Meeting Notes
Thursday, January 20th, 2005 7:00–9:15PM
MN SIGGRAPH Board Meeting
Present
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Murray Holloway
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Drew Pauley
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Michael Quinn
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Andrew McCulloh
Discussion
Membership Growth
The role of MN SIGGRAPH is to promote and foster the growth of computer graphics and animation in the Minneapolis / Saint Paul area.
In this interest, we discussed how to boost membership.
The MN SIGGRAPH Announcements mailing list currently has nearly 300 subscribers, but only about 30 are paying members of MN SIGGRAPH. Andrew estimates this to number to be lower (less than 10). Some ideas to grow these numbers and increase revenues were discussed:
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Announce membership fees at meetings, and put out a bucket for voluntary donations to cover snacks and miscellaneous costs.
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Maintain an accurate record of membership dues paid, and send out reminders as memberships expire.
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Make it more clear that membership has advantages, such as free admission to events and eligibility for product giveaways. Charge an event fee (no more than $5.00) for non-members.
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Produce a DVD of MET 2004 entries combined with independently shot footage from SIGGRAPH 2004 (from the Caracas ACM SIGGRAPH Professional Chapter). Charge $5-10 dollars for the DVD as a MN SIGGRAPH fundraiser. We need to check the MET 2004 entry forms for DVD permissions and determine the costs of production. (For the MET 2005, a DVD of the reel could be produced in advance and given to attendees free with admission.)
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Andrew noted that in past years, the biggest attendance at MN SIGGRAPH events followed the national convention, when the national show reel was presented. We will schedule a showing of the SIGGRAPH 2005 Electronic Theater DVD for August after the convention.
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Go to Digital Pictures, FirstTech, etc. and ask them to kick in some prizes such as T-shirts, books, and software... Are there SIGGRAPH t-shirts we could get? Approach software companies for prize donations. Do a business card drawing at events, or draw randomly from membership list (another incentive to become a member).
Event Planning
Murray outlined the upcoming February 15th event at Fredrikson & Byron Law Firm on copyright law and intellectual property. If F & B is amenable, we could combine with MCIA for this event to increase attendance, which would benefit both organizations and the law firm. Murray will check into this with F & B and MCIA. Murray is preparing an announcement regarding this event.
Murray brought up the MOSAIC kick-off event, which takes place the first weekend of June. MN SIGGRAPH has the opportunity to participate in this Minneapolis arts and culture festival, most likely through a combination of commercial and artistic presentations of CG, with the goal of entertaining and exposing the public to computer animation. We could issue a call for submissions to MN SIGGRAPH members for the exhibition.
Wet Cement's Auto B Good
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Electronic Theater reels, both local and international
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Student works
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Maya, Max, and Lightwave User Group reels
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Kid-produced work from MCAD / Science Museum
Murray will get more details in the next couple of weeks. We'd need at least a couple of months to allow participants to get their stuff in.
Other event possibilities proposed:
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A spring (April timeframe) school event (Academy College, Art Institutes International, MCAD, MSB/GC, U of M, etc...)
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An early-summer event: 2004 SIGGRAPH Electronic Theater DVD showing, or possibly the full uncut SIGGRAPH 2004 Electronic Theater reel. The latter is being worked out with ACM SIGGRAPH (many major studios are strict about where and how their work is shown).
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An end of summer event, such as a "show us your stuff" gathering in combination with showing the SIGGRAPH 2005 Electronic Theater DVD
MET 2005
Board members will be present at the February MET 2005 kickoff meeting and will help out Scott, Sue, and Josh throughout the planning process. Should we have some kind of MET pre-registration (to better estimate attendance in advance)?
Upcoming Meetings and Events
Early February (Date TBA)
MET 2005 Kickoff Meeting
February 15th, 2005
6:30-8:00PM
Fredrikson & Byron, P.A.
Presentation by Steve Helland on intellectual property and copyright law |
