December 2019 Board Notes

Date:

12/10/2019

Attendance:

Board Attended: John Koniges, Kim Hofer, Tristan Anderson, Kevin Ehrler, Michelle Clark, Jay Bottem, Christina Kramer
Board Absent: Anthony LaBerge
Observers: Troy MacDonald, Erick Hofer, Anton Petersen, Heather Bufkin

Notes:

Meeting called to order 18:33

Agenda: Recap off cycle board actions and votes

  • Vote on Saturday for the Bylaw

    • This bylaw was written with no exceptions, if passed will need to be amended 

    • Puppies are not allowed to be on the board

Agenda: Open Session

  • John proposes to start  keeping track of attendance at board meetings.

  • John has a possible proposed bylaw, if you attend the same % of board meetings as it is for planning meetings, you should qualify for voting rights. As long as they are in the organization (paid dues, registered for convention)

  • Troy frustrated with planning meetings being used by some primarily for socializing vs actually planning, and with people showing up late or leaving early after signing in. 

    • Interested in introducing that to qualify for voting membership, additional minimal volunteering outside of the con to serve ATC as a whole to assist where needed, SOS events etc.

    • Possibility of restricting the amount of time that sign in sheet is available during meetings

    • Would be difficult to determine eligibility

    • While increased participation would be the goal, it seems more likely this would just reduce the voting population

    • Would also be unfair to those already giving 100%

    • If we start live streaming, would people skyping in count towards attendance? 

      • This would be good for out of state staffers

    • The definition of “attendance” should be left to the coordinators

  • GPS is looking for volunteers for pride and other events for next 6 months 

  • Community Coordinator Lauren and Media Relations Coordinator Äge have both stepped down. John now has access to social media accounts. 

  • Kevin - Before any ATC note, the secretary would RE-Read the the policy before any future votes take affect

    • All in favor; none opposed

  • ATC Site Committee for the GPS building is having a meeting on Thursday 12/12 at 7pm. Dave V is coordinator from GPS side. Anton will attend the meeting, but we are also looking for someone else to attend. 

Agenda: Planned Discussions from scheduled visiting parties/ATC Partners

  • Kim - Final on reimbursement check, Per Heather, Diana was supposed to let Kim know. Jeremy has missing piece of equipment (he is on logistics staff), will bring to planning meeting. Kim bringing check on Sunday

Agenda: Equipment Rental Requests

  • None

Anime Detour (Troy)

  • 3 ambassador programs in November

    • Daisho Con, GalaxyCon, NebrasKon

    • Had some registrations including some sponsor registrations

  • Has had a lot of issues with emails not being answered by some department heads. Looking to make sure those in leadership roles are engaged, help them get engaged, or find replacements.  

  • Department head meeting; will go over policies; core competencies (what is required to be on staff) and the toxic environment on staff. We have become segregated, clickish and mean spirited, that will not help us be successful. Need to build instead of being toxic. Big and significant issues, a lot of people have brought it up to him, so there may be uncomfortable changes. 

  • Staff Dinner options - Millennium this year, possible payment due per Kim?, Troy is reaching out for menu options so will also find out about that. 

  • 12 staff exchange at Daisho Con, ran registration

  • 3 helped the guest department at NebrasKon

  • School Event for 3rd grade - they had much higher age level taste in Anime then he anticipated, they have an all day event in May to have us come back to (like have a table?) Kids had a good time.

Charities (Anton)

  • Event this Sunday 12/15, Kale is going to be Santa (and there is a backup just in case) The date was changed.

  • Not hearing anything back from Anime Banzai for their Go Fund Me account

  • Rum River Library, did not get response back, he will follow up

  • Can Do canines Fetching Ball is in February

Clubs (Erick)

  • Eric assumes everything is fine, hasn’t heard anything from club leaders, followed up with school group if there was anything else we can do

Communities and Media Relations

  • Lauren has effectively stepped down

  • Äge has stepped down, John has access to social media accounts

  • John is going to try to redefine those roles but did not get to it this month, possible convert these to 1 role instead of 2

SOS (Heather)

  • Holiday Social on Sunday - lots of interest online. Party in big room, Photos in library

  • New years party suite at hotel

  • Outpost anime penciled in for late January

  • Recruitment event was a bust - not a single person showed up - NEEDS STAFF does plan on finishing out the budget cycle but very difficult without any volunteers to help, possibly considering stepping back

Financials (Kim)

  • Bank account $211821.70

  • Education fund $2134.05

  • Savings $12946.69

  • Santa is taking donations for scholarship fund at Holiday Social

  • Akihabra had nice square payments

  • Radios are almost paid off.

  • Got a nice Thanksgiving card from Can Do Canines 

  • Kim will not be at January’s meeting, will try to have reports done before meeting, but might not make it

  • The 990 is being worked on

Skipping break as it is 7:10

Agenda: Updates on current Board projects

  • January

    • Talking about AD pricing at 2021

    • New coordinator roles

  • February

    • Five year financial Plan - Tristan has started and scrapped and started over so still working on it, needs help on how to define success - has to know on how to show success for each coordinator department. Set those kinds of goals and have a measure on if those goals were accomplished or not.

    • Heather - are you considering other factors besides just numbers? Abstract type of org you want to be and types of events you host. Our image/values.

    • John - in 3 years we want an event that exemplifies this type of culture, or have an event that does this, vs just profit numbers. Maybe improvement on like survey for staff morale, or reaching out to specific audiences. 

    • Troy - we would like to see Detour grow by X number of %, will working with coordinator happen? 

    • Tristan - Yes, the initial proposal will be open for change, and working on by everyone. Looking for feasible ideas of what we are trending.

    • Troy - ATCs potential plan for coordinators. What is ATCs plan? How does ATC plan on fundraising/bringing people in.  

    • John - have to include coordinators in the plan too

    • Heather - have to set goal of what we want ATC to be and choose coordinators to make that plan happen.

    • John - yes it makes sense, set the goals and if coord get replace then make sure they can help meet those goals. 

  • April

    • Charitable giving proposals

    • Month is changing for due date, so Anton will make sure to let them know. John can post on ATC social media if Anton writes a draft, probably will happen in Jan

  • May 

    • Charitable giving vote

    • Rum river library event

  • June 

    • Board member projects

    • Coordinator reviews and outgoing/incoming board

  • July - Review ATC Policy list

  • July - Coordinator Goals 

  • November - Still need corporate sponsorships person, may get tied into new open coordinators. 

John motions to adjourn.  Motion passes 19:24. Meeting Adjourned

Under one hour!