Minutes of the KumoriCon General Meeting held February 10, 2008
Called to order at 1:33 PM on Sunday, February 10, 2008
Presiding - Michael Andrews, Chair
Minutes taken by - Jo Ayers
1. Reports of Boards and Standing Committees.
a. Relations – New guests were announced last meeting. Returning
guests include Kirk Thornton and The Slants. Most staff positions
are filled, but need general staffers and liaisons. Lori Collins is new
exhibits manager, send her minions.
b. Programming – Panel applications still being accepted. General staff
needed, especially for cosplay, viewing rooms. Gaming and
tournament organization are in progress. Guy, AMV contest: rules
are finalized, deadline end of March, Anime up to 1990, music of
any time. Andy, Cosplay contest: needs minions, sign-up should be
going up this week. Talk to Jaki at break-out about Art show.
c. Publicity – Posters available, Flyers forthcoming. Anyone can
distribute. Next weekend is 2 day event in Eugene – Eugene Asian
Festival; need table workers, cosplayers. Cat-Ear table will also be
available. Will be taking registrations at table at Sakuracon (table
swap) and Uwajimaya. Badges will have new designs, and website
will be updated soon.
d. Operations – 2008 schedule of activities presented via PowerPoint
along with verbal report. Also the 2008 Operations Org Chart.
Position descriptions included. Managers have been appointed and
helped design other positions. Some are designed with eye to
future (not necessarily to be used this year). Con Suite Manager
position not filled right now, and this report has shifted to Vice
Chair. Current staff allocation vs. requirement is shown. Almost
25% of positions filled. No particular qualifications required for
staff except Nursing, where staffer must have RN or EMT
certification. February task chart closed the presentation.
i. Actual presentation (censored for confidentiality) will be
added to Minutes thread in Forum.
e. Financial – as of Feb 2005, account balance was $12K; in 2006, it
was $14K; in 2007, $12.5K; and this year it was $35K. Staff retreat
is in Depoe Bay April 25-7; Brownie will coordinate; two hot tubs
available; RSVP needed. Hotel contract amendments signed last
Thursday, so now have official contract. Staff block changed from
35 rooms as pre-determined to 105 room-nights to be allocated as
necessary. Con can use own equipment (saving 85K). Parking is
$5/24hrs, $3 for day pass (not overnight). Questions/discussion:
i. Prop-steel to be negotiated.
ii. Mask policy needed, especially so Yojimbo can enforce.
iii. Internet is for porn, availability/price will be checked on and negotiated if possible.
f. Secretary – now 47 staff registered, so quorum is 10 voting
persons. Presentation on history of Con is planned. Please provide
questions or suggestions for inclusion
i. Equipment lists – generally private and provided as needed
for completion of job duties
ii. Historical minutes – available only up to three years back,
requests for Board minutes need to be made in writing to
the secretary; type of presentation does not support this
request.
iii. Facility use history
iv. Happier pictures of staff
v. Hotel reactions to our presence
g. Vice – there was a dance (Winter Masquerade) at which we met
the goal of breaking even. Some lessons were learned. Photos will
be up on website soon. Eugene Asian Festival next weekend; we
will have registration table there. Will be working out some details
with hotel (catering, etc.).
h. Chair – going to Klamath Falls next weekend for outreach to do
something like rock band tournament. Outreach throughout the
year is to be encouraged, so talk to Mike if you are a member of a
club that may be interested. Jaki adds info about upcoming mini-
events: info and staff requests will be posted on forums. "Spring
Dance" planned for late May, early June.
i. Mini-event requested for Eugene area – "You find the space,
we’ll bring the content." For example, gaming rooms,
minicon type events.
2. Special Report
a. Chair – forum traffic has been high and on some volatile topics.
Introduction of topics at last meeting without notification to chair
made it difficult to manage with grace. Since then, the Board met
to discuss memberships. Result: no one has been red-listed and no
one will be red-listed. Facilities Liaison was removed due to
divisiveness and difficulty with communication.
i. Concern: Meg’s staff form was returned. Explanation
requested. Concern was based on Rian’s delivery of form
when Meg was not present. Ryan added that staff are
required to deliver forms in person.
ii. Concern: was Rian fired for turning in Meg’s form? No;
rather the communication issues and the wasted bandwidth
dealing with conflicts was the primary issues.
iii. Concern: these issues should not be played out "in the court
of public opinion". The general meeting is not the most
appropriate venue.
iv. Discussion closed with the statement that the attempt here
is made to clarify everything for all. A report clarifying the
reasoning behind the decisions shall be prepared for next
month.
3. Unfinished Business
a. From previous minutes: Motion for consideration by the board:
"Assumed consent for an official recording to be made of General
meetings either in audio or video format. Any speaker may at any
given time be allowed to ask for off the record remarks, and such a
request will create a break in the official record, until such time as
they are done speaking. The board will need to address this issue,
and will have it available for general vote at the next meeting."
i. Correction requested by original mover to delete the word
"official" from the first sentence.
ii. Result of board discussion (committee referral): Anyone
desiring to record a meeting should notify attendees as a
point of courtesy to allow option to refuse. Minutes will be
the only official meeting record.
iii. Discussion thread will be posted on forum to provide
opportunity to raise legal concerns. Vote at next meeting.
b. Skype available today?
i. No. Blame Mike. Also, conference calling ability required at
remote sites. Chat will be monitored so that remote sites
can request time on the floor.
c. Next month’s meeting will probably be at the Salem Public Library
4. New Business
a. Quorum and majority: 31 members present, 21 votes required for
majority.
b. Moved and seconded to accept/ratify minutes as corrected.
c. Motion for Remote Voting presented and seconded as follows:
---- Begin Motion ----
Motion to follow this procedure for Remote Voting:
We shall follow this procedure for remote voting verification until the Membership passes a new procedure or a set of Bylaws are installed which provide a remote voting verification process.
Remote Votes:
Shall be accepted for this meeting in two written formats.
1) A non-ambiguous vote-by-vote reply from the Staff member's known account to either the current meeting's announcement thread, or optionally a more appropriate thread if defined during the meeting before voting. Such a definition shall be included in the minutes.
2) A hard copy of the same information as #1 that is signed by the Member, and mailed no less then 3 business days from the meeting to the following: The Secretary, The President, and the Publicity (Communications) directors.
Votes are subject to Membership review, and contention by the Staff member in cases where they believe they may have been tampered with.
During the meeting, for ease of tally the following shall occur:
A count of all votes from Members within the room. The tally of all votes types and abstentions shall be recorded in the minutes.
A verbal or text reply in whatever remote session is occurring, which shall be recorded, including the Staff member's name, and what their vote is.
The decision shall be valid instantly if there is a clear passing level within just the Members in the room, and after all remote votes have been tallied or declared invalid due to failure in communications in all other cases.
---- End Motion ----
Friendly referral to forum for discussion accepted by original
mover since we do not have remote participation at this
meeting.
d. Motion to Amend the Altonimbus Entertainment Bylaws presented
and seconded as follows:
i. Motion to amend Article 2 Section C of the Altonimbus
Entertainment Bylaws to delete Ryan Stasel so that the new
section reads "The founders of ALTONIMBUS
ENTERTAINMENT are (in alphabetical order by last name):
Duncan Barth, Tamara Fuller, Sean Larson, and Peter
Verrey."
ii. Itemized reasons included in motion in lieu of the mover
speaking to his own motion.
iii. Discussion against the motion focused on size of the con and
how that requires stratification of information sharing. The
point was also made that personal issues need to be left out
of the business of the con.
iv. Additional point made that sanctions against persons should
not include re-interpretation of history.
v. Friendly referral to forum for discussion accepted by original
mover.
e. Request for nominations to position of Facilities Liaison here or on
forums with one month deadline. Job description includes scouting
and research to find venues; soliciting bids; contract negotiations;
and communication with the venue during the con itself. The
position will be filled by the election of the Board, not general staff:
i. Brownie – accept
ii. Meg – accept
iii. Rian – defer
iv. Tom – decline
v. Chris Merrit – accept with suggestion that there be two
liaisons, one for current and one for next year. Response
that FL Assistant is expected to fill the additional role.
f. Meeting adjourned for brief recess.
g. Meeting called back to order at 4:17
h. Motion to set a Bylaws review mandate deadline for all current
versions of Bylaws drafts, official or not, published within the
"Bylaws!" thread of the Kumoricon forums by 2008-02-25
presented.
---- Begin Motion ----
Motion: Set a Bylaws review mandate deadline for all current versions of Bylaws drafts, official or not, published within the Bylaws! thread of the Kumoricon forums by 2008 - 02 - 25.
Reasons: The current bylaws have many flaws, and the official Bylaws committee appears to be operating without a known deadline (from the view of an average Staff member).
The staff were not allowed to provide commentary, background, and discussion for any of the board elected positions; since no substantial discussion occurred within the forums and no other venue was provided.
The staff were not allowed to participate in the discussion of recent punishments or director removals.
The Chair is currently allowed to shut down motions.
The Board may still, by unanimous vote, dissolve the convention without even consulting the staff.
The last year's Bylaws Committee never released a draft. This year's Bylaws committee is heading down the same path. They should have had access to all of last year's data, and a good three months to work. Staze, who seems to be on it, has admitted in a forum post (Last meeting's minutes thread), that they do not even have anything in consideration for release of yet.
The Staff elect the Board, except for some positions elected by the Board to the Board. In my mind, the Staff should have the right to remove any Board member, if elected by proxy or not. The current bylaws do not provide this.
The current board is keeping an unusually tight hold on virtually every level of discussion relating to anything involving them. The current bylaws provide no real means for requesting documents, forcing us to use the default procedures outlined in ORS65.
The current Bylaws do not align our views of who should be members with the requirements ORS65 says 'Members' must meet.
The current Bylaws do not provide for using an existing set of rules (For example, Roberts Rules of Order), or outline a basic set of procedures for a meeting. This means that a meeting may be practiced in any unfair way imaginable.
The current Bylaws do not mandate that the Membership have access to key documents, such as the exact disciplinary action reasons and results.
The current Bylaws do not provide alternative procedures to route around deadlocks, inaction, or corruption; nor do they ensure that the Staff always have a say in important matters.
Review Requirements and Process:
The Board shall review all current versions of Bylaws drafts, unofficial or not, that have been posted by Monday the 25th of February 2008 in the Bylaws! thread of the Kumoricon forums. The Board may optionally also review any other drafts posted not less then 7 days prior to the next Membership meeting.
Each draft's review shall include a Two-Thirds requirement Vote for replacing the existing Bylaws with the draft under review.
Each draft that passes may have comments for the record and for the Membership to review in their consideration.
Each draft that fails to pass must have comments describing exactly what is wrong with the document in each board member's view.
The results of each Vote (tally at minimum), and all comments from each member for all the drafts shall be published to the Bylaws! thread in a timely manor.
Membership Votes:
At the next Membership Meeting, any Bylaws drafts that have passed the Two-Thirds Vote by the Board shall be subject to a Two-Thirds vote by the Membership. The Membership may also, if a motion is brought and passed by majority vote, choose instead to voice their dis-satisfaction at the quality of all current drafts and extend all current deadlines by one meeting. The Membership may at any time also, by two thirds vote, choose to abandon this set of directions and deadlines. The preceding statements shall be included in the Minutes and serve as proper notice for the next meeting(s).
In the event that the Board and Membership votes result in more then one draft set of Bylaws passing (by Two Thirds vote in each body) the following resolution method shall determine which set of Bylaws, if any, are to be used.
1) The Membership shall vote on instructing the finalist Bylaws drafters to work together to produce a draft to be reviewed in public by the next Membership Meeting, which the Board shall have already had a Two-Thirds Vote on. If this passes by majority vote, then step 2 shall be delayed until the meeting after the meeting this vote occurred during, also the new draft shall be voted upon first thing at the next meeting.
2) The membership will hold a most popular choice vote among all drafts which passed both the Board and Membership votes. The choice with the most votes (plurality winner) shall be the set of Bylaws adopted. In the event that there is a tie for that position a runoff vote of all ties for that position shall be repeated until there is a single plurality winner.
Board Direction: In the event that the Membership cannot direct the Board to complete these reviews, or Vote on given matters, all such conditions shall be considered Extremely Strong Recommendations by the Membership, with the backing force of the only authority they would thus have left. A removal vote on all Board Members elected by the Membership.
---- End Motion ----
i. Clarification that Bylaws committee consists of four (4)
persons who are very busy.
ii. Bylaws committee meetings have traditionally been closed.
iii. Discussion not continued because motion not seconded.
i. Motion to require a draft from Bylaws committee be posted for
public comment no later than ten (10) days prior to the next
meeting, i.e., March 5 - motion presented and seconded.
i. Distinction clarified between bylaws (relatively immutable)
and Policies and Procedures (change as needed).
ii. Concern raised that discussion on forum may bog down the
process if committee members fear being viewed as
negligent if they do not reply to each comment.
iii. The date in question would be March 5.
iv. Friendly amendment to change to "staff comment" rather
than "public comment".
Clarification of committee personnel, mention the addition of several non-board staff who will be present at the next committee meeting if they accept.
Reason in favor, there has not been a new draft of the bylaws presented for vote since the last bylaws were adopted/ratified by the board in September, 2006.
vii. Twenty-eight voting members present, six in favor, twelve
opposed, eight abstain. Motion fails.
j. Motion to adjourn passed at 4:44 PM.
No real breakouts due to running late, and large number of people who left.
