"Alchemy Board Meeting- May 2008 Troy and Rebecca are on the phoneLovelace, Danielle, Joshua and Lee physically present Vision StatementBoard speaks breifly about the idea of a Vision Statement. Danielle and Lee have energy and interest in writing one. Will use the the notes taken when the Mission Statement was written to put something together and bring it to the board at the June meeting.Troy wants to make sure we include the concept of sustaining the change we make at the festival in real life, everyday being.Insurance PolicyTroy has gotten in touch with a couple companies. Gales Creek out of Portland Oregon is the most promising company- has done burns before and was the suggestion of Steven Raspa.Application has been submitted, but the full proposal has not been received. Current cost estimate is $800-1500. Troy will update when he has the final amount.Tabled until the next meeting when Troy gets the proposal to review.Temple DesignLee volunteers to get a full proposal from Jonathan no later than June 1st. Discussed staffing impact of burning the temple at dawn- Rangers and Fire Safety, doubling the staffing requirements for burn night. Temple Guardians as possible relief for the Ranger staffing.Legal and Insurance Research- Medical and KidsRebecca will research the legal risks and laws regarding children on site. Once we have that information, at the June meeting, the Board will review the information and decide what action if any needs to be taken at that time. In and OutsAfter the TL meeting last month, Tunna suggested that Site Services handle in/outs and the Board agrees. Medical emergency that requires off site medical attention will be allowed back when they have been medically cleared.Board discusses the option of allowing people to pay for an in/out the cost of a final tier admission ticket. Also discussed is how to educate the community on why we discourage in/out- to create a temporary community as separate from the default world as we can make it.Lee volunteers to write up the discussion notes and post to the Board list for continued discussion and then a final decision to be reached at the June board meeting.Renting a storage unit Joshua will check in with Kitty and Puck and see how they feel about storing the stuff until the end of the festival. Item tabled until June. BudgetTroy brought a outline budget for the board to review based on the actuals from last year's event. Members briefly review and add to the line items: - Gators/ Golf carts- Troy to find pricing quotes and report back. -Art FUNdraiser- $750 approved by all members for this event to include the cost of renting the space as well as refreshments to be determined by the Art Team.Troy will prepare a more detailed budget for Baord review before the June meeting, item to be discussed and voted on at that time. Request from BMORG- ShadeBMORG wants to know if they can use our shade structures at Bonaroo. Will do as long as they are reutrned in the same condition is approved. Voted, confirmed.Alchemy Village at TfusUsing Alchemy shade structures at Tfus. Voted, confirmed.Update from SmokeyEvent that is using Cherokee Farms wants to come on the land on Sunday, Troy told Smokey that this was unacceptable. Smokey may have them on another part of the land on that Sunday. Troy will report back on this issue when he has more information from Smokey. AJ: 4:25"
Alchemy LLC BOD Minutes: April 2008
"Board Meeting, 2008-04-19, 4:27pmAll members present, many other observers A question regarding recording the votes of our YahooGroup online polls:The board agreed unanimously that the next meeting's recorder would identify closed polls between meetings and adds them to the minutes, with no discussion required. Online decision polls completed since last meeting:
- Vote 6-0 in the affirmative for Amsterdam as temple lead (3/25/08)
- Vote 5-0 in the affirmative with 1 abstaining for adding Board members' alchemyfestival.com email addresses to bios page (3/26/08)
- Vote 5-0 in the affirmative with 1 abstaining for setting our initial ticket cap at 1,000 participants, with the understanding that we will review this according to the number of volunteers we have at that time (3/26/08)
- Vote 6-0 in the affirmative, approving $500 for space for art fundraiser (4/8/2008)
Old businessVision statementPuzzle volunteers to put together guidelines for next board meeting. Further discussion was tabled until next board meeting. Insurance policyTroy reports that obtaining an insurance policy was still in progress, waiting for contact back. Danielle noted that requirements included BRCLLC and the BM RC as additional insured. Lee has in mind an insurance agency that writes risky policies. To be nailed down before next board meeting.Effigy design proposalReceived and approved in prior meetingTemple design proposalInitial information received, but no full proposal provided as yet.Outstanding team lead positionsMedical:Lee reports that Thistle was willing to help, but that he is concerned about being stuck at medical. The board agreed that we need someone on call 24/7 but not necessarily at the booth, training would be good for Rangers and possibly Team Leads (red cross, or Lee?). 2 hours of training may be enough. Troy noted that we want an Automated External Defibrillator (AED) eventually. Danielle agreed to ping regionals list to ask about medical team experience. Question was raised: what are legal requirements for medical? Need research. Rebecca agreed to research the legal aspect, and Troy agreed to check out any insurance requirements. Question was raised whether we should have participants sign waiver? Board agreed that the ticket indemnification should be sufficient.Site Services and Volunteer co-lead positions: these are still open and we're at a loss for good candidates at the moment.Child welfare How to protect children onsite:Ideas –Wristband that identifies key contact info.Concern is liability versus reasonable person standard. People could bring kid to info tent. What about wristbands for nonoverbals? Need official policy for parents who have lost kids, how to deal. ""Code Adam"". It was noted that we had an official policy last year (close gates, find child before allowing anyone else out or in). Consenus that we need the policy posted everywhere, survival guide. Etc. It was noted that the issue is two pronged – not just kids getting lost, but kids exposed to adult material.Outstanding question is what is extent of liability?Parents' responsibility is clear in indemnification. Should we extend photography restrictions?Let's be defensive versus reactive. How to protect everyone at the event? All agreed that the board should set a policy. Will a waiver cover it? What are the insurance requirements? - Troy will find outWe need to find out what laws apply - Rebecca will identify laws. Put laws and code adam info in survival guide to inform parents – Mediateam. New businessLandowner touch baseTroy has spoken recently with the landowner and we are confirmed for Oct 2-6. There will be another group coming in just after us so there may be some overlap on Monday. The event cost will be the same as last year: $2000 covers the first 750 participants and $5 per participant after that.Landowner staffTo clarify what landowner guests and staff are allowed on the property during the event, Alchemy will negotiate offering 20 laminates for use by Smokey as he sees fit. This was not a problem last year, just preempts potential concerns.In-and-outsHow do we reduce in-and-outs including our own in-and-outs?The issue was tabled for further discussion onlineBudgetArt fundraiser, need to nail down details. $500 cost to rent event space. Board approved an additional $250 for other expenses. We need detailed budget from Art Team. Board unanimously approved purchase of Quickbooks and invitations.Board agreed unanimously to approve general budget at next meeting – Troy will draw up budget.Board agreed unanimously that Troy will do a monthly posting of detailed financials, available prior to board meeting and then posted on the web for public information.Board agreed unanimously that items outside the budget expenditure process needs to be approved as a line item.Board agreed unanimously that they would allow a budget item overage as necessary, so long as it was the lesser of +25% or $200.Ticket Cap Board agreed to keep the current ticket cap at 1000 participants. After much discussion, the board agreed unanimously to re-address the ticket cap if and when we reach 750 sold or at the August meeting otherwise.Team Staffing LevelsThe board agreed unanimously that team staffing levels should be decided between the event lead and team leads, and if intractable disagreement, then the board gets involved.Staff Vehicles on siteThe board agreed unanimously that on-site staff vehicles should be subject to same mobile art requirements as other vehicles.StorageBoard tabled discussion of renting a storage unit until a later meeting.NewsletterBoard agreed unanimously to set the policy that the board will review and approve the newsletter prior to posting. The media team will allow the board 48 hours for response. Board agreed unanimously to start an online blog on the site. – Troy and mediateam will work on thisArt FundraiserBoard agreed unanimously to ask the Art team to develop a contract between the artists and community (to include moop guidelines, etc). We also request that the Art team show this to the BOD as soon as possible.AltBurnativeA new burn group called AltBurnative has approached us about getting involved in their July burn. The board voted unanimously not to take on this event under Alchemy's umbrella. Meeting adjourned at 6:56pm. Next meeting will be held on May 10th at 3pm. Danielle will host, Joshua will facilitate, Lee will record.Just after the meeting, Tunna suggested that site services could handle all in/out deliveries during the event, perhaps on a set time per day."
Alchemy LLC BOD Minutes: March 2008
"Alchemy BOD Meeting 2008.03.08 3:21 pm – Meeting startPresent: Lee, Joshua, and Lovelace. Troy and Rebecca on speaker phone. Danielle not present. Item 1: Issue brought up on list about child welfare
- Propose to table the issue until the April meeting because Danielle is not present. Burning Man, Inc. will probably want to have input via Danielle. It will also benefit us to ask for their input and draw on their previous experience. A viable solution may already be in place.
- Agreed
Item 2: Regarding access to the volunteer contact list:
- Majority (5:1) voted in Yahoo poll to open the contact list to all people with an alchemyfestival.com email address. The minority vote was to open the contact list to an audience broader than the alchemyfestival.com domain, so all members agree to open up access to the contact list.
- Agreed to go with majority vote in the poll.
- There was discussion about people not wanting their information available, but it was decided that anyone concerned about privacy issues can create a free Gmail, Yahoo, Hotmail, etc. account that we can use to contact them. Anyone who chooses to withhold their phone number from this list may do so. Street addresses are not on the list.
Item 3: Open/closing the gate
- Gates open: 9am Thursday
- Gates close: 8pm Saturday
- Site close: 6pm Monday
There was some discussion about having enough staff on site by 9 a.m. Thursday to handle opening the site at that time. The consensus was that that we should set the expectation that the event will open at this time and make sure that we have the staff to handle it. All agree to these hours. Item 4: Art teamClove just sent an email to the board list, organizers, etc. list about their progress to date. Item 5: Effigy meeting last weekLee was there. They've decided how they will divide their various tasks. Item 6: Scarlett's application for volunteer team leadThe consensus was that this is probably one of the biggest team lead commitments. The team needs someone with good organizational skills as well as people who reach across boundaries and can bring people together. We think it would be best to have two co-leads for this team. Board agrees to accept Scarlett as co-lead. Item 7: Press releasesHow and when to handle those. Do we want the media team or board to handle. Our long term goal is to have a person or persons on the media team handle requests for information. These people would ideally have some experience communicating with the press, but the most important thing is that the message they send out be consistent with the board's intent. Because we don't currently have that, and because the members of the board could be held liable for anything said to the press, it was agreed that the board should handle responses to the press for the time being. The matter of formal press releases and creating a Wiki page have a fairly low priority right now, so we decided not to do them. Next meeting: Sat, April 12 @ 3:00 pmFacilitating: RebeccaMinutes: JoshuaHosting: Lee (if Danielle doesn't want to) Meeting end at 4:03 p.m."
Alchemy LLC BOD Minutes: February 2008
"Alchemy Board MeetingFebruary 9, 2008Location: ShadowbrookPresent: Danielle, Joshua, Troy, Rebecca, Lee, Lovelace (all)Lovelace lead the meeting.Agenda Item 1. Letter to Burning Man regarding official regional status.Letter is drafted and approved. Troy will hand deliver this at the regional summit (February 15-18) in San Francisco.Agenda Item 2. Burn Bios from Board Members, for website.Bios are still due from Joshua, Lovelace and Danielle. Board was prompted to also send in photos.Agenda Item 3. Temple for Alchemy 2008.Troy is going to re-address people who are interested.Agenda Item 4. Team Leads.The Board confirmed:Justin- Music LeadMike - Site LayoutPete - Fire ConclaveLee - LNT LeadKeith - EffigyClaudia - GateStill unfilled roles as of meeting date were as follows: Medical, Fire Safety, Mobile Art, Volunteer Coordinator, Site Services and Temple.Rebecca agreed to follow up with Tunna regarding his interest in Site Services.Other possible people to talk with about lead positions included Fuzzy for Medical and Ryan for Site Services. Danielle agreed to talk to Ryan, and Lee agreed to talk to Fuzzy.New Business:1. Fire Safety ideas.The Board discussed talking about fire safety issues in the Alchemy newsletter.2. Voting Online.The Board agreed to try the Yahoo poll feature for voting purposes. Poll items will be maintained by whoever is acting as secretary at the moment.3. Parking Issues onsite.The Board agreed that we don't want a ton of cars parked within the festival this year. The Board agreed that all cars parked within the camping area must be decorated, regardless of if they are mobile or not. Such cars must register with Mobile Art.The Survival Guide will discuss this further, as well as the No In and Out policy will be stressed.4. Promoter who contacted Joshua.Joshua updated the Board on the music promoter. The decision was made that the promotor should be directed to Theme Camp Lead as well as Center Camp Lead. Joshua felt that the promotor understood the idea behind burns, and would not be a problem.5. Tickets.Tickets will go on sale April 1st.Next Meeting is at Lovelace's house. Lee will take minutes, Rebecca will lead. "
Alchemy LLC BOD Minutes: January 2008
" Meeting begins at 3:17 pm.Present: Danielle, Joshua, Lee, Lovelace, Rebecca, TroyTopic: Date selection for 2008 event10/2-6 is ok'd by landowners; still waiting to hear from AtlPsy and Touch Samadhi if the date is a conflict. Overall response from Burning Ring of Fire was good about date- no events conflicting.Topic: Letter to Burning Man requesting official regional event statusAction: Troy will draft letterTopic: place created on website for minutes to be postedAction: each board member will write a bio to post to board listTopic: TempleAction: Rebecca put out word about the temple via various yahoo lists and the Alchemy Tribe. Troy will be in touch with the Transformus BOD about posting on their various lists and sites. Danielle will post word on Burning Regions tribe ( http://burningregions.tribe.net/)Topic: Team lead applications thus farRebecca spoke with Keith regarding effigy team, he is stoked about taking this role on, and has been independently working on supporting his weaknesses by finding support for his team.A discussion ensued regarding the process of applying for team lead roles. Decided that the process was second to the goal (getting people involved).Action: Joshua will restate the call with a clarification to just express interest, adding an "accessible" vibe.Discussion about Joshua's and Clove's applications indicate board approval thus far, but no decisions will be made until after the 15th. Joshua stated that he viewed his responsibility as Ranger Team Lead as being the coordination of volunteers in the Rangering role, but not specifically recruiting enough volunteers to fill every shift. He stated that if enough people didn't volunteer to fill every shift, then he would take that as a sign that the community didn't view Rangering every shift as essential, and would fill the shifts that he viewed as highest-priority (e.g. burn night). He requested confirmation from the board that this was consistent with their values and expectations, and the board confirmed it. We identified that the roles we need in place now are Effigy Lead, Art Team, Event Lead, Media, Volunteer lead, and Temple Lead. Joshua stepped up to be the temporary lead for volunteers- he will keep a database of contacts for those who have expressed some interest to anyone about volunteering. Also discussed that we will need to do some recruiting to fill some roles.Action: all of us give any contacts/ leads we have to Joshua.Action: Joshua will format them in a Google document.Action: Rebecca will follow up with Tunna about his interest.Action: Danielle will investigate other event sites, and the touchflame burnwiki about finding role definitions/ documents that define expectations.Action: Online assessment once the 15th arrives, and let's all not let this slip through the cracks.Action: Troy will check news section of website that the call for team leads is up.Topic: Mission StatementLots and lots of discussion and wordsmithing and philosophy. Assessed that this topic needs more time than we have on hand, and that we are still in the drafting stage.Action: every board member interested is encouraged to take the concepts discussed thus far and wordsmith a mission statement by the 22nd. Rebecca will research definition and purpose of a mission statement.Topic: Art grantsDecided to in some part fund an effigy and a temple for the event with funds from Alchemy. In lieu of art grants, we agree to fund art not thru ticket sales but through fundraising or other possible avenues. Action: choose art lead after deadline, Rebecca will be in touch with lead and discuss meeting date to discuss creating a fundraiser event. Meeting open to anyone interested in involvement.Meeting adjourned (i think) 5:40 pm.