Board of Directors Meeting
20 January 2013
Called to order at 10:21am and adjourned at 1:39pm.
Board Members in Attendance
Attended by Jay, Sheri, Neal, Jared and Heather in-person.
Absent board members: none
Old Business
Game Jam Panel
30-40 people, room packed.
Was really beneficial to students. Tons of great feedback.
Power Dinners
Wednesday the 23rd, at Wideload, 9-10 game company execs, likely 2 of our board members to be present.
Discuss sponsorships, get ideas about who we can bring in for sponsors.
Get events ideas from studios, ask for support.
New Business
Budget Overview
2012 Final
We ended the year positive
Caution: more expenses next year as we transition to the chapter formally paying for Meetup and web hosting
We were off budget this year but it was the first year.
Board members should be sure to collect receipts for all expenses.
2013 Forecast
Planned for four sponsors throughout the year (Jared)
Planned for workshops
Charity mixer at the end of the year
Conference, Chicago Game Jam expenses, etc. based off last year.
Budgeted in board meetings, power dinners, etc.
To achieve this: get the workshops going, paid event every other month.
Motion to approve the budget made by Jay, seconded by Heather, unanimous.
2013 Events, first six months
January
Global Game Jam
Mentors: two types
Scheduled mentors Saturday (come talk to these audio guys from 12-2) get help, etc.
Friday Night mentors who go around and advise
Support GGJ
February
GGJ Play Party
Structure it so teams can demo their games, then open it up for people to play them after the presentations.
Educational content – Judges from GGJ, producers of studioheads give feedback
Ask execs at power dinner to come give critiques, offer to support a top game (space, mentorship, monthly progress meetings, etc)
Location: DePaul
Date: Thursday February 21
March
Avengers Alliance/OUYA
Avengers Alliance postmortem, OUYA gets 30 minutes of speaking
Location: 1871
Also in March: Game tourney for people not at GDC
April
C2E2 (Tech Week replacement)
Inc IGDA Chicago logo in brochures, website.
Event is shifting towards games. They would like to do panels with us, offered us an expo space for showing games (30 x 20)
Either C2E2 brings down costs or we look at sponsors to offset the costs.
Perhaps partner with similar groups/retailers/etc
Perhaps run a suburban event in April, as well, for those not going downtown for the conference.
May
Microsoft/Xbox
Would like to talk about devs bringing their games to the platform (Bizspark)
Sponsored event (30 minute presentation, possibly pair with a postmortem)
June
Taste of Chicago Games – Games Showcase
Picnic/showcase
Location: suburbs?
2013 second half:
Late September / October – Chicago Game Jam
December – Charity Mixer
More Ideas:
Arcade event where past and present industry leaders in Chicago talk arcade biz
Jared will talk to the Temple Run folks about possibly coming out for an event.
Student event with classes for resumes, etc.
Working Group Status
Use Basecamp!
We should seek someone to be in charge of suburban events and take ownership of it (High Voltage.) We should address this at the next power dinner.