December Board meeting
Sunday, December 15, 2013
Magic Mansion

Happy New Year, Lovelies! We hope your year has started off well and that some of you are enjoying this ‘quiet before the storm’; things will be getting busy very soon for Apogaea and its hard working team! Seventeen (17) folks attended the last board meeting of 2013, including 8 of the 9 board members.

OFFICER REPORTS

President, Scott Koda reminded everyone that things will be getting busy in February.

Vice President, Sean Sidelko, reported more information about the Burning Man Regional Summit happening April 3-7, 2014.

It’s possible to be reimbursed for part of your trip if you are eager to attend!! There are two types of reimbursement that Ignition / Red Shirts members can request: one through Burning Man and the other through Apogaea. Each region is limited to 5 people and we have 4 regions in Colorado so we can send up to 20 people plus the Regional Reps.

The BM reimbursement only includes waiving the $100 registration fee if you present at the summit. To get reimbursed through Apo, applicants need to give a report to the Apo community about what they learned. The BOD discussed using the April and May Ignition mixers as a likely forum for giving the talks.

The estimated costs are $100-$150 plus travel, hotel and food. Though it’s expensive, this is a one-of-a-kind experience. Learn more to apply!

Secretary, Caroline “Caroshine Kert:”
The November Board Meeting Minutes were approved.

The BOD talked about formalizing rules for online voting. All agreed that online voting is not for emergencies only, and there would be a 72 hour waiting period for online votes. Votes requiring action in less than 72 hours would be defined as an emergency vote.

In the case of an emergency vote, the board member sponsoring the vote will make a good faith effort to make non-email communication to other members to let them know there is an emergency vote. All votes will still be registered on the spreadsheet of online votes. Ignition will be notified within a reasonable time following any online vote. The BOD will give Ignition read-only access to the board’s online voting spreadsheet.

Online votes for November:
Sam Ley was ratified to Art Grant Committee.

Treasurer, Steve Merager: Investing
The question of how Apogaea can wisely and actively invest for the future, and earn interest on its cash reserve safely has been on the table for awhile. Apo currently has its reserve in a CD earning 0.2% interest, with a very small penalty of $60.00 to withdrawal early. Steve checked into the possibility of moving it into a Money Market account, which he said yields 0.35% interest and requires a minimum of $100,000.

The BOD decided to table the discussion again to do some more research regarding the risks of moving it into a money market. The ultimate goal is to actively invest Apo money, but the board agrees that in order to do that responsibly, all options should be investigated.

SCHOLARSHIP/YOUTH TICKETS

In 2013, the BOD limited the number of scholarship tickets to 70 and 69 were given. For 2014, the BOD has authorized 100. Noah Deep added that in 2013 there was reasonable effort to track whether these ticket recipients volunteered for a shift at the event; in 2014 they will work even harder to track this requirement.

The board voted to set the ticket price for these tickets to $50.00, the same as the Ignition/Red Shirts ticket price. As always, children 12 and under are free and youth age 13-17 receive half-price tickets. Apply for a scholarship or youth ticket.

VOLUNTEER DATABASE

Scott “Koda” will be redesigning the volunteer database with help from Eric “Piper!”

There was some discussion about whether designing software instead of purchasing it is a good long-term solution. Jen “Jigsaw” suggested there is inherent value in letting community members create something even if it is more viable to purchase software that has long-term IT support. “Koda” responded to the concern by describing his vision of creating software that could be used by other Regionals. He would like to gain momentum in this area and create software that can be released open source to be used for greater purposes.

<3 REPORTS

Doc Nedrow, DPW

• He is working on the logistics of providing showers for selected volunteers at Apo. These showers would serve volunteers doing long shifts and/or hard physical labor such as DPW, Parking, and BAMF. The discussion centered on how to handle greywater. Everyone agreed that if greywater is going to be dumped on the land, it WILL be done responsibly. Doc is exploring different options: building vs. renting.
• Questions arose such as: Could the showers be kept on the land or need to be stored in our trailers? How many are needed and who would get access? Could one of old Apo’s carports be used as a base?

Kellie Nedrow, Board Member

• The group discussed the Site Ops Lead and the most efficient way to rent vehicles, gas them up and get them where they need to go. The Site Ops Lead will place port-a-potties, know when deliveries are happening and be in charge of Motor Pool Lead.

Kimistry, Rangers

• Rangers had their first planning meeting and the Ranger socials have begun. The first Ranger Training session of the year will be held Saturday, February 22nd in Boulder. Anyone who is Ranger-curious is welcome! There will be 2-3 more before Apogaea, but please attend this training if you can!
• The Rangers are working on logistics for shifts next year, especially how to staff Monday, which is a work/clean-up day for large theme camps.

Damien Budd, DPW and IT

• DPW Leads and XXXO have been chosen.
• IT is turning off email access for people who are no longer Ignition members and reading up on site management with Google Apps. IT has a goal of resolving every request within 3 days.

Noah Deep, Board Member

• He now has volunteer materials from April “Glitterati,” his predecessor, and is figuring out what amount of volunteerism is needed this year so he can structure the volunteer department.
• A Volunteer Lead is still needed

Brian Edwards, Board Member

• Degreeter Lead and Fire Safety Lead positions are open and have been posted on the website.
• He has been talking to Bastion, Medical Lead, about how to best staff BAMF and how to incentivize Monday shifts.

Caroline “Caroshine” Kert, Secretary, Ignition Fluffer

• Ignition had an Ignition Mixer at Kemo’s house. One idea that arose at the Mixer was an interest in Apo-sponsored warehouse space.

Captain Ron

• The second trailer has been repaired but still needs painting to cover the logo on the side.
• A team of volunteers is need to sand the edges of the letters and paint them. Koda has sent a request out to Ignition and someone has volunteered already!

Jen “Jigsaw” Whitesell, Board Member

• The 2014 Org chart is finished but still needs internal structure for some departments. It was agreed that the Org Chart should be posted to the website and distributed widely.
• The communications team is working hard on the website redesign. Each department will get a page, so be thinking about content.

Steve Merager, Treasurer & Board Member

• The finance committee met the night of the board meeting to approve the four creative grants from the ludicrous round.
• Budget – Nina is working with ground control to get budgets approved. Budget deadline has been moved to January 31st. Actual deadline to finalize all budgets is at the end of February. Budgets not received will be escalated to the BOD.
• Grillmaster – Bobalicious has agreed to cook for DPW and whomever else the board approves during exodus in addition to work weekend. Board will have to decide who will be fed on Monday to make the budget. Bob wants to buy a grill that Apo will own.

Michael Yancy, Board Member

• He has been very busy but will be staffing his departments soon (Check out the open Ignition positions)
• Commissary – Michael would like to set up a small kitchen with a microwave, freezer, coffee, and tea, as well as small microwavable meals and snacks, separate from the Center Camp Cafe. This will be for the use of Ignition members and volunteers who work long shifts (BAMF, Rangers, daily leads).

RATIFICATIONS

Ranger Khakis

• It was discussed that Khakis would like to be Ignition members rather than Red Shirts. There is concern that since they didn’t submit ember reports as required of Ignition, they should be disqualified from Ignition positions.
• There will now be a Ranger at every board meeting throughout the whole year!
• Uncle Dave added two XXXOs to help address the past problems with logistics such as ember reports. Kimistry cannot guarantee that last year’s ember report will be submitted because she wasn’t even at the event, but she can promise that going forward she will let Khakis know that submitting ember reports is part of their position.

New position discussed

The Family Guy: The focus of this position is communication to and with parents attending Apogaea. Eric “Papa Bear” McDermit created the position and has a lot of ideas on how to implement it.

The position had mixed support but was ultimately approved by the board. Jen “Jigsaw” Whitesell will be this position’s liaison, but Steve will remain the liaison for the Youth Coordinator. The position was created as “The Family Guy” but title will likely change.

NEXT BOARD MEETING

Sunday, January 19, 2014
Fusion Factory, Denver

All board meetings are public, and you are encouraged to come!