NZLARPs Auckland Minutes Dec 01 2014
Present: Dave Luxton, Mikaere Curtis, Prema Cottingham, Walter Hamer, Clare Stones
Apologies: Daena Schofield
Start: 7:30pm.
Acceptance of previous minutes: Unanimous
Discussion Points:
- The Crucible GM team has sent us an email about a new player who attended the Halloween day game and caused some trouble – he bit another player and also made some women at the event feel uncomfortable. He is not welcome at future Crucible games; the GM team have provided the committee the details so we are also aware.
- We discussed the NZLARPs printer – it is currently sitting in Clare’s garage. We can’t use it at the moment as it’s out of toner. The cost of toner is prohibitive – purchasing it is as expensive as buying a new printer.
Action Points from previous meeting:
- Walter to get in touch with Ryan about splitting Armageddon and Speakeasy budgets, to make them easier to follow for posterity. Prema has contacted Ryan about this.
- Mike to look over Stella Nova gear – hasn’t done yet; thinking about doing this as part of next gear rationalization.
Finance report – Walter Hamer: - Walter has receipts from Anna Klein for Chimera, and she has also provided him with spreadsheets for the actuals.
- The Moonbright day game was extremely successful. Prema and Walter have brought the receipts and payments along tonight. 59 people have attended, 2 of these have not paid yet. Prema will follow up.
- Mike has some receipts for Walter, for gear.
- Close to $11000 in Auckland Account – so it is looking healthy.
- Walter does not yet have access to the bank accounts – will follow up with James.
Gear report – Mikaere Curtis:
- Ryan has dropped off some gear off to Mike.
- Gear Rationalization – we are thinking about having this sometime in Jan. There are 2 issues: sorting frequently used gear to make sure it’s in the right box, and checking over boxes that are not commonly used.
- We will need to have 2 rationalizations, as we won’t be able to rationalize at the storage place. We’ll need to take the boxes to a different location (someone’s house) and sort them there, doing half the boxes each time.
- The following upcoming games are likely to require gear: Moonbright, Pirates and Cowboys, possibly Harry Potter.
Marketing report:
- Roelof is not here this evening.
Past LARP events:
- Speakeasy murder – we had a look over the budget. The game made a profit, but not enough to cover the gear fee. We are OK with this, as this was a promotional LARP and attracted new players.
- Armageddon – Walter will need to check budget to ensure that the stall fee is included. This will mean we can use the budget as a guide for next year’s Armageddon so we can estimate how much it will cost next time round.
- Moonbright – The actuals have been posted on the committee forum on Diatribe. GM team brought some pizza for playtest and photoshoot; didn’t need to buy any makeup this time around.
Will buy more makeup next game, and some stencils from Kara as well.
$137 profit, in addition to $200 gear fee. 59 participants. 4 people paid and did not come – but 2 of them were sick and one had a car breakdown. The payments will be credited to next game or refunded.
11 new larpers came along. - Medusa convention – This was very successful. Prema and Walter went down and really enjoyed themselves.
Upcoming LARPs: - Hogwarts LARP:
Janine Lawton is the Project Manager and Graeme Caine is the Project Treasurer for this game.
They’ve filled out the project form.
It sounds like there will be four games that will occur across two weekend days, plus one single day game. They’ve included venue hire estimates, but we are not sure if they have one in mind yet.
We’ll be able to use photos for publicity purposes.
We do need to make sure they are aware of processes – gear fee, banned members, code of conduct, budget process. We’re happy to help with budgets and we think that Anna might be happy to mentor in terms of budgets and advice too. Prema has pointed Janine towards Anna.
The first game will probably be at the end of Jan.
Prema will advise Janine that we will talk to her about the budget before the game so we can go over any issues, and to see how many people they are expecting to have.
They’ve got a facebook group, and lots of interest.
They have a game system, which is loosely based on World of Darkness. Students and teachers will both be players.
We can review the budget online.
We had a small discussion of copyright issues. We’ve had other games run in the past where the game universe has been under copyright – aka Star Wars, and Harry Potter games have run in Europe in the past, so we don’t think there will be any problems. However Prema has advised that this game should be considered fanfic.
Motion to accept the Hogwarts LARP as a project: Prema – 1st, Walter – 2nd. Accepted unanimously.
We haven’t received a budget for the first game yet – but we can check and approve it online. Prema and Walter are happy to meet up with Janine to go through it with her. - Moonbright game 2: Prema has posted budget up online, budgeted for 60 attendees. 25 players, 5 new players, 30 crew. Anticipating a profit of around $250. Prema has indicated in the budget that the GMs don’t pay for this game, for clarity.
Motion to accept Moonbright Game 2: Prema – 1st, Walter -2nd. 1 aye, 4 abstensions (as 4 of the committee members in attendance are GMs). - Pirates vs Cowboys – Anna Klein’s game. Expecting a net profit of around $200. This is after the gear fee has been applied.
Motion to accept budget for Pirates vs Cowboys: Prema 1st, Mike 2nd. Unanimously approved. - 1001 nights may start up this Summer – we are not sure. (But we are hoping it does!)
- Several Crucible player run events coming up – Drahazar fire festival, Wiz Biz cave rave, Alteraanian and Valerian wedding. The GMs are sanctioning events so players will get XP if they attend sanctioned ones. Lots of enthusiasm from Committee about these as they are great for socializing in character.
- Dry Spell: We believe the campaign is launching at Hydra.
- Skirmish – Mike is planning one for last week of Jan and a second in March.
Other Business:
- Chimera deposit for next year – approx. $1350. Anna would like us to pay this to secure venue. Motion: Should we pay in it advance? Prema – 1st , Walter – 2nd. Unanimously approved.
- Tax bill – James will need to follow this up – because he is the best equipped to deal with this, and because it covers the period of which he was treasurer for Auckland. We think this is a National committee matter.
Action Point: Clare to follow up with James and also post on the National committee forum. - There’s going to be a need for some more marketing, given the events coming up.
Action Point: Prema to talk to Roelof about marketing for upcoming events. - Prema and Walter discussed XP systems with a couple of Swedish larpers at Medusa. Over there, they don’t have experience points for picking up skills and weapons. They discuss abilities they would like to have with the GMs, to ensure that their characters are not too overpowered. 33AR works according to the same type of system, and it works really well.
Next committee meeting – 2nd of February.
Meeting closed: 8:45pm.