April Meeting Follow-up

Introducing our New Executive Board
We barely managed a quorum of dues-paid members at our April 27, 2013 meeting to hold an official election, but with a final flurry of payments, we did it.  We had no mail-in votes, but the online voting echoed and reinforced the verdict of those attending in person.

Incoming and outgoing Presidents Ty Gephardt
and Diana J. Bailey, at the April 2013 meeting.

It was a safe bet we'd make history, because the election of either President candidate would be historic for KaCSFFS in some way.

The history we chose to make was electing the first, second-generation KAXFAN President in club history: Ty Gephardt's birth was announced at a KaCSFFS meeting in 1985, he joined on his own for the first time at age 15, and he is now President for the coming year, Ghod help him.

President was the only contested position on the Executive Board, but we have new faces in other positions, as well.

L-R New Secretary Kristina Hiner takes over from
Sherri Dean, the outgoing Secretary.

When incumbent Secretary Sherri Dean announced she was not running for another term, relatively new member Kristina Hiner stepped up to self-nominate. No other Secretary candidates opposed her, so a vote for this office was not needed. 

Kristina already has become an active voice on the new Board. Along with other, younger members of this Board, she is helping to add a more youthful perspective than that of the Baby Boomers who have dominated for decades.

L-R ConQuesT 2013 (CQ44) and 2014 (CQ45)
Chairpersons Victoria L'Ecuyer and Jesi Pershing.

We also have a changing of the ConQuesT Con Chairpersons on the Executive Board.  

The 2013 ConQuesT Chairperson remains Victoria L'Ecuyer, but she stepped down from the Board position so her Vice-Chair, Jesi (Lipp) Pershing, another second-generation KAXFAN, could step up.  

For most of her term on the Executive Board, Jesi will be the Chairperson of the upcoming ConQuesT.  She also ran unopposed.

Cindy Norton (working hard
during the April meeting)
remains KaCSFFS Treasurer.

Jan Gephardt (giving a
report at the April meeting)
will remain Communications
Officer of KaCSFFS.

Other Board positions will remain unchanged, because the incumbents self-nominated, and no one ran against them.  

Cindy Norton remains the Treasurer for a fifth term.  An accountant for a local business and part-time IRS worker, she brings considerable experience to the post.

Jan Gephardt remains the Communications Officer for a third term.  She was trained as a journalist, and worked for many years in the fields of marketing and education.

Both of these are voting Board Member positions.  

Diana Bailey continues as the
KaCSFFS Registered Agent.

The Registered Agent for the club is a non-voting position that often remains unchanged for many years because there are legal aspects to changing it, and especially while we await a decision from the IRS regarding our 501 (c) 3 designation, we don't want any unnecessary legal rearrangements. Diana Bailey continues as the Registered Agent.

Board members may be contacted online via the KaCSFFS Facebook Page, the KAXFEN Yahoo Group (for current members only), or by posting a comment to this blog (see below), or via snailmail at P.O. Box 34413, North Kansas City, MO 64116.

PHOTO CREDITS: We are grateful to several people for the photos used in this post.  The wonderful William Tienken provided the images of Ty with Diana, Kristina with Sherri, Jan Gephardt at the April meeting, and Diana Bailey at a meeting in the summer of 2012, all via his posts on Facebook.  The photo of Jesi Pershing is courtesy of Keith Stokes's MidAmerica Fan Photo Archive (Chicon VI section).  The photo of Cindy Norton was taken by Jan Gephardt, also at the April 2013 meeting.

News Notes from the October Meeting

Important decisions made before the party started

Partiers included Sherri Dean
and Ken Keller.

We had a good crowd at the October meeting, held late so we could avoid a scheduling conflict and have a Halloween party. Before the party, however, several things were decided at the meeting.

Election Changes:
As part of the process of changing the Bylaws to comply with requirements for our hoped-for 501(c)3 status, the club agreed with a request from the Board to schedule officer elections in April 2012.

This is an important change from our traditional January election date, but it schedules this important decision the month after dues have been paid, and at a time when the weather is liklier to be good.

Current officers have agreed to continue serving during the extra months between January and April, to bridge this time gap.

New Publicity Committee Formed:
Communications Officer Jan Gephardt also outlined the need for a planning committee comprised of members who know about marketing, to help review all parts of our club's communications and publicity, and recommend "best practices" going forward. The goal is to have all the communications look like they come from the same organization, and to put in place a coherent vision for events and publicity.

Three members volunteered to serve on this committee, along with Jan. They are Jim Murray, Tracy Majkol, and Beth Welch. There still are potentially two openings on this committee, so if you were unable to attend the meeting but would like to help us clarify our communications focus, please contact Jan.

Remember the Game of Thrones Marathon--THIS WEEKEND!
Laser Rangers representatives Ken Keller and Tracy Majkol presented an audio-visual program about the upcoming Game of Thrones event.  It is this weekend! We published a schedule here earlier in October, or you can find more information on the Laser Rangers website.  Keep watching this page: our next post with give all the latest details.

PHOTO CREDIT: The snapshot used for this post was taken by Jan Gephardt. If you want to use it, please give credit to Jan and KaCSFFS. Thanks!