Van Slam Family Meeting on Tuesday November 29th

[Sean]

   
On Tuesday November 29th, the Vancouver Poetry Slam Family will be meeting to decide many things pertaining to the future of the poetry slam and who will be looking after it in the coming months, years,etc. If there is anything you'd like added to the agenda for the meeting, please feel free to shoot Duncan Shields or myself a message. Thus far the agenda will include

Agenda

Reports
1) A financial report on the slam for the previous year by Sean.
2) Review of the current points system and presentation by the current Rules Committee.
3) A report on the 2011 Van Slam team (by a yet to be determined slam team member) and the outgoing slammasters.
4) A quick report on the Van Slam Team contract and whether it is necessary moving forward by the two outgoing slammasters.
5) An Update on the Awards Committe and the construction of the Van Slam Trophies by Sean
6) Report on PSI events/new by Duncan.
7) Report on Spocan events/news by Sean.
8 ) Report on Hullabaloo by Chris.
9) Information on Canadian Indies and VIP by Sean.
10) Information on VPH and how one can be part of VPH and the benefits therein.

Proposals
11) A proposal for a new show (non competitive) by Sean.
12) An idea/motion put forward by the VPH board as to its relationship with the Van Slam (to be fleshed out by the VPH board shortly).
13) Elections of both slammaster positions (Duncan Shields and myself are not running for re-election but will be carrying on until after April 2012).
14) Elections of Rules Committee positions for the next two years.


New Business
15)

Again, there is no proxy voting at this event so if you wish to have a hand in making decisions or if you want to run for one of the positions, you must attend. Remember, Van Slam generates over $45,000.00 per year in revenue and those who attend this meeting decide on the direction the slam moves in the future. Whether we continue to attend NPS, CFSW, IWPS and Wowps or change how teams or individuals attend said festivals could be discussed at this meeting.

The meeting starts at 7 PM and I have booked time till 10 PM.

And if you are interested in running for either of the slammaster positions or one of the three Rules Committee positions (the other two are held by the slammasters) then please contact Duncan or myself no later than November 7th. Late notices will not be accepted and Duncan and I will add job descriptions to all the positions shortly.

I hope you're all well,

Sean

[Chris Gilpin]

This meeting is at the Brittania Community Centre, just off of Commercial Drive at 1661 Napier Street. It's a large group of buildings but there will be signs and people to direct you to the right spot.

[Chris Gilpin]

Here are the details on Agenda Item #12:

http://vancouverpoetryhouse.com/forum/smf/index.php/topic,1740.0.html

[RCW]

Can we get a Youth Slam report on the agenda as well please?  Thanks.

R

[Sean]

We can surely add the youth slam to the agenda. Are we going to start having elections for that position as well? Has there been any thought into the possibility of merging it either with the Wordplay post or the slammaster position or perhaps having a new position that caretakes Hullabaloo and the Youth Slam together?

Thus far the only person that has expressed interest to me has been Jillian Christmas. Perhaps other folks have talked to Duncan.

[Sean]

New Van Slam Agenda (as of November 4th)

Agenda

Reports
1) A financial report on the slam for the previous year by Sean.
2) Review of the current points system and presentation by the current Rules Committee.
3) A report on the 2011 Van Slam team (by a yet to be determined slam team member) and the outgoing slammasters.
4) A quick report on the Van Slam Team contract and whether it is necessary moving forward by the two outgoing slammasters.
5) An Update on the Awards Committe and the construction of the Van Slam Trophies by Sean
6) Report on PSI events/new by Duncan.
7) Report on Spocan events/news by Sean.
8 ) Report on Hullabaloo by Chris.
9) Information on Canadian Indies and VIP by Sean.
10) The Youth Slam
11) Information on VPH and how one can be part of VPH and the benefits therein.

Proposals
12) A proposal for a new show (non competitive) by Sean.
13) An idea/motion put forward by the VPH board as to its relationship with the Van Slam (to be fleshed out by the VPH board shortly).
14) Elections of both slammaster positions (Duncan Shields and myself are not running for re-election but will be carrying on until after April 2012).
15) Elections of Rules Committee positions for the next two years.

New Business
16)

[RCW]

Hullabaloo is a separate entity that is not officially affiliated with VPH.

The Youth Slam is and should probably end up having the same sort of application process as the other positions.  But I don't think it should be amalgamated with the Slammaster position.  The two slam are quite a bit different in style, energy and attitude.

[Lisa]

Hi RC,

Actually, Hullaballoo is definitely affiliated directly with VPH, and the application for funding from Telus went out under VPH's charitable registration number and is connected to the Wordplay program. For more clarification about this, I'm happy to chat with you about it, or I'm sure Chris could chat with you as well.

Thanks,
Lisa

[Chris Gilpin]

Right. I think what RC meant was that Hullabaloo is not affiliated with Van Slam, which is true. It's very much a part of VPH, as a component of the WordPlay program. So that's a VPH issue.

The Youth Slam is really motoring along well, due to RC's hard work and diligence. It's working. So I'm not sure that we need to change anything with it.

One concern though, which comes from attending many of these meetings, it seems there's a lot of reports that are just information, and not necessarily vital information. Sometimes it can take a long time to slog through all this information, and then there's very little time left over for discussion on the really important proposals that we're voting on. That can leave a bad taste in everyone's mouth, if they feel they didn't have a chance to be heard on the issues that are actually being decided, or worse, it can feel as though they aren't up for an open debate – which they very much are.

Can we have the reports online a few days before the meeting so that people can read them and we can skip through that part?  Another option would be print outs that people could take home and read.

[Sean]

Yeah, the $20,000.00 Telus gift was made out to VPH for Hullabaloo I believe.

I realize the youth slam is very different but I think it would be easier if one person booked all the Mondays at Cafe Deux Soleils.

I would like to think that you and I have worked really well together over the years but it would be easier to have one person booking for all slam Mondays and/or having the youth slam on a different night.

The latter would give the youth slam more of its own identity and allow for the "adult" slam to make more money, which will help during leaner years. I think we've (you and I,  RC) had this discussion for four years, but this is my last season as slammaster so I won't bug you about it any more. Just leaving my two cents.

[Sean]

I'll allocate time to each one of the meeting notes in order to come under the three hour time limit Chris and I will look at what can be cut.

[Chris Gilpin]

It looks like agenda items #3, #5, #6, #7, #8, #9, and #11 are just information, not necessarily impacting the issues to be voted on. We could simply post the reports online, and have printouts at the meeting for anyone who missed it to take home and read.

[Duncan Shields]

Yeah I could totally collate and post a report rather than bore everyone with an oral summary of the PSI boards.

[Chris Gilpin]

Duncan, I feel the same way about my Hullabaloo report. I'll write up a short summary and post it here in the next day or two.

[RC]

Well actually, Lisa is correct as I did think that Hullabaloo was not under the VPH Umbrella since we weren't to begin with.  I new the grant was done with Lisa's assistance and connections and that was a key element but for some reason I did not connect it with VPH.  I also thought that any connection to Word Play was simply as a partner and again not under any umbrella.

These are simply my misunderstanding and no big deal.  I appreciate all the help we've received.  Thanks!