IFGS LARP - Live Action Roleplaying Games - Denver Boulder Role Playing

The board meeting was called to order at 12:08 p.m. Present were David McMillen, Michelle Christian and John Edwards, Board members. Also present were Vanessa Michel, Dana Harrod, Brett Paul, David Ellis and Rod Matlock. Charlie Abrams-Flohr, Board member, arrived late - his proxy was held by David McMillen until he arrived. Ray Michel's proxy was held by Vanessa Michel.

MINUTES OF LAST MEETING: Minutes of the 1-28-02 meeting were read and approved (Christian, McMillen, 4-0-0 [Edwards had not yet arrived]). Board agreed that Draft minutes should in future be sent out via the IFGS-DB mailing list as soon as they are available after each meeting.

TREASURY COMMITTEE REPORT: Review of proposed budget for this year. Discussed rental payment for use of Pat Peterson's garage for props storage. Pat has requested a $100 annual payment, a paid membership and a paid NPC fee for 4 games per season. Because the NPC fee varies from game to game, it was suggested that we instead simply increase the base dollar amount to be paid to Pat to $130.

MOTION: Pay Pat Peterson a rental fee of $130, plus a paid membership. (McMillen, Edwards, 4-0-1). The budget as proposed includes a line item for Infrastructure, and indicates maintenance & radios as the primary expenses. Radios are too expensive for us to purchase at this time, so they were removed from the category. It was decided not to lower the budget for Infrastructure at this time. The proposed budget requires that the chapter's participant fee per game/day be returned to $3.00 from the current $1.50 instated during the chapter's slower period.

MOTION: Return the chapter's participant fee per game/day for Major Games to $3.00. (Christian, McMillen, 5-0-0).

MOTION: Accept and approve the budget as amended. (McMillen, Christian, 5-0-0).

D/B IFGS 2002 Budget INCOME
(projected) Player Days 670 @$3.00 =$2,010.00
Memberships 80 @$3.00 =$240.00
Total Projected Income $2,250.00

EXPENSES
Pat Peterson Garage Rental $140.00
Brandon Slaten Carports $200.00
Trailer Space Rental $200.00
Trailer Lisc. & Reg. $36.00
P.O Box $58.00
Election Expenses $100.00
Committes $200.00
Misc. Treasury Expenses $20.00
Bank Fees (projected) $35.00
Forms/Pink Sheets $450.00
Awards $120.00
Melee Publication $200.00
Infrastructure maintenance, etc. $300.00
Publicity/ Advertising $150.00
Total Projected Expenses $2,209.00

Profit $41.00

REGISTRY COMMITTEE REPORT: Report delayed until the next meeting. Progress is being made on a new D/B Registry database.

SAFETY COMMITTEE REPORT: John Edwards reported that he has been researching the purchase of new radios, and that CB radios look like our best option. Prices continue to drop, but we cannot afford to purchase new radios at this time.

QUARTERMASTER COMMITTEE REPORT: Bill Cowern has notified the board in writing that the props and costumes stored in his garage must to be moved to another location by June 15th, 2002.

AWARDS BANQUET/GAME REPORT: Vanessa Michel reported that the game budget has been approved, and the game has received Intent to Sanction status. A game flyer and registration packet will be sent to the D/B membership on 3/18/02. Ray would like to give IFGS memberships as prizes for the weapons tournaments, and asked if the chapter would donate them. Because we don't have the budget to allow this, we suggested that he ask the SC to approve gold or magic item awards instead. If he cannot secure SC approval for "character" awards, the board will discuss other alternatives before the event.

SANCTIONING COMMITTEE REPORT: No updates.

MEMBERSHIP COMMITTEE: Vanessa Michel reported that she is in the process of updating a contact list of D/B members. She will pass this list to the board when it is complete.

LIFETIME SERVICE AWARDS: Brandon Slaten drafted proposals for the Board to consider regarding the restructuring of the nomination and voting process for Lifetime Service Awards for the D/B Chapter. The LSA is awarded every other year, in even numbered years, and is awarded to no more than one person in each year in which it is awarded (and may be awarded to no one). Brandon provided multiple options for both nomination and voting processes, which were all discussed. Minor changes to the proposals were suggested and agreed upon.

MOTION: To revise the nomination process for D/B Lifetime Service Awards to the following: "A single nomination for the LSA will be taken from each Board Member and each chairperson of a chapter standing committee. Nominations from each person will be collected individually, and the 3 or fewer persons with the highest number of nominations will be placed for consideration of the voting body." (McMillen, Christian, 5-0-0).

MOTION: To revise the voting process for D/B Lifetime Service Awards to the following: "Each LSA holder who is a current IFGS member, or who has been active within the past 2 years, will be polled to select one of the persons being placed for consideration for the LSA. They may choose to vote for none of the persons listed and may provide a "write in" candidate. The person with the most votes will be awarded the LSA. The Chapter Board will determine who the LSA is to be awarded to in the case of a tie." David McMillen volunteered to coordinate this process this year, and will begin gathering nominations.

PRESTIGE POINTS: Report delayed until the next meeting.

DEFINING PRODUCTION LEVELS: As a result of the open chapter meeting to discuss game production standards for the chapter, the following proposal was created by a group of chapter members and submitted for board approval:

PRODUCTION LEVEL DEFINITIONS FOR IFGS D/B
All Game Designers/Game Producers in the Denver/Boulder chapter of the IFGS are required, as of the 2002 gaming season, to assign a production goal for their game. This goal will appear on all advertising for the game, including the game flyer. GDs are welcome to elaborate on these definitions for their game if desired. Once a production rating has been set for a game, the GD/GP will satisfy the criteria of their chosen rating to the best of their ability, but this is not something on which they will be "graded" or "tested" by the chapter - it is only a guideline which will, hopefully, give prospective participants a good idea of what to expect from the game regarding production.

HIGH Little or no imagination or GM interpretation for players needed. · Structures - Detailed structures exist for appropriate encounters · Item Reps - Appropriate reps exist for all recoverable items · Props - Many "atmospheric" props exist · Special Effects - FX used to create effects described in encounters · Gold Reps - All PCs and NPCs provided with gold reps as needed · Costumes - Detailed costuming, masks or makeup for most NPCs · NPC & Staff prep - Pre-game meetings with all staff & NPCs; "understudies" may exist for key NPC roles. · Food - Full meals likely to be provided if appropriate

STANDARD Some imagination or GM interpretation for players needed. · Structures - Some sort of structures exist for appropriate encounters · Item Reps - Appropriate reps exist for most recoverable items (may be as simple as notecards detailing the recoverable items) · Props - Some "atmospheric" props exist · Gold Reps - All PCs and NPCs provided with gold reps as needed · Costumes - Detailed costuming, masks or makeup for key NPCs · NPC & Staff prep - Pre-game meetings with key staff & key NPCs · Food - Minimal food (snack or light lunch) might be provided if appropriate

LOW A great deal of imagination or GM interpretation for players needed. · Structures - Few or none · Item Reps - Few or none · Props - Few or no "atmospheric" props · Gold Reps - Few or none · Costumes - Few or none · NPC & Staff prep - Little or none · Food - Little or none

MOTION: To accept the proposed Production Level Definition policy. (Edwards, Christian, 4-0-1).

PROPOSED PRODUCTION "TOOLKIT" COMMITTEE: As a result of the open chapter meeting regarding game production, it was decided that a committee to facilitate game production resources (human and material) would be useful. Lori Abrams-Flohr will draft a proposal for presentation at the next board meeting.

COMMUNICATION: Many people have requested that a submission deadline be advertised for upcoming issues of the chapter newsletter, the Melee. Also, the newsletter needs submissions. One reason for the lack of submissions may be that the membership is simply not aware of what submissions would be appropriate. Ideally, we'd like to see approximately 8 issues per year. Many of the board members and committee heads agreed to more actively solicit or create newsletter submissions.

2002 SCHEDULE: The current sanctioning calendar will be published to the membership, with tentative game dates listed. Target date for a final schedule is May 1st.

"BACK-POCKET" GAMES: Discussion on the possibility of pre-sanctioning games to use in case of cancellation of scheduled D/B games. Peter Sartucci has a game called "Saving Sally" that would be ideal for this, and he might soon submit it for sanctioning.

CHAPTER NEWSLETTER: We'd like to see more issues published, but don't necessarily have room in the chapter budget. One possibility is a subscription fee for mailed copies; need to see if the chapter Treasurer has the resources to track subscriptions

PR COMMITTEE: We need one! We've budgeted money for it, but need a chairperson for the committee. David Ellis and Dana Harrod have both volunteered to help with the committee, but neither are interested in heading it.

D/B WEBSITE IMPROVEMENTS: Matt Puccio is working on this, but needs submissions. He'd like to add board minutes, game schedule, game advertisements, photographs, etc, but can't do this unless he has them.

JOB DESCRIPTIONS: As discussed at the last board meeting and the open chapter meeting on game production, we need to create and publish definitions of roles - both administrative and in-game. Michelle Christian is working on this, and is currently pulling information from official IFGS publications. The next step will be to solicit input from chapter members for these job descriptions. The following roles are currently included in the definition process: Board member, Board President, Board Vice President, Board Secretary, Sanctioning Committee Chair, Chapter Treasurer, Registry Chair, Quartermaster Chair, Membership Committee Chair, Chapter Safety Officer, Public Relations Committee Chair, Newsletter Editor, Elections Chair, Awards Banquet Committee Chair, Game Producer, Game Designer, Game Writer, Gamemaster, Game Aide, Production Coordinator, NPC, Game Safety Officer, Encounter Coordinator, Bank Rep, Treasury Rep, SK, Watchdog, NPC Coordinator, GM Coordinator, Loremaster and Quartermaster Rep.

GAME FEE CREDITS: A previous D/B board enacted but never enforced the use of a Game Fee Credit system. It was decided to table this policy until we have a Prestige Points proposal, as they may be very similar.

SILVER SERVICE AND NOVICE OF THE YEAR AWARDS: The board will make nominations and decisions by e-mail over the next 2 weeks.

BOARD MEETING LOCATIONS: It was suggested by some meeting attendees that we avoid having board meetings at restaurants, for several reasons including the difficulty of hearing the discussions and the cost incurred by the attendees (purchase of food).

The next board meeting was set for Sunday, April 21st at 12:00 p.m. at Michelle Christian's home.

The meeting was adjourned at 3:20 p.m.

Chapter Board & Standing Committee Heads:
Board President: David McMillen
Board Vice-President: Ray Michel
Board Secretary: Michelle Christian
Board Member: Charlie Abrams-Flohr
Board Member: John Edwards
Elections Committee: Peter Sartucci
Membership Committee: Vanessa Michel
Registry Committee: Richard Michel
Safety Committee: John Edwards
Sanctioning Committee: Bill Cowern
Treasury Committee: Kaaren Davis