Language Creation Society Minutes of Annual Membership Meeting Sunday, January 26, 2014 Thirty-two (32) members (including LCS Board members) in attendance (including those by proxy). Call to Order David PETERSON called the meeting to order at 11:18 a.m. Pacific Time (7:18 p.m. UTC) Don BOOZER posted the agenda: - Election of Board Members - Election of President - Officer Reports - Member Forum (incl. announcement by Inara TABIR on inclusion of "conlang" at Etymonline.com) Agenda items added during meeting: - More regular meetings (e.g., quarterly) and more efficient meetings (Inara TABIR & KALEISSIN) - Nondiscrimination policy committee (PETERSON) - Election of Vice-President (QUIJADA) AGENDA ITEM: OFFICER REPORTS PETERSON asked for Officer Reports Secretary Report (BOOZER): - 880 followers on our Twitter Account (https://twitter.com/fiatlingua) - 3,847 tweets - Compiling document to share with membership and/or board on online webinar applications (if we feel this would be of any use/benefit to the LCS) Q&A for Secretary including questions during meeting not answered by Secretary: John QUIJADA: Not being on Twitter, I'm curious as to what the tweets are about in general. A: General interest on conlanging, retweets of others conlang-related tweets, announcements from Conlanger's Calendar (posted at conlang.org), replies to conlang-related tweets and news items Robert MURPHY: Do we use HootSuite or something to keep the tweets coming often? A: We make use of Twuffer to schedule tweets. Jeffrey BROWN: What sort of webinars are under consideration? A: This is still under consideration but ideas are welcome. TABIR mentioned that workshops via YouTube would be popular. "loads of traffic already, is user friendly and would make our world more out there for noobs to discover" Vice-President Report (QUIJADA): - No report at this time Treasurer Report (Sylvia SOTOMAYOR): Membership - 109 members in good standing in 18 countries - Added 43 members in 2013, lost 21 - Lost 21 members in 2013, 26 in 2012 - Gained 43 in 2013, 28 in 2012 Funds - currently have $14,385.42 in our various accounts - income from dues was $3663, an increase over the $2920 from 2012 - Received $110 in general donations, plus another $100 especially for the LCC - Received $150 from HBO in consulting fee 5th Language Creation Conference - Held LCC5 last year, losing a small amount - Income from the LCC was $2085. $1780 from admissions. - Gained 5 new members due to the LCC, for additional income of $155 (counted above already in the $3663). - Expenses for LCC5 were $2585.41. Our loss was $500.41 LCS Lending Library - Set up the LCS Lending Library, which cost $1304.79 in books and supplies, mostly supplies - Books were for the most part generously donated by QUIJADA, John Clifford, Lorinda Taylor, Erin Peterson, and SOTOMAYOR. - Spent $730.03 on various fees, postage, and miscellaneous expenses Grants - Set aside $850 to send to University of Kentucky for help in teaching conlanging class, but the money was never claimed. Flags - Still have three conlang flags that were pledged for but never paid for. Summary - Overall our income for 2013 was $5681. - LCS total expenses for 2013 were $4490.23, making our net income for 2013 $1190.77 [Jim HENRY mentioned books for the library are more or less a capital investment, not just an expense] Discussion on member benefits and engagement ensued including discussion of "exit survey", survey of members, etc. TABIR offered "when I joined I felt very happy but then empty as I did not feel engaged." SOTOMAYOR asked TABIR, Tony HARRIS, Adam_ to come up with an exit survey. PETERSON suggested re-wording the "lapsed membership" email. HARRIS offered "For "exit survey" I'm thinking something along the lines of 2-3 questions, worded more like a friendly inquiry about whether everything's okay, is there something we could be doing better that would encourage them to say, etc." The suggestion was to also poll membership regularly for their input. President Report (PETERSON): - SOTOMAYOR created new LCS website (based on WordPress) - SOTOMAYOR set up LCS Lending Library: http://conlang.org/resources/lcs-lending-library/ - LCS members can now sign up for HighTail accounts (a cloud storage provider) Sign up through LCS officer [Attendees desired a list of benefits to be compiled. Also, send out on @FiatLingua] - LCC5: financial loss, overall a success [Attendees mentioned would like to see more face-to-face groups, cons, in more locations] [William ANNIS wanted to offer information on member meet-ups later in meeting. Did not have a chance to offer. Feel free to followup on members email list.] No firm offers on location for LCC6 Now biennial event: LCC6 to be in 2015 - Announced resignation (as of end of 2014 Membership Meeting) Appreciation was expressed for PETERSON's service AGENDA ITEM: ELECTION OF BOARD MEMBERS New candidates: Jessie Sams, James Hopkins, Inara Tabir Board members running for re-election:Don Boozer, Sylvia Sotomayor, George Corley, Henrik Theiling, Amanda Furrow 11 58 27 QUIJADA resigned as Vice-President but remains on the Board. Brief discussion ensued concerning number of directors, duties of Vice-President, and related topics. Each candidate explained her/his reasons and background. The following candidates were elected to the Board: Don Boozer, George Corley, Jessie Sams, Sylvia Sotomayor, Amanda Furrow, Henrik Theiling AGENDA ITEM: ELECTION OF PRESIDENT Candidates: Christophe GRANDSIRE-KOEVOETS, George CORLEY Each candidate gave a brief statement. GRANDSIRE-KOEVOETS was elected third President of the Language Creation Society. AGENDA ITEM: ELECTION OF VICE-PRESIDENT Candidates: CORLEY, TABIR, James HOPKINS, and ANNIS CORLEY was elected Vice-President [While voting was taking place, discussion on officers serving as directors. Also SAI self-nominated as Parliamentarian.] MOTION: Shall we create the office of parliamentarian as written by SAI? Vote occurred, PETERSON called motion carried. MOTION: Shall SAI fill the office of parliamentarian? Vote occurred, PETERSON called motion carried. MOTION: Shall the LCS create a members' committee to draft a LCS nondiscrimination policy by May 1st? Vote occurred, PETERSON called motion carried. MOTION: Shall TABIR be elected chair of the member committee to create a nondiscrimination policy for the LCS? Vote occurred; however, the vote was seen as invalid (PETERSON took responsibilty) and a subsequent motion was put forward. SUBSEQUENT MOTION: The members' committee to create an LCS non-discrimination policy will start Feb 10; every member who wants to join should do so by then. On Feb 10, the committee will begin and can elect its own chair(s) by majority vote as it sees fit. Motion did not carry and previous vote was let to stand making TABIR chair of the newly-created committee. AGENDA ITEM: MEMBER FORUM TABIR was able to get Etymology Online to include "conlang": http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=conlang. Discussion ensued concerning inclusion of the word in dictionaries and how to go about this. This idea was tentatively named "Project Recognition". The idea of a formal committee and how to proceed was added to the LCS Board Meeting Agenda. There was more discussion and a motion was made. MOTION: Shall the LCS board form a committee to organize a community effort, in conjunction with other online conlang groups, to work to get the word "conlang" recognized by all major dictionaries? Voting ensued, PETERSON stated the motion did not pass (receiving a plurality, but not a majority. [Post-meeting Note: BOOZER provided citations from JSTOR and Project Muse for uses of the word.] PETERSON adjourned the meeting at 2:24 p.m. Pacific Time (10:24 p.m. UTC)