Grex Board of Directors Meeting - November 19, 1997
Present: Mark Conger (aruba), TS Taylor (tsty), Misti Tucker (mta),
Valerie Mates (valerie), Steve Gibbard (scg), Jared Mauch (jared),
Jan Wolter (janc), Eric Bassey (other), (ivynymph), (irvingp),
Rob Argy (ajax)
PARSLEY: Meeting called to order 7:45
SAGE: Treasurers Report
[Usually Mark passes the Treasurers report to the secretary in paper
form. This didn't happen this time. I have only the notes Misti
took. Can Mark fill this in? -jan ]
Grex currently has 99 members, 92 of whom are paid up.
Ameritech has once again made a hopeless hash of Grex's phone bills.
We were billed to install both lines on Aug 18, but this was
disconnected on Aug 22 (this bill was sent to the pumpkin's address
instead of to the PO box - since we don't have a mailbox there, it
took a while to actually get to us). Then we received a separate
bill to that charged us for an installation of both lines on Aug 22.
Recently we received a third bill billing us again for an installation
of both lines, this time on Sep 12.
Valerie said she would call Ken Kiernan, our representative at
Ameritech.
ROSEMARY: Publicity
Ken Josenhans is making Grex bumpersticker. The design is pretty
much done. We need to get it printed out so we can get them ordered.
Rob Argy made a batch of T-shirts, and brought them to the board
meeting.
Mugs and Mousepads are ready to go.
Grex store web page in mostly ready.
Discussed putting an ad in the Preformance Network programs.
Discussed putting an ad in program book for Confusion (a science
fiction convention). Valerie moved:
I move that the board authorize up to $30 for advertising
in the ConFusion S. F. convention handbook.
seconded by Mark [I think -jan].
motion passed 4-0-1 (Misti abstaining)
** Misti left at this point, so the board no longer had quorum. We continued
** through the agenda, but the official board meeting was over.
Prices for T-shirts and Sweatshirts were discussed. The following
scheme was suggested:
T-shirts $15
Sweatshirts $26
plus $3 for dark colors (which cost us more)
plus $2 for XXL or XXXL (which cost us more)
THYME: Technical Committee
Scott replaced Grex's power supply. This has ended the regular crashing
and has allowed staff to restore Grex to its full 128K of memory.
Big thanks for scott.
Valerie added in 12 pty's then pulled 6 back out.
Jan installed a new version of backtalk.
CARDAMOM: Auction Report
26 items have been put up in the November Auction. As of Monday, a
total of $262 has been bid. $10 has been received.
Please, check out the auction conference if you haven't already.
There are still a few items from the last auction that have not been
delivered.
OREGENO: Election Report
There are eight candidates for 4 seats. John Remmers may have a
web-based vote program ready in time for the election.
TARRAGON: New Business
None.
NUTMEG: Meeting closed.
32 responses total.
Sorry for the shabby state of these minutes. It was a pretty shabby meeting. I took over taking notes when Misti left, and didn't do too good a job either taking my own notes or writing up hers. Misti left because the discussion about the higher prices for the XXL and XXXL t-shirts triggered a series of rather insensitive remarks about big people that she justifiably found offensive. She considered resigning her board seat, but chose not to. I personally apologize for my own contributions to that line of discourse. I did not include this in the minutes themselves, but perhaps it should be. I feel that board meetings are official public functions, and events there should not be editted to protect either the innocent or the guilty.
I am interested in the follow-up on the phone bill. Is it appropriate to discuss it in this venue?
Some other followup: STeve Andre met with some of us after the board meeting and agreed to talk to Ken about the Ameritech bills. He has since done so. Last I heard things still hadn't been fully resolved. We have 53 T-shirts and sweatshirts. If we sell them all at the prices we set, they will bring $1056.00. I don't know what we paid for them, so I don't know how much of this is profit. $192.00 worth of shirts have been bought and paid for. Another $213.00 worth have been "reserved" but not yet paid for. Item 100 in agora is the current place to buy shirts on-line.
Eric slipped in. I have no more information that what I reported, but yes, it is certainly OK to discuss them in this venue.
STeve said that Ken K. said he would get back to STeve on Tuesday or Wednesday about the phone bill. In the meantime I am going to pay the undisputed amount, which I estimate at $460. As for the tresurer's report - the October report is online; the only additions were that so far in November we had taken in $290 and gotten no new members. As Jan said we were (at the time of the meeting) at 99 members, 92 paid up.
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According to Mark the bill for the t-shirts and such came to $736.00 (Wow!) I sure hope most of them sell. ;-) Also, it was at the December 1996 meeting that the Board allocated $500 toward the purchase of merchandise for the Grex Store. That was the meeting for which no official minutes were posted. So I'd suggest it might be appropriate to officially approve whatever is thought necessary, next meeting, to make it official (including the original $500). Am I the only one who is a little concerned about 21% of our cash assets being used to purchase "spec" t-shirts? But then I tend to be fiscally conservative for the most part.
I agree that we ought to officially approve it. I also agree that it's a lot of money, and I was surprised at how much. I'm not really worried about it, though, because the T-shirts are so beautiful that I'm sure they will sell. The board ought to make a decision about what percentage of our assets we'd like to see tied up in stock at any given time. I'm not sure 20% is unreasonable, but it will depend on how brisk the sales are. I suppose you might say that we took a gamble on what we knew was Rob Argy's considerable artistic talent. I think it has paid off (but we ought to chart the sales before we can say for sure).
ivynymph is Amanda Hood. She's a very nice person. <smile> (of course, i am a bit biased)
Whom should one contact regarding getting a T-shirt (I assume there *is* a point person for this...), and for non-locals, perhaps a standard shipping charge could be posted, also?
Agora Item 100 has all the facts, and I'll have a web page up sometime soon. You can send mail to me. There is a $3 shipping charge per shirt if you want them mailed to you. If you are in Michigan there is a 6% sales tax.
They are really nice t-shirts. I'm relieved to see nobody else feels uncomfortable with the bill. I'll stop worrying. ;-)
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Well, we have at least covered the $250 extra that we spent on shirts beyond what the board allocated. So it's a screw up, and we really should try to do better, and we really should set a policy for how much we want to have tied up in inventory at any given time, but by the time the check reachs Ajax, Grex' treasury will be pulled down by much less than $500.
Cost of 53 shirts to Grex: $736 Expected Total Selling price: $1056 Expected Profit: $320 Shirts sold so far: $243 Profit to Grex, so far: -$493 Shirts ordered, but not yet paid for: $461
Oops, that last number is wrong. And some more shirts got paid for. So here's the corrected data: Cost of 53 shirts to Grex: $736 Expected Total Selling price: $1056 Expected Profit: $320 Shirts sold so far: $307 Profit to Grex, so far: -$403 Shirts ordered, but not yet paid for: $161
cool idea! why nmot throw in the shirts as freebies for new members...i.e. for a six month paid in full membership you get a free t-shirt...pay for a full-year y ou get a free sweatshirt. Would be good incentive to join! The shirts wo8uld pay for themselves in new members alone!
sounds a little like shooting yourself in the foot in order to sell tickets to a spectacle. you get the money from the ticket sales, but then you have to pay the doctor...
Re #17: I think the shirts are too expensive for that, Richard.
We might do that with bumper-stickers.
Wasn't there some little booklet or something that was being given out with memberships a while back, or am I delusional again?
If you pay for 3 months or more of membership at one time, you get a copy of Misti's 23-page Grex handbook, "Wizard in Training". (Limit one per person.)
Which Mark has kindly updated.
(Well, not yet, but soon.)
Oh good, I'm not delusional after all.
is that handbook online somewhere? maybe there could be a discount offered on tshirts and seatshirts for longterm new memberships (50% off fo ra year, 25% off for six months?)
Re #26: No, the handbook is not online, but if you sned us a dollar I'll send you one, Richard. :)
sheesh, why cant the hadbook justbe put onlinein like the info conf or something...thgat is what that conf is for
Much of the handbook information is online in one form or another. Why do you object to paper?
People having trouble navigating Grex might have trouble reading the handbook online as well. However, if it were on the web that would be less of a problem. Even so, I think it's a good thing to make a paper version available. Paper is a more comfortable environment for lots of true newbies and hence a friendly way to help them get into online activity.
Exactly, John. Thank you!
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