Nzlarps meeting minutes may 2009

nzLARPS
#1

Present: Nikki, Anna, Kim, Gaffy, Juliet, Hannah and Vanya

Meeting opens: 19:01

All previous meeting minutes unanimously accepted.

FINANCIAL:

Wolfgang’s Redemption game is likely to make a big profit.
$3000 in the bank at the moment and no major outgoings predicted at the moment.
Most games are breaking even at the moment or making a profit.
Wont get the Joust money that is owed to NZLARPS until after May, as Nick has spent that money on the Waikato show.
Anna is to summarise the events regarding the Joust for everyone to read.

PAST LARPS:

Knightshade - lots of fun is the reviews with lots of new poeple and some cool new monsters.

St Wolfgangs - Day game went really well, with again some new faces.

UPCOMING LARPS:

St Wolfgang’s Redemption: Numbers are looking really good and there is some good hype surrounding the game.

GEAR:

Scott in Christchurch is offering all of the LARP gear that he has at $700 to NZLARPS. Gaffy may be able to arrange shipping of this gear up to Auckland free of charge through his work.

If Gaffy is able to do this, Anna moves and Gaffy seconds that NZLARPS buys this gear at $700. Unanimously accepted.

Hannah found some cool new props and purchased these for $10. Anna moves and Nikki seconds that this money be reimbursed to Hannah. All accepted except for Hannah who abstains.

Video shoot with the Golum went well and we can expect the raw footage sometime late June or early July.

OTHER BUSINESS:

Diatribe has been handed over to Matt Barrie who is the new Administrator. NZLARPS will be looking at making Diatribe the only NZLARPS owned project.

Web hosting is going to cost $15 - $20 a month.

NEXT MEETING: 10th of June

Meeting closed: 19:42

ACTION POINTS:
Anna please write up a summary of events regarding the Joust for Diatribe
Gaffy please check if you are able to get free shipping of Scott’s gear to Auckland

#2

Actually web hosting could be considerably cheaper.

is the 10th a monday? if it is not a monday, I would really like to come along

Mat

#3

Turns out it’s a Wednesday, can I come along?

M

#4

yes you can come along

#5

Could someone clarify what this means? As I understand it all society “projects” are financially and legally owned by NZLARPS but creatively controlled by the project owner. I assume this means that creative control of Diatribe will now rest with the NZLARPS committee, i.e. the committee will be the project owner of Diatribe and major changes will be approved by vote?

#6

Historically, Craig Neilson has personally owned and and hosted diatribe for the benefit of the community. It appears that some kind of agreement has been reached whereby Craig will cede his interest in diatribe to nzLARPS. This means that nzLARPS will need to organise their own hosting arrangements, as well as assume administrative control.

Not true. Projects are owned by their creators. In return for support and oversight by nzLARPS, the owners agree that any profits (or losses) will accrue to nzLARPS. At any time, however, an owner can choose to “go it alone” if they wish. This has yet to happen, which is an indicator of the success of the approach. On the flipside, the committee can decide that a project is not being organised correctly, and suspend a project while the owner get’s his or her act together.

#7

What Mike says is correct. Craig has handed over the project manager-ship of Diatribe to Matthew Barrie, our current web admin, and there is discussion about making Diatribe’s project managers the society itself.

#8

Thanks for the clarification.

Not true. Projects are owned by their creators. In return for support and oversight by nzLARPS, the owners agree that any profits (or losses) will accrue to nzLARPS. At any time, however, an owner can choose to “go it alone” if they wish. This has yet to happen, which is an indicator of the success of the approach. On the flipside, the committee can decide that a project is not being organised correctly, and suspend a project while the owner get’s his or her act together.[/quote]

I think we’re saying pretty much the same thing. The project owner may choose to retain ownership of any intellectual property that they create for their project, and can decide whether the society may use it independently of them. That’s what I meant by “creative ownership”. The society owns everything else, I believe, which essentially consists of the gear, the profits, and the losses. The society has material ownership, the project owner has intellectual ownership. The society can’t run a project that uses an owner’s IP without their permission.

Unfortunately the society’s constitution doesn’t seem to be available online at the moment, so I can’t check my understanding for sure. We should track down a copy and put it on the NZLARPS site, it probably went astray in the Diatribe upgrade.

It’s not something I’m particularly concerned about though. It’s never been an issue, and common sense prevails. I was just curious about the wording regarding Diatribe. As I see it, it sounds like Craig has kindly given over the IP to the society. The IP basically consists of the name “Diatribe”, the “Ayesha” concept. Everything else (like the domain and hosting) the society already “owned”. Those things may not have been registered to the society, I dunno, but that’s more of a logistical oversight or fudge than a real issue.