Michael Houghton Sun Dec 13 12:49:32 PST 2015 Subject: Minutes of December 2015 meeting ------------------------------------------------------------------------ TSFS Meeting 13 December 2015 1304 The convention debrief Jo Hogan, Sam Hogan, Dr. G, Michael Houghton, Josh Kronenburg, Mark Drexler, Greg Swiger, Dawn Stone, Lisa?, Steve Aines, Fred Blonder, Elektra Hammond Jo shares blog post plaudits from guests. The con seemed to go well in the main. Keeping tech needs in the same room(s) made life much smoother. Art show stuff -- setup, teardown and transport -- went well and smoothly. Desire to modify tear down to allow destruction to commence sooner. Handi clamps took the place of extra volunteers. Need to know sooner if layout changes so we get enough panels; we were short three panels. Sales around $3000. Registration: worked smoothly, with occasional lines back to the doors. The lines would be worked off within ten minutes or so. Three stations most all the time with helper handing out bags. Make sure there is a record in the database of who has bags and such so it doesn't get missed at checkin. Get rubber stamps for day passes. Or sheet of sticky labels. Print up poster-sized schedule for each day to be VISIBLE at registration. Poster-sized map of hotel also useful. Get mifi set up promptly at registration to avoid delays with network access. 532 checked in. Hotel is replacing their WiFi; see what Farpoint's experience is with the new system. Steve: mostly good. Hotel could not seem to actually lock all the doors Saturday night. Bad form. Steve was with the manager until 3am. 15 bicycle locks on order for next year. They are cheap and easy to open with bolt cutters. No help for Timonium, Board Room, and Chesapeake 3. Hotel kept water up well; trash removal a bit worse. Moving stuff was good. Make sure layouts specify pitchers and glasses on head tables. If it's not on they layout, the hotel won't put it there. Purchase electric kettles for some programming areas wanting hot water. Board gaming was full lots of the time. Mythic was much less loaded this year. Swap the two for next year? Talk with Josh and Charles about potential concerns with noise. ConOps in Board Room worked well; need better label maybe. Sign about accessibility could also make it clear about where ConOps in general is. Dance floor was not set up to spec. Consideration of alternate places to put Con Suite if 308 not available. Loud band during Social was too loud. Timeline of events at Social should be posted so we know how long an activity runs. Food concession not well patronized nor necessarily adequately publicized. Was supposed to be from 10-3. They didn't open on time? Bonnie says they didn't lose money. They blew it off on Sunday. Banquets manager not particularly accommodating to what they agreed to do. Tips not distributed as we directed. Jo proposes we just send another $300 to Bonnie to get it to the right people. Moved, seconded, approved to do so. Restaurant still sucked. Hotel ignoring it. Feedback on hotel: shortage of rooms with handicap facilities. Significant number of guest rooms had mechanical issues. List of room nights reconciling was bad. Hotel claims third party registration avenues don't count. We're working on that for next year to avoid ambiguity. Third party avenues will be disabled for the weekend next year. Should we do preliminary looking at potential new hotels if they really step in it. That's a long shot. Is Dave Marsh managing another hotel in the area. ConOps: need more volunteers. Josh inquires about raising reward rate? Make a more public fuss over volunteers? Minor tweaks only. Worksheet at registration to sign up to volunteer. Have lists at registration of opportunities? Need someone to sit ConOps when Sam can't be there. Rick volunteered to sit ConOps. Print Kaffeeklatch tickets with one name per sheet or so. Video Gaming: much more popular this year. More people and different location. Babysitting issue. Minimum age unattended? Or more vigorous enforcement of behaviour as in, feel free to kick offenders out. Clarify to Margaret. Video social went well; tea and hot chocolate were, in fact, consumed. Call "Security" "Member Services" to make it nicer. Less confrontational and more welcoming. No one remarked on lack of Video Room. No big deal. Josh: on music. Tech needs to tape down wires. Actively get some local tech fandom to help out with being "up to date" with current standards. Whatever that shortfall actually is. Failure to communicate? Concerts mostly went well. Room occasionally full. Homespun Ceilidh concert really full. No room to dance. Move them to the lobby? More training on how to use sound equipment for Josh/staff. One report of creepy guy; victim didn't want to make formal complaint. It's tricky, and separation of the offending parties was more or less managed. We are aware of it, but it's not clear there is anything we can do right now. Do we want to explore playing concert recordings a couple years down the road as an event? Maybe after Saturday concert and before Chorus at midnight? Website thing: make previous years websites available more directly? Make old program books available in reader form? Herveus to explore. Jo spoke to Rowan about easing into Con Chair stuff; Greg taking over web site. Hiring a professional marketer? May be not overly expensive, and better than the con chair doing it. Jo to look at marketers who do Sci-Fi conventions. The Red Roof Inn can serve as an overflow hotel. Idea for a new prize for Turkey Award "winner", draw the cover art for the book. Or a new Turkey competition... Enough with the convention report. Pause then on with business. On changing the Bylaws meeting requirements: Proposal to amend the by laws of TSFS, Inc. Change Section 2, currently reading: 2. Regular Meeting; definition - Unless the organization otherwise directs, the regular meeting of TSFS shall occur once a calendar month, as is convenient for the membership. To read: 2. Regular Meeting; definition - Unless the organization directs more frequent meetings, the regular meetings of TSFS shall occur: Meetings at a minimum of once a month starting two months prior to Chessiecon, to serve as planning meetings for Chessiecon; one within a month after Chessiecon, to serve as a debrief of Chessiecon; otherwise, once a calendar quarter, as is convenient for the membership. This proposal is satisfactory and is laid before the membership to be voted on at the next regular meeting. The January meeting will be on Saturday 23 January 2016 at 1pm at the Hogan residence. Officer nominations: President - Jo Hogan willing to continue as President Vice President - Michael Houghton willing to continue as Vice President Treasurer - Sam Hogan willing to continue as Treasurer Secretary - Dawn Stone willing to serve as Secretary Webminister - Greg Swiger is nominated to serve in this newly activated optional office Trustee - Mark Drexler wililng to serve as a Trustee for a three year term These to be voted on at the January meeting. Treasurer report: $30399.50 in accounts. We still have payouts to make of about $3000-$4000 to make. There being no further business, a motion to adjourn was advanced. Crickets... more crickets. SECONDED. Adjourned at 1546. Respectfully submitted, Michael Houghton ------------------------------------------------------------------------