Auckland Regional Committee Meeting Minutes for 4th July

nzLARPS
#1

Present: Mike, Dave, Anna, Cameron, Luisa, Zara, Adam
Apologies: Phillip
Absent:

Meeting Opened: 7.32pm

  • Previous minutes
    • Gear move to Hannah’s didn’t happen. Shed is up. Yay! It is bigger than we remember but smaller than it was.
    o ACTION POINT: get shackles and padlock for shed. – Cameron
    • Anna confirmed Actuals from Teonn were received previously.
    • Non-for profit bank account meeting made.
    • Project manager discussed on diatribe. This will need to be a constitutional change.
    • Armageddon
    o Dave discussed this with Michelle. They are on it.
    • Zara hasn’t liaised with Wellington yet as a project is being submitted for this tonight.

  • Finance
    • Anna talked to bank. Ant’s forms as signatory had been lost, currently filling out new ones.
    • Bank says we can’t have eftpos cards that we give out to project managers. So we will have to stay as we currently are.
    o Project managers will be responsible for creating individual accounts.
    o ACTION POINT: Anna to discuss setting up a join bank account with the Teonn GM’s.
    • Actuals for Witchhouse 3
    • Actuals for Teonn Weekend game submitted
    • Financial Forecast for Chimera 2012 received
    o Acceptance proposed: Cameron. Dave Seconds. Anna abstains. Passed unanimously.
    • Financial Forecast for Witchhouse 4 – October 12-14
    o Acceptance proposed: Zara, Seconded Luisa. Unanimously accepted.
    • Financial Forecast for Steampunk Larp – Ring-a-ring-a roses.
    o Acceptance proposed: Luisa, Dave Seconds. Anna abstains. Unanimously accepted.
    • Accounts are looking a little thin, but this is due to having to pay to secure venues. What is in the account now is what we have.

  • Marketing
    • Armageddon coming up. This will be focussed on more after Chimera. Will make some fresh notice boards for this.

  • Gear
    • Shed is in place and ready to go.
    • Gear needs to be moved ASAP.
    o Muppet has not organised this. Cameron will remind Muppet that he needs to organise this ASAP as Mike needs his house back. There will be petrol money for whoever tows the trailer.
    • Suggestion was made for a post Chimera gear rationalisation.
    • ACTION POINT: Gear officer to charge all batteries for the Walkie-Talkies for Chimera.

  • Upcoming larps
    • Hobbiton Squee!
    • Set up a subcommittee with tenders for liaising with this venue. Particulars to be discussed online.
    • ACTION POINT: Anna to set up job application for this.

Project proposal
• A beginner’s guide to LARP Archery
o Run by Zara and Adam
o Proposal Anna, Seconded Cameron. Zara Abstains. Unanimously accepted.

  • Costume refund policy
    •
    • Adam P, who has been excluded from attending Teonn, has requested that he be refunded all game fees he has paid for Teonn ($160 total). The rationale was that he commissioned, and paid for, an expensive Elf costume before he learned about the exclusion from Teonn. The game fee refund is to be a recognition that the Teonn GMs could have informed him in a more timely manner.
    •
    •
    • There was a lot of discussion around the rationale and history of the situation.
    •
    •
    • The following motion was put to the committee:
    •
    •
    • MOTION: Pay Adam $160 in consideration for his non-use of a costume intended for Teonn. If Teonn organisers apologise, then no money to be paid.
    •
    •
    • It was decided that the committee needed a full report on the history of the situation before we could vote on the motion.
    •
    •
    • ACTION: Mike to provide a full report relevant to the timelines and events surround Adam’s exclusion from Teonn.

Meeting Closed: 9.35pm
Any section of the minutes with * next to it were recorded by Mike.

#2

[quote=“Zara”]MOTION: Pay Adam $160 in consideration for his non-use of a costume intended for Teonn. If Teonn organisers apologise, then no money to be paid.

It was decided that the committee needed a full report on the history of the situation before we could vote on the motion.

ACTION: Mike to provide a full report relevant to the timelines and events surround Adam’s exclusion from Teonn.
[/quote]
Subsequent to the meeting, the report was duly created and provided to both Adam and the Teonn GMs for annotation (they supplied notes clarifying or correcting aspects of the report).

The annotated report was submitted to the Auckland Regional committee, and voting was conducted via a diatribe poll in the Auckland Committee forum. As Regional Director, I typically do note vote unless a casting vote is required.

Results:

Yes: 0
No: 3
Abstain: 3

The motion was NOT CARRIED.

#3

I feel that this report needs to be made available to the community in the spirit of transparency. Especially as this issue has been going on for months and has never reached the minutes.

#4

Agreed. I have uploaded the report.

ETA: It has not been minuted because it was not a committee item until the last meeting. I took on the role of mediator in an effort to resolve the situation, and also to gain insight into the processes employed by the Teonn GMs as well as the actions undertaken by Adam that lead to his exclusion.

#5

Thank you Mike for your work on compiling the report and arbitrating the matter.

#6

Thanks for publishing this Mike. I’ve only been picking up on bits and pieces of this dispute around the edges, and wondering what the heck was going on. It’s good to at least know people’s motivations behind what’s gotten minuted in the committee meetings. (Also, props for what sounds like a delicate mediation job.)

#7

Thanks. It’s good to have this in the open as otherwise the community is left to wonder what the facts of the matter are and whether the handling by the Teonn GMs and the Auckland committee are fair.

Likewise it’s good that players at Teonn now know where the boundaries for acceptable behaviour lie for that game, and that those boundaries are not unreasonable.

#8

I finally got around to reading the report (I abstained from the vote) and I would like to point out that there are several errors in it. For example Adam didn’t order his elf armour from the same people as his orc armour.

If this goes any further I would recommend that all statements are checked for accuracy.

#9

This is at variance with what Adam has said to myself and other committee members. i.e. that he commissioned the makers of the Zog armour to create the Elf armour.

#10

This is at variance with what Adam has said to myself and other committee members. i.e. that he commissioned the makers of the Zog armour to create the Elf armour.[/quote]

He has never said that at any meeting that I was also at

and he has not attended a council meeting where I have not been present since before this has been discussed by the council.

If you feel that they were the artisans responsible feel free to check with them.

I help Adam with all his costumes. I know where he gets his stuff from.

#11

That may well be so, but there are a number of committee members who are adamant the Adam said his Elf armour was commissioned via the same artisans that created his Zog armour.

#12

Well I am a committee member as well and I was never asked what I remember regarding that. What committee members other than Muppet were consulted for writing the report? I certainly wasn’t offered the chance to contribute to it.

#13

Is it a material issue? Who the specific artisans were, I mean. I understood the basis of Adam’s complaint was that he’d made a substantial outlay on costuming. Unless someone’s disputing that he made the outlay, does it matter specifically who it was to?

Given that it looks like things are escalating, are there any material issues in Mike’s report that people who were there remember differently that hasn’t already been covered by the annotations from the Teonn GMs and Adam?

Also, random warm fuzzies.

#14

The basis of Adam’s complaint was that he was lead to believe (through direct contact from the GM’s of Teonn) that he was still able to play in Teonn for at least 7 months after the incident he was banned for. He was not told he was banned from the event until 7 months later. What he wants is an acknowledgement that this is an excessive amount of time after an event takes place for someone to inform him that he was banned. He had started preparing to play another character in Teonn as, to the best of his knowledge; he was still allowed to play.

The issue is not who he bought his gear off. The issue I am trying to raise here is that if you ban him based on this report then he is banned based on incorrect information. All I am trying to do is make sure everyone gets the full story.

#15

OK, that’s fine. Is the information that you believe is incorrect significant to the decisions that people have made? If it’s not, maybe let it go, and just worry about the things that are significant?

I don’t know if this is going to help any, but I was getting ‘general’ emails and Facebook notifications from the Teonn GMs up to a year after I said I wasn’t planning to come back to the campaign. I think they just had a list of people who’d been involved with the game at some point that they kept using for bulk emails. Careless, but not malicious, if that makes sense?

Take care,

Stephanie

#16

I agree, totally not malicious, but it was very misleading.

#17

I can certainly understand how mass emails can sometimes mislead, but I would think if it is in direct conflict with what was said, I would have sought clarification immediately rather than just assume all was forgiven. Given from what I gather it was not.

#18

It was not in direct conflict as he had not been told he was banned. He was given a warning by gm’s at the May event but was given no indication that he was no longer welcome to attend until January this year, over 7 months later. During which time he received emails inviting him to attend teonn events and xp updates to his character.

I consider that to be misleading.

#19

In the interests of clarity.

I too was present at the July 4th meeting and heard Adam clearly reference the fact that the same artisan that made the Zogg costume was commissioned to make the elf costume. (If you need a reminder of when in the meeting this was, it was when I asked out of interest if I could be sent a picture of the armour and was told that it was custom made and no pictures were avalible. I remember it clearly).

#20

[quote=“Cameron”]In the interests of clarity.

I too was present at the July 4th meeting and heard Adam clearly reference the fact that the same artisan that made the Zogg costume was commissioned to make the elf costume. (If you need a reminder of when in the meeting this was, it was when I asked out of interest if I could be sent a picture of the armour and was told that it was custom made and no pictures were avalible. I remember it clearly).[/quote]
It is obvious that there has been some confusion regarding this - Zog’s armour was constructed by not 1 but 3 artisans - this does not include any work done by myself or Zara - specifically the armour itself.
The elf armour was constructed by a single artisan. He is not one of the original 3 and as far as I am aware has no relation to them. I think perhaps you mistook my statement that “The elf armour was custom made, like Zogs armour, and I have no pictures available.” to mean that it was constructed by the same artisans.

There are other errors in this document as Zara has pointed out - something I have brought up with the investigator and have not received a reply for.
For example the Teonn gm’s state that there had been no communication with me between certain periods:
“5. November 2011
5.1.1.There had been no contact at this, or any other, stage with the GMs about an elf character. The last email correspondence pre-ban with GMs was on 25/05/11 (before Beware of the Dark). The Teonn GMs are happy to provide evidence and screenshots of all correspondence where applicable.”

However I quoted, in sections 4.2.1 4.2.2 and 4.2.3, e-mail correspondence dated June, September and November. I have attached screen shots of the e-mails to this post.

I wish to reiterate the apology I offered to the GM’s of Teonn at the May game. I am sorry for my outburst. I understand that my response is unacceptable even when I felt that my wife (then fiancée) was being bullied. I lost my temper and regret it.

However I still feel that the huge delay between being given the warning and then being banned 7 months later is absurd.