The Board and membership of the Society for the Furtherance & Study of Fantasy & Science Fiction — a.k.a, SF3, which is the nonprofit parent organization of the WisCon convention — will meet on Sunday, Oct. 22, at 1pm (Central Time).  Members who plan to attend in person or by telephone can receive the pertinent information by emailing info@sf3.org.  If you are a current SF3 member, or you were a member at the time of the 2016 meeting, you will receive these specifics via email.

Membership

In order to vote at the annual meeting, you must be a current member.  “Current member” simply means you’ve paid for your membership according to the deadlines below.

Renewing by mail

Deadline:  Wednesday, October 18.

Renewing online

Deadline:  Wednesday, October 18, 11:59pm (Central Time).

Renewing in person

Deadline:  Wednesday, October 18. (Notification email must be received by 11:59pm Central Time — see next paragraph.)

In order to renew in person at the start of the meeting:  You MUST notify the board by emailing the SF3 Treasurer (treasurer@sf3.org) by the deadline above.  This ensures that there will be a packet of materials (sent as PDF via email) for you to review in time for the meeting and that your name will be on the roster to vote.  Please bring cash or check to the meeting on Sunday.

Current membership rates, a membership form (PDF), and PayPal for online payments are available on the Join page at the SF3 website.

Agenda

All current members will receive PDF documents via email with the meeting agenda and any grant proposals submitted for consideration.  Keep an eye on your spam folder as attachments can sometimes fool even the savviest spam filter.

Paper materials will be available by request only:  To help keep our costs low, we will have paper copies available for pick-up at the meeting only if you make a request in advance.  Email the Corresponding Secretary (correspondsecretary@sf3.org) by 11:59pm (Central Time) Wednesday, October 18, to request a paper copy.

One officer term is ending this year — Vice President; additionally, our Treasurer is stepping down, leaving 2 years of the 3-year term for someone to fulfill.  If you are considering putting your name forward for these positions, please review the list of officer duties on the SF3 website.

Grant Proposals

As part of its educational mission to further the study of fantasy and science fiction, SF3 annually awards grant money to organizations and individuals whose work aligns with SF3’s nonprofit goals.  SF3 is pleased to once again solicit grant proposals from interested parties.  Details on how to submit your grant proposal, as well as examples of past grant recipients, are available on the Grant page at the SF3 website.

Deadline:  Grant proposals must be submitted by Tuesday, October 17, 11:59pm (Central Time).

Successful grant proposals have ranged in amounts from just a few hundred dollars to $1,000.  This year, SF3’s total budget for awarding grants is again $2,000.  As with last year, we continue to restrict this budget because SF3 dipped into its reserves for the past several iterations of the SF3 board each fiscal cycle. We’re fine financially, but we are restricting how much gets given away in grants until our reserve has been built back up.

If you are applying for grant money, we recommend explaining how receiving less money than you ask for would affect your entity’s ability to provide the services for which you are requesting funding.  It is not unusual for SF3 to offer a grant award that meets most but not all of the funds requested.

Questions

If you have questions about the upcoming meeting, please contact the SF3 Corresponding Secretary via email: correspondsecretary@sf3.org

The Board and membership of the Society for the Furtherance & Study of Fantasy & Science Fiction — a.k.a, SF3, which is the nonprofit parent organization of the WisCon convention — will meet on Sunday, Oct. 9, at 1pm (Central Time).  Members who plan to attend in person or by telephone can receive the pertinent information by emailing info@sf3.org.  If you are a current SF3 member, or you were a member at the time of the 2015 meeting, you will receive these specifics via email.

Membership

In order to vote at the annual meeting, you must be a current member.  “Current member” simply means you’ve paid for your membership according to the deadlines below.

Renewing by mail

Deadline:  Thursday, Oct. 6.

Renewing online

Deadline:  Saturday, Oct. 8, 11:59pm (Central Time).

Renewing in person

Deadline:  Thursday, Oct. 6. (Notification email must be received by 11:59pm Central Time — see next paragraph.)

In order to renew in person at the start of the meeting:  You MUST notify the board by emailing the SF3 Treasurer (treasurer@sf3.org) by the deadline above.  This ensures that there will be a packet of materials (sent as PDF via email) for you to review in time for the meeting and that your name will be on the roster to vote.  Please bring cash or check to the meeting on Sunday.

Current membership rates, a membership form (PDF), and PayPal for online payments are available on the Join page at the SF3 website.

Agenda

All current members will receive PDF documents via email with the meeting agenda and any grant proposals submitted for consideration.  Keep an eye on your spam folder as attachments can sometimes fool even the savviest spam filter.

Paper materials will be available by request only:  Email the Treasurer (treasurer@sf3.org) by 11:59pm (Central Time) Thursday, Oct. 6, in order to request a paper copy.

Two officer terms are ending this year — President and Treasurer.  If you are considering putting your name forward for one of these positions, please review the list of officer duties on the SF3 website.

Grant Proposals

As part of its educational mission to further the study of fantasy and science fiction, SF3 annually awards grant money to organizations and individuals whose work aligns with SF3’s nonprofit goals.  SF3 is pleased to once again solicit grant proposals from interested parties.  Details on how to submit your grant proposal, as well as examples of past grant recipients, are available on the Grant page at the SF3 website.

Deadline:  Grant proposals must be submitted by Tuesday, Oct. 4, 11:59pm (Central Time).

Successful grant proposals have ranged in amounts from just a few hundred dollars to $1,000.  This year, SF3’s total budget for awarding grants is $2,000.  This is a bit lower than the average of recent years, so if you are applying for grant money we highly recommend explaining how receiving less money than you ask for would affect your entity’s ability to provide the services for which you are requesting funding.  It is not unusual for SF3 to offer a grant award that meets most but not all of the funds requested.

The reason for our limited grant budget this year is simple belt-tightening.  For the past few years (and across several iterations of the SF3 board), SF3 has had to spend some of its reserve money every fiscal cycle.  The reasons we’ve dipped into our reserves have ranged from WisCon departments occasionally having to spend over their budget (for example, this year’s catastrophic equipment failure in the Con Suite) to SF3 determining to stretch the grant budget to try to accommodate as many proposals as possible.  This is the nature of working with a budget that’s set a full month before we receive grant proposals and nine months before WisCon happens.

SF3 and WisCon remain on very firm financial footing, and going forward we’ll be assured of remaining financially sound by following the Financial Reserve Policy implemented by the SF3 Board a little over a year ago.  But for 2016, because we are a little below the reserve called for in the policy, we’re limiting our total grant disbursements a bit as part of our efforts to start building up our reserves again.  The reserves have done exactly what they’re supposed to do — that is, provide a buffer for unexpected or extra-budgetary expenses — but now we need to rebuild the reserves so that they’re there if SF3 or WisCon need them again in the future.

Questions

If you have questions about the upcoming meeting, please contact the SF3 Corresponding Secretary via email: correspondsecretary@sf3.org

Chris Wallish
SF3 Communications Committee

SF3, the nonprofit parent organization of WisCon, held its Annual Member Meeting on Sunday, Oct. 18.

We are pleased to announce the following SF3 Grant awards:

• $1,300 to Aqueduct Press for “The WisCon Chronicles,” Vol. 10, edited by Margaret McBride (to be published in May 2016)
• $1,000 to “San Juan in 2017” North American Science Fiction Convention (NASFiC) Bid
• $500 to “Strange Horizons” for development of new website

It was a tough year for grants, with requests exceeding funds available. We regret that we weren’t able to fund all requests as fully as we would have liked.

The SF3 Board also finalized a minor reorganization of its standing committees, announcing the following committee structure and chair appointments:

• WisCon Convention Committee — Jackie Lee, Interim Chair [At the time of the meeting; now succeeded by Aileen Wall]
• Fundraising Committee — Mathew Murakami, Chair
• Communications Committee — Chris Wallish, Chair

The board itself also saw some personnel changes, as both Recording and Corresponding secretaries were at the ends of their terms. Outgoing Recording Secretary was Jim Leinweber and outgoing Corresponding Secretary was Tanya DePass. We are very grateful to them for their service to the board. Thank you both!

We are pleased to welcome the new officers in these position, both of whom begin three-year terms.

• Corresponding Secretary — Jacqueline (Jackie) Gross. Jackie is from California by way of New Jersey and currently works for UC Berkeley Campus Shared Services. She was a member of the BASCon Con Com for its entire 11 year run, works as a vendor/talent wrangler at San Diego Comic Con and other shows, and is currently a juror for the 2015 Tiptree Award.
• Recording Secretary — Andy Smith. Andy lives in Seattle where he’s a project manager at a game company, which keeps him too busy to play games. He worked on the Potlatch 24 concom and drafted that convention’s harassment policy. He has been going to WisCon since #30 and tends to be on panels about comics and anime.

Current bylaws, tax returns, and minutes for SF3 will be posted to the SF3 website by the end of the year.

If you have any questions for the board, please contact the Corresponding Secretary: correspondsecretary@sf3.org

The SF3 will meet on Sunday, October 18, 2015, at 11:30am. If you are attending in person or by phone, you can receive location/# information by emailing info@sf3.org. If you are a current SF3 member, or were at the time of the 2014 meeting, you will receive these specifics via email.

In order to vote at the annual meeting, you need to be a current member, meaning you’ve renewed your membership by the time the meeting starts. You can find our membership rates and information on how to join here.

The agenda below notes two officer terms that are ending. For those considering running for office, a list of officer duties is now available here.

SF3 2015 Annual Meeting Agenda

• Old Business
  • Approve minutes from 2013, if available
  • Approve minutes from 2014 meeting, if available
  • Officer Reports
    • President Report
    • VP Report
    • Treasurer Report
    • Recording Secretary Report
    • Corresponding Secretary Report
  • Committee Head Reports
    • WisCon ConCom Report
    • Communications Report
    • Fundraising Report
    • Report from Video Archivist (not a committee, but project-specific volunteer under the board)
• New Business
  • Elections for officer positions that expire at this meeting
    • Recording Secretary (Term has ended.)
    • Corresponding Secretary (Term has ended. Will not run for reelection.)
    • FYI: Vice President has 2 years left in her term. President and Treasurer each now have 1 year left in their current terms.
  • Appoint Committee Chairs. As a reminder, these appointments can be made/approved anytime during the year.
  • Vote: Proposed revisions to bylaws (updated to reflect current practices, remove redundancies, etc.; will be sent to SF3 members electronically prior to the meeting)
  • Vote: Grant Requests (will be sent to SF3 members in an electronic “packet” prior to the meeting)

The SF3 will meet on Sunday, October 5th, at 11:30am central time in the Concourse Hotel. (If physically attending, check the board in the lobby for exact room location.)

If you would like to attend this meeting by telephone, please notify the Corresponding Secretary at info@sf3.org, so that arrangements can be made.

Known Agenda Items:

• Officer Reports
• Thanking Exiting Officers, Election of New Officers. We are looking for candidates to run for the position of Vice President. Duties for this position include serving on all committees, and substituting for the President in their absence.
• Appointment of Committee Chairs
• Grant Requests [To date, we have not received any.]
• Proposed By-Law Revision to state that SF3 meetings may be scheduled more flexibly than “the second Sunday of October,” so as to reflect actual practice of the past five years.
• Proposed By-Law Revision: fix inconsistency in the removal of officers.
• Addressing a petition brought by some members of the WisCon concom and SF3 board. They ask that all concom members and SF3 board be guided by and held accountable to WisCon’s Statement of Principles. This group has asked that there be clear consequences for members of the Convention Committee who violate these principles, and note that the Statement of Principles itself already states, “WisCon’s commitment to feminism is also reflected in our processes. Meetings, decision-making processes, program development, and guest of honor choice all reflect a commitment to feminist ideals of equality, respect for everyone’s right to be heard, and the obligation to hold each other accountable for what we say.” Those creating this petition state, “This is not a demand for everyone to adhere to some one true standard of feminist ideology. We believe in the importance of a diversity of opinions, and of everyone’s right to be heard. But we believe that the Convention Committee has, to date, not truly held one another accountable for what we say and do.” The undersigned propose to bring complaints of violations to the SF3 Board, which must then decide whether the member has indeed disregarded these ground rules, and if so, will select a consequence depending on frequency and severity of the transgression, including moderating that person’s emails to the wiscon-concom list, restricting participation in ConCom activities, restricting someone from volunteering in any capacity, and banning a person from WisCon entirely. They ask that this plan be approved by the SF3 board immediately, and posted clearly on the SF3 and WisCon websites.
They state, “We believe that all members of the Convention Committee and the SF3 board deserve a volunteer environment where they are both respected and valued for their contribution, and held accountable for their actions. We believe that these standards are a basic necessity for respectful communication with the WisCon community at large. How can we enforce a code of conduct based on the Statement of Principles if we do not hold ourselves accountable to those same Principles? How can we expect any level of basic trust or respectful communication among WisCon attendees if the members of the Convention Committee or SF3 are held to lower standards?”
If you’re a current SF3 member and want to sign the petition, email sf3info@wiscon.info for a link to the Google Form.

In order to vote at the annual meeting, you have to be a current member, which means that you must have purchased a 2014-2015 membership before the end of the 10/5/2014 meeting. Membership rates are: $9 (under 17 years old), $12 (Basic/Student), $24 (Contributing), $36 (Supporting), $48 (Sustaining), and $60 (Patron). These fees are tax-deductible, and we appreciate your donation. Fees are used for SF3 expenses — grants, corporation filing fees, office expenses, bank charges, etc. Here’s a link on where to join: http://sf3.org/join

Proxy forms may be found online here: http://sf3.org/meetings

If you are unable attend the annual meeting, you may fill out a proxy form and send it to the SF3 address or give it to someone who will be attending the meeting and can deliver it in person. You must send along a check to cover the cost of your membership fee. On the form you may assign specific persons to vote for you or you may ask that a proxy be selected at random. The form must be signed by you.

Those present at the meeting are permitted to hold a maximum of 5 proxies, per the by-laws.

If you have any questions, please email sf3info@wiscon.info.

Here is the agenda for the SF3 annual meeting (October 14, 2012, 11:30 am, Concourse Hotel).

Please note: we are looking for candidates to run for the position of Recording Secretary! Duties for this position include writing up minutes for the annual meeting and for any other meetings (rare) of the SF3 Board, and also keeping track of the names of all current SF3 members.

In order to vote at the annual meeting you must be a current member, which means that you must have purchased a 2012-1013 membership before the end of the 10/14/12 meeting. Membership rates are: $9 (under 17 years old), $12 (Basic/Student), $24 (Contributing), $36 (Supporting), $48 (Sustaining), and $60 (Patron). These fees are tax-deductible and we appreciate your donation. Fees are used for SF3 expenses — grants, corporation filing fees, office expenses, bank charges, etc.
Proxy form halfpage 2012
If you are unable attend the annual meeting, you may fill out a proxy form and send it to the SF3 address or give it to someone who will be attending the meeting and can deliver it in person. You must send along a check to cover the cost of your membership fee. A pdf of the proxy form is attached to this email. On the form you may assign specific persons to vote for you or you may ask that a proxy be selected at random. The form must be signed by you.

Thanks. I hope to see many of you on Sunday, October 14.

Jeanne Gomoll
President, SF3

SF3 2012 ANNUAL MEETING AGENDA

October 14, 2012, 11:30 am

Concourse Hotel

1. Review, correct and approve minutes of previous year’s meeting. If you can’t locate your copy, please email Jeanne Gomoll to get a pdf.

2. Old Business (Please let us know if there is unresolved business to list here)

3. Officer Reports

President: Jeanne Gomoll

Vice President: Sandy Olson

Treasurer: Jim Hudson

Recording Secretary: Victor Raymond

Corresponding Secretary: Jackie Lee

4. Committee Head Reports

W36 Convention Committee: Lou Hoffman, Victor Raymond, Deborah Stone

Publications Committee: Jeanne Gomoll

Resource Committee: vacant

Program Committee: Victor Raymond

Webmistress:  Deb Stone

Database Committee: Jim Hudson

5. Election for officer positions that expire in 2012

Recording Secretary: Victor Raymond (Victor will not run for this position again.)

Corresponding Secretary: Jackie Lee (Jackie took over Karen Moore’s position and has not served a whole term. Jackie plans to run again.)

6. Appointment of committee heads

7. New Business

Grant applications: Board of Science Fiction and Fantasy Translation Awards, Aqueduct Press, Access/ASL interpretation

SFRA Conference partnership with WisCon 38, in the year 2014

Anything else?