Minutes of Board Meeting of August 18, 2004

ASFAR Meeting Minutes

Location: AOL Instant Messenger, private chat room "ASFAR"
Time: 9:00 pm eastern time

Board Members Present: Tevi Abrams, Andrew Jennings, David Schneider-Joseph, Oliver Traldi, Susan Wishnetsky

Members Present: Jacob K., Daniel M., Justin M., Ben P-S.

Visitors Present: Matt, 1 unidentified

The meeting was called to order at 9:15 pm eastern time.

Reports of Officers

The President, David Schneider-Joseph, gave no report.

The Vice-President, Winston Featherly-Bean, was not present.

The Secretary, Susan Wishnetsky, reported that she had mailed out about 500 packets to former members and other prospects, including "lower the voting age" buttons and a note promoting the voting protests; about 50 were returned as undeliverable. She'd gotten a few nice responses.

The Treasurer, David Schneider-Joseph, reported that $103.30 was deducted from the PayPal account to pay Jason, the t-shirt designer. PayPal received two donations in July, one for $3 and one for $5. The Amazon account made $4.97 since May 17, bringing the total in that account to $64.23, but Amazon will not issue a check until the balance reaches $100. Since the PayPal account was down to $25.91, the Treasurer proposed transferring $50 into it from the bank account. He also proposed placing Google ads on the web site, which might earn $20-30 per month. The Secretary expressed dismay over diminishing the bank account, but approved of the idea of tranferring $50 from it. David Schneider-Joseph then moved to place Google ads on the web site; the motion was seconded. After some discussion of the intrusiveness of theads and David Schneider-Joseph's ability to block any that were inconsistent with ASFAR's principles, the motion passed 4-0.

The Webmaster, David Schneider-Joseph, reported 19,593 pageviews in July, and pointed out the front page ad for the voting protests and the protest information at <http://www.asfar.org/voting/protests>. Susan Wishnetsky felt that more arguments and information were needed on the voting age issue, and directed the board to view NYRA's voting page at >. There was agreement that the page was unattractive and difficult to read, but Susan Wishnetsky still maintained that the content was superior.

Reports of Committees:

For the Demonstrations Committee, Andrew Jennings expressed concern that the ASFAR protest site lacked specific locations and contact information. There was further discussion of local protests, possible new organizers, and progress of current organizers. David Schneider-Joseph mentioned an article by a NYRA member on the voting age in the previous Sunday's issue of Parade Magazine; in some locations, the article included a mention of ASFAR, but in others this had been edited out. Andrew Jennings proposed making iron-on t-shirts for the organizers of protests. Susan Wishnetsky argued making iron-ons was time-consuming, and wouldn't hold up as well as professionally made t-shirts. There was discussion of the t-shirt designs and the costs of printing shirts. Daniel M. offered to get a quote from some people he knew; David Schneider-Joseph suggested CafePress, an online provider. Susan Wishnetsky e-mailed her t-shirt design on the voting age to the board.

For the Zine Committee, Susan Wishnetsky reported that Youth Truth had gotten a review in The Match!, a high-circulation anarchist zine, which praised the content, but was bothered by the omnipresent URLs within the text. She sent a letter, which would almost certainly be published, responding to the reviewer's objections. She further reported on the book she would be reviewing, and asked for opinions on her idea for the next cover story. There was discussion about the intrusiveness of the URLs and whether anything should be changed. David Schneider-Joseph mentioned that the Youth Truth submission contest deadline was less than two weeks away, and proposed extending the deadline to September 30. Susan Wishnetsky argued to extend it even further, since the Fall issue would already be out by September 30. David Schneider-Joseph moved to extend the deadline to October 15; after discussion, he amended his motion to extend the deadline to November 15, after the voting protests. The motion was seconded and passed 4-0.

Reports of Other Officers:

The Recruiting Officer, Kevin McCormack, was not present.

The Fundraising and PR Director, Andrew Jennings, proposed trying to get products donated by stores and raffling them off. After discussion, David Schneider-Joseph suggested that he write a sample letter to send to companies and present it at the next meeting.

New Business:

David Schneider-Joseph moved to schedule ASFAR's annual general meeting for Sunday, October 10 at 8 pm eastern time. The motion was seconded and passed 4-0. He then moved to schedule the next board meeting for Wednesday, September 8 at 9 pm eastern time. The motion was seconded and passed 4-0.

The meeting was adjourned at 11:49 pm eastern time.

Respectfully submitted,

Susan Wishnetsky
ASFAR Secretary