MeetingMinutes:2020-02

Status: Draft

Atlanta OutWorlders Business Meeting Minutes for 2020/02/16

Attendees: Bryan F, Robert A, Robert M, Christian H, Vader, Leah F

11:00 am - Called to order

Previous month’s minutes reviewed; no modifications needed; minutes approved.

Officer Reports

• Treasurer - Final budget proposal was submitted for vote; expect to move forward with non-profit status sometime soon; estimated cost is $300 to $800; current sponsoring memberships are at 18 for the year
• Secretary - Minutes for January 2020 submitted for approval
• Vice-president - Reserved room for Friday and Saturday nights during OutlantaCon, to serve as party space and meeting room; cost $311.60, receipt submitted; met with Axis Replay regarding use of facilities for March game night
• President - Met with Axis Replay regarding use of facilities for March game night; there is an opportunity to have a themed cocktail for the night; contacted Pure Drinkware to begin thermos order; awaiting template of final mock-up to confirm order

Event Recaps

• January Movie Night - held 01/25/2020 at Robert’s Studioplex studio; originally expected to be held at Robert and Jack’s house, but kitchen remodeling made the space unavailable; 19 attendees, 6 first-timers; many had difficulty finding the space because the studio number (#140) was not included in the event description; also, no signage was present, keeping people from knowing they’d found the right spot; showing was Hedwig and the Angry Inch; winner of wig contest was Brad K, who received the soundtrack for the movie; winner of the vote for February’s movie was Willow; winner of vote for new group name was “Out@theMovies”; make sure to create the new Out@theMovies group under the OutWorlders page; parking vouchers were procured by Robert M and handed out at the end, allowing for free parking in Studioplex
• February Game Night - held 02/01/2020 at new location Cascade Library; approximately 65 attendees, 11 first-timers; WerewolfATL was in attendance; location lacked refrigerator; recommend bringing cooler if we use the space again; additionally, there were issues with digital sign-in; attendance tracked by head count and back-up paper sign-in sheets
• February OutReaders Meetup - held 02/15/2020 at the Kirkwood Library; 10 attendees, 1 first-timers book discussed was Touch by Claire North; consensus was that the book was liked but not loved, as the characters were not generally likable; voted on book for April; winner was Annihilation by Jeff VanderMeer
• February Bylaws Meeting - held 02/15/2020 at the Kirkwood Library following the OutReaders meeting

Upcoming Events

• February Out@theMovies Meetup - to be held 02/29/2020 at Robert’s Studioplex studio; showing will be Willow; must be sure to include studio number (#140) in the event details; t-banner will be used to ensure people know they have the right place
• March Game Night - to be held 03/07/2020 at Axis Replay; originally expected to be held at Robert and Jack’s house, but kitchen remodeling will mean the space is unavailable; WerewolfATL will be in attendance and housed in one of the private rooms; a second private room is available to us as well, perhaps to be used for Code Names; Axis Replay sells food and beverages, including alcohol, so no outside food or drink will be allowed; since it is one large room, will we be able to control the flow of traffic/access to our area? if not, how can we keep an accurate sign-in system? Axis says we are welcome to rope off the area, but most regular attendees know by now that they should sign in; place the sign-in sheets by the games? also, a stage is present in the middle of the facility, and they said we could live-stream a game if we liked; what game? how?
• OutlantaCon - being held 03/19/2020 through 03/22/2020 at the Atlanta Marriott Buckhead Hotel and Conference Center
• OutlantaCon Room Party - to be held 03/21/2020 in the room rented by OutWorlders, 8 pm to 10 pm
• March OutReaders Meetup - normally would be help on 03/21/2020, but this is during OutlantaCon; can the group meet during the con? one concept was that the Outworlders room booked at the hotel could host the meeting; alternatively, the hotel lobby or bar could be used; book to be discussed is The Shadow of the Sun by Barbara Friend Ish
• March Out@theMovies Meetup - TBD

Unfinished Business

• Vote on 2020 Budget - no discussion; quorum met; 8 votes for/0 against/0 present; budget passed
• 501(c)3 Registration - further progress was made during 02/15/2020 meeting; expect to put the revamped bylaws to vote in the next few months
• OutlantaCon Updates - the debate during the January business meeting was whether to officially sponsor them via donation or to support them via helping them reach their room block goal by renting a room for the con; Candace like the idea of supporting via room rental, which is technically a bronze level sponsorship (donation of goods/services rather than funds); we still will receive branding, for the room rental and for the loan of games to supply the game room; Outworlders room party is scheduled for 8 pm to 10 pm on Saturday the 21st; we should decorate in accordance with the con’s theme, “Jungle”; will provide snacks and drinks, play music, possibly project a movie onto the ceiling; Predator is suggested; since the room will be unoccupied for most of the con (no one is going to be sleeping there/using it as their room for the con), we should look into other ways the room can be utilized the rest of the time; hold OutReaders meetup there; perhaps offer snacks or gaming during the day, in the same style as a con suite; OutWorlders’ sponsored Jeopardy is scheduled for noon on Saturday the 21st; questions/answers are needed; a Slack channel will be set up to allow for submissions; it is suggested that we hand out the last of out Outworlders.info bracelets during the con, to free up space for new inventory
• 2020 Branding - mock-up of the Out@theMovies logo not completed; OutReaders logo details that it is “An OutWorlders Group”
• 20th Anniversary party - suggested site is Axis Replay, to be held 07/11/2020; if that doesn’t work, then perhaps the Rush Center, plus food trucks? further discussion necessary; March Game Night may determine whether Axis Replay is a viable location

New Business

• Monthly Video Game Nights - Herb reached out to Christian about putting on a recurring video gaming night at Spindle/My Abuelas; is this a good idea; Herb can be hard to pin down; also, since it is an outdoor space, colder months are not likely to be successful/popular; perhaps a quarterly event like the picnics? also, Spindle complained they didn’t make enough money at the food/drink stand to justify their cost during the inaugural video game night; would this still be the case?
• Game Library - Robert A has expressed interest in building up a board/card game library owned by OutWorlders; first stage might involve asking people to donate their old games; this could end up gaining us a lot of games no one wants to play however; we might also include a line item for new games in upcoming yearly budgets; suggested also that we build up a library of introductory game (like Uno, checkers, etc.) that new-comers might be comfortable playing at their first game night

Open Floor

Robert A. notes that the Instagram account has not been posted to since 01/06/2020; should it be kept? yes, it should be kept, at least for branding purposes, but it does point out the need for a public relations/social media coordinator; who can we find to fulfill that role? also, we should look into software that will publish on all platforms with one post, rather than requiring repetitive posting just to keep up

12:37 pm - Adjourned