Storymakers Board of Directors Meeting Minutes, 2 November 2021
Present:
Shelly Brown — Chair
Crystal Liechty — Chair-Elect
Lindzee Armstrong — Secretary
Lori Parker — Guild Finance Chair
Emily Huey — Whitney Awards President
Rebecca Carlson — Membership Chair
Cassie Cook — Conference Chair
Traci Abramson — SMIAH Conference Chair
Paige Edwards — At Large Representative
Absent:
Gina Denny – Conference Finance Chair
Wendy Jessen — Conference Co-Chair
Cindy Whitney — Communications Chair
Unfilled Position – At Large Representative
1—OPENING
Shelly started the recording of the meeting. Rebecca made a motion to approve
the minutes from last meeting and Crystal seconded it.
2—CHAIRMAN & CHAIRMAN ELECT, Shelly Brown & Crystal Liechty
New members names are brought forward for the vote.
Loralee Evans was voted into the position of guild secretary.
Cindy Bennett was voted into the finance position but would remain under Lori
until Lori can remove her name from the IRS paperwork.
Three names were brought forward for the At Large position. The current bylaws
only has room for a total of two and we currently only have one position to fill. Tara
Allred was voted in to fill the open position. We discussed that with the new
restructuring the At-Large will be working in the guild committee not the board or
executive committee and we will vote on the other two candidates once the bylaws are
completed and we can bring them in during the restructure.
3—SECRETARY, Lindzee Armstrong
The Secretary reviews when people’s terms are up and makes sure that we are
ready to fill in replacements.
4—FINANCE CHAIRS, Lori Parker
The new bank closed the accounts on us because there was a typo in the
address but we fixed the problem. The accounts are back and the money is back now.
For financial reasons we clarified who was paying on Google Suites. The
conference was. They discussed the need to switch emails to the new website emails.
5—WHITNEY CHAIR, Emily Huey
We closed on the 31st and now are contacting the last few people and getting
books from the publishers. We just put in our order for the gala to get cheaper prices
since they bump them up every January.
6—MEMBERSHIP CHAIR, Rebecca Carlson
Discuss the possibility of switching to Member Press. It’s $129 per year which is
actually less than WishList. A discussion on the topic was postponed to give people
time to look into what Member Press offers.
7—CONFERENCE CHAIR & CO-CHAIR, Cassie Cook & Wendy Jessen
Registration is getting closer. They have a meeting tomorrow with Eventbrite to
make sure everything functions and works for our registration site. Instruction came up
with a rough schedule and price list for all the tickets. All the intensive instructors are
picked. The last agents and editors were finalized today. We should be announcing a lot
of stuff come December. We’ll be announcing our intensive instructors, our classes,
we’ll have a schedule for the in person conference and a schedule for the virtual
conference. We’ll have registration ready to test the first week of January, and then
registration will open Jan 25th. Guild members will get their discount. The committee is
working great together and things are moving forward. We’re working with PR so the
conference sells out quick.
8—COMMUNICATIONS CHAIR, Cindy Whitney
Cindy is not present, but sent in that she’s worried that the website is not
branded and ready to launch. There is worry that we may launch the website too early
but the fears were allayed as we figured out that most of the concern was based on a
miscommunication and the website is still being worked on.
9—SMIAH CONFERENCE CHAIR, Traci Abramson
SMIAH has the contract signed for next year in Kansas City in Overland Park. It’s
the same hotel they used when they started SMIAH. They said they will be really careful
with the budget. They will present the financial chair a budget by the end of the year.
They also hope to set aside money from this year to be able to have a little for next
year.
SMIAH is interested in using Storymakers to run their finances through even if
that means some of their profits stay with the main organization. They discuss how
quickly nonprofit status can be obtained and that is uncertain.
They haven’t started meeting with the committee yet but do have a keynote.
10—AT LARGE CHAIRS, Paige Edwards
We had a fun Storymakers University this month. Esther Hatch did a great job on
beginning reels. There were people there who aren’t usually there which is fun.
Shelly thanked Paige for everything she’s done, and said they’ll send Tara her
way so Paige can train her. Tara will take over instruction and Storymakers U.
11—MOTION TO ADJOURN
Shelly made a motion to adjourn the meeting and it was seconded. The meeting was adjourned.