Board Minutes 2/16/17 – Including FRC Appointments, new version Registry Handbook approval, and Early CAP Adjustment Policy.
IFGS BOARD MEETING MINUTES
2/16/17 Final
The 2/16/17 Society Board Meeting was called to order at 8:03 p.m. Eastern Time. Present were Board Members John Jones, Olan Knight, Sarah Gibson, Pat McGehearty, Brad Evenson, David Spence. Hugh Greene was absent. David Gibson from Dallas Chapter was present. Janice Gott Society Clerk also attended.
STANDING BUSINESS:
MINUTES: MOTION: To approve the minutes of the 1/19/17 Board Meeting (Knight, Gibson, by acclaim, Evenson abstains).
FRC REPORT: Spence noted that three positions are coming open the end of March, and the positions were advertised. Dane Lyon and Rian Socia did not reply that they were interested in continuing. Four people expressed interest. The FRC recommends the Board appoint David Spence, Brad Evenson, and Hugh Greene as official members, and Joshua Harris (Dallas) as an ad hoc member. The FRC thanks Dane Lyon, Rian Socia and Leif Mogren for their service. The FRC will soon be publishing the Mage specializations section.
MOTION: To approve the FRC’s recommendation to appoint David Spence, Brad Evenson, and Hugh Greene as official members, and Joshua Harris (Dallas) as an ad hoc member to the FRC as of April 1, 2017 (Knight, McGehearty, 5-0-1, Evenson abstain).
MOTION: To drop Leif Mogren from his ad hoc position on the FRC (Knight, Spence, by acclaim).
SSC REPORT: Jones says the SSC has still not met recently. Three positions will come open in March and will be advertised.
REGISTRY: Knight has finalized the list of 2016 Admin CAP to the Society. He asks that Chapter Registry Chairs send him their annual Chapter Admin CAP lists, as he has not received any Chapter lists yet. Version 3.20 of the Registry Handbook was sent out in November, and he asks that it be approved. The single change clarified the use of the Society waiver without ad hoc changes.
MOTION: To approve the Version 3.20 of the Registry Handbook (Evenson, Gibson, by acclaim).
TECH COMMITTEE: Jones will be meeting with Brett Paul to update the Trello Board (To Do List).There is a need for a new Tech Committee Chair as Paul wishes to step down. The Board needs to actively recruit someone. Paul trained the Clerk in making changes and updates to the website. New content and pictures are needed on it.
GENERAL PROMOTIONS: No activity.
CONSTITUTIONAL REVIEW TASK FORCE: No activity.
CHAPTER LIAISON UPDATES: No news.
CONTINUING BUSINESS
SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA CHAPTER DISSOLUTION: No action.
SCIFI RULES COMMITTEE: No action.
EARLY CAP ADJUSTMENT PROPOSAL: McGehearty made a suggested change to his proposal for Early IFGS CAP Adjustment, to boost CAP earned during the period before 2008 when the current CAP system was put in place. Evenson will vote nay because he talked to DB members, who generally agreed it was unnecessary. [Full text below.]
MOTION: To approve the Early CAP Adjustment Proposal (Knight, Gibson, 5-0-1, Evenson nay).
NEW BUSINESS
No new business.
NEXT MEETING: The next IFGS Board Meeting will be held on Thursday, March 23rd. Times for the meeting are 6 pm Pacific, 7 pm MST, 8 pm CST, and 9 pm EST. The meeting will be held on Skype at i_f_g_s or 720.259.1667. The meeting was adjourned at 8:44 pm EST.
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Policy for Early IFGS CAP Adjustment
Starting in 2008, there was a roughly 5 times increase in the amount of CAP awarded per hour of effort in game support, sanctioning, writing, and similar activities to the current rate of 1000 CAP/hour for most activities. In recognition of past service to chapter building activities and in the interest of fairness to balance the inflationary effect of the 2008 CAP increase, we recommend a one time per early player adjustment in their CAP earned. The adjustment will be made as follows:
1) It only applies to CAP earned before Jan 1, 2008.
2) The adjustment is to add 4 times the person’s total earned CAP as of Dec 31, 2007 to their current CAP total.
3) If a chapter Registry has computerized records or otherwise is willing to do a complete chapter-wide adjustment, everyone in that chapter who was a member as of Dec 31, 2007 will get their CAP adjusted. Individuals who have out-of-chapter CAP or otherwise believe their record is incomplete can apply to their chapter Registry as needed for corrections.
4) If automation of the update process is not feasible for a chapter Registry, members of that chapter may individually apply to their chapter Registry for updates by presenting reasonable evidence of their total earned CAP as of Dec 31, 2007. If records are incomplete, the member and the Registry chair will agree on a good faith, reasonable estimate for how much CAP the member probably earned based on their NPC/game support activity level in prior years. If they cannot agree on a number, their chapter Board is the place to find a number.
5) The chapter Registry shall keep track of who of the pre-2008 membership has had and has not their CAP level adjusted.
6) This proposal does not address the separate issue of whether to include CAP awarded for leadership activities such as service on Society or Chapter committees or Boards before Jan 1, 2008.
Discussion:
The primary argument for this proposal is in fairness to reward past in-game service at the same rate at which current in-game service is rewarded. It is widely accepted that the CAP awards for in-game support activities whether NPC, GM, or Game Staff were woefully low under the old system. The new system has been in place 9 years now without serious complaint and with the positive benefit of encouraging members to help make games happen in order to earn CAP that they can then use for CAP4Gold or CAP4EP to improve their PC characters. Some long time members from multiple chapters have expressed regret bordering on resentment about how they feel their past contributions were/are not properly appreciated.
Only members who have been active more than 9 years would be affected by this change. The number for each chapter in that category who are still active is relatively modest, making the workload for the chapter registry manageable.
This change would make for a substantial increase in available CAP for those members who have contributed over many years. Such members are likely to have some high level characters who are well below the current expected “treasure relative to PC experience” standards that newer characters experience under the current CAP/hour and CAP4Gold system. Allowing them to receive the CAP they deserve and power up their characters to the new expected levels will not harm the overall IFGS economy. The MILL rule and the “100%GP value to EP” default treasure allowed into games will also protect balance in the PC treasure/magic economy.
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CHAPTER LIAISONS
Dallas – Evenson
Denver/Boulder – Spence
Norman – Spence
Pacific Northwest – Jones
Northern Alabama – Gibson
Provisionals:
Central Oklahoma – Knight
Greater Milwaukee – Greene
Southern California – Knight
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PROJECT LIST
Completed Tasks
Society-level electronic voting – Completed
Society Waiver Forms – Completed
Stoplight Policy – Completed
Milestone & Karma Awards – Completed
Business Cards – Available on Vistaprint
Updating Society Website to WordPress – Completed
In Process Tasks
Updating Governing Documents – In process with Society Task Force
Updated Committee Charters – In process with Society Task Force
On Hold
Character Creation System
Expand and Revise Wiki (Possibly incorporating online rules.) –
Not Started
Updating GW Handbook–
Streamlining the payment processes between Society and Chapters –
Treasury Tracking –
Shared Calendar on Website –
Creation of a Treasury Handbook –
Membership Tracking –
Link Exchanges –
Research for 8.0 Rules Set –
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CHAPTER LIAISONS
Dallas – Evenson
Denver/Boulder – Lyon
Norman – Lyon
Pacific Northwest – Jones
Northern Alabama – Gibson
Provisionals:
Central Oklahoma – Knight
Greater Milwaukee – Greene
Southern California – Knight
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Society Board Members
John Jones (TX) (2019) [Pres]
Sarah Gibson (TX) (2018) [VP]
Pat McGehearty (TX) (2018)
Brad Evenson (CO) (2018)
Olan Knight (TX) (2019)
Hugh Greene (AL) (2019)
David Spence (TX) (2019)
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Fantasy Rules Committee (FRC) – as of April 1, 2017
David Spence (TX) (2019) [Acting Chair]
Brad Evenson (CO) (2019)
Hugh Greene (TX) (2019)
Seth Bush (TX) (2018)
David Gibson (TX) (2018)
Joshua Harris (TX) (2019) ad hoc temporary
Society Sanctioning Committee (SSC)
John Jones (TX) (2018) [Chair]
Seth Bush (TX) (2017)
Olan Knight (TX) (2018)
Kaaren Davis (CO) (2017)
Melanie Greene (AL) (2017)
General Promotions Committee (SGP)
Sarah Gibson [Chair]
Jason Dziuk (2015)
open (2014)
open (2014)
Publications Committee
Members all informal appointments –
Elections Committee
Jason Dziuk
Registry Chair
Olan Knight (TX)
Tech Committee
Brett Paul (CO) [Chair]
Bethany Vann (OK) (2016)
Sarah Gibson (TX)
Open (2015)
Open (2016)
Constitutional Review Task Force
Hugh Greene (AL) [Chair]
Brad Evenson
Ray Michel