Re: Motion on TAG

[Erik Olson <erik@thekrib.com>]

See, now I can reply to my own message. :)

On Tue, 11 Dec 2001, Erik Olson wrote:

> On Tue, 11 Dec 2001, David VillaSunscape wrote:
> 
> > MY MOTION IS THAT: AGA establish a Publications Committee, the
> > Chairperson of which will be the Editor of TAG. As Chairperson the
> > Editor can also appoint others for the committee, and to handle
> > separate tasks and interests as required. The position of Editor of
> > TAG be paid $650 per issue of TAG. The Board of Directors will decide
> > among ourselves who we would like to see in the position, and then
> > offer it to that person.
> 
> In order to start keeping these things under control, I will take a clue
> from the ACA board, and start numbering these propositions.
> 
> David's motion above will be Proposition 01-01.

Though I cannot second it, I can discuss.  I think this is doable (I'm
guessing our annual income is around $12k these days, and probably THE
most important thing we have is really still TAG.  It needs to be more
regular and have more committment behind it).

But perhaps a little more fleshing out of the proposal is needed:

For one thing, would this person be able to hold a board position?  (Darn
it, I need to have a copy of our articles of incorporation up on the web.
David, can you send this to me?).  In the ACA, there was a
conflict-of-interest problem where a board member was also paid for
services rendered, and was doing it quasi-illegally (ACA paid the printer,
the printer paid the person).

Another question is, would the duties of the editor include interfacing
with advertisers (should we need the increased revenue), or would that be
a separate person? i.e., how far would these responsibilities go?
Personally, I think that even if we didn't think we had the budget for
paying some of the staff AND printing in color, we could EASILY make this
up by selling a couple full page ads per issue.  Perhaps this is a
discussion for later down the line, but I'm curious where the thinking
lies.  Also, when you look at the other motion below, we would have a
precedent for ads, and this would open the door to selling others easily.

> > I move the following: David Lass, Treasurer of AGA, be deputized to begin
> discussions with Aqua Design Amano (ADA) as to how AGA might formalize a
> relationship with him and his company. Specifically we will be looking for
> two things: 1) ADA will send AGA two articles each quarter, with photos,
> which we will have translated from Japanese into English. These will be
> published each quarter in TAG in a section called "The Amano Corner" (or
> the like) 2) In exchange for these articles TAG will give ADA 2 pages of
> advertising in each issue. 3) AGA will begin to offer ADA products for
> sale. We cannot buy in huge quantities, yet, and we will have to be
> selective about what we offer. We will need from ADA a list of the
> products, weights, costs to us and suggested sale prices.
>  
> David's motion above will be Prop. 01-02.

I thank David for his offer, and agree enthusiastically with provisions 1)
and 2).  I am cautious about provision 3), because if it were anything
more than books (many of which are already available in the US), the AGA
would now have a "store", which means the AGA would have to have a
"storekeeper".  Again, like with the ads, I think that if we actually HAD
a "store", this would open the door for other cool things, like finally
being able to sell T-shirts and pins online.  I'd like to hear David's
ideas on this.

  - Erik

PS: On the Amano front, I just finished a 2-day marathon editing session
on his talk from the convention.  Edited his 1.5 hour talk into 55 minutes
by overlaying Tomoko's translation in many places, cleaning up slide
transitions, cutting out pauses & back-translation during the Q&A.  It
looks kinda pro.  Looking forward to editing the 3-camera footage of his
workshop in a similar manner; goal is to fit both onto a 2-hour VHS tape.
We might consider adding this to the possible "store" as there is most
likely NOTHING like this available to North American audiences in which to
see and hear him talk about his design philosophy.

-- 
Erik Olson
erik at thekrib dot com

  ------------------
  To unsubscribe from this list, e-mail majordomo@thekrib.com
  with "unsubscribe aga-sc" in the body of the message.
  Old messages are available at http://lists.thekrib.com/aga-sc
  When asked, log in as username is "aga-sc", and password "incorp".