Language Creation Society

Minutes of Annual Membership Meeting

Saturday, January 5, 2013

Thirty-four (34) members (including LCS Board members) in attendance plus five (5) by proxy for a total of thirty-nine (39).

Call to Order

David Peterson called the meeting to order at 19:56:19 UTC/GMT and attendance was taken. Don Boozer posted the agenda:
1. Officers' Reports (President, Vice President, Secretary and Treasurer)
2. Re-election of Board Members (so far Doug Ball, Alex Fink and John Quijada)
3. Nominations for New Board Members
4. Discussion for LCC5
5. General Members' Discussion

Agenda Item 1: Officer Reports

President's Report (David Peterson):
- Fiat LIngua was inaugurated during 2012.
- Launched of Jobs Board at jobs.conlang.org
- Aggregator.conlang.org is "still up and serving its function"
- Appears Language Creation Conference (LCC) will take place every other year.
- Sylvia Sotomayor redesigned the LCS website (Kudos given all around)
- We continued our work on Game of Thrones (about to air its third season)
- LCS membership has remained steady (Auto-renew has helped)

Vice-President's Report (John Quijada):
- Discussion on the New Yorker article featuring John Quijada
- John Quijada received an "informal invite to visit Harvard University" and the Sunday Times has expressed interest in interviewing him.

Secretary's Report (Don Boozer):
- 578 followers on our Twitter account: @fiatlingua
- Inaugurated an LCS Pinterest account (fiatlingua) in 2012
- Talked with Christine Schreyer's ANTH474 class in 2012 about the LCS, my exhibit, and Dritok
- Investigate web conferencing options for possible uses by the LCS and report back (Discussion and options offered by attendees including GoToMeeting, Google+ Hangouts, Moodle, and AdobeConnect)
- Posted a roundup of conlanging in 2012 at http://library.conlang.org/blog/?p=772

Treaurer's Report (Sylvia Sotomayor):
- LCS funds = $12,897.20
- Currently no liabilities, and we are owed $84.30 in money for the Conlang flag orders.
- No big expenses for 2012, but we anticipate spending $$$ for LCC5
-- (Extensive discussion of some of the anticipated expenditures and logistics for LCC5 ensued)
- On memberships, LCS gained 28 members in 2012, and lost 28 members: holding steady

Agenda Item 2: Re-election of Board Members
Block voting for the group was agreed upon.
The following motion was made by David Peterson:
PROPOSAL: I propose that John Clifford, John Quijada, Doug Ball, Alex Fink and Sai be reelected to the LCS board of directors for a new two year term.
Seconded by Piermaria Maraziti.
Motion passed unanimously.

Agenda Item 3: Nominations for New Board Members
Discussion ensued for nominations for the four vacant spots on the LCS Board of Directors.
Nominees were: Tim Stoffel (hrakkar), Jeffrey Brown (JeffreyB), Christophe Grandsire (Tsela), William Annis (wmannis), Tony Harris (TonyHarris).
It was decided that voting would take place by private message to Don Boozer who would tally the votes.
Each nominee was given the opportunity to share their conlanging and board experience. Other attendees were also provided the opportunity to share their endorsements of each candidate.
David Peterson gave the following directive: VOTE: Shall Tim Stoffel, Tony Harris, Christophe Grandsire, Jeffrey Brown and/or William Annis be elected for a two year term to the LCS board of directors? Please vote aye, abstain or no on each candidate. Please vote for ALL candidates.
While votes were tabulated, an open discussion on LCC5 took place.
The results were:
- Tim Stoffel: 2 abstain, 4 no, 18 yes
- Jeff Brown: 15 ab, 1 no, 16 yes
- Christophe Grandsire: 4 ab, 0 no, 30 yes
- Wm Annis: 7 ab, 2 no, 25 yes
- Tony Harris: 7 ab, 0 no, 26 yes.
David Peterson welcome the new board members: Tim Stoffel, Christophe Grandsire, Tony Harris and William Annis.

Agenda Item 4: General Member Discussion
Much of the discussion centered around LCC5 in Austin, Texas, USA, on the University of Texas at Austin campus, May 4-5, 2013.
DarinArrick proposed discussion of academic interaction and the link to LCS Grants was shared: http://conlang.org/resources/lcs-grants/
JeffreyB suggested Moodle to a clas for new conlangers.

Adjourn

David Peterson adjourned the meeting at 22:04:56 UTC/GMT