📈 Annual General Meeting 2019

Meeting minutes for the Maxwolf Events Society AGM, November 23rd, 2019

In attendance (listed by discord display name, as that is where the meeting was held):
Cassidy, Daryll, Ender Diamond, Fox (society Director), Glenmore, Gwydion (myself), Harley, Korozar, Kylur, Maxwolf (society Director), Moxy, Pupperdogs, Ridley, Septentrion, Tegir (society Director), Yaudizz, Your Pal Ceej

Meeting to start at 20:15 [scheduled 20:00, but people still filing in]
Opening remarks by Maxwolf
Opening Remarks: Hello and welcome to the 2019 Maxwolf Events Society Annual General Meeting! This is a meeting of directors and members to talk about what we have done, things we will do, and any outstanding issues that need to be resolved.

Apologies re: FOB 2019 event failure
I would like to say I am sorry that FOB 2019 couldn’t happen we didn’t get enough ticket sales to fund the entire trip but we did get enough to do the deposit. When we had to do refunds we let people pick refund, donation, or credit the cost of the ticket and was able to refund everybody minus the 1500 deposit on the boat which was deducted from everybodies tickets.
Additional clarification was given that the refunds given were proportionally lower as the 1500 non refundable and vendor processing fees needed to be subtracted from the value of the tickets in determining refund.

Question from Pupperdogs: Will we be planning to run Furries on a Boat (FOB) again in 2020?
Answer: Probably not. Certainly not as it’s currently formatted – ie, advance ticket sales with sales deadlines. Considering other paid events of a sort where a venue and precise schedule is selected based on passing a ticket sale threshold, not before sales are established.

Fox: Reiterates that the Directors are always open for answering any questions or concerns for Society business, just send them a message. [Additionally there’s the Members Only planning room for regular members if it’s a more minor issue]

Q from Yaudizz: What are the plans for future events with an admission fee?
A: More will definitely happen, though there’s no current ones planned with the scale of say, FOB.

Discussion of purely social events, i.e. not fursuiting related (picnics, barbecues, and the like) and there seems to be general Society support that those events are approved by the members, the society being something of a social club as it’s evolved and grown.

Q from Fox: Do we want more events to be paid/ticketed? Too many already?
A: Seems general consensus that the events with a sticker value – dinner meets, the recent Neon Fox event, etc, are well-received by the society’s membership. Clearly not all events can take this format, but we should continue to explore events that take this format that allow us to do a wider variety of things with and for our members.

Q from Harley: Does the society intend to do more events for charity?
A: We’d like to. Things like the Aids walk, we raised seven hundred dollars for a good cause, even if the weather was uncooperative and the event part of the event cancelled. In looking for these sorts of partnerships, the directors need to be put in contact with other organizers, however – we can’t run an event through intermediaries or critical information may be lost. There’s been attempts at more that have fallen through last-minute when the organizers on the other side have changed their minds.

Discussion of other events we’d like to do but haven’t yet been able – Having a float in the pride parade with suiters on the back, if such a thing might materialize, would definitely have an event or two producing the float decorations, as well as the actual act of riding, etc, it’s not so easy as just showing up and asking to be in the parade. Call it a long-term goal.

Previous AGM: There is nothing to report from previous AGM. There is also no outstanding issues unresolved since last year.

Gwydion mentions the change in water bottle brand has been well-received by suiters he’s handled.

Einsley: The number/quality of photos has dropped considerably with some of our regular photographers having gotten suits and/or moved to attend school, among other changes. May be prudent to specifically try to recruit some of the handler team to focus on getting pictures – Fox needs to focus his efforts on video, can’t manage both and have the quality of either he’d like. Glenmore suggests we add a specific photographer request role to the signup alongside suiter/handler/attending.

Harley: Do we want designated first aid? Several members (Ridley, Pupperdogs, at least one other missing from my notes) have first aid training. Consensus is the Society should bring a first aid kit and assign it to a handler. The only major incidents we’ve encountered this year Maxwolf was very impressed with our response – there was one new/prospective member who went too hard and collapsed, and the handlers immediately assessed the situation, got them to safety, and helped them recover.

Matters arising from Minutes
In addition to discussions above;
Einsley notes that the average event length has gone down considerably, to about 90 minutes to two hours. Maxwolf agrees, asks floor what they feel a more ideal duration of an event is (3-4 hours seems to be consensus). There’s been a lot of growth and new members, so to prevent going too hard (and with so many of our events being in quite hot conditions this year) they were shorter. A goal for 2020 now that the average level of public suiting experience in the group is rising again.

Discussion about putting on events that are just our own thing, as opposed to tied to a particular occasion – events specifically to go somewhere pretty and get nice photos – photography focussed fursuit walk kind of things, especially if there’s a large gap between other planned events. Seems popular, more laid back.

Ridley: Can we do playland?
A: Not in suit. Not at any other place where there’s paid performers who we might upstage by lieu of free photos.

Discussion of official casual events (ie, where nobody is fursuiting but it’s still a Maxwolf Event). We do love the dinner meets after all. Seems supported. Some discussion of what format that might take – renting a movie theatre as a ticketed event, perhaps?

Would the Society want to buy a camera to hand out to photographer volunteers?
A: Maybe as long-term planning. The budget for the Society is comprised practically entirely of donations, so that’s beyond the scope of our current finances. As a non-profit our fundraising options are limited. If we made paid membership an option it would be yearly and provide additional weight in cases where we called for a vote – that is, paid members would have 50% of the vote, and all other members the other 50%, or similar. Just ballpark though, as there isn’t a current plan to begin that.

Discussion of expanding our social media presence. Currently Maxwolf does everything – that’s why there’s no instagram or facebook. General consensus that we probably need to consider both of those in 2020, and there may be an official position created in 2020 to manage same, but we’re not holding an election presently.

Would like to have baseball card style collectible cards to hand out with stats of various suiters (Went to 12 events in 2019!) – would be opt-in so nobody felt they were being exploited.

Presentation of accounts: $136.81 is our current balance, besides FOB 2019 deposit the largest purchase this year was the flag for $700 CAD.

Some members were shocked the flag ran $700, though only momentarily.
Asked for clarification re: incidental costs – Max has been covering the cost for the fliers printed (eg to hand out at events like New West pride where we have a booth) out of pocket, likewise Fox covers the water as part of their weekly grocery bill.
Ceej mentions that his portion of sales from the Neon Fox event and upcoming New Years party go back into redevelopment – making his little backyard arcade that little bit more special.

Discussion about the minor complaints re: “Why can’t I go” whenever there’s a private member’s event (the arcade event, Yaudizz’s pool parties). The Directors always have the host’s back on these – if there’s ever an attendee you don’t want at your function (ie they’ve never been to an event and so you have no idea who they are, or any other reason), the Society is on your side, and restrictions such as these are essential. Part of what makes these specific events so special is that it’s all people who have become friends through participating in the Society together, after all.
Election of Management/Directors: None to mention or nominate at this time.

Mentions for management election:
-Communication director position by next year that is voted in.

Brief Recess 2125-2130

Any Other Competent Business: First aid will not be a specialized Handler position, we will start bringing a kit to events, however.

Discussion on Badge redesign. A series 2 is in consideration. QR code to be made smaller, identity flags larger. Space for pronouns and/or some factoid about the character you’d like to share, “Hugs: OK!” kind of things.

Discussion of YCH “Guest” badges. Pro: make it clear that people are with us, participating. Cons: worry about if stolen, people trying to impersonate the group/ just make trouble. Maybe we take collateral? But it’s a liability if we eg end up holding on to someone’s credit card. Could have a $10 deposit but don’t just want lost badge out there for aforementioned reasons, even if it’s easy to replace.

We have maxwolfevents.com and maxwolfevents.ca, so the need of a QR code so people get to maxwolf.events is mostly deprecated, and is rarely utilized, anyways.

Survey for the general membership is available https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/SPVDRHV

Meeting is adjourned at 2140.