Ignition Northwest Board Meeting January 13, 2011
Meeting began at: 6:40 PM
In Attendance: Joel Sack, Karie Burns, Tabasco Mills, Sharon Afforde, Andrew Birklid, Craig Ackermann, Christian Jacobsen, Kay Morrison, Phill Arensberg, Eva Luna
Absent: Qathi Hart
Old Business\Open Topics:
KB – Radios – update
- We got radios!
- They are being programmed, and we will have them soon.
- One channel will be programmed for a repeater, so we can expand
- We now have 20 new ones, 7 old ones, and two that need to be fixed.
- JS – Check for Eric Griswold
- Check cut and sent.
- JS – Quickbooks purchase (Done!)
- JS – Flight to Mars Prommunism Insurance and Liability sponsorship
- Event went well.
- Still looking for 1 mic stand and 1 microphone (SM58s)
- INW’s support was very helpful
- Note: Need to smooth the system for getting the Liquor thing from insurance company. Seems to be they only ever give it to us at the last minute.
- Note: Adding anyone to our insurance costs $150. So we need to pass that cost on to the event, and not have INW pay it.
- Random thing: Communications needs to send Thank You letters to people who have donated to INW this year. (Chris Bell, Kay’s someone, Microsoft, and Tumbleweed says there are several that came in via PayPal… he’ll pull those and send them to Sharon and Bucky.)
Committee Reports:
- Events Committee:
- CM Producer selection
- Done!
- Co-Production team of AB and Cyra Jane.
- Kay bitch-slapped Gigantic Dave for leaking the info
- Committee: Begley, Eva, Kay, Giggles, Ivan
- Note: Need to make sure that a previous Producer is on hand during the Producer Interview process, so they can answer specific questions the candidates may have during the Interview. (This team brought Tumbles in to Q&A.)
- Kay and Eva are updating the process documentation.
- Phill: Was the collaborative nature of this process due to the individuals, or the process?
- Kay: Natural part of the process, due to the nature of the event.
- Eva: New people walking in to the process need to know the resources they have available, so this collaboration is necessary.
- AB: Agreed. For success in the future, they need to collaborate with previous people. It is just too big for one person, both before the event and during the event.
- KB: Do we need to think about a 2-year commitment from producers? Or a stipend?
- Kay: 2 years is too much. A stipend is a good idea.
- Site Committee
- Mtg to discuss new Seacompression locations on Monday. (Not open to general public. Strategy meeting for the existing team. Board is invited.)
- Art Committee:
- Art Council & Art Grant Committee update
- Going to have the Art Council do the Art Grant Committee job this year. Have 8 people that want to commit to a full year, so this will just be one of the things they do this year.
- Phill: Is this going to create a perception that you either commit a full year, or you don’t participate with INW’s art?
- Tabasco: Possibly, but I am not concerned about that this year. This is a wide variety of people that represent a broad range of the community. So they are good representatives.
- Phill: Does this put too many art decisions in the hands of a small group of people?
- Tabasco: No, because it really only has to do with Critical Massive. That is the only place there is an Art Grant Committee.
- Tabasco: Want to de-emphasize the Committee, and focus on the bigger issues that the Art Council will be addressing.
- Phill: Let’s make sure we do a big publicity push on this. It is a great opportunity for us to show forward motion and momentum.
- Art Grant Process update
- No updates.
- Contract Review update
- No updates.
- Finance Committee:
- Annual Budget
- Finance committee met, as well as several individual meetings.
- Quicken is set up. Big manual entry job now to put last year’s stuff in.
- This should spew out a rough budget for 2011 that we can build on.
- By next Board Meeting.
- JS: I am committed to the INW Operating Budget. Not the specific event budgets. So art granting should be included in each event’s budget.
- JS: I have a crapload of data entry to do. If anyone wants to hang out and talk to me while I do it, I would love the company.
- Business Development:
Phil – Strategic Plan
Team is in place (Phill, Sharon, Tumbleweed)
Big question will be: Do we go in-house with this, or outsource it?
General feeling is to Outsource it.
JS: Says be careful about the ACTUAL price.
Goal is to have finished Strategic Plan by Critical Massive.
- Communications Committee (C13):
- CJ – NW RoundTable\Symposium – Project still on pause.
New Business\To Dos
- CJ\SA – Reaching out to local groups & camps
- Sharon: Want to be more inclusive with the various Burning Man groups in our area. I am joining their lists, etc, to get some visibility within their groups. What do I need to know about communicating with these camps, etc?
- Phill: Devil’s advocate: It is risky to rally people when we don’t have specific things for them to do yet. We could do an intermediary step … do a Theme Camp Census, to gather the information together. Could be a bit risky inviting in a wider group.
- CJ: I propose we do the Theme Camp Census, and then an Offer (a PDF with What INW Offers that we send to the groups).
- JS: I think we are close to something here, but I haven’t heard the magic bullet yet. What is the underlying purpose of outreach to these people? Let’s get clear on that, and then execute on that concept.
- AB: Reaching out to pockets of the Burner community that are not clear on what INW is/does, is a good idea. We do have things to offer. It would be nice if the things we had in storage paid for the storage of them.
- Kay: Outreach is Great. Need a couple of pages on our web site that address What Can We Do For You and What Can You Do For Us. There are things we can offer, and we need to make those things clearer.
- Tabasco: Census is a great idea. “Theme Camp Census” is going to alienate some people, so just call it a Census.
- Sharon – Community Resource\Volunteer Committee
- Want to create a way for people to offer skills and resources to the community and ask for the same.
- AB: Time to have a Volunteer Database and a Volunteer Classifieds section.
- Tabasco: Any listing service that we provide needs to make sure that everything on it has an expiration date. Otherwise the tool will quickly become obsolete.
- CJ: A Volunteer Database should be under the Communications wing, so we don’t lose our volunteers after every event. If the Comms Committee were to “own” it, then we would maintain connection with them throughout the year.
- Phill: Since all our Volunteers are events based, shouldn’t volunteer coordination be under Events?
- Tabasco: Arts Council, Finance Committee, etc are volunteers that are not event-focused.
- KB: Thought about this quite a bit, and most of our volunteers are in events now, the volunteers and opportunities outside of events has been growing rapidly. I think it should be under Comms.
- KB – Sched & reserve retreat
- April 8, 9, 10
- Could go back to the same place we were before.
- AB knows of a new place. Will check on it.
- CJ – INW Office
- CJ: I’m going to be renting an office in the Inscape building. Does INW want a part of the space? Store files, get mail, store papers, signs, etc.
- Tabasco: Doesn’t make sense to me.
- Phill: Might be a conflict of interest.
- KB: It is a good idea for INW to have an office. In the future.
- AB: I think it is a good idea to get our files outside of the wet storage space, and to have a place to meet regularly.
- JS: I think for validity issues it would be good to have a space. The amount is too low to break the “conflict of interest” barrier.
- Eva: Is the space big enough?
- CJ: Yes. Tight, but enough room.
- Sharon: Is this somewhere that Ozzy’s Free Store idea could be?
- CJ: No. This is a business office.
- (general feelings that people do not want INW to have an office)
- CJ: Cool. I am getting an office there, and thought I would offer the opportunity to INW. No sweat.
- Regional Summit time?
- When? Weekend of April 1st – 3rd.
- INW ARRR
- Phill and Kay are going to write it.
- Seattle Business License
- We have it.
- Elections
- Process is coming up.
- Kay is going to be a part of it.
- Will turn off Sign Up before Voting opens.
Board Development: Take a look at United Way training opportunities
Things to think about\discuss online\do list:
- Events – Look into changing Ticket Agent
- AB – Assets – Price List update
- Regional Support
- KB – Continue working on Bylaws.
- AB – email communications legality
Hours This Month:
Joel: 20
CC: 5
Eva: 8
Tabasco: 10
Sharon: 6
Phill: 2
Kay: 30
Tumbles: 8
Craig: 2
Bucky: 8
Meeting ended at 8:18 PM