Dark Clouds Board Meeting

The Board of Directors’ next meeting will be on Monday, January 20th at 6:30pm in the back room at Black Hart in St. Paul.

The meeting is open to the public.

Dark Clouds Board of Directors December Meeting Minutes

12/16/19

6:30pm

Black Hart of Saint Paul

Board Members Present:  David Zeller, Andrew Bruski, Andrew Beck, Andy Reierson, Meagan Weber, Samantha Solberg, Nach Karnik, Jack McFarland, Casey Mullan 

Absent:  Maggi Erlandson

I. Call to Order

Called to order by Sam Solberg at 6:37pm

II. Approval of Minutes   

Andrew Beck moved, Andrew Bruski seconded, November meeting minutes were approved.

III. Reports of Officers and Committees                                   

a. Treasurer’s Report  – Andy Reierson

  • Andy to have a full year-end report available shortly.
  • Info from WW to become more transparent in the coming months.
  • 5-6% above YOY at the end of October. 
  • Andy joining the WW board as treasurer.

b. Committee Updates 

Merch

  •  Started selling business casual scarf. Slow selling but merch newsletter hasn’t gone out yet. It’s only been announced on Twitter so far.
  • Sold things for cheap on Black Friday.
  • One more winter item coming in January. 
  • Working on scarf slogan for membership scarf.

Matchday

  • No updates.

Mar/Com/Social

  • Nach & Jake working on getting more people involved in this area, especially marketing specialists.
  • Trying to find more people who are interested in social media 

Silver Lining

  • Legends cup cancelled by the Sanneh Foundation due to scheduling.
  • DGS updates:
    • Meeting held on December 12th. 
    • Not officially registered with the state, waiting until January to file. No official announcement until it’s officially a 503(c)3 
    • Primarily discussed what the board should be.

Membership

  • No current numbers, but numbers seem promising so far. 17 or so 2020 memberships sold so far.
  • Possibility to hand out scarves at Allianz, should find out between Christmas & NY. Lake Monster is a backup location for scarf handout in February.
  • Current ask is “do you want to participate?” various times in the last few months with other SGs. No response from them. Zeller to follow up with DG and RL
  • Waiting on design and cards to get WW card of wonder. 
  • Planned several events for current members and for recruiting throughout the next year
  • Need more volunteers.
  • Need SG affiliations in by the end of the year, but then will have to wait until the middle of the year for additional memberships.

Partnership

  • Minneapolis watch party location is La Dona 
    • Dollar off beers during the match
    • 2-4-1s all other times
    • Will give all SGs use of the soccer court on one Saturday for whatever we want May-August. Zeller to get some additional details.
  • Waiting to hear back from Summit on the beer front. Hoping this is still in the works on their side.
  • If there are businesses or partners we can reach out to, let Zeller or Jack know.

Tifo

  • Bennett formally stepped down from tifo leadership but will stay involved. 
  • Looking for people to lead. 
  • MSS still on board for space
  • Creatives still involved and available
  • Partnership committee asking to stay informed in order to maintain partnerships.
  • Zeller to talk to Martin about where things stand with MSS and what obligations we need to stay abreast of going forward to maintain that relationship and access to that space.

IV. Old Business

Update on Action Items from 11/21/19

  1. Discuss with WW about using stadium grounds for merch sales 2020 – Sam
    1. Not Complete, Sam will reach out 
  2. Make a link available to Google document or website version of minutes in future meeting agendas – Casey 
    1. Done, see above. 
  3. Discuss with Jim Crist & WW about denying/refunding merch purchases – Andrew Bruski
    1. Tabled indefinitely. Will bring it up again if it becomes a problem. 
  4. Ask WWMN if 2020 Memberships will be available before Christmas – Andrew Beck
    1. Done, they are available in the store. 
  5. Create set parameters for partnerships – Jack 
    1. Jack has been brainstorming his concerns. 
    2. WW meeting was yesterday, Jack is still working on the big things from November. Shuo was not at meeting so partnerships were not addressed.
    3. Main concern is the WW takeover and not getting support from them. 
    4. Jack to send out more information
    5. DC has been doing the majority of the work on partnership and there isn’t much support from other SGs. More support is needed overall. 
    6. WW goal is overall oversight on the partnerships, but there are only 2 memberships on the Partnership committee (Zeller & Jack). We need more participation on both our side and the WW side. 
    7. More ownership from WW is needed/requested from our Partnership committee. 
  6. Community Benefit Fund donation press release – Zeller
    1. Zeller now on the committee
    2. Press Release in January
  7. International Refugee Assistance Project (IRAP) World Refugee Day proposal posted in Slack
    1. Sam shared with ISC, and they’re interested in learning more/getting involved.
    2. Sam to continue keeping us updated. 
  8. Review Chant.fan website and post questions to board channel 
    1. Would like to see a working demo if possible. 
    2. If going to pursue this year, should push forward now so that we can get it in place well ahead of season
    3. ACTION ITEM – Sam to put Beck in touch with app developer so Beck can ask questions
    4. We will be voting on this app at the next meeting.
  9. Complete committee strategic goals and tactics document (template in Slack)
    1. Nach will follow up with committee chairs, January 15 is proposed deadline. 
  10. Plan DC Board Election
    1. Zeller coordinated last year, can help do that again this year
    2. We need to pick a time and place
    3. Andy R. and Casey are not running for reelection this year. 
    4. Discussion of changing election to elect people to specific offices. More discussion to be had in the next year. Too late for this for 2020. 

Other old business

  1. Summit Brewing update
    1. Waiting to hear back from Summit, hoping they’re still working on it. 
  2. Update on Good Game app developers – Andy R.
    1. On hold until after the holidays. 
  3. Community Benefits fund donation
    1. Done
  4. Minneapolis watch party location – David Z.
    1. LA DONA
  5. DC Discord Forum Update- Nach – Table  
    1. Action Item: Look at website and post questions to board channel
  6. Committee strategic goals and tactics 
    1. See above.
  7. DC Board Election – Do we want to elect people to specific roles?
    1. Nach proposes we change our bylaws so people can run for roles
      1. Treasurer role requires someone with specific skills
    2. Continue to look into for 2021

V. New Business

  1. Updates from all SG Wonderwall meeting on December 15 – Sam
    1. Harassment policy discussion. 
  2. Plan for dealing with the WW partnerships
    1. See above/talk to Jack. 
  3. Discussion about Gala 4 Goals; date has been set for 02/22/20 – Meagan
    1. DC getting tables
    2. Just got the invite. 
  4. Donation of remainder of DCCCC collection. Will probably be around $200-$300 left to donate before EOY – Andy R. 
    1. Not many outstanding payments will be collected. Need to discuss where they’ll go though. 
    2. Gala for Goals could be a good option for the remainder of the funds. 
    3. Needs to be donated by December 31st. 
  5. Discussion of WWMN proposed Harassment Policy
    1. Slack discussion. 

VI.  Open to Board

VI. Open to Public

VII. Set Date for Next Meeting

Will be completed via slack.

VIII. Adjournment

9:07 pm. Sam Adjourned.

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