Minutes, 17 March 1996 Recorded by Susan Marie Groppi and mailed to hrsfa-announce on 17 March --------------------------------------------------- The meeting opened with the creation a series of dramatic coat-hanger sculptures that graced us with their chiming sounds as they fell apart at various points throughout the meeting. As with everything else, this was all Mike Gleeson's fault. Main topic of discussion: What To Do With HRSFA-list. hrsfa-list has experienced problems with high-volume. A motion was made to not change the structure of this list, but this motion was overruled by Kyle. There have been too many recurring problems with list traffic and appropriate content--this needs to be dealt with now. Three suggested options: 1) Two lists, one for discussion and one for announcements. 2) A HRSFA newsgroup for discussion, hrsfa-list for announcements. 3) A web-site bulletin-board thing for discussion, hrsfa-list for announcements. Current hrsfa-list policy: 1 message per day per topic per person, and all postings should be relevant to either HRSFA or to the common interests of HRSFAns (specifically, all postings should be somehow related to science fiction/fantasy stuff). The policy is currently enforced entirely through self-regulation, which is apparently unsuccessful. Proposal: moderated list? Too many disadvantages. Prohibitive time committment for list moderator, time-sensitive messages suffer, moderation introduces possible politicking element. Objection raised to web-site discussion forum: too much bother to access, too inconvenient. Objection raised to newsgroup: Usenet attracts far more fluff and irrelevant contest than any mailing list ever could. Motion is made to have two unmoderated lists. One list is for announcements, content to be defined after the vote, and one list for social/chatter. The vote is unanimously in favor (save for Charles Keckler in absentia). Motion is made to delay discussion of the definition of proper content for the announcement list. Reason for this: to let everyone marshal their arguments and clearly think through their positions. The vote fails to reach a clear majority and discussion continues. Motion is made to remove newsgroup and web-site options from the discussion. Chaos reins for several minutes and then is beaten into submission. Vote: newsgroup and web-site discussion forum removed from consideration, at least temporarily. [the next part of the meeting dealt with defining what is proper content for the two lists. It was very chaotic, with a lot of confusion and misunderstanding. If anyone feels it's really important for them to have a detailed description of the discussion, email me and I'll piece it together from my notes. In the meantime, I'm going to summarize. I'm sorry if this is bad form, but I want to keep the minutes coherent. My notes consist, in part, of things like "Chaos is temporarily entertained" and "Discussion causes Mike Gleeson to cower" and "Confusion reigns". I thought this was much more efficient.] Final Decision on Approved Content for the Announcement List: --Official Announcements. This includes minutes, meeting announcements, and anything that would previously have been prefaced by "OA:" in the subject header. --SF Events. This includes book signings, conventions, and anything that is clearly an event, --SF News. This includes short announcements of news-of-interest related to the "greater world of sf". Things such as Nana Visitor's pregnancy and updates on the new Star Wars movies are appropriate content under this category. --HRSFA Events and Potential Events. This includes organizing movie outings, event announcements from SIGs and PSIGs, and other such things. This does -not- include updates on past SIG events or random chatter. --Gaming Newsletter. Self-explanatory. This category also includes any other newsletter approved by the general meeting in the future. --Humor Postings. Because they don't get in the way. Final Decision on the "Social" List: We're not, at this point, setting policy. It will be an unmoderated discussion list. Approximately one month after the conception of the discussion list, it will be reviewed by HRSFA and a decision will be made as to whether or not it requires moderation or, in fact, set standards of any sort. It was suggested that the discussion list try to keep itself to sf-related discussion, but the final decision seemed to be that it will be entirely self-regulated by the people who choose to subscribe to it, and at any rate the general meeting will leave it alone for another month. No consensus was reached on political postings, except that they absolutely do not belong on the announcement list. The point was made that, while the HRSFA constitution clearly states that HRSFA shall endorse no political position, discussion of political issues is not endorsement. So political information postings will be at the discretion of the discussion newsgroup. Proposals that were never actually voted on as part of any package but seemed to be generally accepted: --The list name be automatically included in the subject header, if possible. --The subject headers obey some sort of convention, such as "[OA]" for official announcements, "[NEWS]" for news postings, and so on. It was decided that the possibility of having both lists run by HCS would be left to the discretion of the officers. A quick poll of the officers present showed no objections. I'll be getting in touch with HCS Account Services as soon as possible. As soon as the lists have been created, an announcement will be posted to hrsfa-list explaining how to subscribe. This announcement will also recap the posting rules for the announcement list. It was suggested (but not voted on) that until such time as the new lists are created, hrsfa-list be limited to things that would be suitable for the new announcement list. And thus, after long periods of discussion and many repetitions of "I move Blah Blah Blah", discussion of "What To Do With HRSFA-list" was closed, and HRSFA moved on to other matters. The Man of a Thousand Books: apparently there are some problems relating to our status (or lack thereof) as a non-profit organization. He would prefer if we were, because then he could use the donation as a tax deduction. Becoming a non-profit organization would probably involve filing fees that we don't necessarily want to deal with. The suggestion was made to channel the donation through MITSFA, which is a non-profit organization. Chris Hall wants three dollars for new keys for the cashbox; this expenditure was readily approved. HRSFA History: Michelle Melendez, thanks to help from Al Elia, now has the HRSFA History on disk. She needs help with adding, editing, re-writing. Anyone interested should contact her. Date of next meeting: apparently no one has a problem with the fact that the next HRSFA meeting is on the last weekend of spring break, so the meeting date stands. We will, in fact, have a web site. The Spring Party will be held the weekend after Easter/Passover/Going of the Hour weekend. Details forthcoming. Young Poisoner's Handbook tickets: contact Claudia. SIG Reports: Fusion creeping towards publication, Kevin Martin is a big wank. MST3K met, is meeting tomorrow to watch a movie about ants that take over the world. Gaming Newsletter coming out on Tuesday; if you have unsubmitted submissions, get them to Aaron Landry before then. Cool Movie PSIG: Thursday 8:30, watching "Wizard of Speed and Time" and "The Wrong Trousers". ("Gromit! They're the wrong trousers!") BBC SIG: Failed to meet last week, will meet this coming week to watch, in addition to the usual stuff, a documentary. May change back to Sunday nights. Backrub SIG formed, contact Matt Duhan for more information. Milk&Cookies met in Julia Starkey's room and listened to (among other things) some downright terrifying stories (about sea-scorpions). Alas, there was no fire. We tried, though. Gaming SIG: --Alexei died. Or he didn't. Or he died twice. Or he almost died. Or something. --Dark Sun: "Don't ask." --Ravenloft: "We're all doomed." --Queen and Country: attended a lot of parties, they're all confused. Ministry of Love: Claudia has again been appointed Sonic Master, and Ny Martin is the Ministry's official *bounce*er. And thus, amid a clatter of misplaced coat hangers, the meeting adjourned to munchies.