Minutes, 30 March 1997 Recorded by Eli Bohmer Lebow, mailed to hrsfa-announce 1 April --------------------------------------------------- Minutes, HRSFA general meeting 1997-03-30 19:10; Julian Day 2450538.5 We voted to ratify the officer/deputy officer/just officers again emergency decision to show the People v. Larry Flynt on May 9. That is, we voted to approve having spent the $200 to reserve the slot. We still have the option to switch the date to May 2. Chris will bring posters to the next meeting so we can all go out and poster. The library: We need to compile a list of the books Mr. Ciaraldi donated, so we can give this list to Arisia and to Mr. Ciaraldi himself. Susan gave out some index cards to various people to be typed up. We also need to catalogue the two boxes of books currently in Kyle's room. Also, we haven't catalogued the books we had before the Ciaraldi donation; our Extremely Old Library Computer has a partial list, which it can put on a five-inch disk. Then I (mwa-ha-ha!) have the power to convert these to three inch, by virtue of having a dinosaur of a computer which however is not as old as the trilobite in the office. We voted to approve Susan's plan to sell duplicate books from our library, since we don't have enough space for them. Many things were said on this topic before the vote, and it was sort of unclear whether we actually voted to approve all these things or just to approve the idea of a booksale. Nonetheless, there wasn't any objection to these things that I can remember. The things were: Matt Ender may buy all the books. We'll at least sell the duplicate books we've catalogued, even though there may well be more duplicates yet to be discovered. We can always have another booksale next academic year, with the Later Duplicates. First dibs goes to people with book credit; then, we will sell to HRSFAns at a meeting or something; then, we will set up a table in front of the Science Center, with a discount to card-carrying HRSFA members. Chris Hall suggested prices of $1.50 for hardcover, $.75 for paperback. We decided that getting permission to set up a table is Aaron Landry's job, since he wasn't in the room at the time. The UC will _not_ be making us amend our constitution to forbid discrimination on the basis of gender identity. (We'll just have to sign something to the effect that we do not discriminate, when we want money. But no changes to the consitution will be required.) We could amend our constitution anyway, since we have lots of categories to put in there. (Our current constitution doesn't even forbid discrimination on the basis of planet of origin.) There was also a suggestion that we list the criteria we _do_ discriminate on, since that's likely to be shorter. We could have a meeting where we see how many categories we can come up with in half an hour, and then put them all in an amendment. [Note: Susan and I have discussed this in email; I've posted our current list to hrsfa-discuss.] A digression ensued on proxy voting policy if we forbid discrimination on the basis of mortal status. The topic of constitutional amendment was tabled. The Myld Hunt: is in the beginning of May. [In fact it is May 3. See below.] Julia Starkey is in charge of food, and promises to do the food under budget. Treasurer Hall suggested a budget of $50. Chris also volunteered to organize the Hunt, saying that the food was the bulk of the organizing and that was being done. Matt Ender has a croquet set. Going of the Hour: is next week. (It's 2 am, Saturday night/Sunday morning, I'm told.) The Great Wise Poobah is Rachel, and she is in charge. "Someone" will remind her to organize it. It is unclear whether this "someone" is the whole list, and whether she will be inundated with emails from people reading these minutes and thinking that "someone" is them. The Spring Party was briefly discussed. We believed someone, possibly Aaron, volunteered a common room. [See below, when Aaron enters the room.] The Senior Brunch: Needs to be organized. We will discuss it at next week's meeting. S G e o t I R p r s Gaming: Live Action Role Playing Infiltration: Played many, many games. Matt Ender seems to be the prime motive force of this game. Lords of Chaos: "There are now four Lords of Chaos left . . . . Two of them are eeeeevil; two are not eeeeevil." --Matt Ender. Also, Eleanore will save someone's ass, though I'm not sure whose. End of the World: Is tentatively scheduled for next Sunday. I'm not sure if this is under the jurisdiction of Gaming SIG, but it was mentioned during gaming reports. Vampire Game: Evil nasty Sabat (sp?). Some people were killed. Erratum: Kyle died for the fifth time in Lords of Chaos. In the minutes for the last meeting, I mistakenly reported that he died for the fifth time in the Mike Simpson. I apologize for any confusion this has caused. B5: No new episodes for a while. The Lurker's Guide is moving to a new URL. (It is "http://www.midwinter.com/lurk/lurker.html".) Neverending Story III is coming out. It is called "Escape from Fantasia", or possibly "Fantastica". "Cool Movie PSIG has died a slow and painful death." -Chris Hall. Reading group: The next book to be read will be _Beggars in Spain_; an announcement on this is forthcoming. Fusion: We now have a drop box in the Woodbury Poetry Room. Kelly is applying for many grants, including Arisia and a UC Project Grant. Both Writers' SIG and Munchies SIG are said to be nonexistent. (I don't intend this as a complete list of nonexistent SIGs.)(Meaning, it's possible other nonexistent SIGs were mentioned and I forgot to write them down.) Mike Jittlov is coming to Harvard, sponsored by HRTV. We will try to get him to come to a HRSFA meeting. (This would be the next meeting, April 13.) Myld Hunt Scheduling: It will be May 3, a Saturday, the beginning of Reading Period. - - - > AARON ENTERS THE ROOM < - - - The Spring Party will indeed be in Aaron's room. It will be April 12, the day before the next HRSFA meeting. Aaron and Chris will organize the party. Also, Aaron's room needs to be cleaned; I volunteered for this, though not in a particularly loud voice. Absolute Dictator Elections: (Aaron left the room during the elections, of course. Ivanova didn't show up, also of course.) There was no majority. Debate over whether to postpone the election yet again or just to give up on the idea of having an absolute dictator was in progress when a coup occurred. Matt Ender seized Absolute Dictatorial power, abolished the position (to the relief of many of those present), and returned power to the civilian authorities. Thus, there is no absolute dictator. Then we let Aaron back in the room, and explained what had happened; I am truly sorry I do not have a picture of the expression on his face at that moment. The meeting adjourned at 19:53.