Board Meeting
Sept. 29, 2013
Fusion Factory

Fall is in full swing bringing a crisp cool air and lots of change for Apo! It’s an exciting time with a promising new BOD and continued growth, and it is a thrill to announce news about Apo 2014 below, including the increase in Creative Grant funding!!

Several attendees showed particular dedication after a lengthy night of fun at Denver Decompression – a total of thirty-five (35) attendees were present, including the seven (7) board members (2 positions were open).

PUBLIC COMMENTS

Pat: Regarding the recent BAMF/BOD Liaison incident, Pat declared that most of the miscommunication has been resolved. He and Cynthia helped build the infrastructure of BAMF. Through this process they learned that trust within the team is essential, and that the lead needs to be appointed by the BAMF team, not the board member liaison. Last year Bastion took over and earned the trust of the team. He and Cynthia fully support Bastion as the Medical Lead.

Dave Robson (Quartermaster Dave):

• Storage issues: some carports are wearing out, and Dave requested board approval to sell them. He is also storing a few large effigy steel ibeams that are in the way. The board approved selling the carports with Telemetry’s assistance. Because the ibeams might be used for the next effigy or temple, it was decided they would revisit the issue in the early spring.
• Painting the new Apo trailer: Dave found it is very expensive to pay someone to do it, so he suggested the community do a painting party (ahem, PAINTING PARTY) to complete. Bastion facetiously suggested leaving it in Five Points for a few days!

OFFICER REPORTS & Apogaea 2014 Announcements!

President, Scott “Koda” Dudley, is happy to be here serving as President.

Vice President, Sean “Sherpa” Sidelko – announced the big news for Apogaea 2014!!

Details voted on at the September 21st Board Retreat:

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APOGAEA 2014

Theme

 77 themes ideas were submitted.  Thanks to Caroline “Caroshine” Kert for running the poll and certifying the results!  The theme for 2014 is…

EMERGENCE

Submitted by Jeanette Edwards

2014 Dates

Dates will be announced separately…

Creative Grants

$50,000 will be given away in 2014!
This is an increase of $20,000 from 2013!!

Population

 2100 tickets will be sold in 2014!
1650 were sold in 2013.  In 2004, only 350 tickets sold.

Pricing

Tickets = $115

Ticket prices were increased due to the additional day for volunteer, big sound, art and theme camp exodus. It’s 6 5 days of awesome for only $115!!
Ignition tickets = $50
Scholarship / Youth (100 total) = price tbd

Timeline

The board set major landmark deadline dates earlier to avoid last minute rushing.  You might notice that the Ticket Design Contest, for example, has been announced in October instead of December.

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Secretary (So Rachel Cain was the “fakeratery” standing in during Caroline’s absence)
It was agreed to hold off on ratifying the retreat meeting minutes as not all the BOD had reviewed them. The August 2013 board meeting minutes for August were ratified by unanimous vote.

Treasurer: Steve reviewed the bank statement and there’s cash in the savings, checking and CD account!  All big positive numbers there!  The most recent financial statement is always available on our website financial’s page.

IGNITION RATIFICATION for 2014

 

And it begins! Ignition positions for 2013 technically expire on October 31st, but ratification has begun for returning as well as new Ignition members.

RATIFICATIONS:

Accounting Lead – Somer Andom
Art Committee Lead – James Whiddon
Art Committee Secretary – Jen Dale
Art Committee members:

• Brian Meinken
• Cody Day
• Elizabeth Collins
• Erin O’Brien
• Gerry Koh
• Grace Ramsey
• Guy Mason
• Heidi Winterburn
• John Collins
• Josh Glisan
• Kharis Eppstein
• Marc Jones
• Matt Menke
• Matt Stringer
• Mike Lustig
• Rachel Cain
• Robert Meredith
• Sam Liman
• Scott Fraser
• Yana Nightingale

Budget Lead – Nina Cress
Business Lead – Kristen Abel
Center Camp Lead – Julie Stenger
Center Camp Cafe – Julie Stenger
Charitable Works – Matt Stringer
Community Reporter – Annie Ransome
Conclave Assist. Shin – Cameron Setback
Conclave Shin – Patrick ‘Peach’ Walsh
DPW Lead – Jason ‘Kemo’ Santiago
DPW Lead – Damien Budd
Finance Committee – Michael Yancey
Greeter Lead – Houston Hurlock
Grill Master – Bobalishious
Medical Lead – Bastion Ridley
Parking Lead – Nolan Puryear
Public Outreach – Lawrence Phipps aka Milk
Quartermaster – Dave Robson
Social Media Liaison for Telemetry – Mitch Hoffman
Transportation Lead – Ron DePugh
Youth Coordinator – Dingo (Erin Uncapher)

NEWLY CREATED IGNITION ROLES
The board unanimously approved these new roles created to fill needs not currently met for 2014:

Media Dept Lead – Cora Palmer ratified
Voting, Polling, Ember Reports, Census – to be posted online
Get It On-boarding (New Ignition member orientation, includes handbook) – posted online

BOARD MEMBER ELECTIONS

There were a large number of well-qualified applicants who stepped up to fill the two recently vacant board positions.

We appreciate all those who applied and hope to see you doing great things this year in the organization: Mike Hall, Jen Jigsaw Whitesell, Jason Sherry, Jill Maxwell, Noah Deep, Megan Dempsey, Chris Williams, Sante Suffoletta.

It was a tough call for the board, but alas, only two could be chosen and the results are out!  Check out the recent New Board Member Announcement.

New Board Members:

• Jen Jigsaw Whitesell – 2 years
• Noah Deep – 1 year

MEDICAL LEAD / BOD LIAISON INCIDENT

The BOD feels that problems arising from miscommunication, assumptions, and a lack of communication can be used as an opportunity to learn and grow if we do it right. This is what seems to have happened with the recent Board Liaison – Medical Lead incident of late, which gladly has been resolved with lessons learned for moving forward in a better way.

At Sunday’s board meeting, Bastion was in fact ratified by the Board to continue on as Medical Lead for 2014 and the fulfillment of his duties as Medical Lead were, in the end, not in question. He has earned the trust of his BAMF team and several supporters showed up to express their opinions regarding the situation.

Koda mentioned that the role of the BOD Liaisons is evolving as the board has moved from an operational to a more policy-making role. It’s more now about connecting rather than directing. This incident was an example of a BOD Liaison falling back into the old-style ‘directing role’ rather than the newer facilitation and policy-making role.

Both Bastion and the BOD admitted areas for improvement. Bastion presented some possible solutions to prevent any comparable episode in the future.

Bastion’s Recommendations for the Board:

Current next Steps to move forward

1. Refrain from assigning a permanent board liaison for BAMF and Rangers until I can meet with Uncle Dave to discuss his thoughts
2. Consider implementing some of Flipside’s policies regarding organizational structure to get ideas for best practices, since they have a very functional organization
3. In the future, Bastion will debrief the Apogaea Board in person on emergency protocol and management of medical incidents
4. BAMF will brief all volunteers on legally reportable incidents – assault, minor or elderly abuse, and animal attacks.

Assign objective metrics to measure Departmental performance:

1. Quality of patient care and event management
2. Delegation of power
3. Communication within department, with other departments, and to the Board
4. Administrative capability

Some other good tips resulting from the conversation:

• If anyone in the organization is having difficulty communicating with or getting response from their board liaison, another board member, or lead, they should go to other board members or to the “Ignition Fluffer.  It’s unnecessary and destructive to the community and organization to create drama rather than following the correct channels of communication.
• You may not know the full picture, so ask questions and don’t assume
• There will be specific policy that will be made in response to this incident, including looking at objective metrics by which to gauge performance of any role.

ONLINE COMMUNICATION BEST PRACTICES

A conversation about the practice of online communication surfaced inevitably, relevant to recent modes of communications in email and on Facebook. Koda reminded everyone that there is an Apogaea Code of Conduct for Online Community Engagement that Ignition is encouraged to follow with both internal and external communications.

MISCHEVIA & MEDICAL SERVICES VOLUNTEERS NEEDED

Michael Yancy asked if there were any medical volunteers willing to help Mischevia, a smaller North Texas regional burn. They can’t offer a free ticket but Michael offered to let volunteers use his trailer and Mischevia organizers will help with the logistics.

Bastion offered to train Mischevia members how to network to boost medical volunteers from surrounding communities.

Dates of Mischevia: Oct 10-14, 2013

CREATIVE GRANTS

You’ll see announcements for first round Creative Grants sometime in October!

NEXT BOARD MEETING

October 2013 Board Meeting
Sunday, October 20, 2013
1:00pm-4:00pm
Magic Mansion
Boulder,CO