open session: meeting room [John]
have chair or Secretary communicate to GPS re: requested room
â–º what is the preferred room?
Lauren, Kim, Rin, Sari for present room (106A, with tables and chairs)
John and Brian for usual room (106)
Kevin abstains
meetings will probably soon outgrow capacity of 106 [Heather]
Anime Detour attendance cap
Lauren: currently, loose cap of 5,000 (excluding staff, dealers, Guests of Honor)
Brian Jonas (offline): I would like to see the attendance cap remain at the current level. If anything, I'd rather see a modest price increase. I think AD is a comfortable, manageable size as is. While it is busy, AD doesn't feel overcrowded like CONvergence often does nowadays. I think both attendees and AD Staff benefit from having the con be capped at the current level.
Dave: stress levels of higher-level staff would be raised with increased attendance and subsequent crowd control concerns
Jayson: department heads should approach any increased attendance with a plan on how to prepare their staff; currently, they are not prepared and are susceptible to burning out
Chris: why not increase incrementally?
Heather: no shortage of incoming staff, so department heads should be better at delegation and not burn themselves out
Heather: increased attendance should be accompanied by increase in space
Jayson: increase is feasible for AD 2016, but not AD 2015
Jayson: if space is added in another hotel, would need way of funneling significant traffic there
Gifford: moving the Dealers Room would not be well-received, because of resultant decrease in sales
John: discussion shouldn't be oriented toward staff stability, because it's always in flux; rather, it should be along the lines of a 5-year plan
Rin: is raising attendance going to compromise the integrity of Detour and its community feeling?
Anita: can retain sense of community with increased attendance (Heather and Sari disagree)
Erick: staff is ready for the challenge of higher attendance, within limits
Erick: too many people leads to higher frequency of security incidents
Lauren: wants to ascertain that no one is advocating an unlimited cap, or raising by 2000
John: specifies that possible increases would be targeted for at least 18 months in the future
Sari: should be a max point in mind, instead of raising incrementally every so often without one, so as to maintain community feeling
Rin: from a staffing POV, raising attendance is feasible; from a community POV, it's a bit more iffy
Gifford: does Detour need the increased income from raised attendance, as it did in its earlier years? what would be the purpose?
John: would want more people to attend, so that more people can enjoy the experience, and the additional income would help more charities and more departments
Heather: there's always going to be disappointment among people who're locked out
Heather: should analyze why people want to come to Detour
Heather: some things particular to Detour as a smaller con can't be retained as a bigger con
Erick: it may be better to have several smaller cons than a mega-con
Lauren: financial means are there to bankroll another con, but not the manpower
informal poll of non-board members who'd be in favor of a 500 increase for AD 2016: 5 for, 2 against
John: registration has closed earlier every year, even with incremental increases in attendance cap
Lauren: last vote was denied because of concerns of losing communal atmosphere, staff readiness, increased cost of resources
attendance was last officially raised three years ago
Kevin: may harm community by keeping cap static
Heather: another con would be better option, but currently there's no suitable time
Jayson: has already heard people comment that Detour is not the same
Lauren: heard similar comments when Detour moved from Thunderbird
Kevin: people talk colored by nostalgia, frequently incorrectly
John: should do what's best for ATC and not worry too much about what people will say, because some will always be upset
John: may not retain community feel even if attendance cap stays the same
Heather: what event does ATC want Detour to be? because you can't please everyone
Jayson: where does board want Detour to be in 10 years?
â–º motion to raise AD 2016 attendance cap to 5,500 (excluding staff), with reasons behind each individual board member vote [Lauren]
Brian: abstains
doesn't feel his vote would be appropriate, as this is his last year on staff
reconsiders abstention upon being reminded by Jayson that he was voted onto the board to represent the staff
Lauren: no
doesn't want to progressively raise the cap, which would be more trouble than it's worth
based on feedback from Programming and Video and Consuite, not on comprehensive quantitative data analysis
Kevin: no
wants to see whether there'd be more resources in next hotel contract
Kim: yes
the additional income (500 * $50 = $25,000) would be worth it
John: yes
increased responsibilities associated with increased attendance would spur growth in staff development
Sari: no
mirrored Lauren's concerns, and uncertain about the line of adequate community feeling
should do more legwork in investigating CONvergence [John]
Rin: yes
staff is getting stagnant (change would be good) and would like to see more charitable donations
Andy: no, if he were able to vote
there is a lot of key staff turnover within the next year, and an increase by 500 may leave new staff unprepared
also, a new hotel may be on the horizon [Lauren]
reiterates need for time to get staff prepared and for professional leadership development [Jayson]
Brian: no
there's no concrete plan in place of what ATC wants Detour to be, and would like to know for a change of this magnitude
motion is defeated, 4 to 3
Jayson should detail his vision of Detour going forward, in preparation for next year's attendance cap discussion [Lauren]
with reports from Programming, Consuite, Video, Security, Hotel
committee to do research within and without Detour [John]
should start by January at the latest [Brian]
added Dave to hotel bid committee to get results by October [Lauren]
equipment requests
Furry Migration
Ben Amundson would like request forwarded
Anime Fusion
ask Ben Amundson to specify radio headsets and chargers when he checks them out, 10 TV mounts
â–º motion to approve request
vote passes with no objections
Poke Con
form seems incomplete - no speakers, audio receivers
would not want to rent out AD Security vests [Kim]
views from experience tech person [Kale]
â–º John motions to approve Kale as the proxy to determine the feasibility of finished request
vote passes with no objections
office of the Secretary
acknowledgement that meetings will stay on Monday nights
Andy will transcribe future meeting notes from Kale's recordings
LLS Lifeblood Awards - Secretary will RSVP on behalf of the board, pending individual responses
Secretary will be responsible for answering outside correspondence, or directing it to the relevant party
acknowledgement of Lauren and Andy's meeting about Secretarial duties
wording in bylaws unchanged, as there is flexibility to cover various interpretations
Secretary will write thank-you note for Ryan Kopf's cookies
quick hits
Sari's projects
outline for CCTV commercial
may end up doing e-mail newsletter by self
wants John to elaborate on her ideation role on next-generation website
Brian's projects
policy docs due in October/November
John's projects on hold
need legal help with trademarks involving geographic locations
patent officer's job is to come up with at least one reason not to approve applications [Lauren]
want to avoid a back-and-forth with patent officer, would rather step forth with a strong application
Kim's projects
Consuite, Logistics, Gaming, Photography still missing inventory
Brian to ask International School of MN to cash check by end of September
professional staff training [Jayson]
through MAP
along the lines of leadership meetings
can collaborate with GPS, which can reduce cost from $20 to $5 per head
around budget season, will ask board to approve cost once a number of attendees can be determined
weird Anime Detour meeting dates due to getting in Waterbury date requests late [Jayson]
Lauren will announce at the next Detour meeting the results of attendance cap vote, in conjunction with presidential report
Coordinator reviews
question: are we reviewing Gifford for this year? [Brian]
- no [Lauren]
reviews will be sent to Andy, who will send compilation to board
compilation will form basis for open discussion at next meeting
should send compilation to coordinators beforehand too, so that they can prepare responses [Sari]