Minutes, 10 November 1996
Recorded by Susan Marie Groppi, mailed to hrsfa-announce 11 November

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HRSFA Minutes, 11 November


"Call the meeting to order?"
"Looks pretty orderly to me."


The library will be opening Tuesday despite the fact that re-cataloguing
has come to a sudden halt.  There will be signs posted informing everyone
about the new procedures in the library.  There will also be signs about
what not to touch until cataloguing is complete.  People who signed up for
office hours will be contacted shortly.  In other library news, Paranoia
has finally been returned, along with everything else Kevin Martin forgot
to return before he graduated.

Bizarreness SIG: the Eye of Argon reading contest has been postponed until
after the next meeting.

SIG Reports, done first to facilitate speed of meeting.

	* Trek: Too much time travel.  Trials and Tribble-ations was
watched.  "Tribbles are good with ketchup." --matt ender

	* Cool Movie: This week, "The Third Man."  Described by Alexei as
"Life and death in the hands of Orson Welles."

	* Magic: "We all got more cards and we all played a lot." --chris

	* Gaming: Land of Chaos fractured more than usual.  In Mage,
people were driven from town by plaid-wearing gun-toting witch-hunters.
In Ravenloft, miraculously, they're not doomed yet.  This is probably
because they only met for half an hour.

	* Babylon 5: meeting to watch "Voices of Authority" and "The Hour
of the Wolf" (Brand New First Episode of Season Four!) at 8.  This is part
of why this meeting WILL go quickly.



Lifetime Membership Discussion.

Moiraine notes that she was told all Harvard students had the $50 rate and
this is why she didn't purchase while and undergrad.  Claudia and Matt
point out that this doesn't actually mean anything--there are a
preponderance of precedents.

The percent of members who are Harvard affiliates is actually irrelevant,
Harvard regulations notwithstanding.  This is because all non-Harvard
members are actually "associate" members.  No, there's no difference
between them, but for Harvard's purposes they're different.

Rose presents list of points summarizing discussion on hrsfa-discuss.  "If
we know what's been said already, maybe we won't repeat it more than, oh,
twice."
	--What about a quorum?  Doesn't matter, because a quorum is, in
our constitution, defined as either "51% of voting members" or "whoever
shows up on five day's notice".
	--List of lifetime members?  No, we never had one before, but
we'll definitely keep one now.  The exact nature of the list (a scroll,
chalk on the office walls, etc) will be determined later.  It's not a big
issue.
	--What is a "student"?  Harvard student of any kind, Harvard
undergrad, any undergrad, and student anywhere, Harvard undergrads with a
grace period?
	--There are people who will pay $50 but not $100.  At least two,
quite possibly as many as six, no one really knows how many.
	--Why do we even have lifetime members?  It's a way of people
giving back to HRSFA.
	--Logic for the higher rate: there's a precedent, albeit sketchy,
for lifetime memberships to be 20 times the yearly membership rate.  Also,
it encourages people to purchase while they're still undergrads.
	--Logic for the lower rate: more people will buy if they're more
affordable.
	--What are the benefits beyond just what regular members have?
For example, mail subscription to Fusion or NPC in your honor.
	--Where do staff fit in these distinctions?
	--We currently only have one lifetime member who paid $100, and he
doesn't care if we lower the price, as long as we do it purposefully and
legitimately after considering the other options.
	--Lifetime memberships are not meant to be a routine thing.  It's
a way of giving to HRSFA, not a right or privilege.

Several issues are voted on.  Fusion will be mailed to any lifetime member
who requests it, but providing a mailing address before leaving campus is
their responsibility.  Also, if someone wants a scaled payment plan, that
can be worked out between the member and the treasurer, at the treasurer's
discretion.

The five options presented in the meeting announcement were voted on.

*********** VOTE RESULTS:
After several runoffs and inconclusive votes, the HRSFA members present
and proxied voted that lifetime memberships will cost $50 across the
board.

Meeting was hastily adjourned at 8:02.


		-- Susan 
				
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"The body is a dance. Hating the dance interrupts the choreography." -HS
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	groppi@hcs.harvard.edu  -=- http://hcs.harvard.edu/~groppi