Agenda:
-approve previous mtg minutes
-Jeff resigned. Daniel was voted onto board.
-Accept Treys resignation. Vote Andy onto board.
-Welcome Katherine onto board.
-Appoint officer titles: VP membership. VP executive. HMBIA Rep. Pres.
-duels league. Assign committee/officer oversight.
-election update – do ne/mw need to vote?
-insurance update
-financial update, account balance.
-secretary update.
-membership turnover: july 1st, push back till midmonth for website?
Fee update (vote will happen once new reps in place).
-website update
-events update. Vote. AAR’s.
-complaint genessa vs howard. Vote.
HMB USA mtg June 8th, 2021
Call to order by Desha, only officer on the Board. 6:07pm
In attendance: Desha. Andy. Katherine. Aaron. Daniel. Alexey. Joel. Jake. Makoto. Chris.
Kirk, Trey, not in attendance
Vote to approve previous mtg minutes. All in favor.
none opposed.
The Board accepts Trey’s resignation.
Vote Andy onto the executive board. All in favor.
None opposed.
Jeff resigned May 18, 2021. Daniel was voted onto board May 19, 2021.
Welcome Zog!
Regional reps, do you want to stay until elections are over or step down tonight? Makoto and Alexey respond yes to staying on until new rep and handing off.
Vote for officer appointment:
Joel VP. All in favor. None opposed
Joel HMBIA Rep. All in favor. None opposed
Daniel VP Executive. All in favor. none opposed
Andy Tunstall as president. Andy obstains. All in favor. none opposed
Duels league: appoint an officer.
Andy proposes Aaron as the board officer to oversee the duels league. Aaron has talked with Daria and has a working relationship with Alex cooley.
Vote Aaron as lead officer. all in favor. None opposed.
Daniel asks about separate membership for duels league.
Andy and Aaron will review membership requirements and contracts that were signed.
Daniel needs a deadline, 2 weeks maximum, for website and membership management. Will event insurance cover duels leagues, will event requests for support cover them?
Website is about 75% together. Taking up a lot of time but it’s coming together to meet our needs.
Election for MW and NE, board maintains that these regions require a vote for the 1 candidate in each region. Desha will notify Larry asap.
Insurance update: no one will underwrite the AMCF policy, unsure of what the AMCF is talking about in regards to their new policy. Andy has been talking to agencies in FL, headway on liability policy that will cover liability at events. They expect waivers for self insurance for injuries and fighters will have to have their own injury/health insurance per HMBIA rules. Quotes will be around 1200-2000/year for any number of events, for up to 200 fighters.
Daniel is scared, he has an AMCF event in July and supposedly an insurance certificate that expires July 31st. Full assurance of a renewed policy has been given, however a Liability cert has not been received. Feels its a dangerous situation being put in as an event organizer because orgs are playing fuck games with insurance. That’s our push to not ever put people in that position.
Board agrees that we need our own policy and to not piggy off others’ insurance policy. Protect our members and protect the people.
Financial update: started at $1500 in account. Current balance is about $745, website and paying Trey back. All expenses were board approved. Taxes were reported, the org falls under an income bracket ‘we didn’t have an income’. Jackson Hewitt says we are in good standing- 501’s cannot submit their own taxes, recent tax ruling.
Most of paypal is set up, the bank account connection is not working.
7 people have signed up at the example/proposal $70 rate with 9/month, asked to trial the system, success!
Word is getting out and people are signing up even though it’s not been voted on.
Secretary update: filings done with the state of illinois. Trey transferred info to Desha. Cc is updated with that filing center.
Membership update:
Daniel needs to integrate forms. Needs to ‘make it pretty’. Mostly done. Will be ready by July 1st.
Discussion on a Lifetime/one time fee. Monthly fee. One lump sum annually. Renew annual fee.
Can set a sunset date on anything for 12 mos. Members will have to sign back up and pay the setup fee again and have monthly fees start again. (if that’s the fee structure that gets voted on).
Membership fees provide events, event support, fly out marshals, provide insurance, etc. Looking at total annual costs and what the value is to the members. What is the total benefit and what is the number we’re going to attach to that?
Jake suggests having multiple payment options – benefit to paying upfront, and have a monthly fee with a small increase.
Lifetime subscription, at less than $10/month, what happens is people forget about it. Paying members for years at $9/month but we receive the money whether they participate or not. Provides a benefit to the org with passive income.
Andy – HMB doesn’t have a large level of trust as an org, a smaller fee number is easier to build trust with where the money is going, put out good will.
Joel – is there a way to keep fighters current to participation and keep voting rights current?
Desha – don’t use the word ‘lifetime’ in regards to the initial signup fee. Also, worried about people holding off until the event they want to be a part of and avoiding signing up each July 1.
How to monitor membership each year? Daniel assures the website will monitor all that at any given moment, can access the active membership.
Events update: duels training and winter camp were successes. Next approved event is Joe’s duel battle end of June.
Alexey has proposed event on July 24th. Daniel motions to approve. Andy seconds. None opposed.
Faster turnaround response to event organizers needed. Event submission tab on the website on members login has been created as the solution. This will provide a turnaround response to event planners in a more streamlined efficient approach.
Genessa’s complaint: Howard did not break any rules or violate code of conduct. Immediate leadership handled it.
Chris – Eric Gothenburg sat down with him about what he texts and communicates with other fighters. The Team adopted a code of conduct and everyone signed it.
Desha will respond to her email with formal response.
New board will be voting on:
Membership Fees – the proposal/example amount is $70 initial and $9/month. Other amount? Fee structure?
Ntl cptn for team USA selection process.
New qualifying tourney for botn Romania
HMBIA womens Rep appointment – Zog?
Appoint a South rep? per bylaws the board can do so.
Any regional concerns/membership needs brought to the table.
Bylaws?
Any other business? None
Meeting adjourned. 7:49 Andy motion to adjourn. Desha second.
Recorded by Desha Wood, secretary.
