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Thursday, February 23, 2006 - 7:00 PM
Location - MISFITS Office, St. Paul, MN

In Attendance:
Officers - Jodie, Peter, Matt, Thomas
Board Member - Jeremy
Guests - Dave B., Wendy B., Guy B., Erin L.

Event Post Mortems

• Election Meeting with Judges - It was decided that the election meeting with the judges was not needed any more. Jeremy mentioned that the board was fine with most all of our suggestions for the next election. Jeremy will ask the board to make a formal vote on the items at the next joint Board/Officer meeting. Matt will email the three election judges soliciting feedback regarding how the election went and any other changes they might want to make.

Club Updates

• Geek Physique/Diabegeek - Tim has taken over the club from Matt and has been scheduling monthly meetings. On February first, there was a meeting and walk around the Mall of America. There is a meeting scheduled March 1st at Tilly's Bean to discuss diabetic issues. There are no other updates at this time. Geek Physique will probably recommend attending an aerobics session led by Amada at CONvergence in July.
• Book/Movie Club - Attendance at Book/Movie is still going strong. February's meeting was well attended. March's meeting is "Jaws" at George and Sarah's house. The officers remind Tim to please ask George if he is willing to be a co-head or sub-head for this group and to share the mailing list with him. March's meeting is Friday, March 10th.
• Geeks Read! - The February meeting was at Dave B.'s. The book was "Red Mars." There were 9 attendees. March's meeting is Tuesday the 7th and the book is Philip Pullman's "The Golden Compass." It will be at Adam's house. The July meeting will be at CONvergence in the Dorian Gray Literary Library.
• Crafty Geek - Meetings are at Crafty Planet, located on the corner of Lowry and Stinson in Minneapolis. The next meeting is going to Sunday, March 12th. There were five people at the February meeting.
• Writer's Group - There is still no word or reports from the writer's group, headed by Jim D. The officers are trying to find out what is happening. If this trend of no communication continues, officers will cut off all funding for the writers group and collect any keys to the building. New people are requesting information about the writer's group off the website and we are unable to give them any information due to this lack of communication with Jim.

Program Updates

• In the Schools - Erin L. attended this meeting and gave a report. Emily S. is in charge of the authors' side of In the Schools and Erin handles the special third party groups (i.e. Raptors, Robotics, Reptiles, Astronomy, etc.) So far, in the 2005 - 2006 school year, this program, a fact that MISFITS is extremely proud of, has served 865 children. The Raptor Center has done two presentations. Reptiles has done one so far. Robotics has just commenced their program. There are going to be a total of four reptile visits, six robotics visits, and seven raptor visits this year. There is an extra $250 in the budget because one school decided to fund the program using PTA funds as opposed to MISFITS funds, so that MISFITS could assist another school in more need. Hennepin County Libraries still has a moratorium on all programs. We will ask Battle Creek Elementary again, now that we have some additional slots/funding opening up. Dave K. is working on the database for the In the Schools program. The officers would like to publicly thank Erin and Emily for all their hard work on this program this past year. It is much appreciated.
• Got Edutainment - Erica Z. and Windy B. are in charge of GOT. Snow tubing has been delayed because of a lack of snow. Peter V. is still keen on some sort of burlesque show visit this year. Erin suggested that Dave K. and Mary might be interested in running GOT. While Erica was unable to attend the meeting, she did send out an email that contained the following information: She is working with Windy on future events.
• Happy Holidays - Erica is still trying to track down the recipient. Thomas has paid her for recipient's prize package. Jeremy recommended just giving her the prizes when she is working at the Lagoon (she works ticket sales and is there quite often.)
• Writing Contest - Jodie G. and Jody W. are working on this. The entry deadline is May 13th. Matt suggested mentioning Writing Contest to local schools. Peter asked about bookmarks being professionally done to hand out via In the Schools. Jodie handed out a flyer (rules). Jodie wanted to change some rules. Jeremy suggested a different tactic for prizes, including a gift certificate to Uncle Hugo's/Uncle Edgar's for the Scott Imes Award. We all decided to limit the Scott Imes award to someone within the upper Midwest region (with the hope that the chosen recipient will be able to attend CONvergence to get the award.) The contest starts March 1st. Jodie will email PDF's to the officers with the new rules and entry form. Both will also be available at the Trivia Contest table. Jodie will ask Chris Jones how much it cost to print up the Writing Contest Booklets using Skyline Graphics. We want to have lots of chapbooks to pass out at CONvergence.

Events Updates

• Gaming Day at the Source will be on Saturday, March 11th. It will start at 12:00 and will go until 5 or 6 PM (with the understanding that most people will want to go out to dinner afterwards.) Jeremy will be there a little before 12:00 to help set up. We have four tables reserved. In the future, any officer or board member can reserve tables using a convenient new form. The Source is located on the corner of Snelling and Larpenteur in St. Paul. Jeremy will ask Jodie for an updated MISFITS events flyer and trivia contest entry form to pass out to people at the Source (and leave extras in their flyer area.) Matt hopes that someone (like Dave B.) will bring supplies for Salad Bowl. If you want to help with set up, please meet Jeremy there around 11:40 or so.
• Trivia Contest - Matt volunteered to be a questions tester. The Trivia Contest is Saturday, April 1st. The elimination quiz starts at 3:00 PM. The show starts at 6:00 PM. The group briefing is at 5:30 PM. Matt and Erica are handling the merch table. Matt requested a cashbox for the event from Thomas for $150, consisting of 50 ones, 10 fives, and 5 tens. We are selling three things. MISFITS Hoodies (at 30 dollars each), CONvergence 2005 DVD sets, and candy/chips. Matt will look around and maybe ask Eric Knight where he gets cheap candy (or find someone with a Costco or Sam's membership.) The DVD price has not been set yet. We can spend $50 to $75 on candy. The hoodies will be zipped and forest green, featuring an embroidered MISFITS logo. We will go through Shirtz in St. Paul for the hoodies. Matt will solicit orders from the membership via email. He will ask Windy to forward out an email. We will be ordering 60 hoodies and sell them for $30 at the trivia contest and $35 at CONvergence. Sizes are Small to 3XL. Any left over will be given away as prizes. Matt will also contact Mike F. to find out what ratio of sizes are usually ordered at CONvergence. Matt took orders from Erin, Peter, Thomas, Jodie, and Dave B.
• Scavenger Hunt - will be May 6th. We have all of the Verandas reserved. Jodie and Adam will be among the judges. The tentative time will be from 11 AM to 5 PM. There will be more details emerging after April 1st. There will be sign up sheets and entry forms at the trivia contest.

Room Parties

• Shirtz embroiders and carries lab coats. Dave B. will talk to them during the week. We will try to have some ready for the Minicon room party.
• MarsCon - Dave K. put out a survey on Livejournal soliciting feedback for MST3K room party content. The shift list is circulating on the MISFITS staff list. Jodie and Dave B. will email Dave K. about their ability for a room party shift at MarsCon. Capital expenditures - Peter and Thomas will be buying the following for use in all room parties this weekend (when they are buying shelves.) We will buy: a crock-pot, a microwave, a toaster oven, and a blender. We have coolers and Tupperware containers for ice. We need plates, knives, forks, and a permanent ice cream scoop as well. Jodie will help Dave K. get the stuff he needs out of the office before MarsCon.
• Minicon - Erica is heading this party up. It will be one night only. Erica set up the event for Friday night. The rest of the officers requested that the party be moved to Saturday night for crowd/popularity/availability reasons. Dave B. will hopefully have the lab coats ready for Minicon. Once MarsCon is concluded, Erica will send a shift sign up sheet out to the staff list for volunteers.
• Anime Iowa - Currently, we have an offer on the table from Kevin T. about co-hosting a party with Anime Detour. Erica will follow up with Kevin to see if the offer is still out there. The officers will ask at the March Concom if there is any interest from the membership in hosting a party (they will need to fill out a party room form.) If no one volunteers, Peter is considering travelling down to Iowa to host the party and to ensure MISFITS has a large presence at the convention.
• CONvergence - Jodie uncovered a cool laboratory graphic created by Chris Jones during the early days of CONvergence. Dave bought more supplies. Dave will measure the room at the March Concom. We will be having a wall of fans in one doorway, as the cabana we are being assigned is handicapped accessible from the other end. Dave will start building the standing set when it is warmer and Peter, Emily and Jodie have volunteered in the past to help with actual construction and painting. One night will feature a backed potato bar and the other night will feature a taco bar. Jodie recommended a top box (survey box) where people could put in their lists of "top five" books/cds/dvds, etc. Matt recommended a speaker system featuring "laboratory and mechanical" sounds to be played.

Budget

• The only program that went over budget so far this past year was the Cinema Rex night. We had to pay for the room because we didn't drink enough from the cash bar. We need to encourage lots of drinking at the trivia contest! We have spent $4,816.26 so far. The total budget for the year is $23,354.00. We still have $18,500 to spend (most of which has been apportioned out for various events.) We have $950 still set aside for other room parties (OddCon or FilmCon anyone?) We have $450 set aside for publications (including chapbooks and bookmarks), and have used $40 of our $1,200 capital expenditure budget. We will be buying more capital expenditures this weekend, including things for the permanent CONvergence standing Misfittle Laboratory set, as well as room parties supplies like a microwave, crock pot, blender, and toaster oven (all of which will remain at the MISFITS office when not in use.)

Other

• Peter and Thomas will be reorganizing the office this weekend and putting up shelves.
• Officer Retreat - All five officers have voted in favor of having an officer retreat this spring. Erica requested that it be a weekend in April. It was decided that we will have our retreat on April 22nd and 23rd at the Sheraton South. We will be checking in Saturday at 3 PM and check out Monday morning. All officers are encouraged to try to get April 24th off work or arrange to work a later shift (i.e. after 12:00) on that Monday. We will be requesting the con-suite and one additional room. Peter will follow up with Ish immediately to secure availability. Fortunately, this retreat will coincide with a Sunday Concom on the 23rd. We will also be featuring a meal that the officers significant others will be invited to. The general MISFITS membership took an opportunity at the working meeting to recognize this batch of officers for all the hard work they have put into MISFITS over the past tumultuous year. Take a retreat you guys, you earned it!
• The officers are reminded also that April 1st is the deadline to get written notification to the board of directors letting them know if the officers intend to be considered for appointment again for another term.

Revised: 02.24.2006
 

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