November 2024 Board Notes

Date:

11/12/2024

Attendance:

Board Attended: Alli Cassel, Kevin Ehrler, Alyssa Johnson, Christina Kramer, Hope Kronen, Bruce Levine, and Nick Nelson
Board Absent:
Observers: Collin Ireland, Emily Haack, J.C. Horvath, Jeremiah Keohen, Jessica Silver, Liz Spafford, Lori Fischer-Fairbanks, Sherilyn W. Brown, and Tristan Anderson

Notes:

Anime Twin Cities Board Meeting Minutes


November 12th, 2024
7:01 PM

Board Present - Alli Cassel, Kevin Ehrler, Alyssa Johnson, Christina Kramer, Hope Kronen, Bruce Levine, and Nick Nelson

Public – Collin Ireland, Emily Haack, J.C. Horvath, Jeremiah Keohen, Jessica Silver, Liz Spafford, Lori Fischer-Fairbanks, Sherilyn W. Brown, and Tristan Anderson

Agenda is available in the link in the description of the livestream, these meetings are counted for attendance for voting rights please comment your name in the chat and fill out the google form in order to gain voting rights.

Agenda

  • Recap off cycle board actions and votes
    • We moved the meeting time to 7:00pm instead of 6:30pm. That was voted by email.
      • Motion: All in favor of ratifying the vote to move the meeting time?
        Hope seconded
        All in favor (All of the present Board)
        Motion Passes
         
    • Treasurer Candidate Announcement
      • We received a treasurer candidate to take over the role from Sky.
      • Her name is Jeannette Wallen and she has been with Anime Detour since 2012.
      • We have scheduled a Q&A for the board and the public. The board will ask questions, and we will have questions available for the public.
      • This Q&A will be next Tuesday November 19th at 7pm.
      • We will get the announcements out after this meeting by email, Facebook and with a post on the ATC website.
      • The Special Election will start the day after the Q&A. Since it is a special election, the vote will remain open for 7 days and then the results will be announced on the 28th.
         
  • Planned Discussions from scheduled visiting parties/ATC Partners
    • None
       

Coordinator Updates

  • Coordinator Positions Open:
     
    • Charities
      • We donated $500 to North Crest Kids Activity Center for their Trunk or Treat Event.
        • They have a few posters of us up in their space that they will keep up for a while.
      • We have donated $1,000 to the JASM (Japan America Society of Minnesota) for their 2024 Mondale Award and Scholarship Gala and 2 representatives will be attending this upcoming weekend.
         
    • Communications – No updates
       
    • Special Events
        • Twin Cities Con was the weekend of 11/8 (last weekend). A lot of us were ambassadors there, had a good time.
        • Colossal Con North is 11/22
           
    • Anime Detour – J.C.
      • We have some brief updates, we had a couple more interviews we are running out of leadership positions, for those still open we pretty well know what we will do for this cycle if we are not able to have those filled in time. You can check the website if you are interested in any of the remaining open positions.
      • We are getting into the exciting part; we are making progress the way we should be. We are finalizing the event space layouts; the drafts have been sent out to department heads for a couple of weeks now. We should have a layout that works for everyone, and we should know that pretty early this cycle.
      • We should be getting the word on soon on items like the housing policies, confirming with people that their rooms are covered and what the benefits are.
      • The next staff meeting is this Saturday on November 16th at 1pm to 3pm. This is at Ramsey County Library in Maplewood. The address is 3025 Southlawn Dr, Maplewood, MN 55109.
         
    • Finance
       
      • Dollar amounts:
        • Business Checking: 330,175.25
        • Education Fund: 3,098.24
        • Business Market Rate Savings (Community Fund): 14,506.66
           

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

Motion to Skip
Hope Seconded
All in Favor (All of the present Board)
Motion Passes
 

Current Month Board Topics
 

  • We had a meeting last Thursday with a lawyer specializing in writing bylaws, their proposal just arrived this afternoon. The price is $600 even though it is possible if we need to consult them more there will be an hourly rate depending on the party who does the work. For the attorney we are working with the fee would be $282.
    • Motion: All in favor of approving to pay for this
      Hope Seconded
      All in Favor (All of the present Board)
      Motion Passes
       
  • Christina will forward this over to Sky to get the payment arrangements made and then hopefully we can get an ETA to be able to present the rewrite to everyone, hopefully that’ll be ready for the next meeting.

     

Open Session (up to 30 minutes)

  • Any members of the community can bring new business to discuss with the board
     
    • Q from Chat- The Millenium is under construction until March. What’s the contingency plan if it’s not complete?
      • A (J.C.)- They are under contract with us, they can’t just not have it done, if they don’t then they will owe us which I am sure they won’t want to happen. There is good reason to believe they will have that done in time. We have a contract for set dates.

 

    • Q from Chat- When can we expect an updated staff handbook. We don’t new staff signing an old handbook?
      • A (J.C.)- We don’t have a super active desire to update it. They did look it over this summer when we did the change. If you have specific concerns email chairman@animedetour.com, but at this moment there isn’t a specific plan to put out a revised edition.
         
    • Q from Chat- There still seems to be an issue with detour social media hiding and deleting comments that criticize or question detour, can you please explain why
      • A (Christina)- The social media team isn’t here so the board can’t address that, but as far as I’m aware they aren’t removing comments, but if its reported enough Facebook automatically removes it, which we don’t have control of.  Bruce - If it’s not controlled by Anime Detour we don’t have control over that if it’s the other group that I am thinking of.

         

Open Board Projects/Future Meeting discussions

  • Bylaws Update (In Progress)
  • Policy Updates
    • Bans
    • Coordinator Reviews
    • Board Training (In Progress)
    • ATC Policies Document – added a bunch of policies to that
    • Conflicts of Interest
    • Whistleblower
  • Trademark renewal (due by December) – Christina needs to do before the due date runs out


Motion to adjourn
Seconded
All in favor (All of the present Board)
Motion Passes
 

7:15pm 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.