August 10, 2015
Atc Board Meeting
Stephen – Local YouTube Gamer
Wants to Start a Club to connect to other gamers
Technology, Games, Networking, Multiplayer Gaming, Create a community and work up to going to Cons.
John-Looking for space to host or what needs are you looking for
Advertising, be an ATC Sponsor
John is for this idea, but Jay can take care of this without our approval. We don’t have a president for this.
Michelle-This is why we have a club coordinator
John set up her email- clubs@atc.og
Directing this matter to Jay.
He works with 2 friends with his YouTube and gaming.
Looking to create a mcm (Multi Channel Network)
Hoping to do panels at Fusion, MetaCon, and 2016 Detour
Referred to keep 2d con in mind as well.
Change order of agenda? Do Furry Migration the attendance cap?
Fury Migration
Jayson
Attendance
Back to planned Agenda
Ben-
Looking to increase Thematic
Increase branding at hotel
Give more of a visual appearance
Themes dept takes up space
Off season items – big shipping containers rented from Big Blue Box, $100/Month
Wants to have items that can carry over year to year to keep cost down
Inefficient to store in AD locker
Will be more cost efficient, same physical space at ¼ cost
Could buy the container and pay $80/month
If we buy it we can paint it with our Logo
Rent just a box
Own we can do what we want for our storage needs
Need to get before budgeting in Sept-Lauren
Want to get a plan for this soon
Get on logistics or themes department budget proposal. At this point not a board issue
Cost of purchase- 1900-2400 20 ft container
Pre-emptive strike for what is coming, also use for off season items, merchandise
Heather mentioned that we do use merchandise in the off season
Would be insured separately
Would need to find a spot in the Metro long term to store Big Blue Box at if we do this
Is the $100 and$ 80 a solid price? Jayson
Yes this is the standard cost for a long term use. We will be long term. They consider long term 1 year.-Ben
Jayosn- Look at the numbers and get back to me
Get a small 4x6 enclosed trailer for load outs at Conventions. We would need a vehicle to haul. Ben has a truck if needed.
This would avoid items being damaged in transport form weather.
Looking in to pricing on these 1800-2100
Could use the trailer to haul room party decorations for other cons so we can be better decorate other than a banner and a projector.
Variety of vehicles used. A minivan with a trailer hitch works fine
I am generally on site for load out for the cons anyway
Member of 2 of 3 of them.
Fury- Come in late. Admits this is his fault.
Told his people the dates.
Thought he sent and never went to double check.
I realized when approached at the Drive in Event.
Just assumed the Board had it.
Admits there is a delay.
He said he never got a second form.
Kim and I confirmed all cons requesting items got both emailed to them
Dave- Fury is late, approve or no?
Lauren- Give benefit of the doubt , had a conversation with Ben. We have approved all equipment requests we have seen. There could be confusion form my end as well.
Kim- The radio fee was not paid last year (fury and Poke) I propose we charge them double.
Ben- I don’t see an issue with this.
John agrees. Since we know this con needs our help.
Radio fee is$ 75?
All in favor ? all in favor
Ben is fine getting the items he is about to request
There are many things on this form that we have voted to change but have not changed.
Kalic said the check has been made out
Kim has not seen this check
Do we have anything saying if the debt has not been paid we don’t rent?
Won’t get equipment until we have gotten the payment.
Waiting on the server to make changes.
Vote on Fury Migration-
Change form so radios as a unit are considered one unit to be given out. Increased work at check in and out when divided up.?
Jayson-
Got a form from Double Tree
Will send to board in 24 Hrs
Will give board the 2017
Where else to get Bids, Double Tree, Crown, Xcel, Convention Centers, River Center, Down Town Hyatt Minneapolis
All downtown Minneapolis and St. Paul will charge for parking.
Attendance Cap-
What is the cap going to be, we go over this yearly
Failing on short term goals
What we have been dong x years ago we forget how much we have grown
Want short, long and medium term goals
Can plan ahead this way
Not going to take away from Michelle who proposed this idea.
Want to up cap, look at what goal should be.
This will help with the bids. We want to grow then we can look at say a convention center.
Want to know where we are going so we can plan ahead.
Dave said we can only set a goal one year out. The next board may have a different view. If someone steps down we can only plan concretely for a year ahead. We need a way to override the plans as the vision changes.
Lauren- Use Vision instead of goal?
John- Even if board changes and they don’t like the vision.
Currently do 3 year contracts-Jayson
Would like at least an idea of what we want to achieve.
This should be looked at yearly to be reviewed. The board changes yearly and so do our goal.
None of us may be here by 2018, and we are expecting them to follow what we set.-Tony
Heather backed up Dave
Tony-Heightened since of responsibility and looking forward we should be concerned by looking at increasing the attendance
As a board we sit down and look at when this will be a good time to look at Double Tree or other options. Change the size; we want to let our choices know we are exploring all options.
Did everyone read Anton’s email?
Michelle read email.
(Summarize his email)
Add 500 for next year and 500 for 2017
5k seems to be a cut off for some guests
This would allow for me to increase the stipends without impacting charitable work or other departments.
The majority of conventions now pay appearance fees to the guests, this is now becoming an industry standard.
Due to our charity work we can get high quality guests, but there has been a time when a guest has chosen another convention. This could be because of an appearance fee.
Anton does not want to follow this model (paying appearance fee), he would rather see the stipend doubled.
Having a larger budget we can look at more frequent Japanese guests or look at having a band.
We could also use this to get a few more voice actors or other industry professionals in gaming or cosplay.
I believe that we can handle additional people without overworking our
staff. We will need to reach out to obtain more staff members but we
should be doing that anyway to account for turnover.
Jayson- Stipends fees can be quite high 3-4k for bigger name
Andy- pay for appearance fee for larger name guest, what about guest of honor?
Greg will want a fee if we find out that we are paying others, find out not all are being treated equal will excommunicate that con.
Kim they get it in cash
I am fine with comp hotel and appearance fee. Got to keep guests we have and want- Daved
Michelle- About getting new talent
Let’s not spend income before we have the funds. Other departments may need it.-John
Dave- Don’t agree with John
Don’t go below 10% don’t go above 20% please keep the numbers in mind. –Jayson
Eric- Form a tech stand point the cost are going up. Whether we increase the cap or don’t do something we will go broke. We don’t have unlimited funds.
Heather – better way to make $ then raising cap? Would it decrease the quality of the experience for the attendee. We give lots to charity and don’t want to take away from that. People have stopped going to Convergance, same space, due to crowding. There are better ways to raise money without decreasing the attendance exp?
Troy- Reduce the experience for regular guests? Do we want growth? It is not going to be the same 5k. It is about the exp form the attendees and we get lots of good feed back
As far as experience goes as a long term Convergence goers, Anime Detour has not reached the overcrowding. Our events and what draws people in are spread out better. They have better individual draw and people flow.
Why up the cap, other than $. Con has grown, cap has not. Larger budgets, doing better and bigger things. Issue with ghosting. Everything about the con has grown except the cap. We can support other smaller things this way. We have all this stuff we give back with as well. Our mission is to help out community
Morgan – In favor of increasing cap, to big to be a small con. Too little for fostering a growing community. We are in a Grey area. Increase in a split way- up pre registration, have other cons help out at our con,
Out of staters come and find out sold out and are stuck for the weekend.- Earned a bad rap for this
Jayson- We have learned over the years. 5k is a small #, why ruin the exp. There will always be a ghosting issue
John- Mostly want to say what we do, the con will change. Stay same size people we will say we fell the same, grow people will say we don’t feel the same. Growing is a big change, more work, more staff, new venue. How do we take the bigger population and make it the best we can be. Say our goal is 10k in 5 years is a shitty goal. For increasing the cap. Want to challenge ourselves to give it a great feel. (See Johns email)
Ghosting is like Pirating. It is always going to happen. Talk about the experience. Newer to the community 2013, seen lots of the same stuff. There is room to grow, but keep the exp that people have come to expect. For the cap increase. – Michelle
Lauren- when this started the founders were people who had seen small cons explode. Personally, don’t want to see a up cap. As a member I hear talk about our cap in and out of the convention scene. Feedback is that people would like to see us expand. Feel that as elected member of community I put my personal feelings aside. Leaning to increasing the cap. Get a boarder range of interest; we don’t have broader space-program room, video room. We need to expand base of operations.
Kelly- Fundraising, bake sale. Look at these ideas
Joey- pass
Kim- Not sure what to add. Opinions has not changed from last year. Don’t put a challenge in fort there is no way to change.
Morgan and Tony for the increase, growth can be good
Jayson- NO opinion, see previous statement. As chairman want a projection to help staff prepare. Have been offered programming space (Crown)
Heather- One point to add on to what John said. Make the event the best for what we have. We are not doing it. Worst year for staff behavior, this is a concern. Staff may not be ready.
John- Agree with staff issues. Have spoken to Matt Paulsen and he feels his staff can meet the challenge. I still think growing is a good idea. Look at other venues. Raise cap we won’t just be at Double Tree. Feels it should be raised by 1k.
Kevin- Growing in bounds is in the best interest for the community at large. People that we represent want our number bigger
Dave- Vision not a goal. Look at this year. 2016 600, 44, 500 over the years
For cap, got a great community, owe it to them to raise-Maxwell
Connie-Look at pros and cons increasing. Don’t want it to lose the small con feel
Michelle- Don’t want it to get stagent, new comers always come. Want an equal oppurnity
Theai- For a slight increase up to 500, like to see the community involved, review at post mortem.
Keep staff needs in mind for the challenges
Andy- Staff incident, perhaps the staff was board, convention goers say it feels stale. Growth revitalizes the staff and gives them something to rise to. 250-300 over the next few years. 1k per year, John are you carzy! Time to evaluate our readiness
Ben-evertiem we up the cap , staff has stepped up to the goal. Make feel welcomed, good face no matter what department that we are here for you. We have to get this message out that the staff is here for you. 500-1k increase. Don’t want to overwell security, con suite for example. For it as long as we can keep the family feel. Have hear we are declining on this. I come back because I enjoy.
Erick-Like word been used. We need to give best show possible. Hate word attendee, makes our guests feel unspeacial. We need to make everyone feel like our guests. If we can make it feel that everyone is our guest, get rid of Nazi secutity feel, make it a more guest relations feel. This will help us get better review. 10% increase a year. Know our staff can do this we are professionals.
Decide what we are going to vote on before we vote. 2014 board wanted to increase the cap but voted not to, passed by 1 vote. Very split race. Concern- Reg for 2015 was open, did not want to make unexpected wait on already open registration.
Michelle-Form for reg. Any compliplcaton for it being open longer?
Don’t want to speak for reg, but would sell out at same rate. No were is it shown we cap, it is a %.
Dave as Division head see no issues in a cap, need to clean the printer after 5k prinited out
John- we have 2 years to try out an increase
Jayson- This discousson is so important. Looking at other loations on how to improve and increase.
Tony- We are hear vote and do what we feel is reposnable to the convention as a whole for the community.
Informal all in favor for 2016
Half and half on this vote
Informal raise- most want 500 or less increase.
Vote on 500, keep staff of out of count? Yes
Reg system written to keep staff out of it .
Stepped plan? Vote of intent for 2017?
Vote on a cap raise with a vision for 2017? Not set in stone but we see a 6k for 2017. Ask on our survey if the attendance cap was liked.
Vote6 in favor
1 opposed
Who will make the announcement? All agreed to tell staff on Sunday.
Michelle will make announcement
Morgan will post on social media
Don’t announce out of staff at this time
Table Clubs email for when Jay is back. Secretary will email her. Morgan will coordinate with this.
Kim-
Not much to say
Lighting fest passes and parking
St. Paul Sister City day of rememberce at Como-Sat 22nd
Thank you card form Robotics’ club
17th of Sept Life Blood awards Lymphoma and Leukemia Society –will forward email
Financially got Medtronic check $500
5363.71- Community fund
12410.08
Still getting small amounts from registration
5092.65-ed fund
188K
Over all in good shape
Coordinator-
Morgan- Everything is trending up. More followers each week. Had internet issues. Wants email on what to put in the newsletter so it can be formed. Lauren made suggestion to reach out to department heads for updates. Morgan also suggests re-writing the con survival guide, moving it from AD site to ATC site. Michele suggests increases media staff. Morgan- New daft by next meeting? Jayson- liked the proposals
Giant stack of posters
10to Heather to give out
Small budget to give away posters and ship them out to winners
Have your budget by October – Lauren
Jayson- Sticking with con goal, people to remember to treat each other with concern. Look at how we treat ourselves. May change the attitude a bit. With 500 person increase will take to Dave and Hotel
Send out an emailed agenda by end of week. Will offer people a chance with a one on one with Chairman to bring up issues every 3 months. Lots of departments want large purchases. IT, TECH,
What is a server cost?
All depends. Still looking in to the cost. –John
Have departments that are AD but fall under ATC.
Heather- has staff for cosplay fest
Looking for programming, Workshops
“Staff” badge
Still have 5 open hours
Have the money for item a, but need it for item b, as long as don’t go over budget you can do this.
Kale-Charity meeting Thursday night
Still waiting on Light the Night for Characters in costumes
No water game, looking for alternative game idea
What type of ATC branded equipment- lighted bike reflectors is an idea
Contact Kale with ideas
Jay-Email clubs
PokeCon-
Not comfortable after last year- late getting equipment picked up and returned, did not inform in timely manner, not all equipment was retuned on time. Not paid for last year’s rental. Hard to reach.
Past dead line? Only 60 days out still in the 90 days
Not comfortable with comment on who will be handling equipment
Only a rumor that they are going for profit
Established under the U OF MN
Part of what we do is support up an coming cons, we need to make it clear they need t o pick up on time, pay fees, and take care of equipment.-John
Michelle- Same track as John, we need to spell out consequences of what happens if not following agreement. Make clear what will happen and may not be allowed to rent again
Dave- Strongly against lending
Lots of other con out there.
Lauren- Did not tell us about the event.
Kim- Looks like a copy and paste job.
Morgan- That many radio’s seem a lot
Motion seconded. Vote for decline on last year’s reasons
Vote – for 6
Opposed 1
Anime Fusion-
Any questions on this request?
Favor –all
GPS Site Committee Member-
Lets not appoint until people are given a chance to apply
Michelle- add this to the staff announcements?
Look into replacing our current member, outsider asked out this
Laruen has no objections
Dave_ she still want to this?
Michelle- She is doing her job
Want to get a fee will be partnered with Damara
Deadline to apply will be Friday before September board meeting.
Next meeting
Coordinator Reviews
Board Members send assessment to secretary
Secretary gets 2 weeks to compile
Would we like to keep it this way?
Heather- this is important to me
Chance to coach and review people candid feedback, constructive feed back
Make the announcement at staff meeting
Vote all in favor
By law amendment request- (Dave)
Hand out
Any changes to the one proposed last month
Email Michelle- vote on Coordinator Removal in Sept.
Dave will send an email of the handout
Bylaw on blacklisted members being off board as well?-Dave will work on this issue