Town Meeting February 2021

Location: The Society – On Discord

Board in Attendance:  Dasade 

Ombudsman: Bendy4u

Facilitator: Dasade

Co-Facilitator: EmeraldAsh

Treasurer: BlueKinkDot

Archivist: XMeghan

Meeting Items:

  1. Call to Order – Facilitator  7:04  PM
  2. Quorum Check – yes
  3. Minutes
    1. Vote – Approve January Board Meeting Minutes
      1.   “To approve the January Board Meeting minutes except where noted by member concerns.”

Movant: Dasade

Second:  Secretary

Approved:  18  approved,   unapproved,  2  abstention

  1. Vote – Accept January Town Meeting Minutes
    1. “To accept the January Town Meeting minutes except where noted by member concerns.”

Movant: Dasade

Second: Secretary

Approved:  18   approved,    unapproved, 2 abstention

  1. Treasurer Report
    1.  January 1 bank balance: $ 7,431.34
    2. INCOME
    3. GoFundMe Donations               $  612.61
    4. Website Income:                  $  751.99
    5.  (events, Membership, Donations)
    6. Other Donations:                 $2,313.00
    7.  (Check from EmeraldAsh given in
    8.   December but not deposited until Jan) 
    9. Total Income:                     $3,677.60 
    10. EXPENSES:
    11. Rent (half rent):                $2,158.00
    12. Water:                           $   28.69 
    13. Credit Card Details:
    14.  Pmts Made from Bank Account:    $  602.00
    15.  New Charges to credit card:     $  245.73
    16.   Interest Charged:              $  138.98
    17. Total Expenses:                   $3,173.40
    18. OUTSTANDING DEBT:
    19. Back Rent Owed:                  $3,419.88
    20. Credit Card Balance as of 1/31/21:             $7,504.35
    21. Credit Card Balance as of 2/21/21   $7,237.70
    22. Total Outstanding Debt:          $10,924.23
    23. CURRENTLY IN BANK:
    24.  Balance as of 1/31/21            $8,320.25
    25. Balance as of 2/21/21             $6,362.59
  1. Ombudsmans Concerns
    1. Message received:  got a message that there is a piece missing in the discord policy that should state “there should be something written in about people who purposely bait others into arguments or disagreements”
      1. Facilitator:  can you get more information about that because the policy does not exclude that because a) they don’t have to take the bait and b) that would be defined under bullying
      2. It is covered in the rules, but can also be something reported to the mods and is definitely a thing.
      3. Hopefully we get more clarification on it before we get to that part of the meeting.  It depends on what people are being baited for.
      4. Ombudsman:  they had not read through the entire policy and see that it is already there so they are good.
  1. Old Business
    1. Discord Hate Speech and Bullying Policy
      1. Discord Hate Speech and Bullying Policy

What is hate speech?: Any kind of communication in speech, writing or behavior that attacks or uses pejorative or discriminatory language with reference to a person or a group on the basis of who they are, in other words, based on the religion, ethnicity, nationality, race, color, descent, gender, kink preference, or other identity factor that may demean or disparage those individuals or groups either intentionally or unintentionally. 

  1. Bullying is defined as the repeated and intentional use by one or more people of written, oral or electronic communication, directed at or referring to another person,such as cyberbullying, racial slurs, or character assassination, that causes them emotional harm, places them in a reasonable fear of harm, creates a hostile environment, or infringes on their rights.
  2. Discipline escalation steps
  3. 1st Step: quick re-education with a possible probationary period. 
  4. 2nd Step: 1 month suspension from the Discord Server With a probationary period following their return
  5. 3rd Step: Permanent removal from the Discord server 
  6. *Members who act out on the discord server may still be reported to the IRT if their actions warrant their involvement even if they were disciplined on Discord. The party responsible for making that report is the offended party.
  7. Definition of Re-education: Re-education is the attempt to help a person who is making problematic statements or actions aware of the offensive nature of their statements. Re-education may be done by the community at the time of offence or by the moderators during their review of the incident, or both. 
  8. It is encouraged that individuals who are having an in-channel disagreement take the discussion to a DM rather than remain in channel. If the disagreement becomes too heated, members of the channel may ask them to take the conversation in private or contact a moderator who will look at the channel logs and may instruct the individuals to do so..
  9. When a person begins engaging in hate speech and ignores the requests of people to desist continues, a report should be made to the moderators. When making reports to the moderator, screenshots/witnesses are encouraged for the first and second steps and mandatory for a third step. If the problem occurs in a voice channel, please provide a list of people who were witness to the incident to be questioned by the mods.
  10. When the mods take an action, based on the educational value to the server, they will update a public log with the date of the action and the action taken but without the person being named. 
  11. Ie. 2/14/21 – User was suspended for 1 month for excessive of valentine’s sent 
  12. A person who rejects the correction or continues to be aggressive may be removed from the server permanently during the first contact by the moderators
  13. If a conversation violates our hate speech policy, people may invoke Rule 13 and the conversation should end at that point. A report may be made to the Mods for further investigation regardless of if the conversation stops or not.
  1. Discussion about above policy
    1.   It was created to address concerns people had about people on the server engaging in hate speech and bullying and so we came up with a policy to address that.
  2. Concern was brought up about the possibility of this policy being used against people who are outspoken about questioning the board and decisions they make.  The concern is that people should be allowed to question and not get penalized for that and this policy might open them up to that.
  3. Facilitator:  At this point in time looking at how the policy is crafted and where it is pointed i don’t see it being used that way but i don’t disagree that  in the future people couldn’t.  Policies are not always used in the future the way they were originally intended.  At this point in time i don’t know how we can have a policy that couldn’t but how do we define Hate speech.  I can’t say that bad actors may not.  
  4. The consequences are that they are to be banned from the server but unfortunately it is also where we do business.  I don’t have a good example of that.  If it does become an issue we will have to figure out how to let them have a say in our business stuff.  At this point in time it just applies to discord, not a physical space policy.
  5. It was written because some incidents came up and we are trying to find a way to parse that stuff out.  How do we handle that situation when someone comes in and engages in hate speech as moderators?  How can it be dealt with.
  6. The specific concern was related to term “character assassination” as defined in the policy and it could be argued that speaking out against the board could be considered character assassination.
  7. Suggested editions were made to this policy to state that calling out the board for having not above board motives should not be discouraged or penalized by this policy, but it was decided that this should be part of a larger policy and this specific piece is not the place to put that.
  8. Facilitator:  We will put this policy up to the members for a vote and it will end a week after it is put up.
  9. Facilitator discussed two ways to donate
    1. Gofundme
    2. Website
    3. Because we are not open our operating expenses are only coming through donations and our educational events.  
    4.  Our Education Chair was asked  to discuss upcoming educational events
      1. Last night had an awesome class by Devilishsmurfette
      2. This coming saturday, class by a rigger – starting rope
      3. Two events in March on Saturdays – 3/6 – Interview/discussion/book review by IsMostlyEvil – fetlebrity blogger doing The Lazy Dom blog, Following Saturday – ScorpionLeather doing a demonstration on leatherworking
      4. Andrew – rough body play not yet scheduled
    5. IRT is having a meeting on 2/28 from 6:30-8:30
  1. New Business
    1. Closing of the Society
      1. The results of the vote:  closed at 7pm
        1. 41 yay, 2 Nay
        2. Motion carried
        3. So we will be closing the space until such time as covid has passed and we will be moving to a virtual platform.  One of those motions was to suspend the current bylaws and move to an emergency procedure until we can adopt bylaws that fit our virtual platform.
        4. Some ideas we are hashing out are rather than member-owner associates, we will have online members that will receive discounts on classes vs. non-member.  It will also create memberships without the need for a 101.  We will keep track of members who have been vetted vs. those who havent (been to the physical space) and will need to meet the requirements in order to convert over which will mostly likely be 3 visits and 101.   When we get to the other side it will be beneficial for everyone to take the 101 at the new place.
        5. Question was asked:  You mentioned the existing 2 levels membership that we have would go away and we would only have a single online membership.  My question is does that mean   that everyone that signs up for a membership would automatically get voting rights during the meeting.  
        6. Facilitator:  We have a lot of tweaks to add to it and are still figuring it all out.
        7. Co-Fac:  the purpose of this is to allow people who cant become members to become members.
        8. Concern was  raised about virtual members coming in being automatically allowed to get voting rights.
        9. Secretary:   discussed differences between associate vs. voting member
        10. Facilitator:  How we determine voting vs. non-voting is something we will need to discuss.  We will need to focus for the next week and a half getting our space cleared out and into storage.
        11. Question was asked:  Will Lifetime members still be able to attend classes for free
        12. Facilitator:  no decision has been made about that yet.  we have other things to deal with.
        13. Question asked : is the membership going to remain the same price
        14. Facilitator:   currently that is the thought process and will give you discounts on classes, etc.
        15. Co-Fac:  right now our focus is on what we need to do to get our stuff out of the space and secure it.
        16. Question was asked: what about the ones who have been to the space but not all 3 times to become a member
        17. Co-fac:   we are not ready to answer those questions
        18. Treasurer:  shouldn’t we have some sort of division in place that differentiates between 18 and 21.  
        19. Facilitator:  we already have a policy that 18+ are able to attend our education events.  Once we move back to a physical space we may go back to another
        20. Question was asked:  what do we have left after credit cards paid off
        21. Facilitator:  that is in the negative. we have more debt than income
        22. SOmeone asked if we could use paypal
        23. Facilitator:  Paypal still has an anti adult establishment about that which is why we keep out of paypal.
        24. Question was asked:  Are we on to suspend the bylaws and new space thing?  Concern was brought up that we may not be able to just suspend the bylaws.
        25. Facilitator: There is a provision that allows for re-structuring  which is what we are doing.  As part of the re-structure we would need to restructure our bylaws.  In order to do that it requires a 2/3rds vote of member owners at the following town meeting.  the other article is for dissolution of the organization which we are not doing.
        26. We are going to try to stay as close to the bylaws as we can because i dont want to get rid of those because there are a lot of protections there.
        27. Question was asked:  if we do this then do we have to specifically rewrite the bylaws or approve the new bylaws.
        28. Facilitators:  The specific vote that was taken:  To suspend the current bylaws which are based on a physical location and empower the Board to operate under emergency conditions until “Pandemic Operating Procedures” can be created to reflect the new online business model to be brought to the membership for approval.
        29. THe answer is yes, it will definitely be brought to the membership for a vote once we have a chance to re-write them.  
        30. If we can get out by the first of the month it will allow us to save $5700.  The longer we wait the more money they can recover if they take us to court.  
    2. Co-facilitator
      1. Operations will be going tomorrow morning to secure a storage place and a rental truck for saturday.  Evenings this week we will need people to help pack things and boxes to help put stuff in.
      2. last week we did an assessment and started to formulate a plan about what can be inexpensively replaced or rebuilt, what is too damaged, too bulky, etc.  What we need to save vs. what we have.
      3. Get in touch with the board or our facilities person to see where and when you can come up to help.
      4. We do need to help but we also do have a plan in place.
      5. We do have a priority list:  
        1. stuff that will fit
        2. stuff we would like to fit if we can
        3. stuff that would like to have members store if we can
        4. stuff that we can sell.
      6. Secretary voiced her concerns over COVID protections.  Emphasized that groups need to be small, masks need to be worn, and social distancing in place and enforced.
      7.  
    3. Days:
      1. Saturday we will need moving help.  We will need a couple of shifts because people will get tired and sore moving everything out.
      2. What about during the week for those of us with pickups?
        1. We can coordinate that – will need to move some things during the week.  Like, getting our storage units broken down and put back together in the storage unit for our boxes.
      3. Facilitator:  WOuld it be possible to start making daily evening posts where everything stands on fetlife and discord.
      4.  Co-facilitator: The storage unit is more centrally located where i am and the Facilities chair can help me load the truck and someone else help me unload it.
    4. SdParent1: what time do i need to be there for insurance guy
      1. 10am
    5. Treasurer:  i dont know if this is going to work but since there was so much damage done by the people who came into the space i say that should warrant an insurance claim.  I filed a claim with our insurance to see what happens.
  2. Facilitator: Recently we have had a troll who has been attacking the Society.  They have been doing it for awhile.  We had kicked them out of the fetlife group.  Prior to closing they threatened to call the Health Department because we were holding “superspreader” events, which we did not have, we were constantly wiping down surfaces, etc.  We were going above and beyond to clean and fog and disinfect after each play night and in between scenes, etc.  There was a question about mold prior to, that went back to the old flood at the space and they did the same thing (cut out the bottom 2 feet) and what they found here is new stuff since then.  They have been leveling accusations against us.  Claims to have had covid twice last year and have suffered brain damage associated with that.   I am putting this out there for anyone that might have questions for us about the steps that we have taken.
  3. Anybody who has concerns about the space, or make comments about the steps we took or have any questions please feel free to reach out to us.
  4. Q:  was this mold found this time or during the demo from the previous flood?
    1. There was no recent flood to have caused this mold.  Of the areas that they cut out was dry sheetrock with no signs of any mold.  There was one wall in one room that did recently have water that  came in recently that had any newer mold growth.  A very small amount of new growth from the new flood.
  5. Q:  where did the water come from?
  6. a:  It was a burst sprinkler pipe in the storage area.  That had been dried.
  7. as far as the water throughout the space that they explained as taking out the toilets and stuff they put down to help remove the tiles and carpet.
  8. Facilitator:  the most egregious thing is a) they felt the right that they could come in and do this and b) there was never a discussion with us and we were not given an opportunity to move our stuff out to protect it.
  9. That lack of communication is more damage than any property damage that they did.
  10. Keep an eye out on discord and fetlife for updates
  1. Query of members wishing to have items added to the next month’s agenda.
  1. Motion to Adjourn: 9:26  pm
    1. Movant: dasade
    2. Second:  Treasurer
    3. all in favor: all in favor
    4. motion passes
    5. Meeting ended at: 9:26  pm
  2. Next Meeting Date:  March 14th

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