Minutes of Board Meeting of February 18, 2004

Location: IRC server webmaster.ca.us.webchat.org, channel #asfar
Time: 9:00 pm eastern time

Board Members Present: Tevi Abrams, Winston Featherly-Bean, Andrew Jennings, Jacob Kafka, Kevin McCormack, David Schneider-Joseph, Susan Wishnetsky

Members Present: Scott D., Matt F., Andrew J., Justin M., Jillian N., Hadley P., Ben PS

Visitors Present: none

The meeting was called to order at 9:07 pm eastern time.

Reports of Officers

The President, David Schneider-Joseph, reported that he had been interviewed via e-mail a couple of times and had been contacted by Playboy for a story. His top goal for ASFAR for 2004 was to make voting age protests happen.

The Vice-President, Oliver Traldi, was not present.

The Secretary, Susan Wishnetsky, estimated new membership as steady at about 4 or 5 a week. After several months of inaction, she had recently assisted a chapter-former, trying to put local members in touch with one another. Regarding current member enrollment, David Schneider-Joseph reported 1124 people, and Susan Wishnetsky reported that her list, including former and lost members, had 1184 entries.

The Treasurer, David Schneider-Joseph, reported $125.23 in the PayPal account and $620.11 in the bank account. His goal for 2004 was to obtain ASFAR's 501c4 status.

The Webmaster, David Schneider-Joseph, reported 35,461 pageviews in November, 27,399 in December, and 25.803 in January. He reported that someone had expressed interest in posting a curfew-related page. Susan Wishnetsky asked if a chapter-former could contact him to post a chapter page; David Schneider-Joseph said that in the past, this had been done only after a chapter's bylaws had been submitted to and approved by the board, but that he was willing to "stop putting up walls". Ultimately, he said, the ASFAR member database would handle both national and chapter membership, but that it didn't work that way currently.

Reports of Committees:

For the Zine Committee, Susan Wishnetsky reported no submissions and few ideas for the next issue, but plenty of news. David Schneider-Joseph said he was still behind in posting online issues.

The Chair of the Demonstrations Committee was not present. Susan Wishnetsky reported beginning to print and make "Lower the Voting Age" buttons.

New Business:

Officers. David Schneider-Joseph listed the positions to be filled. After discussion in which various individuals volunteered and were nominated for offices, David Schneider-Joseph moved to appoint David Schneider-Joseph as President and Treasurer, Winston Featherly-Bean as Vice-President, Susan Wishnetsky as Secretary, Andrew Jennings as Director of Fundraising and Public Relations, and Kevin McCormack as Recruiting Officer. The motion was seconded and passed 4-0 with 1 abstention.

Goals for 2004. David Schneider-Joseph proposed that voting age protests should be ASFAR's top goal and asked for commitments from attendees to organize protests in their areas on Saturday August 14 and Tuesday November 2, 2004; several in attendance did pledge to do so. Susan Wishnetsky gave her list of what seemed good locations for protests. Andrew Jennings brought up his idea of attempting to register to vote and publicizing his rejection; there was discussion of this idea and whether ASFAR should support it. As Director of Fundraising and Public Relations, Andrew Jennings said that a goal for him would be to pursue grant money and get some national media attention. He agreed to write press releases when needed. The Treasurer and Secretary both made it their goal to cooperate to obtain 501c4 tax status for ASFAR. The Webmaster said he would update ASFAR's Declaration of Principles and Bylaws right away, improve the voting age demonstration page, and get caught up on posting Youth Truth issues as well. Submitting pieces for Youth Truth was also mentioned as a goal for everyone. David Schneider-Joseph raised the issue of position papers, asking for more to be written on issues not already covered.

Demonstrations Committee. David Schneider-Joseph asked for a volunteer to chair the committee. Susan Wishnetsky suggested Andrew Jennings, who accepted. The date of the next demonstrations committee meeting was set for Tuesday, March 2 at 9 pm eastern time.

The next board meeting was scheduled for Tuesday, March 16, 2004 at 9 pm eastern time.

The meeting was adjourned at 11:38 pm eastern time.

Respectfully submitted,

Susan Wishnetsky
ASFAR Secretary