Based on their current number we are estimating $20-20.5. 

            The doubletree one does not cover the Sheraton. We budget ~$3K for that without food, plus $600 for food.

            Staff Dinner: $10,514. They quoted $7K but didn’t include almost $2000 service fee.

 

            Jayson: Do we want to pursue full Convention Center pricing?

                        Board: Out of budget.

 

            Jayson: Anything to look into for Hyatt or DoubleTree during negotiations?

                        -Kim: Parking?  -Jayson: Different company, they are looking into getting us discount weekend and staff parking.

                        -John: 1 - unlike doubletree complimentary internet in guest rooms.  2- We wouldn’t use PSA as our sole AV provider, so we should ensure this is known.  3- Food on Saturday and Sundays. Some kind of concession style (fast food esque thing like Fusion does), and their coffee type shop and bar(food) could extend hours. Plus customization of items. Hyatt invested $40M in renovation and it shows. 

                        -Jayson: Can he bring division heads, and some senior staffers with to do a quicker tour for ideas and thoughts. Programming, Hotel, Room parties, Video, etc...

                                    -Board: OK

                        -Jayson/John: Smart Elevators, escalators/2 elevators for con space, and 5 for hotels. And Staff can use hotel service elevators.

                        -Lauren: Individual programming rooms may be smaller than what we are used to, but some of the larger ballrooms would break into larger programming rooms.

                        -John: We should investigate a 3 year contract.

                        -Jayson: We should invest more into the 2018 year so we can ensure we win over people from moving a hotel.

                        Troy: We should try bolster our staff.

                        Andy: If we run with another big event could our contract with parking places throw away our contracts for them?

                        Lauren: Hyatt has done contracts for parking outside of downtown and done shuttles to/from.

 

Vision Statements

            4 - good for flyers

            5 - more how ATC should follow procedures.

            2 - not so much “just cartoons”

            7 -Should reference we are all volunteers

            7 - touches on themes we are already doing

            1 - “to reach out and promote japanese culture” - like

            7 - “volunteer org” start - like

 

            What points do we want to pull for sure?  Animation and Culture.

                        -Any statements that express Animation and Culture how we want to express it?

 

            How does this interact with our Mission Statement?

                        Mission - How we conduct ourselves

                        Vision - where do we want to be and continue being.

 

            Combine first sentence in 1 and 7? “ATC is a volunteer run organization with a goal to promote japanese culture especially in the anime or twin cities area?”

            Start with 7 and then cut into 1 with community and twin cities?

 

            “Anime Twin Cities, Inc (ATC) is an all-volunteer run organization that reach out to reach Japanese culture in the twin cities area” -????

 

Include Priority?

“Japanese Language” - no falls into culture

“Japanese animation “ - yes

“Japanese culture” - yes

“Community” - (at least in concept) - ???

“Post-teen” - no, all ages.

“Education” - yes

“Charitable giving” - yes

“Convention” - yes

“Strive to be the best anime convention in the midwest (Anime Detour)”

“Events and social” - yes, we do more than just Anime Detour.

“Training” - no

“Chain of command” - no

“Clear expectations” - no

...push to expand presence in community... - yes

 

Animation and culture, charitable giving, convention, events, - focus on

Community - side note in there

 

Task to Morgan if willing, to to come up with a potential phrasing based on these things above?

Task to a board member or a pair of members? Or anyone who wants to try?

John and Kevin to work on a combined statement (1 individual apiece and a combined joint one).

 

Vote to Adjourn: John/Lauren -- All present members (missing Dave/Connie). @9:03PM