February 2023 Board Meeting Minutes

Wonderwall Board Meeting Minutes

7:31 pm, 2/7/22, Zoom

WW Board: Andrew Beck (P), Maggi Heyer (VP), Nick Moore (T), Bennett Hartz (S), Mel Birke, David Zeller, Robb Lauer

Dark Clouds: Meagan Weber

True North Elite: Miranda Muller, Tonia Kruczek

Red Loons: None

Tifo Committee: Anthony de Sam Lazaro

Absent: None

Portion of Meeting Closed to the Public

Resignation of President

1. 1. Andrew Beck has resigned as Wonderwall president
  2. Maggi Heyer will run meeting as Vice President until next month when new board sits

Open to Public

1. 1. No comments from public

Reports

1. 1. Update Comms
    1. Need to put out a volunteer request for people working on comms, website updates, etc.
      1. Mel will put together list of what on website needs to be updated
  2. Finance
    1. Andrew, Andy, and Finance team met a couple weeks ago—progress being made. Zeller volunteers to attend Finance meetings in the short-term going forward.

Old Business

1. 1. Website Review
    1. Nick showed off beta version of new Squarespace website made to allow QR code scan at stadium to work
    2. Mel and Nick updating song list
    3. Bennett proposed a “Tifo” tab for tifo games. Nick says this can be added and removed specifically for tifo games
    4. Nick’s goal is to have this website eventually become the standard desktop website too
    5. Board approves $16/mo expense for mobile landing page through Squarespace
  2. Tech Review
    1. Need to get internet in the office, as current internet is run through Nick’s AT&T hotspot
  3. Affiliation Process
    1. So far 967 people season ticket holders have selected affiliations, which is a little low but in the ballpark of past years at this point
    2. Affiliation Agreement
      1. Still working out agreement with team on moving affiliation process in-house at Wonderwall instead of through team
      2. Team was not clear why

New Business

1. 1. Annual Meeting/Election
    1. Next Wednesday, Feb. 15. Election starts Feb. 16
    2. We have one candidate currently standing for seats (not including Maggi re-running). Need to get the word out to find candidates.
    3. Discussion about whether to post vote percentage each candidate receives or whether to just post the names of the winners. Cannot post raw numbers, as it is an instant runoff election.
    4. Fragapane homophobic issue—player posted a homophobic slur and appears to have faced no consequences from team. Andrew emailed team about this and has not heard back.
  2. Multi person transparency
    1. WW Board engagement
      1. Zeller says that substantial conversations with team need to have multiple board members on the call. Says it makes sense to have president be the point person, but multiple people ensures transparency and accountability. Zeller proposes writing a policy for this.
        
        Maggi says this should be left to next board to decide. She says she will have personal policy in meantime of trying to always have another person on the phone.
      2. Andrew says that most of his calls with Sean Sitnick (MNUFC VP) are impromptu. Says he considers Sean a friend and trusts him, but understands that others have had different experiences with him. Understand the need for witnesses in some occasions.
      3. Nick says this will further remove WW from team, and that structured conversations from front office will push the team and supporters further away.
    2. Nick proposes an board member handbook that lays out guidelines for board members, including laying out basics about how to communicate with the team.
      1. Maggi suggests that anyone who has a call with Sean Sitnick during which commitments are made commit
      2. Zeller says this would be a large endeavor, but an idea worth considering
    3. Bennett says we do not have a good relationship with the team, as the team can do whatever it wants without considering the supporters groups’ perspective in any way, as they have repeatedly demonstrated.
    4. Board agrees (without vote) to let this issue sit for next board.
  3. Kickoff event
    1. For all supporters across all supporters groups to meet, get new people involved, find volunteers
    2. Maggi looking for help. Mel, Nick, Miranda, and Meagan volunteer to help
  4. Tifo
    1. Anthony: committee getting design finalized and approved by team
    2. Shared dates for volunteering
    3. Team wants to film some tifo production for content/marketing. Want to make sure team doesn’t use footage for some improper purpose like bad marketing
  5. Pass-through payment discussion
    1. Andrew says we are squared up through last year
    2. Zeller says we need clarity on when we’re getting passthrough payments from team, as them not paying on time is akin to an interest-free loan from us to them. Andrew says these payments usually come from team quarterly.
  6. Legion Conversation
    1. Conversations with team discussion
      1. Maggi asks what kind of ask to bring to team
        
        Bennett says that we shouldn’t ask for anything because the team won’t give us anything.
        
        Nick says it’s too late for us to have any influence on the Legion campaign (Andrew agrees) and agrees that we shouldn’t ask for anything. Says we need to have better communication with them to be able to have a say in something like this.
        
        Bennett says the board and supporters need to come to terms with the fact that the team doesn’t care what the WW and supporters groups have to say and so aren’t going to solicit our opinion.
        
        Zeller says we are in an abusive cycle with the team. The team does something that hurts the supporters groups, they apologize, they say they’ll have better communication going forward, and they don’t.
      2. Mel says we need to figure out how to get ahead of the next issue with better communication.

Open to Board

February 2023 Board Meeting Minutes

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