September 2019 Board Notes

Date:

09/10/2019

Attendance:

Board Attended: John Koniges, Kim Hofer, Tristan Anderson, Kevin Ehrler, Michelle Clark, Anthony LaBerge, Jay Bottem
Board Absent: Secretary
Observers: Troy MacDonald, Erick Hofer, Lauren Gannann, Äge Nelson

Notes:

Meeting called to order 18:30

Agenda: Recap off cycle board actions and votes:

  • None

Agenda: Open Session

  • Equipment Rentals

    • Diana spent 2 hours just checking kits (without powering on), with help.  Yes we need to verify stuff, but something needs to be done, taking too long.  Further discussion during Equipment Requests Update.

    • No other topics

Agenda: Planned Discussions from scheduled parties/partners

  • None

Agenda: Equipment Rental Requests (Lauren)

  • Waiting on fusion to finalize theirs.

  • Got report from Diana on what was missing from 2D con.  It was a lot of cables again.

    • Missing 4 ICD power cables, 2 power strips, 5 25’ ext cords, 2 50’ ext cords, and panel room kits were not returned in the neatness level they were delivered in.

    • Haven’t had chance to email them about items yet, just found out about it.  Our contract says we need to return deposit from 2 weeks of this meeting. Does board want Lauren to investigate repurchase price and email to deduct from deposit.

    • Tristan:  Also cables from video gaming, about $152.  

      • ACTION: Tristan to send Lauren email about this.

    • Multiple years in a row they lost much in tech.  Verified we sent a letter saying we were less than happy from previous years.

    • Troy: Question about do we send letters explaining how we want them to return equipment in what state?

    • Diana: In panel room kits items are broken out by item how they are packed.  And given back all messed up.

    • Lauren: We have in contracts we sent out, if you are later than your requested pickup/dropoff time by more than 1 hour, we charge a $75/fee.  Suggest we making an addendum to the contract that notice how equipment is delivered and we will charge $75/hr if not returned in the same condition. 

    • Working on taking pictures/documenting how things are connected/packed.

    • Erick: Does it state in contract you will return as you receive it?

      • No...  We do have listing about condition of equipment themselves.

      • Condition is very subjective.

    • Jay:  This is the 4th time they lost equipment.  We can discuss wording later on how to clarify things.

    • ACTION: Tristan, Diana, Lauren to add any information to document as they wish and bring back to the board.

    • ACTION: Lauren to research cost of lost items and email 2D con, and why their damage deduction is being kicked in, and if they can find it in the next 2 weeks we can refund more.  

    • Lauren wants to deal with the current issue first before making any current decisions.

    • John wants to consider delegating to people who do the work in this regard instead of the board forcing decisions.

    • Troy:  Any thoughts about a board logistics person to do this instead of burning out Detour personnel?

      • Need someone Tech and Consuite would be comfortable with.

      • Lauren:  Part of position is to recruit people from various departments.

      • Jay/Troy have discussion about responsibilities about who handles this and if someone from Detour wanted to step up and take this kind of role.

      • Troy:  If whoever takes over Tech next doesn’t want to do this we will have a problem.

      • There are a very limited number of keys intentionally.

      • We aren’t opposed for someone on ATC handling this.  But Wants to have people who handle equipment have trust in these people. Or they’ll be there anyhow.

      • John asks Lauren to look at making a plan for this instead of us talking in circles.

      • Tristan:  In the last 4 years, if not more, I can count the number of times tech and logistics have asked departments to organize stuff, can count on one hand people who have actually done it.

      • Christina: How come we are charging so little to rent equipment?  It’s expensive, if we are feeding the con community why aren’t we charging more?

        • Diana: From what I remember, we are supposed to decide each year, the $150 rental amount and if it’s accurate or going up; also the $200 damage amount supposed to be reviewed.

        • Michelle: If I remember correctly, part of the reason the lower dollar amount was set instead of commercial level fees is because we are a non-profit, and part of our statement is we are supporting and encouraging the community.  So we are helping the rest of the convention community by charging considerably rest.

        • Erick:  Believe we should be receiving a little bit of a kick back due to wear and tear on equipment.   Detour uses it once a year, speakers tend to be the first thing in tech to go. They are delicate pieces of equipment and we should be getting some rental fee for the speakers, just charge a wear and tear fee on everything.  It’s still considerably less, but it’s also insuring we have it in funds to replace it when wear and tear exceeds usefulness.

        • Troy:  Even at $500 we would be below retail rental.  So it would be providing a service to them. The first and foremost priority is to have equipment ready for us at Anime Detour, and the second is to provide to the community.  We won’t get rich off that, and still justify.

        • Lauren:  $150 fee was original replacement of a walky talky when we mostly rented that.  We could raise to $500 or $1000 and still be much more generous than...

        • John:  Regarding community aspect, North Foundation couldn’t exist without ATC’s generosity.  Fully acknowledge it’s underpaid for that. It’s bad we only charge so much for replacement, instead of like 20%.

        • ACTION:  Lauren suggests she consults with the 4 departments that rent the most, gather their opinions, and send email with collective data, and think is a good amount and we can vote on next meeting.

    • Migration was last weekend.  No clue how return went yet. We still have a lot of time to look into this (two weeks after October board meeting).

Agenda:  Coordinator Updates

  • Anime Detour (Troy)

    • Few days left for budgets.  Meeting scheduled to go over them.  

    • Working with hotel looking at their evac plans for general evacs or active shooters.

    • Speaking with Emily to document a counterfeit policy and vendors know what our actions will be if caught selling counterfeit.

    • New guest relations head.  

  • Charities (email)

    • Update via email

    • Discussed remaining $500 for Korean dog rescue, rest to donate to ATC scholarship fund.

    • New copy of document for website.

  • Clubs (Erick)

    • Budget in.  Badge ribbons for clubs.  

    • Getting replenishment of postcard material.  

    • Looking at compiling pictures from valley fair for coaster club.  Solid dates for coaster club next year.  

    • Looking to get membership up in other clubs.

  • Community (Lauren)

    • Next event coming up is AUSM advocacy summit.  

      • No response from Anton.  No one on charities can run tables.  No interest from staff list. So we will not be at the summit.

    • Next event after that is Macademia conference.  Confirmed we can have same setup as last year. will be there Friday night to talk to folks at their reg table.  (Sept 27th). If anyone from ATC wants to go, ATC members are welcome to go for free. ACTION: Lauren will send an email out to staff about this

      • All set for event

      • Finally ordered table cloths, for ATC and Detour.  Both have both logos on them.

      • Acrylic sign holders on order

      • Postcard holders, so they don’t blow away

      • Business card holders, same reason

    • Budget submitted

    • Tristan:  Did we get our urls on the table clothes/banners

      • Lauren: No, not for tablecloths.  Budgeted for banners later.  

      • We do have a small business card with a QR code with all of our sites on it.

      • Lauren wondering if we want Detour Specific small business cards with just Detour stuff on it?

      • ACTION: Troy to talk to road crew and email Lauren what they want

  • Media Relations (Äge)

    • Sent out the newsletter.

    • Haven’t heard back from cat about podcast

    • Submitted budget

    • Trying to get someone to replace them.

  • SOS (email)

    • Update via email

    • SOS has meeting towards EOM.

    • No big updates

  • Finance (Kim)

    • Made more money than we spent last month

    • Got a nice refund from the Hyatt

    • Trying to work with last Korean dog, can’t get them to understand she wants to pay them.  Their link isn’t good anymore. Sent another email today.

    • BANK: $199,044

    • EDU: $1,500

      • Will transfer additional charitable money into this fund soon

      • Organization is interested in continuing working with us

    • LEG:  $12,861

      • Match will be: $2021

      • Transfer will be on the 27th.  

    • Received amazon smile for $47~, not bad.

    • Got the last of ATC budgets in around 5pm, they aren’t bad.  Think they are lower than last year's requested budget, so happy about that.

    • Got numbers from directors and officers premiums

      • Going to touch base with Kat and discuss what she would recommend based on quotes, and will add into budget.

      • Didn’t get anything from errors and omissions but thinking they will be about the same.

    • Out of 25 departments has 8 in.

Agenda: 15 minute break (if required)

  • John proposes we skip break, no objections.

  • Break Skipped

Agenda:  Updates on current Board Projects

  • John wants to add into project, that each coordinator creates content for the website, only SOS has a site, that’s 5 more coordinators to post content.  Wants something, even 10k foot view, would like picture, just wants content.

    • Will be every month until something from all departments

  • John went through all policies, and will work with Tristan to get all policies up there and fix sorting.

Agenda:  ATC Anti-Harassment and Code of Conduct Policies

  • Michelle: Got very little done on this.  Attorneys she wanted to speak to were all very busy.  Didn’t get chance to meet with others. Promises by October meeting here will be documents for people to look at.

  • Switch to Code of Conduct and Anti-Harassment.  Sounds better this way.

    • Could just call Code of Conduct, and anti harassment falls within.

No other topics in meeting.

Meeting Adjourned at 7:29.