[Doallem]

There are some things to consider for the demo. If you do it 10-3, that’s when many of the classes are, which mean more people traversing campus, but at the same time they have less chance to stop and chat. 1-4 might have slightly less foot traffic, but people will have just been getting off of class and have time to talk. That, and you’ll have more members available 1-4 for the same reason. Something else to consider is whether this is still a joint effort with SCA.

Not all officers frequent the internet over the summer (or at all). As such, though I’m sure somebody thought about it already, somebody might consider sending emails to the officers.

[Doallem]

My post was just a general thing, for those who were not present last year or may not have known. We were trying to come up with the specifics at our own business meeting, but it’s not our event in the first place. We are guests, though.

[Doallem]

There was talk at the meeting of having the booth on the quad be in conjunction with the SCA, the people we hosted this event with last year. I would like to point something out, as I do not know if everybody was aware. That is not our event, it did not start as our event. It is the event of the Society for Creative Anachronisms, and we are their guests. It is their event, and their tent that we used. Be mindful if you follow through with being a part of this, not to divert too much from those who let Anime Club take part.

[Doallem]

There were a few things that were brought up in meeting pertaining to the topic, and I would like to address some of them. The first was the idea of expanding certain privileges beyond paid members. If I understood correctly, the proposition was to open all but officer elections to everybody. I want you to ponder for a moment, why are you paying $5 for the opportunity of a single vote?

Additionally, many are concerned about hoodlums showing up, messing everything up, and then leaving. Concern was presented both here on the forum and in club. However, I have found that not even all of the paid members (usually about half) end up voting as it is. This leads me to believe that the hoodlums you worry about likely will not care enough to vote. If they do care enough, you would deny them the opportunity, and as a result they probably will not come back. On that note, I ask why our mindset is to question why these people would be allowed to vote. Instead, ask yourself why it is they would not come back, and fix it. Perhaps if you let them take part, they would come back. Some answered this, by opening privileges to all, but I still respond, why are you paying money then?

The idea of suspending club dues has two issues. First, those who brought up the idea suggested that it occur for one semester. You need three semesters to get an adequate idea of whether or not it worked, unless you were to do away with this year’s election results and have the election again, permitting unpaid members to run. The other idea is that it admits there is a chance we still need club dues, when we do not. Every core aspect of club comes free, and for the things that do not, it has been proven that you can raise enough money. Unless it all gets spent on gas.

[Doallem]

Except the way you’ve been proposing it, unless I just read wrong, is that we would present all three, but only vote on the third

[Doallem]

And why can’t we just let the club decide what’s best for them? Give them the three options, and the support for each one. As for how many see the presentation, you are not going to be able to simultaneously get all the members of club together, regardless of proximity to finals week. You indicated we have 40 paid members, well we normally only have 20 to 25 people at club every week. You said we should plan a time for everybody to get together and talk about it, but really I think club is the only time that would work best.

It is not like I am the only one sitting here thinking this should occur. And yes, I know, we are not representative of the whole club, so give it to the club to decide whether this step should occur now.

[Doallem]

I currently am working on a PowerPoint presentation, outlining why I want to bring this up, as well as the 3 options associated with the proposal. The presentation should not take long, and I am aiming to include points for and against each option. Of course, after the slides people would add commentary, rebuttals, refutes, what have you.

[Doallem]

I do not see why art sale is in quotation marks. Anyways, nothing in the core components of the club costs any money to the club. Seasonal parties, weekly meetings, and specialty nights do not cost the club itself money, unless there is something special occurring. Lowering dues is not the point, it is the dichotomy between those who can contribute to the decisions pertaining to the club’s future, and those who cannot. By pushing it back a year, you are taking the person who proposed the whole idea out of the equation. This is my business proposition, and you are trying to take that away, and I find this unfair.

You will not be able to gauge the effectiveness of the new strategy in a semester alone. There are other factors, primarily officer elections, that have no immediate connection to the fall semester. The only way you could get an indicator in terms of that would be to hold new elections this year for the officers this year. If we are too close to finals to vote on dues, we are definitely too close to have a do over on elections.

For the time that I have been keeping up with club politics, it has worked out that the current year’s officers observe the next year’s officers. The present year’s officers still hold their positions until the change of the year. I don’t really get why you’re going at my throat on this anyways, or why you made such a point to call me ex-president. You stood by me during my time in office, but as soon as somebody else is elected my opinion loses all weight.

[Doallem]

I would like to point something out about officer elections, since it came up. In the time that I was brought into office, I was not president at the time I was elected, I was president elect. It was not until the shift in school year that I became president. Ergo, I would still be president, not ex-president, and Lydia would be president elect.

We do not operate in the red. The one time expenditures have surpassed revenues in recent history, this was fixed via the first art sale. General club expenditures can be covered twice over by club dues. And if the new system is adopted, even if a future art sale makes a third of what was made this year, you would still have money left over. Granted if such a downturn were to occur, it is likely that such events may need to be cut temporarily, such as conventions, but the club as a whole will still maintain. By stating that an organization would likely spend that which they have not earned, you are not giving cause for much faith in current and future administrations. The reason why we have the expenditures we do now is because there was money. If future iterations cannot figure to do the opposite, there is something else at issue, and they would likely spend club dues and then some. Thus it should be noted that those who aim to squander money, will merely have more to squander if we maintain club dues. Somebody who is bad with money, is bad with money, regardless of how much revenue there is.

Club is doing okay. Looking at the figures, even if we remove club dues, club will still do okay. All current and the only planned expenditures are covered entirely by the art sale we had this year. By saying that club will not be okay, saying that all of the money will be gone, it indicates that you cannot be trusted with the future of this organization.

[Doallem]

The system is simple: if you don’t have money, don’t spend it. If that means you can’t go to a convention one year, that’s the way of it. If we have to spend a little less on prizes for costume contests, that will be okay. Several club expenditures arose out of the idea of “I have too much money this year”. Pinata? Back in the day they made their own. Granted, they couldn’t destroy it, but hey. The idea of conventions is also one that has been tossed around with little success until now. Under the direction of officers over the previous two years, and I don’t mean just me because lord knows Emily and the others did more of the leg work, we have had two successful art sales. If you cannot convince a college kid to come by to your table and purchase baked goods or something from assorted buttons, you weren’t trying hard enough and you don’t get to spend money.

On the note of what may happen in five years, we cannot make an idiot proof system to pass on through the generations. That is not possible, or at the very least would require a much longer club constitution. Why not instead make a system in which they don’t have to rely on money to have fun. Don’t throw the library at the wall, and maybe it will last a while.

I find it amusing that the idea of US citizens is applied to voting rights in Anime Club. US citizens are given such rights as the result of a system based on “did you pay your taxes this year? Good!” You are effectively relating member dues to taxes. Bravo.

As for CSI, I’m sure Anime Club will manage. SCA, the Society for Creative Anachronisms, does not utilize a paid membership system. Instead, every year they get a list of names and student ID numbers and submit that. CSI has not gotten upset about SCA submitting an email list for the three years I have been a part of it, I doubt they will start now.

[Doallem]

Okay. So. Here’s the Earth.

Anime, when created, was not created with the primary focus of paying money for people to go to annual conventions. Then again, it also started as about a dozen people with a common interest. Furthermore, I actually brought up the idea of using funds to help go to conventions after last year’s art sale, and gave the okay to help fund this one. As such, I am not some crazed miser sitting in his tower of gold. Sending club to conventions was proposed by a series of people, it just became your project because that’s where the cards fell. Furthermore, many of the new officers are not opposed to the idea of utilizing club funds to support Anime conventions, so long as supporting fund raisers are supplied, set up, and run by the people it benefits. Which you all understand. We’re on the same page on that one, I hope.

An interesting point about money: when you no longer have enough, you stop spending it. If the people running club do not manage to put together ideas enough to raise money, they do not get to go out and play. And if somebody manages to squander the current bank account in a short period of time, it had nothing to do with club dues, as noted by Dan of the “N”.

5 dollars may not seem like much, but there are plenty of other people who apparently think otherwise. There are people I have spoken with who say they do not participate in contests and other club activities because they do not want to pay to become a member. Yes, it is true that we can give something back to people, such as pizza parties. Or we could just take our five dollars and instead of sending it through bureaucracy to get pizza, we could just buy a pizza. In the end, nothing of financial value is returned most times, and it is difficult to find activities to put the money towards that thirty some odd people would want to be a part of.

If a person is not interested enough in club to make a return trip the next week, they probably will not be interested enough to stick around for three hours to participate in a contest. A contest so that they can show a video they have no intention of showing. Club dues have bum diddly to do with that, it all comes down to the officers and the community they foster for the members, how welcome you all make them feel.

Favor is growing for this idea. It is only a matter of time before it is brought officially before the club as a whole. I am giving you all an opportunity to consider yourselves the officers who got rid of club dues. Through the help of Jacque and last year’s officers, we have given you the means to implement such a plan. Or you could just let it pass you by. The ball is in your court.

[Doallem]

I don’t see how there would be backlash… We are not forcing people to donate anything. That would be called a tax. Nay, what we were proposing was something more akin to what Jacque has done for us time and time again. She has given me on different occasions shows in digital format to put in the library. Not because I made her do it because she is a member, but because she is rad.

You are faulting a person for not elaborating on a business meeting that lasted an hour, in which productive things were discussed the whole time. For her to elaborate would cause the minutes to become a dissertation. The minutes would need a thesis, some body paragraphs, and a conclusion.

[Doallem]

How, pray tell, would I be able to get results to Lilia and Lydia by Thursday, if I myself don’t get the end results until Friday?

[Doallem]

I wouldn’t be adverse to starting that up. Though I’m not really sure if that’s the right term. It’s much more relaxed than “starting up” it’s more of an occurrence that just… happens. EITHER WAY. I know it helped me a lot my Freshman year, I didn’t know anybody until I got to Anime Club. Perhaps if I had done the same for newer members as I got older, they wouldn’t have left. I’ve got a small library of board/card games, xbox, PS2, DS, 3DS, as well as Pokemon and Magic cards. If people stick around, I may bring my Wii back up, though I don’t know that I have much beyond Wii Sports for a multiplayer environment. Hm. Perhaps this is part of what I was missing. I thank you, Sara. It’s a bit too little too late coming from me, but I look back, and I’ve kind of been a half-ass president lately. Due to you and Jacque, I’m seeing that.

[Doallem]

I think I heard something about Fennekin being fire/psychic, and all I can think is “FRIGGIN’ FINALLY”. Fire fighting, it had its run, but three generations…? Really?

[Author]

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