There were issues about this at Constellation and a participant noted that there is discrepancies between the policies. Also, there is no drone policy noted within the photography policy
MaMad Hatter to take on combining the policies and simplifying it.
WaWax would like to create a "bumper sticker" version of the policy for quick reference throughout the event.
Some issues arose around the land owner guests at constellation. Wax gave quick "greeter" spiel. But they did not get a full greeter experience.
Tovia: "Photography is consent."
Wax: The regular world does not follow those same guidelines. Getting people to understand that our events are not a public space is difficult.
Don't want to get too bureaucratic. Want to make sure we don't get too wordy
Start with a simplified, universal policy that we share with the community
preference that it's written like a newspaper story, that the lead has the high level policy and everything you need to know. The rest goes into the minutia.
McKenzie model
Things like the dust app make it easier for them to have their phone out and quickly snap a photo. It's easy to forget that's not how that works here
Might be worth having signs and announcements during particular things (like effigy after the perimeter falls)
Board nominations
Have a few idea of people we'd like to nominate
Wax will break out the nomination form and work on it this week.
WaWax will do a pass and send out and then get them out
Hatter had suggestions
Some might not have the time. But could be bod
We want to be careful about poaching super active event coordinators
Maybe some folks would not be an immediate fill, but when they are looking to move on or up they could be good.
Jayde: offered others who could have potential as well
Wax offered another person that might be good
Old Business
Callbox replacement
Success!
Boxes were up on Tuesday with help of Doc
Megaman and Wax got them running in about 15 minutes
4 different calls occurred that are known about.
Open sourcing is under way. Wax hopes to have it done by end of year.
Current status about 50%
Will publish to GitHub
Due to the need to order in bulk, there are several boards available. Going to reach out to Lakes of Fire to see if they are interested in the boards to create their own.
There was a case that Tovia was aware of that they had trouble with the box. Potentially not waiting for the beep
One khaki had the dirt rangers testing the boxes
The box with the reported problem was tested after the fact and was working. It might be operator error.
Easier to use for Deaf participants
Some standardization of height (ADA recommended height)
Numbering them on the Map (So that rangers can easily identify which box is being called from)
At PDF see if they can do the same thing as Constellation with the Grid
Assignments set by Wax - due by December BoD meeting
Will be assigning out bits of it this week to each of the rest of the BOD
Events
MALC
Closed for 2025
Playa Del Fuego
Closed for 2025
Meetings scheduled
Discussing overarching schedule with Fiona/Guy Chris (possibly port to Constellation)
Building out complete event Gantt charts and to-do lists broken down by department and role
Wax: looking into solutions for that now
Tovia, Guy Chris came on as a co-coordinator for Fiona, are they grooming someone else to take on that position.
Do we need to find a replacement for GC for PDF?
He does not want to lose that. He is willing to take on both roles
Wax feels he is incredibly easy to work with
Burn out is a concern, seeing it on the bod makes us nervous
He is in unique position that he can take it on because he does not work outside of the home. He can give this is whole focus. Jayde will hit the panic button if she sees him burning out.
Hatter worried about overlap between the events
Fusion might not be leaving now, this might be a non issue. Either way 2 coordinators is essential for both events
Tovia: Great that GC stepped in, but important that we are developing people to take that position without trial by fire (For ALL coordinators)
Jayde Raven: We need more constellation folks to take over the roles that PDF coordinators are currently running in lieu of other coordinators.
Wax: Need a Sith arrangement (always a master and apprentice... but with a 3rd)
Have an apprenticeship burn. You get a reserve coordinator ticket and are shadowing the coordinators. You are there to learn/shadow, not run the department
Karnak or GC put it... there needs to be a "I'm going to follow you for a year to see what you do, then the next year you'll lead and I'll follow and support"
Wax: would love to formalize this
Constellation
Ticket Aid Refunds?
WaWax To talk to whatever
GC wants to schedule retro with him and fusion- October 23rd. All BOD should have gotten an invite.
Give Guy Chris and Fusion their flowers. It was very smooth
A lot of lessons learned were applied
let's talk about dates for retreat sooner rather than later!
WaWax will look at dates this week
Hatter would like to broach the subject of re-introducing board liaisons of some sort back to each event. Feels that some things being dropped and duplicate work were caused by not having a centralized person.
having a centralized to-do list/calendar for the events will help with some of that.
Should talk more about it to put it in place prior to PDF planning
Committees
Governance & Finance
Governance Policy and Procedure Updates
Draft of Procedure for Review of Meeting Minutes has been prepared and reviewed by board in August/September
Apogee, Transformus have faced unique operational hardships this year
Our existing Safety Plans may not cover those particular issues
Want to task Safety Committee with reworking the Safety Plan
Start with a generic orderly evacuation plan
Expand that to
Who can declare a disaster
Who coordinates a uh
How is this communicated to participants
Should look through existing safety plan for what our generic responses are
Evacuation
Shelter-in-place
Need input from folks who are more familiar with Safety
Operation Reports
Yet to be completed for 2023 and 2024. Be on the lookout for assignments from Wax to follow
Taxes
Federal return due date is postponed to November 15th
form 990 has not been done yet for 2024. On track for Nov 15.
Financial Report to the Board
I’ll begin with an investment update. We continue to be in a strong liquidity position — our cash and near-cash balances in our operating account, PayPal, and Schwab reserves total approximately $55,000. Most of our Constellation event expenses have been paid, yet the second half site rental has not yet been paid.
Our account balances at Charles Schwab total $718,000 of which $55,000 is held in cash and near cash. We hold $28,000 in cash at Wells Fargo Bank to fund our operations.
On the invested side, our Schwab Discretionary Fund (~$343,000) and our Schwab Real Property Purchase Fund (~$322,500) give us some risk exposure which we manage (through FSA) and continue to find reasonable in search for improved yields. Our six-month yield on the managed Schwab equities portion is about 11.72% (a net positive of 5(ish)% after the loss in the first quarter) and recent equity market performance has been strong, particularly over the past quarter.
Looking at the broader market, the S&P 500 has posted a healthy return over the past 3 months (~10-11%), indicating strong momentum; however, the year-to-date return remains modest (~5%) and valuations remain elevated.
From a risk/return perspective, our FSA investments give us flexibility to act or pause as needed, and our liquidity allows us to easily meet our short term needs, including the funding of our key events. The equity markets provide upside if earnings, interest rates and sentiment cooperate; our real-property fund offers a longer-term horizon and potential real asset diversification. On the flip side, risks such as inflation creeping higher, a recession, interest-rate shocks or property-market softness could negatively impact our holdings.
Because of heavy equity exposure in our Funds at Schwab, we are vulnerable to a sharp correction in equities. While the recent 3-month is strong, markets could reverse.
If valuations are elevated, the upside potential may be somewhat capped; at the same time downside risk may be amplified if macro conditions deteriorate.
Some investors fear that
markets are particularly susceptible to disruption now, when the extended rally has stretched corporate valuations, making the biggest stocks historically expensive.
a rekindled trade war
unease about the prolonged run-up in artificial intelligence stocks
turbulent stretch for the markets
Governance and Finance Control Initiative
Objective is a structured monitoring the FSA and Wells Fargo accounts for suspicious activities or errors. Tovia has volunteered to be an auditor. The Committee is creating some simple procedures for bank reconciliation and activity reviews. Objective is to implement initial set of procedures this quarter.
Overall, the recommendation of the Governance and Finance committee is to maintain our current posture: keep a healthy cash buffer, allow our equity exposure to participate in the market’s upside, and keep the real-property fund intact given its longer horizon.
Wax: We should have a major goal over the next year to document what we have done and what we are looking for re: the land fund and purchase
DaDavid Wilkes : To try to complete that by end of the year
The community doesn't know we put in that work. It would be nice for the community to know we did that work. Having good transparency would be beneficial
also add possible things to do with this money in the future
Operations
Things to discuss during retreat. There is something not quite right currently.
Wax: bravo to everyone who made constellation happen. Everyone stepped up and took up. Major thanks to JR!!
Would be nice to have an offsite coordinator for constellation as well
Laura the quartermaster did a lot of work for storage. Something good to develop
Laura (sternic?) felt very supported for the work weekend.
As a small business, you don't hire until your write the manual for how to do the role. For things like offsite coordinator and others, reaching out to Laura to help write it would be great, especially if we want to implement at PDF. Documentation and mentorship will make it better and better
Safety
Tovia: We do need to let the 911 folks know that we are having a controlled burn. Tovia had a nice exchange with Steve Yokum (fire chief of Bedford).
Need to make sure all coordinators have backup for when they are over extended.
Tovia: Would like to reach out to the guy who got hit by the tractor trailer to get the situation to use as leverage to get PennDOT to add event signage.
Land owner made attempt and was blow off.
Dave (owner) has gone to several meetings to ask for signage. Folk festival is at the same time and all signage is being used for that.
We might be able to put cones out.
Hatter purchased a reflective road sign for PDF that we can look into getting for Constellation - Should be brought up to constellation team
Wax: When we had the incident happen with police across the road. We should clarify our (BOD) rules of engagement for police.
Actual should be careful about living on safety and jumping to help without being called.
Technology
Pre-Constellation 1x Chromebook died (keyboard issue, not reasonably fixable)
New Dell tablet donated by Megaman (it's nice & rugged!)
Interest in moving Quail features into Peacock
Pros
Consolidation!
Makes a move to using Peacock for volunteer tracking easier
Only require wristband IDs for logging hours & equipment checkout
Cons
Would require 2 hotspots at burn & more data
System shutdown if no internet (already an issue at gate)
?Hatter: Can we have it work on the local server and do frequent synchs instead of living online?
would require additional infrastructure, current Quail server not big enough to handle peacock
Setting up for Quail at Constellation
New small Wifi router worked well at Constellation
Investigating Jackery or similar battery for Quail use