January 2024 Board Notes

Date:

01/09/2024

Attendance:

Board Attended: Alli Cassel, Alyssa Johnson, Bruce Levine, Chelsea “Buttons” Lieser, Kristen Loth, and Nick Nelson
Board Absent:
Observers: Samantha Cozort and Troy MacDonald

Notes:

Anime Twin Cities Board Meeting Minutes

January
9th, 2024
6:45 PM

Board Present - Alli Cassel, Alyssa Johnson, Bruce Levine, Chelsea “Buttons” Lieser, Kristen Loth, and Nick Nelson

Public – Samantha Cozort and Troy MacDonald
 

Recap off cycle board actions and votes

• Resignation of Lorien Paulson and appointment of Alyssa Johnson as her replacement.
  We received an email of resignation from Lorien, we accepted that, and we voted and approved Alyssa Johnson to the now open member-at-large vacancy, she was added to the special election.
• Both Alyssa Johnson and Bruce Levine are both now members of the board as a result of the special election and ballots cast.

 

Open Session (First 30 minutes)

• Any members of the community can bring new business to discuss with the board.
  • Nothing
     

Planned Discussions from scheduled visiting parties/ATC Partners

• None, but we did receive a thank you note from the Friends of Hennepin County Library for the donation that we sent, which was very nice.
   

Coordinator Updates

• Anime Detour
  • We’ve progressed further into the final prep for the con including larger items like the themes and program guides.
  • We are finalizing space allocation moves and making sure each area/department has everything ready and set for how their rooms will be laid out during the convention, which is something we will need to review in our contract with our hotel partner.
  • We have been able to build out our children’s programs with the help of people from Anime Milwaukee.
  • We are currently in a big push to get the program finalized and delivered to be printed before the set deadline.
  • The Merch and Food/Bev departments are being followed-up with and supported.
  • We are working with our hotel partner and structuring out the mixer for our staff as well as the special menus.
  • We did make a few changes since the last meeting to the executive team. We have a new vice chair Hotura Vo who will be in charge of Convention Events, and Morgan Niemeyer is taking over as an interim vice chair of Operations, she is overseeing one of the other divisions which will help us to get to the convention then after the con look at what changes we could make like opening up to a new application or restructuring at the executive level. Morgan will continue to assist with staffing and guests at cons. Congrats to both!
  • It takes several people solely dedicated to the K-rock band we are bringing in to have adequate coverage. They will be available by telephone if anything happens, but they feel they should be alright with the assigned support.
  • Bruce brought up that board members could help with the shifts (“on point”), if need be, and Troy said it could be helpful if there was a point person that they could reach out to.
• Communications
  • None
     
• Finance
  • 990 and attorney general documents have been sent for the 2023 fiscal year end and those will both be posted on the site.
  • The total dollar amount in each of our accounts are as follows:
    • Business Checking - $379,627.99
    • Education Fund - $3,097.92
    • Business Market Rate Savings - $14,505.17
       

15 Minute Break (If the preceding topics take little time, the board may vote to skip this)

Current Month Board Topics          

• Legal Retainer
  • We are keeping Brian Gravely/Halvorson Law as a long-term legal resource / retainer for ATC.
  • With the agreement we would have a legal resource for general questions, and he would be available if we need legal representation.
  • His services will cost $150 a month, and that entails up to 5 hours a month of advisory help. If we need something greater than that then we can expand the scope of the agreement.
  • It will start this month once we agree and sign off, it allows any member to contact the lawyer and ask questions, anything from Detour would need to come up through the board of directors. This would help to limit the number of emails to him, and it would help with keeping track of communications / requests.
  • No additional charges unless it goes over the 5 hours stated, or it’s a legal issue that constitutes more than consultation.
    • Motion to accept the agreement by Buttons
      Bruce seconded
      Motion passes, Alli will get it signed and we will have a lawyer again.
       
• Application for President by Christina Kramer
  • Christina would do a great job; she is very organized.
  • It is important to get voting within the next cycle so we can get her onboard.
  • Alli will get the ballot and information out and we validated that she meets the criteria and qualifies.
    • Buttons motions to have Christina voted on as President
      Kristen seconded
      The motion passes.
    • We will get a date set and email out soon followed by a ballot, this will be determined by the next meeting.
       
• Mailing Address
  • Certain tax forms and documents require a street address, so we are going to research a more centrally located UPS store for our mailing address. It could also be a good idea to have it closer to the actual con venue.
  • We should have the treasurer, certain positions, and if there are designated people very close to the location have keys to the new PO box.
  • We will investigate making the treasurer an appointed position next month, once the treasurer has access it would be easy to also give others who need access to the PO box a key.
  • We will meet and look at a map together to determine the best location and vote on the UPS location at a later date, ideally one with 24-hour service.
     
• Alcohol Policy
  • ATC has a semblance of an alcohol policy; this prohibits alcohol from ATC events unless expressly permitted by the board appointed coordinator overseeing the event:
    • “Alcohol is prohibited at ATC events unless expressly permitted by the Board-appointed Coordinator overseeing the event. In such cases alcohol may be allowed within the confines of any policies set by the Coordinator for the event, but ATC itself will not purchase, supply, or distribute any alcoholic beverages. Under no circumstances may attendees under the legal age consume alcohol at an ATC event. Those of legal age [Rin] who choose to consume assume sole responsibility for their actions.”
  • This can limit us for our industry mixers where we would like to responsibly provide and could utilize a drink ticket system with 1 or 2 tickets per guest.
  • This would keep the drinking responsible as well as be financially responsible by capping the tickets.
  • This comes up very infrequently, but it does handcuff us for our own event/industry mixers.
  • It is a policy not a bylaw, and we should be putting trust in the coordinator that this isn’t something that would be abused.
  • If we at least had language that didn’t specifically forbid it, that would be a positive and it is nice and semiprofessional to be able to provide alcohol in moderation from an industry/business standpoint, like having a nice drink along with the meal.
  • Bruce mentioned if Detour continues to grow, and we scale up to an arena sized venue this would also factor into helping with the food/beverage minimums.
  • This would also be a nice addition to have beverage carts for the raves and 18+ events at the convention.
  • This was drafted 10 years ago when we didn’t have an industry mixer, so it makes sense to update the policy when using this context when viewing the original policy which did have a good intent but is now a bit outdated.
  • This should primarily apply to Anime Detour.
     
• About Us / Website Update
  • Bruce needs to track down how to give Kevin the necessary access to update the website about us section.
  • Nick has sent in the requested information, but everyone else please provide your name, updated bio (if needed), term expiration year, and a photo (350p x 350p or larger as long as its squared).
     

Open Board Projects/Future Meeting discussions

Motion to adjourn
Seconded
 

7:32pm meeting adjourned.
 

Please contact atcboard@animetwincities.org or atc_secretary@animetwincities.org if you would like to be added to the agenda for discussion items.