Minutes of the Thanksgiving Science Fiction Society Business Meeting
Date: January 21, 2023, 2pm
Location: TSFS Discord channel #january-2023-business-meeting
Attendees:
Michael Houghton (Herveus), President
Sam Hogan (Poryshkin), Treasurer/Chessiecon 2022 chair)
Dave Montouri (Dave/Evan(damont)), Registration
John Weller (Diamond Mystic)
Eric Fleischer (DrGandalf)
Marilyn Mix
Keith Lynch
Yakira Heistand
Meg Hogan (Saria)
Agenda:
- Set next business meeting date
- Treasurer Report
- Officer Elections
- Where do we go from here?
Next Meeting: February 26, 2:00pm. Meeting venue will be determined later.
Election of Officers:
Candidates:
President: Michael Houghton
Vice President: Marilyn Mix
Treasurer: Sam Hogan
Secretary: Dave Montuori
Trustee: Fred Blonder
The slate that Herveus originally presented had Meg Hogan for vice president.
Meg was willing to continue unless someone else stepped up. Marilyn Mix had
expressed interest in the vice president office at the December meeting, so
Meg was replaced.
The revised slate was accepted by unanimous acclamation
Treasurer Report:
Poryshkin delivered his report early because he would be offline during the
meeting for personal reasons.
We have in the various accounts a total of $6,986.21. There is an outstanding
check for $1000.00 which is not accounted for in that total. [This is the
check he wrote to Delta that hasn’t cleared yet.]
Hotel contract issues: In mid-December, the hotel audit of their guest room
block revealed several guests previously unaccounted for. This brought the
contractual obligation between TSFS, Inc and Delta Hunt Valley by Marriott
down to $9,107 (previously, it was about $11,000). In mid-late December, I
sent a check for $2000.00 to the hotel, and as mentioned above, another
$1,000.00 last week. This brings the total owed to the hotel to $6107.00.
The Go Fund Me set up to account for that is funded at $4703 of the $11,000
goal. This includes all funds collected either through GFM directly, or in
the form of check donations at the convention itself. The GFM has seemingly
stalled-only one donation for about $25 in the last week. It was pointed out
to me that as a general rule, fundraisers should be publicized weekly. I
think we haven't been.
Secretary report:
Dave reported that the November and December transcripts have been posted
to the usual place:
https://www.scadian.net/evan/TSFS/
Discussion:
GoFundMe needs to be publicized more. The treasury balance will cover
the outstanding hotel bill. Additional money is needed for continuing
expenses. Marilyn mentioned that on the Chessiecon Facebook page, the
GoFundMe info is in a pinned post, but we should post reminders. Everyone is
encouraged to spread the GoFundMe info in their various venues. Dave
suggested updating the GoFundMe status periodically, with photos, for
example.
Where do we go from here?
- Working capital: We need $6K to put on a convention.
- Convention staffing/Volunteers: Even if we can get funding, there is
still the issue of staffing. Keith Lynch is available for staffing. John
mentioned that we need something to increase the feeling of involvement
by our community. Dave observed "Unless we have significantly more staff
for the "next" convention, we're going to run into the same problems we
did for 2022."
- We did not sell any 2023 memberships. Dave has a short list of people
who would like updates on the status of a 2023 convention once we have
any.
- Herveus: So, to address the elephant in the room: at this time, we are
completely incapable of considering putting on Chessiecon in 2023.
Several people sadly concurred. We cannot keep the con alive on hope.
- Some discussion of even being able to get a hotel. Hunt Valley would be
reluctant. We have a contract and $1000 non-refundable deposit with Lord
Baltimore. Do we owe anything else to LB? Yakira will call Lee to
discuss.
- Disbanding TSFS: Storage room, Post Office Box, etc. Need to check the
bylaws and bring in the Trustees. Joanna Dione, Marc Drexler, and Fred
Blonder.
- Discussion of what is in the 5x10 storage room: Mugs, T-shirts, Art
show panels, stuff for video gaming, a screen, bollards and chains,
registration stuff, printer. We need a current inventory or consider
downsizing or disposing of unneeded items.
- Herveus: I think we can formally decide for the record that Chessiecon
2023 is not going to happen. I think that we can also note that we feel
the time has come close out the corporation. And the formal execution of
that close out needs to be done "by the numbers".
- Vote to dissolve or not at the next business meeting. This will give us
time to prepare for an orderly shutdown.
- Yakira offered to ask BSFS if we could use one of their Zoom accounts.
Zoom would be a better forum for that meeting than Discord. Use the Zoom
recording and caption/transcript feature to assist in capturing meeting
notes. John volunteered to proofread the transcript. [Marilyn will write
the minutes from that.]
- Widely publicize the meeting. Herveus, Yakira, and Marilyn will head
this up. Herveus set up a group DM to organize this.
Meeting adjourned 3:10pm
Motions:
- Elect officer and trustee candidates: Passed
- Adjourn: Passed
Action Items:
- Marilyn: Frequent GoFundMe reminders on social media
- Poryshkin: Frequent status updates on GoFundMe.
- All: Promote the Chessiecon GoFundMe through various means.
- Yakira: Call on Monday to find out if TSFS has any other obligations
to the Lord Baltimore hotel. Report findings to the meeting Discord
channel.
- Yakira: Ask BSFS Board of Directors for permission to use a Zoom
account for the February TSFS meeting. Report findings to the meeting
Discord channel.
- Herveus: Speak to trustees about future of TSFS/Chessiecon.
- Herveus/Poryshkin: Inventory the storage room
- Herveus: Determine steps for dissolving TSFS per bylaw