Date: August 19, 2023, 2pm
Location: TSFS Discord channel #august-2023-business-meeting
Attendees:
Michael Houghton (Herveus), President
Marilyn Mix, Vice-President, Chessiecon Webmaster and Marketing
Sam Hogan (Poryshkin), Treasurer/Chessiecon 2022 chair
Dave Montuori (Evan), Secretary / Chessiecon Registration
Eric Fleischer (DrG)
Keith Lynch
Meg Hogan (Saria), Chessiecon Video Gaming
Agenda:
Next Meeting: December 17, 2:00pm, Sunday. Discord #december-2023-business-meeting
Agenda: Officer nominations, How to rebuild the organization
Called to order: 14:03 EDT
Treasurer Report:
The good news: The debt we owed to the hotel has been paid in full.
We have a total of $2,339.48 in the various accounts. Remaining expenses
are things like PO Box, yearly business taxes, the ASCAP license (which
was not renewed for 2024), and web hosting.
We will need $20K to host an in-person convention.
Registration Report:
No additional Supporting Memberships. People can request Square invoices by
sending Dave their email address.
Marilyn asked about posting on Social Media about Supporting Memberships
and requested approved text to use. Poryshkin and Dave provided the
following:
"TSFS and Chessiecon are currently in a rebuilding phase. We are attempting
to get together not only the financial resources to be able to hold
another Chessiecon, but more especially the people needed to hold a
convention. Chessiecon, like other S/FF conventions, is a membership,
dues-driven organization. Supporting memberships are set at $21.00 annually,
and most importantly, allows you a voice in the affairs of Chessiecon, which
includes a voice in how and where you'd like to see TSFS take Chessiecon in
the future. For a supporting membership, you may send the dues to our paypal
address: payments@chessiecon.org, or request a Square invoice by sending an
e-mail to registrations@chessiecon.org, or if you want to send us an
old-fashioned check, that's PO Box 83032 Gaithersburg, MD 20883-3032.
Membership is due by 1 December."
Marilyn will edit into something comprehensible.
Marilyn also asked if the supporting membership info was sent to past
members.
After Action Report on Storage Unit: (various)
It's empty. The contents were dispersed about.
BSFS got the post-and-chain barricades;
Sam Hogan has a lot of what was in there: video game stuff, miscellaneous
things like the spare cash boxes, the tablets we were using, the old
registration computers we were using, which are essentially bricks now --
they were using Windows 7.
The art show panels are living in Herveus’ shed pending Dave having a chance
to get them down to Ayrfield. The t-shirts and mugs are stored [at Chez
Herveus]. There was other random stuff that is stowed in the shed for now.
Videogaming Report:
Last time I did an online video game room in 2020, results were very mixed,
considering it was mostly me playing games by myself (though I did have fun
in Portal 2, thanks Josh!) and the audience that I attracted near the end of
the weekend was less than stellar, because Twitch's community is toxic and
unmoderated. As such, I don't think I can do a full online gaming this year,
but, what I might do is at least attempt to be entertaining to watch by doing
a marathon of Legend of Zelda randomizers, since that's how I've been
occupying a lot of my time since I got laid off. I have two main caveats to
that: 1: I'd need co-commentators to keep me sane and possibly moderate the
audience -- I assume Rin and Cory might be interested in that, but I also have
some friends I might be able to poke for that weekend. Would people I'd want
for co-comm also have to have memberships? I assume yes. 2: I refuse to
stream on twitch again after the experience from last time, so I'll need to
look into more personal streaming options, probably either discord or zoom
screen-sharing. I know there was resistance to that last time, but I
absolutely have to be more private for my own mental health.
New business:
1. New Website/Email host
In the past the Chessiecon website and email has been hosted on a Dreamhost
account owned by Jo Hogan. She will be closing that account on September 18.
Dreamhost has a starter deal for one-site hosting plus email for 36-months
for $142.20. There was a brief discussion of an alternative, but Dreamhost
is a known entity and supports WordPress, so should be easy. Price rises to
$10.9/month after the promotional period. Jo is willing to help us set up
and transfer the current website to the new account.
Motion #1:
Pursue the Shared Unlimited hosting plan with Dreamhost for 3 years.
Motion: Carried
General discussion:
1. Social Media:
Add post about Hotel obligation being met. Also generically thanking those
who contributed to the GoFundMe, and specifically thanking Danielle
Ackley-McPhail for setting it up in the first place?
Meeting adjourned: 15:14 EDT
Motions:
New Action Items:
Action Items from April meeting:
Action Items from February meetng.
Action Items from January Meeting