Board of Directors Meeting and Volunteer Meeting
15th July, 2018
Meeting called to order at 12:33pm CDT and adjourned at 3:55pm CDT.
Board Members in Attendance
Attended by: Heather Decker, Ross Hersemann, Tom Caprel, Chris Weiss and Ali Cedroni. Joined by Ryan Sizemore during volunteer segment.
Absent board members: None
Agenda
– Educational Games Panel – August
– End of Summer Picnic at Montrose Beach – September 2
– Spooky Game Jam at 2112 – October 12-13
– Extra Life – November 4
– Game Dev Holiday Mixer – December 11
– Know Your Rights Talk w/ EEOC Advocate – January
– eSports Panel with ESL and MLG – February
Meeting Notes
-Events postmortem: Galloping ghost, overall good event but the conversation got a bit rambly. Will focus more on pre-planning with the speakers to make sure they feel prepared and have a moderator to keep topics focused. The event was easily scaled down or up so cost was not an issue. We have room to improve our event marketing, considering focusing on having a more detailed schedule as soon as the event is published, and pulling in more people from outside of the typical game developer circles since most of our marketing is only through our facebook page.
-Budget: Want to focus on asking for sponsorship money all at once instead of before every large event. General reworking of our sponsorship emails and contact points.
-Upcoming events: Summer picnic needs a date, food, and a better way to communicate our location in the park. Teaming up with Voxelles and Sugar gamers again for Spooky game jam. Looking at providing snacks instead of meals to cut ticket prices. Also aiming to start on a friday rather than saturday to give people a rest day after the jam before returning to work. Also considering reaching out to sponsors for faster internet solutions.
-Website: Relocated to HQ account. Theme is outdated and will be updated by Tom and Chris asap.
-Social Media Guidelines: Drafting up a more specific guideline sheet covering things like consistency of event documentation and how to deal with unproductive commentary. Also might look into a specific volunteer to handle social media.
-Volunteer segment: Educational games panel is the next event. Considering filming promo videos for future events. Could begin filming B-roll at events. Summer picnic needs tables again, not sure if we want to buy or rent since renting is expensive and buying requires storage space. Spooky game jam needs volunteer shifts for event coordination and door shifts. May remove competitive aspect of the jam to foster a more learning friendly environment. Event banners are being created by Ryan. Extra life with IGDA Chicago may become the main Chicago event for Extra Life. Would like more student participation (reach out to high school/middle school programs). Can also reach out to IPG for running competitions or galloping ghost for arcade cabs. Need to focus on prizes and food sponsorships. Venue is already secured for Holiday mixer, just need to find food and prizes again. Could reach out to VGA.
Motion Summary
– Motion to approve ordering new business cards – Unanimously Approved