Auckland Regional Committee Meeting Minutes Nov 11 2013

nzLARPS
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NZLARPs Auckland Regional Committee Meeting Minutes Nov 11 2013
Present: Prema Cottingham, James Cooper, Dave Luxton, Nikki Brown, Hannah Jackson, Mikaere Curtis, Clare Stones, Anna Klein, Patrick Cummunskey, Ryan Paddy (for part of the meeting)
Apologies: Dave Agnew and Rowena Knill
Meeting start: 7:11pm
Note: These minutes are a record of the discussions and decisions that took place at the meeting. Discussions are not word for word.

Previous meetings:

  • Previous minutes accepted as accurate.
  • Bubble wrap for protecting swords in gear.
    Discussion about protecting latex – might be worth using bubble wrap and talc? (Prema)
    We have silicon spray already (Hannah)
    Action Point: Nikki to purchase bubble wrap.
  • Cameron to get bolt cutters – Done
  • RGM held – Done

Matter Arising Online
Thank you to Witch house GMs, for running a very successful campaign

Finance Report:

  • Accounts sent to Societies office as part of the duties.
  • Anna has posted details on National Committee forum regarding who should have signatory access to bank account.
    Action Point: National committee to decide policy, and James to implement.
  • Bank issuing new cashflow card and netcode card.
  • Anna has handed all paperwork handed over to James, plus cashbox.
    Action point: Anna to post the Auckland end of year summary on Diatribe.
    Action point: James to follow up regarding who should have signatory access to account, and to confirm when the cashflow card and netcode card arrive.
  • Witch House receipts passed from Anna to James.
  • Witch House made a profit, several people haven’t paid yet but are being chased up.
  • James has received actuals for Sabbat, but receipts have not been received yet.
    Action Point: James to confirm whether the Witch House attendees have paid
    Action Point: James to collect Sabbat receipts

Gear Report:

  • Mike is still OK with having the trailer stored at his mothers.
  • Mike does not have a key for the trailer anymore, they have been handed out to people.
    -> We need to get more keys cut, or get a replacement padlock.
  • Mike has submitted trailer towball lock and gear shed keys to Nikki. Hannah has given her keys to Nikki.
  • WOF and rego are currently up to date.
  • Insurance - Nikki has arranged insurance for the trailer.
  • Sabbat had no issues with gear, neither did Witch House.

Recent LARP events:

  • Sabbat
  • Witch house
  • 1001 Nights
    Hannah thanks GMs. Questions about whether to close Witch House project, as this campaign is over, but they are planning another campaign?
    -> Close it for now, open the next campaign as a new project

Discussion on projects and marketing:

  • When it comes to projects on hiatus, should we actively encourage GMs to run more games? (Hannah)
  • We shouldn’t advertise games that have not run for some time, new people might be attracted to them and be disappointed. Things that are no longer running should be removed from marketing material (Dave).
  • Maybe we shouldn’t advertise if game not scheduled on calendar, or if the game is inactive (Prema and Mike)
  • Ask GMs when the next set of games are (Hannah)

Past LARP events

  • Armageddon report (provided by Patrick): All brochures handed out in first 4 hours. Went through lots of business cards. Lots of interest from people, some very enthusiastic visitors. Supernatural’s LARP episode appears to have sparked a lot of enthusiasm. Teonn has received some interested emails from people wanting to come along.
  • Claire Ahuri running several follow up games.
    Action Point – move marketing gear from Vanya to Dave Agnew.
  • Council venue access cards: We have several of these in committee. Would be a good idea for several people in committee (perhaps Clare and James) to take responsibility for adhoc booking of venues. Clare holds one access card and James holds the rest.

Games discussion:
Changeling: Fates Unbound

  • Discussion over Changeling: Fates Unbound game, as to how the finances work. We’ll only be requesting actuals if NZLARPs is paying for the venue during a given month.
    Teonn:
  • Fewer people have signed up than usual.
  • Will be cutting down on prop budget, should be making a small profit.
  • Derek is making a prop for the game, will either live in the gear shed or at Nikki’s house. Will be reusable for other games.
    Kumeu Christmas Parade:
  • Michelle received an email from the organisers, asking if we want to be involved.
  • Date of this is Fri 6th, starting at 6:45pm.
  • Same weekend as St Catherine’s faire.
  • We have decided not to participate in this. It’s quite a distance away and not really our target audience.

Gear Storage:
Nikki has done research into funding:

  • Talked to Motu Moana about hiring storage space/crate/etc – this is a no go.
  • Council leases – applications open 28th Feb, close 1st May. There is a year waiting list to even be considered. Realistically, the only groups that get considered are those willing to go in with other groups.
  • Creative Community Trust – we can apply for this. This is a creative outreach thing, for getting community involved in creative things. Would also cover venue costs. Applications open 1st May. They also have an applications workshop, which will be sometime in Feb.
  • Lions and Rotary funding – consensus seems to be no. Information hard to find.
  • Theatre companies – has contacted a few, they do not have space.
  • Lottery grants – there are some exciting grants. However not sure about ethics, and application process is extensive. They do have a community facility fund, which we qualify for according to their fine print. However, it funds the building of a community centre, and only covers grants over $30,000. Might be worth remembering for long term future, if we grow a lot. Would also need to prove we can maintain ongoing costs.
    Nikki’s opinion is that unless we are willing to go on a year long waiting list, we will need to pay for private storage. We do need to do a financial analysis. If we included costs in to all our projects financials, and perhaps ran a couple of fundraising events, we should be able to cover the costs.
    Maybe do larp combat events/competitions for fundraising.
    => Outcome of discussion: It’s worth going on the waiting list for a council lease, but in the meantime we need private storage.

Discussion around storage:

  • Patrick – Crucible are looking at getting a shipping container for storage. Cost of container would be $3000, but it’s a one off cost. Have permission from Camp Adair to store it onsite. Could be an option for storing specialized gear/large items of gear.
  • Prema – we should go on the waiting list, apply for the council grants.
  • Nikki – One of the storage places she has looked at has security 24/7, room to move trailer, insulation, power and alarm. Space is quite bit and quite tall – taller than gear shed. We can put shelving in. Approx $3000 cost, and is in Ellerslie.
  • Anna – NZLARPs would need to run at least 2 decent, meaty fundraising events, to provide enough funding for gear storage, on top of the money earned from games.
  • Patrick – Crucible will be getting a contract with Camp Adair to cover the shipping container, so we have certainty about using a storage space.
  • Mike: Crucible storage plus Gear shed storage – there is a limit to amount of money that can be raised within the community.
  • Prema – need to raise money outside community – sausage sizzles.
  • Mike - fundraising activities for kids, similar to Skirmish. Charge $15 for an hour long adventure.
  • Prema – we could look at running displays for school groups.
  • Hannah – fundraising project should be a project in its own right.
  • James – Likely to have a fee that is charged to games to cover gear, the organisers decide how to build it into the budget.
  • Nikki – need to give projects guidance of how much they should budget towards gear.
  • Hannah – Document this out in backstage forums, so we can eventually post it to committee. Also ask for a project co-ordinator to come forward. Get community buy-in.
  • Nikki will be busy with Teonn for the next little while, but will be able to get something together by next committee meeting.
  • Hannah – publish a list of ideas to Diatribe for community consultation, to see if other ideas come up.
    Action Point: Hannah to collect the ideas from the RGM and from this committee meeting together, and post on Diatribe for community consultation.

Crucible:

  • Patrick has provided us with a budget.

  • Crucible will be booking the whole of Camp Adair. The camp is happy for us to book all the bunks (180) as our accommodation cost, rather than paying for each person. This means that the venue will be booked for 180 people each time, and we will not incur extra costs if there are more people.

  • There will be a series of day games in the leadup to the weekend game, which will fundraise for first weekend game.

  • Discussion around gear/props:
    Some crucible-specific gear will be kept in in a shipping container at Camp Adair. Some of this will be accessible for other games to use. Sounds like some props will be used only by the campaign, until the campaign is finished.
    Swords, generic armour, generic pieces to be put into general NZLARPs storage.
    Items such as set dressing and lanterns – Prema and Anna would like items like these stored in main gear as they will be useful to other LARPs. Generic items do need to be available for other larps to use.
    The shipping container will be funded through fundraising, or maybe through grant applications to organisations like the Lions foundation.

  • Discussion around budget:
    The committee wasn’t happy with the budget as originally presented, as it included a very small profit margin. The committee requested that Crucible raise their prices slightly to allow for a clear profit in the budget. Mike submitted a revised budget to committee during the meeting, which incorporated the suggested revisions.
    Some of the items in the budget will be contingent on the money raised during day games; for example, the amount budgeted for props. We decided to increase the amount budgeted for props by $1000, but for this $1000 to be removed if the day games do not raise as much as expected.
    The deposit for the camp site is large – there are 3 parts to the site, each with a deposit of $1000, so the deposit is $3000 in total. This is a lot, but is proportional to the size of the site/total accommodation budget.
    If the weekend game makes a profit, Patrick may be able to sell props purchased himself, back to NZLARPs. Items will need to cost less than $500, and be purchased using separate receipts on separate days, so they do not count as assets.
    The game will not be self-catered – the game fee will include a base level of food. There may also be supplementary extras for purchase, but these are purely optional.

  • Additional questions:
    Can Game 2 be done without having a series of day games?
    Motion: Do we accept the budget for Crucible day games/weekend game, as per revised budget?
    Hannah – 1st Nikki 2nd
    Motion carried unanimously.

  • Camp Adair is sending the invoice to Vanya, who will pass the invoice on to the treasurer.

Discussion about Crucible website and project timeline:
The website will contain information on the rules and setting. Eventually it will contain a character builder, however the website just with rule and settings information will be released first.
Some discussion around the launch date – we would like the website to become available just after Teonn, and for the website launch to be announced at the end of Teonn. Currently people are starting to make costumes, but they are not sure about the setting and are relying on piecemeal information.
The beta rules are almost ready.
Patrick would like to open for payments the week after Teonn.
Discussion around player spots - they should be held open for a while, but there should be a deadline for people to pay by. The cut-off for securing player spaces should also be the earlybird payment date. The first of Feb would make a good cut-off date.
Nikki – Muppet has access to a professional printer where he can print rulebooks at cost.

Meeting closed: 10:07pm